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Shure-Fire Miking
by BRIAN TARQUIN
IWhen I was a kid growing up in New
York, I remember that my dad had an old
1/4” four-track Grundig reel to reel tape
recorder that was great for recording
multiple guitar parts. I always thought it
was so cool to sit in that sunroom and be
able to hear the tracks played back and
physically cut and edit the parts with a
razor blade and edit block. Today we have
it so much easier. Whether you use a PC
or Mac or any of the many programs out
there such as Cakewalk, Logic, Performer
or ProTools, editing has become a breeze.
But the one true thing that has stayed
constant throughout the years, is recording
great guitar tone.
Van Halen’s first engineer, Donn Landee,
used to get approached by fans asking
him how he recorded Eddie’s trademark
guitar tone. He had to admit that he used
a cheap SM57 mic on a Marshall cabinet.
As some of you readers may know, the
Shure 57 is a basic $89 mic that you can
purchase at any local music store. This
proves that you can great tone, without
breaking the bank.
What you need to understand are the
various dynamics that come from both
the guitar and the amp. For instance,
when playing a Les Paul through a
Marshall JCM800, you get a very compressed,
overdriven rock tone as opposed
to playing a Strat through a Fender Super
Reverb, which produces a more dynamic
blues tone. Both can be recorded successfully
with a SM57, but if you want to
spend a little bit more cash you can buy,
what I refer to as a “57 on steroids,” the
Sennheiser 421 mic.
If you have more of a budget and you
want to capture the sound of your amp
in the room, you may want to try the
Neumann TLM103 or the more expensive
TLM49, which are both large diaphragm
cardioid microphones. The large
diaphragm of the mic will capture the
ambience of the room. In particular, the
TLM49 has a wonderful airiness to its
recordings. By comparison, the 57 has a
very small mic diaphragm, which is more
beneficial for unidirectional close miking.
I’m sure some of you have heard the
buzz about ribbon microphones – and
yes, it is true in some recording applications
of guitars the ribbon mic is perfect
for acoustic instrument replication. The
Rolls Royce of ribbon mics is the Royer
121 or the famous Beatles, BBC 4038.
However, you can always go with the less
expensive Beyerdynamic M160 mic and still
get a great sounding acoustic tone. With
any microphone you decide to go with,
you’ll have to experiment with placement
techniques. Personally, I’ve had very good
results recording acoustic guitars using the
AKG C1000S, which I like to angle downwards
towards the fretboard side of the
hole. Keep in mind, you may have to make
some minor adjustments, depending on the
size of the guitar body and your finger style.
I’ve been recording professionally for
17 years and I am always trying to find
new ways of achieving a great sounding
guitar tone. Just recently, I discovered a
cool way to achieve stereo imaging by
miking a single cabinet with two mics.
First, close mic one speaker between the
cone and the edge with a Beyer M160
and far mic the amp using a Neumann
TLM49 about five feet back, pointing the
49 directly at the Marshall insignia on the
cabinet. My baby is a Trident 32-channel
mixing console, in which I use one of the
micpres for the Neumann and use the
Universal Audio 610 for the M160. I buss
them both to tape or ProTools and hard
pan one left and one right. I’ve always
found that experimenting with different
mics and amps in combination with your
guitar style can really produce that hot
butta tone! Until next time.
Brian Tarquin
Emmy Award Winning Guitarist Brian Tarquin scored a Top 20 hit in the
90’s with “The Best of Acid Jazz, vol. 2” on Instinct Records and enjoyed
several top 10 hits on the R&R charts. Founder of the rock/electronica
band, Asphalt Jungle and has scored TV music for such shows as, CSI,
Smallville, MTV, Alias, 24, All My Children and many others.
bohemianproductions.net
jungleroom@optonline.net
myspace.com/bohemianproductionsmusic
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