In this dual-mic setup, an Audix i5 cardioid dynamic is positioned
against the amp grille,
pointed at the edge of the 12" speaker cone. A
Cascade Fathead ribbon mic sits about 2' back to
pick up room tones
with its figure-8 polar pattern. Photo by Andy Ellis
In most recording situations,
mic’ing up a guitar amp
speaker follows a fairly standard
procedure—choose the
mic, jam it up to the speaker,
and move it around a bit until
you find a tone that works (or
at least one that can be equalized
into submission). There
are benefits to this approach,
which is why so many guitar
tracks are recorded this way.
The advantages are:
-
It’s relatively easy to find
a good location for the
microphone.
-
If you take decent notes and
measurements, and draw a
diagram or take a photo, it’s
a simple matter to repeat
the placement for sonic consistency
in future sessions.
-
Close mic’ing provides
good isolation. With the
mic right up on the speaker,
you’re not in danger of
getting much bleed if there
are other instruments being
recorded at the same time.
-
It provides a robust, rich
signal. No worries about
getting solid levels, the
mic is right there at speaker
central!
-
With a directional mic,
such as a cardioid, putting
the mic up close lets
you take advantage of
the proximity effect for a
thick, full bass response.
-
You get a very dry sound
with no room influence
or ambience, making it
easy to EQ. This way, you
can choose to add whatever
reverb or delay you
want later.
There are some downsides to the
super-close mic’ing approach.
The biggest one is that in the
real world, we never hear a
speaker with our ears an inch
away from the cone. It’s just
not a natural sound. And that
dry sound (advantage #6) can
result in a sterile tone with little
depth. If the amp is loud, you’ll
also have to be careful not to
overload the mic preamp or even
push the mic itself past its limits,
which can definitely ruin a take!
One solution to these
downsides is to pull the mic
back from the speaker a bit.
Even a few inches can make a
huge difference in the “naturalness”
of the tone and the depth
the mic captures. Pull the mic
back a foot or more, and you’ll
find the natural ambience
of the room just becoming
audible in the track. Move the
mic back even farther and the
tone may become even more
“roomy” or ambient, or distant-
sounding—possibly more
distant than you want.
The problem is, if you record
the track with
too much room,
you can’t really go back and fix
it later. Plus, if you add EQ to a
guitar tone recorded with room
ambience, remember that you’re
adding the same EQ to the room
ambience as you do the guitar,
which may make the ambience
sound odd. Adding reverb or
delay to a track that already has
room ambience on it can result
in a mushy, muddy, congested-sounding
mess—losing the true
ambiance of the room.
As a solution, it seems as if
we want the best of two worlds.
The ideal in many cases is to
gain the control and isolation
of a close-mic’d tone along with
the depth, richness, and roomy
natural vibe of a sound source
mic’d at a bit of a distance.
It’s pretty much impossible to
achieve all of that with one
microphone—so the trick is to
use two mics, one placed close
up on the speaker and the second
pulled back into the room.
If you have a good idea of
the final sound you want, you
could mix the mics as they’re
being recorded and lay them
down to one track at the same
time. But most engineers prefer
to record each microphone to
its own track. That way, you
can EQ them separately, compress
the close mic if necessary,
and add any reverb or delay to
each track individually. With
each mic on its own track,
you’ll have maximum control
and flexibility during mixdown.
That’s it for this month. If
you’ve never tried recording a
distant mic along with a close
mic on your amp, your homework
is to give it a try. Next
time around, we’ll continue our
exploration of how to capture
great guitar tones using more
than one microphone.
Mitch Gallagher is
the former editor in chief of
EQ magazine. He’s written
more than 1000 articles
and six books on recording
and music technology, and
has released an instructional
DVD on mastering. His upcoming book is
entitled
Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate
Electric Guitar Sound. To learn more, visit
mitchgallagher.com.