Now that we have the best mic position set and the mic stand and cable is anchored down (read previous part) and the amp baffled if needed, before we EQ the guitar signal, you may ask the guitarist to change amp tone control settings. Of course, if you Before we get the mic's out, a word about amplifier speaker cabinet grill cloth, grill cane, or metal grill covers. These things are passive frequency filters, meaning they hurt frequency response and can actually ring if made of metal. If your's are made of cane, you may hear a buzzing sound that sounds like a blown speaker. This is rare but I discovered this myself on a 1956 Fender 4/10 Bassman amp.
The obvious purpose of the grill cloth is to protect the speaker, especially when transporting the amp. Yes, the trade off is obvious - the speaker will sound better with the grill removed, BUT you risk the chance of damaging the speaker. If the grill cover is removed. If you decide to remove your amp's grill cloth (if you can - and don't do it if it will ruin the look of your amp) it is most important to not let a mic hit the speaker. Be very careful! Sand bag down the mic stand and if using a boom, after positioning, screw it down tight! More on this as things unfold.
Positioning The Mic
We will be miking the speaker from the front. If you have an open back cabinet, you could mic from the rear, but we'll get to that later.
Diagram 1.1
Front view of the speaker. The circle in the center is the speaker cone (or dust cover over the cone). The small circle to the left of the center cone is the mic. The mic distance is about one inch from the left edge of the cone (or dust cover) Note that the mic (small circle) needs to be pointed at a 20 degree angle towards the cone center while remaining about an inch from the cone (or dust cover).
The obvious purpose of the grill cloth is to protect the speaker, especially when transporting the amp. Yes, the trade off is obvious - the speaker will sound better with the grill removed, BUT you risk the chance of damaging the speaker. If the grill cover is removed. If you decide to remove your amp's grill cloth (if you can - and don't do it if it will ruin the look of your amp) it is most important to not let a mic hit the speaker. Be very careful! Sand bag down the mic stand and if using a boom, after positioning, screw it down tight! More on this as things unfold.
Positioning The Mic
We will be miking the speaker from the front. If you have an open back cabinet, you could mic from the rear, but we'll get to that later.
Diagram 1.1
Front view of the speaker. The circle in the center is the speaker cone (or dust cover over the cone). The small circle to the left of the center cone is the mic. The mic distance is about one inch from the left edge of the cone (or dust cover) Note that the mic (small circle) needs to be pointed at a 20 degree angle towards the cone center while remaining about an inch from the cone (or dust cover).
We will use a guitar amp speaker cabinet with one speaker to start. If the speaker bottom has grill cloth and you can't see the center of the speaker clearly, use a flashlight. Look at the speaker and notice the dust cover in the center. Point the mic at the exact center and then move the mic left without changing the height of the plane until you are about an inch left from the edge of the center dust cover. Now place the mic about once inch back from the grill cloth. If you have no grill cloth, imagine where the grill cloth would be in front of the speaker. Now position the mic capsule at a 20-degree angle pointing towards the center of the speaker.
We used the positioning to the left side but you could use the right side, or below or above the center point using the same positioning logic. For some reason, the left position seems to work best in most cases.
If the amp is a combo amp, the amp electronics may create an electronic field the mic may hear. This will be obvious when monitoring the mic over the studio monitors as you will hear a strange hum. In this case, you might need to mic on the low side of the speaker - closer to the floor - instead of to the left, right or above the center of the speaker.
There are a few good reasons to mic in such close proximity to the speaker. The main reason is this gives a "punchy" sound, since the speaker air is not diffused by distance, and the air movement is blasted into the mic diaphragm. There are other reasons that will be covered when we get into recording details.
The key to this mic positioning is to get a blend between the speaker cone (under the dust cover, if a dust cover exists), which produces the upper mid and treble frequencies, and the rest of the speaker, which produces the low mids and low frequencies. The farther the mic is placed away from the center cone in any direction, the more the sound will thicken up with lower frequencies. You will lose the upper-mids and treble information. You want to get the mic placement to sound as good as possible before adding EQ or anything else to the signal path. I'll give you more on this when we get into monitoring the guitar over the studio monitor speakers.
If the amp is a combo amp, the amp electronics may create an electronic field the mic may hear. This will be obvious when monitoring the mic over the studio monitors as you will hear a strange hum. In this case, you might need to mic on the low side of the speaker - closer to the floor - instead of to the left, right or above the center of the speaker.
There are a few good reasons to mic in such close proximity to the speaker. The main reason is this gives a "punchy" sound, since the speaker air is not diffused by distance, and the air movement is blasted into the mic diaphragm. There are other reasons that will be covered when we get into recording details.
The key to this mic positioning is to get a blend between the speaker cone (under the dust cover, if a dust cover exists), which produces the upper mid and treble frequencies, and the rest of the speaker, which produces the low mids and low frequencies. The farther the mic is placed away from the center cone in any direction, the more the sound will thicken up with lower frequencies. You will lose the upper-mids and treble information. You want to get the mic placement to sound as good as possible before adding EQ or anything else to the signal path. I'll give you more on this when we get into monitoring the guitar over the studio monitor speakers.
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