This week, I was trying to record a fantastic band, and in the process, was asked by one of the band members what microphones I preferred on a good guitar cab -- condenser or dynamic.
What do you prefer using?
Depending on the amp, I generally can't go wrong with a vintage Sennheiser 409 or a brand new Heil PR-30, both dynamic microphones with a full frequency response.
What's your favorite microphone combination to use on guitar amps?
What do you prefer using?
Depending on the amp, I generally can't go wrong with a vintage Sennheiser 409 or a brand new Heil PR-30, both dynamic microphones with a full frequency response.
What's your favorite microphone combination to use on guitar amps?
Comments
My favorite microphone combination to use on guitar amps
I use Sennheiser; but you can’t go wrong with Shure SM57
Multi-purpose mic for clean sound reproduction of amplified or acoustic instruments.
Great job!
I am somewhat of a control freak when it comes to micing guitar cabs. I like to preserve all my options for mixing time. So If I am recording a critical track I use multiple mics. My favorite combo is a ribbon mic to capture the sweet mid tones, a stage vocal mic for presence, and a relatively flat frequency response condenser in case I need the actual sound of the cab. Then in final mixing I can use a mixture of the mics to have the guitar sit perfectly in the mix.
Now please don’t laugh, but I actually prefer to use stereo pairs of each mic type. Why, you may ask! Two reasons:
1) Think of why a cabinet with 4 speakers sounds fuller than one with just one speaker. One of the reasons is that the sound from different speakers reaches your ears at slightly different times (due to slight distance differences). This will cause the frequencies to combine and produce a richer tone. In a way it is like a mini chorus effect working on about a millisecond of difference. Sound travels at around 340 meters per second (say 1200 feet/second) so if you are on one side of a cabinet, the distance difference between the various speakers and your ears is about a foot. And therefore there is actually about 1 millisecond of time difference between the sound reaching your ears from the far and near speakers in that cabinet. Now imagine the sound from 4 speakers in the cabinet reaching two microphones. There are 8 frequencies with slight time differences being combined which will produce a richer tone than just 4 (if stereo pairs are not used).
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2) By placing the stereo pair off-center, you can create a stereo effect based on time difference of when the sound reaches the two microphones which is a lot more perceptible than just using pan control on a mixer. Our ears are much more sensitive to time difference than sound volume difference when it comes to visualization of where the sound is coming from. You may want to lookup “binaural recording” for more information on this effect.
All of the above said, I am a guitar player first and an engineer second. So I think at the end of the day, what is played and how it is played is a lot more important than how you record it. Please don’t blame me if in the middle of a studio headphone Jam that is sounding great I DI the guitar to have a recording of the jam! PS. There are ways to fix that in post production too!
I go for a clasic setup, a Sennheiser 421 and a SM57, the rest is some outboard gear.
I use an AEA R92 with an sm7b, each on a different speaker. Usually the R92 is on a V30 and my sm7 is on a G12H. Sounds awesome with a Vintech 1272, Les Paul Studio with Duncan pickups and Messa DC-10. Really can’t be beat.
Royer Labs R121
(and an SM57 if you want)
I like to use my AKG Perception 100 phantom powered large diaphragm mic on guitars. Just bought a set of CAD drum mics with clips have not used them yet but I hear the bass drum mic is excellent for use on bass as well as guitar so that might be good.
For now, I usually just use the standard…an SM 57 but that’s only because a Royer 121 is not in the budget yet. If so, I would go the route of the 57 up close and the 121 a few feet back (watching for phase obviously). I have talked with MANY producers that have done major stuff and if there is any one combo that seems to be the most common (although there are obviously many other options) it would be that combo. Cheers,
Chris Dunnett
I have used Sennheiser 409 mic and use an old faithful Shure SM57
for a lot of my guitar projects.
Thanks!
The microphones that are some of the preferred for a guitar recording we use a condenser or dynamic mic for the cost effective
way of producing sounds..
Great info….