Lessons

Lesson Info

Rhythm Guitar Amp Mic Placement

only what I deduced next after the after all the drums or quanta sized, Um, I'm only going to, you know, to Guitar World were with rhythm guitar guitars and a lot of people think, you know, that I used to think that the base should be second or whatever, but I've learned with most guitar riff oriented music like modern rock, metal, even classic rock whatever classic Middle the, uh, you know, the the music's guitar if worrying it. So I feel like that should be the first thing that this base should, you know, blend with that. You know, like it really helps with the tuning and stuff of that nature. Whatever cause with a guitar you're playing chords. You can tell if a guitar is out of tune with itself with the base. Oftentimes we track the base by itself. Drums the baseball. You could have the base tune perfect intimations perfect. A bass player could be playing hard and playing sharp the whole time. You not even notice it because you don't have any reference pitches. So if you do the Qata...

r's first you, you know, guitars like said that you're playing chords most of time for rhythm guitars and you kind of know, and it's less likely the guitars will get played sharp in base. For some reason, most people don't play. It's hard or whatever. Mr Like Dillinger something but Thea, but that that's usually why go to guitars will start in with that. We've already got some, uh, some mikes out or whatever, which I want to go over. You know, my miking techniques, the mikes that they use, and we've already got Mike's kind of patched in I usually use. I'm a big fan of the A P I 5 12 pre Ansel whatever on the for the guitars for ah, particularly for metal guitar. There's a nice sharp attack or whatever in Farrah Guitars. Also is really is a classic seventies transformer based design, so it adds a little bit of Heat Mojo to the tone with the harmonic content. But like so, there's a lot of other great options whatever for rock tone often used. Like I said, the need 10 73 style pre amps and the focus right exit sounds really good. It's a little cleaner. We get a more modern, full frequency design. Um, you know that I use from time to time. But I usually the ap eyes the go to I mean, we had John Petruzzi on the phone with me t bam. And he was like Yemen A p I A Yeah. So, you know, some of the best players in the world, you know, they could use anything they want, and they choose that. So there is a good sign. They're not cheap, But they're not, you know, beyond, you know, affordable range of your average guy home, you know, are in their personal studio. We'll start with that. Um, should we go out and start with the start with Mike's and the cat? Yeah. Yeah. Normally wear a story. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, usually. Ah, we will start with the the guitar. Mike is pretty a time honored, You know, selection of microphones and microphone placement such, But I'm a big fan of the serious and 57. It's ah has been used, I think from the beginning of recording guitars, it seems like it. And it just has a certain sound that they just Ah, there's, ah, just a high end sizzle around that got the five k boost or whatever. I'm sure a lot of people from their with 57 it's just got a certain sizzle that you don't get with other Mike's. And, um, you know, I've tried all different types of Mike's or whatever, but some of the guys that I respect Andy sneaked and tons of different guitar, guitar tone, known producers. And then, you know, it seems like when I read there like I just use this in 57. So I started with the 57 I've tried every mike sense and combination, and I have come back to either 57 for most distorted and clean rock guitar tones, metal guitar tones or whatever. And But sometimes I do with the two, uh, if I need a thicker sound. Whatever. All used to 57 but usually said the mesa is kind of cool because you can see you can actually see the speaker somewhat, which is helpful. Some some speakers have a thicker grill cloth that you really can't see. The speaker and the placement of the mike on the speakers essential a guitar. Any ah, producer engineer will tell you that you can move the mic just a centimeter or whatever and you know, or change the proximity of the mike to the cabinet, and it changes the tone radically. But, you know, we've got amazing here. This is what I've shows in to use for, you know, tones. Tommy was describing We've got a Mason Mark five mark five head. This is the had the when we record the record we used for 12 and the full size head. But this is the 2 with the new 25 watt version. Many head or whatever. I'm stoked. Kind of. Hear what it sounds like myself. I'm sure it will be very similar. And your rock justice hard. But, um uh, but like I said, these the mesa thing, I want to talk about real quick. The cabinets are huge And the guitar sound, in my opinion, you know, particularly the speakers. Not so much the cabinets, but I know with the mesa they have ah, you know, vintage thirties, everybody. You know, everybody's heard of the finished 30 speaker whatever, and it's become pretty much a standard for rock and metal guitar tones. But that was different about maces venues, thirties. If I have my information, correct they had. They order their speakers with certain tolerances. So the high end is a little rolled off. It's a little more pleasant on the high end and, uh uh, just like a warmer sound. And I've tried other cabinets with finished thirties and and I don't think it's as much as the cabinet being different then Just a speaker itself is different. I don't know. You know, I think Bogner does the same thing. Some other companies, the order speakers or used speakers from selections with different colors. The technical called the same thing, but they're different. I've also noticed that the you know, uh, it seems like the older and it might just be because they're more broken in and used with the older cabs with the British V thirties. They sound better to me, their their list brittle on the top in less harsh sound. And ah, is then the new Chinese made be thirties. I'm sure these will have is a big new or cabinet cause this brand new. So I'm thinking, is that have the newer be 30. So I guess we'll find out what they sound like, but yeah, all my cabinet. So you pretty much look more like the MPEG has been toured, used and broken in cause it sounds just like with drum heads, strings and stuff. When they're used a little bit, they start to sound warmer. And, um, you know, and for some projects, that's better, you know? So and I think for most guitar tones that they answer whatever. That's a you know, to get away from that fizzy, harsh top into