Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

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Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:40 am

Malcolm Boyce wrote:Someone mentioned starting a "mic position on cabinets" thread..... I wonder if he's still planning on that...


I have no idea if that was aimed at me or Andrew, but I did kinda want to start a thread about this.

I find that the further I go down the rabit hole the more I can notice smaller details. Mic placement on guitar cabinets is a place where I've also found that I have grown in that regard. But it really depends on the player I find. If I have a great player with great tone, then spending 5 minutes trying to find the best place for the mic may not be a good way to spend 5 minutes. If on the other hand I have a not-so-great player, then I may need to compensate by squeezing every extra bit of mileage out of the gear that I can to compensate for this. This is nto to say I won't play with mic placement with a great player. It's just that I find myself having to dick around a LOT less in those cases.

Come to think of it, I bet the same can be said of most instruments.

Thoughts?
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby macrae11 » Thu Aug 23, 2012 11:50 am

I agree with your comment about not needing to do as much with a great player, but I'm actually usually of the opposite mindset. If it's a crummy player with bad gear, moving the mic around a few inches isn't going to make a significant difference. While on a great player with a great track, I'm always looking for that last 2%. Not saying that I always spend much, or even really any time on it either way though.

For example the other night I was mic'ing up a great cab, patched from a great amp, which was plugged into a great guitar, being played by a great player. I hadn't mic'ed this particular cab before but it had some tape on the grill that was clearly intended to be where a mic was supposed to point at. With a 4x12 cab I'll usually listen to each one of the speakers since some of them usually sound a bit different. But knowing where this cab came from and who was most likely responsible for putting the tape there, I felt pretty comfortable just shoving a mic in there and whaddayaknow it worked awesome. Now I did end up changing mic but the positioning stayed the same since it sounded exactly how I wanted it to so there was no sense wasting time. I don't know always know exactly the tone I'm looking for so usually I'll experiment anyways but it really didn't need it for this song since it was already there.

As a side note, Badcat amps are this guitar players and my new favourite machine for making things loud.

Usually I can get a pretty good guess about where I want to place things anyways though and start off where I think it will be, and usually it ends up pretty close to that. Over the dust cap if you want to get things as bright as possible, closer to the edge for more even tones, off axis pointing at the dust cap for something in between the two, off axis pointed at the edge for thick and meaty... etc.
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby Scott DeVarenne » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:03 am

Malcolm Boyce wrote:Someone mentioned starting a "mic position on cabinets" thread..... I wonder if he's still planning on that...

'Twas aimed @ moi.
I was raving to Malcolm about how much of a difference in the captured sound was made by the slightest adjustment of a microphone's position in relation to a guitar cabinet.

Over the dust cap if you want to get things as bright as possible, closer to the edge for more even tones, off axis pointing at the dust cap for something in between the two, off axis pointed at the edge for thick and meaty... etc.

Recording myself, I prefer off axis (roughly 45 degrees), pointed at about halfway between speaker center and surround.
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby macrae11 » Wed Sep 05, 2012 3:51 am

That's somewhere I end up fairly often, but probably 75% of the time my mics end up on axis somewhere near the surround. The amount of axis rotation that works well varies wildly from mic to mic.
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:27 am

macrae11 wrote:That's somewhere I end up fairly often, but probably 75% of the time my mics end up on axis somewhere near the surround. The amount of axis rotation that works well varies wildly from mic to mic.


Hey... You're on vacation. Get off the internet! :-P
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby macrae11 » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:51 am

Well I'm not going to turn down free wifi!
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:01 pm

macrae11 wrote:Well I'm not going to turn down free wifi!


In that case you can go see the mess I start over at our other hangout. Maybe you can put your 2 cents in there.
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby sean.boyer » Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:50 pm

Oh man, what a can of worms mic placement on a guitar cab opens up...
I think it's a nearly worthless conversation unless you're talking about a very specific amp/cab/speaker/signal chain/mic(s)/preamp/roomsize/phase of the moon/hour of the day/closest deli/etc...

With that said, I usually just lay a 57 on the floor and walk away.
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Re: Mic Placement (GTR cab, et al.)

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Thu Sep 13, 2012 12:27 am

macrae11 wrote:The amount of axis rotation that works well varies wildly from mic to mic.
Most certainly and good for all to remember.

My starting point is on axis, edge of the dust cap, typically close as possible. As far as varying position, I will usually stay on axis and move closer to center, or closer to the surround. Off axis would be my last resort.

I have to admit that I'll spend little time screwing with position on cabs VS changing out for a different mic. I realize this is an exception for me VS what I would do for most other sources. Can't explain why. Live on stage, a different story of course, but tracking with a choice... 'nuther mic please.

I use similar positions with micing all types of speaker drivers. Gtr, Steel, Bass... Square Dance Caller... Yep. I've been there.
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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