Stereo Micing Techniques for Gtr Amps.

[seriousbusinessmusic]

I'm looking for suggestions about stereo micing techniques for guitar amps. I'm interested in achieving a big nasty rock and roll guitar sound that works within the framework of a simple Bass/Drums/Gtr/Vox arrangement. Every time I screw around with putting more than one mic on a gtr amp I wind up getting frustrated with horrifying phase problems. Would you nice folks mind sharing some of your gtr tracking secrets?

[mjau]

Along with the customary 57 on the speaker cone (usually away from the center), I like to place a LDC (something like a Blue baby bottle) a foot or two away from the amp, straight out and maybe off-axis a bit. Picks up some reflections of the room and adds depth to the 57. Pretty straightforward, but works well for me.

[Family Hoof]

I've often recorded an LDC room mic (but stil pretty close) in addition to the 57 on the grill and sometimes have hard panned the two with good results. Position them in mono first to listen for correct phase.

[bad_dude_69]

in addition to the above suggestions, if it's an open-backed combo amp i sometimes stick an sdc in the back to get some added oomph.

[darjama]

this might sound a little of kilter, but I like it. Take 2 dynamic mics with resonably different frequency responses (say an re20 and an sm57), and mic a speaker cone in 2 spots (like just off center and closer to an edge, or two different speakers). I try to keep close to the 3:1 rule if possible here, so it's generally pretty close to the cone, which precludes super-loud volumes.

I'll mix these panned at about 3 and 9 o'clock. If I'm tracking two guitars, then I may give the 2nd guitar the same treatment and pan opposite.

[V W]

the addition of either a direct line out, or a direct line that goes to a POD or FUZZBOX or something similar.

Some electric guitars these days also have the piezzo / bridge pickup which allows for "acoustic" sounds which can add some bite to your amplifier + room sounds.

I like having three tracks for guitar, either in mono for distance, or for stereo/trereo spread. And yes, I am a glutton for punishment when recording guitarists.

[MattGrabe]

I use this technique both live and in the studio with great results. The technique does invite phase cancellations, but in a good way.

Take a dynamic, say a SM57, place it where you find sounds best on the speaker, close to the grill. Place another SM57 about 1-1.5 inches back from it. Gainy electric guitars always seem to produce a nasty spike around 5kHz. Placing a mic 1.2 inches back (if your anal) will create a 1/10 msec delay, which is 10kHz. This means that 5kHz will cancel out. The result is a VERY smooth, full sound.

[trodden]

I use this technique both live and in the studio with great results. The technique does invite phase cancellations, but in a good way.

Take a dynamic, say a SM57, place it where you find sounds best on the speaker, close to the grill. Place another SM57 about 1-1.5 inches back from it. Gainy electric guitars always seem to produce a nasty spike around 5kHz. Placing a mic 1.2 inches back (if your anal) will create a 1/10 msec delay, which is 10kHz. This means that 5kHz will cancel out. The result is a VERY smooth, full sound.

Matt,
very interesting.. i'll have to play around with that.

[mjau]

I use this technique both live and in the studio with great results. The technique does invite phase cancellations, but in a good way.

Take a dynamic, say a SM57, place it where you find sounds best on the speaker, close to the grill. Place another SM57 about 1-1.5 inches back from it. Gainy electric guitars always seem to produce a nasty spike around 5kHz. Placing a mic 1.2 inches back (if your anal) will create a 1/10 msec delay, which is 10kHz. This means that 5kHz will cancel out. The result is a VERY smooth, full sound.

brilliant...will try it tonight

[dictaphone]

This may or may not help you, but for a band with two guitars, I've put a mic < 2 feet, and another about 6 feet. Pan the close mic for Gtr 1 left and the room mic right. Then pan the close mic for Gtr 2 right and the room mic left. It tends to give each guitar it's space, while still making them sound like they are together in a room.

[trashy]

I've been having fun using mid-side on guitar amps. You might give that a try.

Also, I'm a big, big fan of micing the back of the amp as well as the front; that's been my m.o. for a long time.

[cgarges]

I usually designate one mic as the primary mic and one as the secondary. With the primary mic, I usually try to get the sound coming out of the amp as accurately as possible. The secondary mic is usually used to compliment the primary and add some spatial depth and dimension.

One particular starting point would be to find the spot in front of the speaker where the amp sounds the best. You're going to find this by putting your head in front of the speaker and listening, not by guess-work or how you or anyone else has done it in the past. Once you locate the spot you like, choose an appropriate primary mic that you think wil best compliment the sound of the amp. Place that mic there and then listen to it, making adjustments as you go.

For a really phase-coherent signal, place your secondary mic right next to the primary. If this doesn't have enough dimension for you, start moving the two mics apart. (I usually move the secondary mic.) Moving one mic to the side (keeping the distance from the front of the amp the same) will keep the arrival time to the mics pretty much the same, but the tonal differences in the placement will cause some variations that might add to the sound. Moving one of the mics farther forward or backward will give you time differences that willl lead to greater phase interferrence.

You could also do the same thing with one mic on each speaker, with the mics both being the same distance from the amp. You're likely to get a wider image from the get-go with this setup. The width of the image will depend on the consistency of the sound of the different speakers, the mic(s)' proximity to a reflective surface (wall, floor, etc.), and the characterstics inherent in the different mics.

The close mic/room mic setup is also one of my favorites.

Remember too, that many mic manufacturers have different polarity standards and two mics wired out of phase and right next to each other will cancel. Checking you mic preamp's polarity positions along the way is an important step.

Hope this helps.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[djslayerissick]

i gave up on this crap long ago - that is, trying to get 2 mics on the same guitar speaker. it murders my creative spark for recording. its horribly tedious and never sounds WIDE enough for me, and is always phase-y. i like my guitars HUGE and WIDE and THICK - but also monocompatible.

my recent trick is to split the guitar signal to 3 different distortions, 1 direct, 2 with different sounding mics, different kinds of speakers, different location of mics.

\ signal chain is like this:

guitar
|
V
D.I. --> mic pre with gain way up
|
V
Guitar A/B/Y --> real amp, scooped, medium/low gain, dynamic!
|
V
Line6 flextone III
thick distortion, midrange-y, not too much lows or presence that eat the headroom.


THEN - abuse various EQ and compression settings in the mix and pan em hard with the DI up the middle.

if double tracking and making the L-R sound more balanced, change the settings on everything just a little bit - about 2 oclock difference on each setting. like 2 oclock more of treble on one, 2 oclock more of midrange on another, 2 oclock less gain on one. 2 oclock more gain on another. then make the L-R the opposite of the original.

[pedrohead]

no matter what i do, i can't get two different mics (no matter how close/far they are) to sum together without phase problems. maybe my room is just too dead, so there's no reflections, i don't know.

so i just throw up the 57, then record it 2-4 times with 1-3 different tones, pan as necessary.

[Family Hoof]

What djslayerissick said. I've done something like that a few times with fabulous results and always forget to try it on paying clients. Doesn't work so well for clean guitars though. Multiple amps is way cool and so is mic pre distortion.