whatever is kind of thing that you kind of the most people want to do. So that's just something. Consider, like we got a new AMP. And you're trying to dialing tones like man for some reasons, really harsh. Try an older cab or something. Maybe, Uh, yeah, like, say, we'll try. Try Mike in this thing up and normally what I do like said, given the time, I'll kind of go through and kind of have a guitar player, just jams and stuff and put my ear down near the speaker. You know, usual with like, you know, from your protection or at a low volume, and try to determine just what is the best sound is speaker in the cabin because all the speakers don't sound exactly the same. Let's just pretend that I did that. And we're going to say the bottom speaker sounds the best or let's do the top. So it would be more visual. Uh, well, I could say I mean, sometimes. You mean you think that might sound different because the tops angle a little bit or the bottoms, You know, Um but, ah, do you always use the always used to 57 or normal to Mike's? Not always. Okay, sometimes. Ah, a lot of the modern amps, you know, like a you know, Mesa or PV 51 50 or 65 of five. Now they're really big sounds, the tones or thick. It's not like untold Marshall. That's kind of going on a thinner and not a lot of low in. Then you kind of need to thicken the tone up, either by layering or using multiple mikes and stuff. But these modern, thick tones I mean, you can often times get away with just one 57 it just with some you know, e que and sales Great. So you oftentimes I use this one. I feel like with one, you get a little more clarity, you know, adding to to you know, normally I only add the 2nd 1 if it feels kind of thin, you know, like a normal Add a second. I'll show you here in a minute. Like like the 1st 1 I start with it. It's just a classic right off the center. I'm sure people lot of people are out there like, Oh, yeah, I went under all about this was essential. I put it really close to the grill cloth and right off the center of the cap of you have had a flashlight or whatever. One of these APS order my phone's off. But anyway, uh, like I said, you could if you if you could see clearly like city, you know, you got your dust cover of the speaker. But the mikes just right off the center probably will be picked that up on camera, but, uh, this helps me see it. But there's a dust cover in their vintage. 30 is smaller. Yes, we can see it. Awesome. But you have the dust cover, smaller, whatever, and usually like that. You don't want it directly in the middle of speaker, because to me, it sounds kind of harsh and I think to most people, but just move it a little off center and I've read any sneak people like this same thing and just kind of wanna, like said I usually have. Ah, you know, I usually sit in my control room and I have isolation area in mind in my studio, in my basement or whatever. And I have somebody just move the Michael whatever around where I just moving myself, you know, and just play and go back and forth and just just move. It is inches or centimeters until it just feels like, Okay, the harshness is less here. Seems more than most full here trying trying to find that you know that the best you know, the best fullest signals you can get with the microphone from the speaker. Whatever. Yeah, I forget who it was. Somebody had a good technique and they would actually talk while they were moving it around. They were because if you're doing it by yourself, you can't be in the booth listening to yourself moving around. So they would say this is where it is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You just get a good like Justin idea because, like I said, I mean with guitar with Mike and in the ample whatever. Obviously, Fuse and AMP. Sims and things like this is a list of an issue. If your Xanax effects are a lot of the other popular products or whatever, you're going direct or whatever, they don't, you know they have setting for proximity and stuff What I mean by proximity. Most you guys noticed how close it is. You can change the tone just by moving the If it sounds too thick and wolf it with a certain and used back up the mike, you lose a little bit of articulation definition. So I normally I wanna have Max articulations. I normally get as close as I can to speaker, but But just by moving it around a Metallica black album there, like they seek you just by where the Michaels it's right. I mean, you guys know trying, like, answer things of that nature used moving around, and it's a huge difference. You know, I get people all the time, and I think it's like rocket science how to get decent guitar tune. It's just like I don't feel like I'm the best guitar tone ever, whatever, but it's, you know, it's system. It's not rocket science. It's just, you know, something doesn't sound good. I mean, it's just, like do just move it a little bit. You know, a lot of people, you know, there's, You know, you could tweak the knobs and everything and use the best pre insist up. But if you don't have the my position right, it's gonna be, you know, it's not a variable. Exactly. But often times Like I said, this is another kind of time honored tradition type of thing that I find it works for me. Is the off axis like to put it? Put one in at an angle kind of off the center, not close to the center or whatever this is gonna add more meat, more mid range more. You know, we're using the same Mike. The cool thing about this is there's no potential for phase, you know, obviously trans response for 1 57 to another. If the proximity speakers the same, it's gonna be about the same thing to get to the computer at the same time. Now, if they used a ah SE conditional real popular approaches used use like basically like a Royer 1 21 or, you know, anointment u 87 67 something like that Transit response of, ah, condensers way quicker. So the signal of a condenser mikes gonna get to the computer quicker, so it's gonna it's gonna be offset, and you're gonna You can actually hear that you can hear the phase. So sometimes you have to, like, back up the condenser mike a little bit. So physically pull it off physical phase it, or you can track it online The way forms up in the computer, or you can use a delay or they make actual radio. Makes another companies make phasers, which you can actually turn basic. It's a delay unit of a sort t get the phase in line with one another. But it's just such a so much of pain is just asking for disaster to me. I honestly feel more safe. I can use to get the tones of for this way anyway, more so by just using the same Michael, Whatever. And ah, so you think that's pretty good going to go here? But that sounds like, yeah, let's do that. All right,