Microphone Placement

From SRSN81–(at)–rodigy.com Sat Jan 20 15:43:32 CST 1996
From: SRSN81–(at)–rodigy.com (Joseph Pampel)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: What is your best trick for miking an amp?
Date: 20 Jan 1996 05:34:51 GMT
Distribution: world

Kevin: Here’s a couple old reliable things to try..

#1 be sure that your close mic is off axis.. never have the mic pointing
at the center of the cone. Try for about 45 degrees off axis. Move it
around as well, tiny differences in position make big differences in tone.
Try the outer edge of the speaker as well as the inner cone area. Might
even try above the amp cabinet, or off to one side.

#2 have a good room mic far away from the amp. Say you have a 57 or a 421
up on the amp, have a u67 or a 414 back against the far wall. Gets a real
nice natural “room” sound, and a little “room” can really make a guitar
sound.. Of course try and record in a :large: room.

#3 use an array of mics in front of the amp. I know folks who swear by
this for micing Vox AC30’s. What you do is take advantage of phase
cancellation etc. and set up say 3 or 4 mics in front of the amp, at
varying distances and locations (relative to the front of the amp) you
have to move them around a lot to get the tone you want so it’s a pain to
set up but the results can be amazing.

#4 old trick – put a mic in the rear of an open back amp to catch the
“thumpy” low bass. might have to play with the phase switch on the desk
to get this working (or move the mic in front around) but you get some
real thickening this way.

#5 if you’re a reverb fiend, record the amp in a bathroom or a stairway,
or even a long hall. ..

just experiment and have fun.

Joe