GJgo
Well-known member
Hey guys,
I decided to put some work into dialing in my mic placement with my various (Mesa / V30) cabs because I'd like my recorded tone to be more consistent, and I'd also like it to sound more like it does in the room. In the past I've just eyeballed the mic placement and a lot of times I wasn't happy with the result. Thought I'd share the results.
I started with working out the X/Y placement. Starting from the center of the speaker, I moved the mic towards the edge & recorded each take in my DAW so I could go back and analyze. We all know that the generally best place is where the dust cap & cone meet, but it's important to note that moving in 1/8" increments I was getting audible differences. I put this vid up to talk about it.
Note in all these tests I repeated with my SM57 as well as my E609, and they always had the same sweet spot. Which is convenient.
Next I worked on the Z axis- distance from the speaker. I started at the grille cloth & came back in 1/2" increments to 3". As it turns out. right on the grille cloth sounds like cold wet ass. I had a theory that there would also be a "focus" point on this plane of clarity & punch. There was a wider sweet spot here, but with my cabs I settled on 1.5" from the cloth being optimal.
After that I worked on the output volume. Of course the amp sounds best when it's cranked! ...but I've noticed the recorded tone does not always match. I tested recorded volumes (balancing recorded volume with the interface) starting at 100 dB in front of the cab and going up in 5 dB increments to 120 dB. This was more subtle, but the punch & clarity was best around 105 dB.
Once all that's done & consistent, now I can really work on turning amp knobs to get the tone I want! This shit is time consuming!
My hope in all this is to make my recorded tones consistent enough that a) I'm happy with them and b) I can convey what I'm hearing best in the room.
I decided to put some work into dialing in my mic placement with my various (Mesa / V30) cabs because I'd like my recorded tone to be more consistent, and I'd also like it to sound more like it does in the room. In the past I've just eyeballed the mic placement and a lot of times I wasn't happy with the result. Thought I'd share the results.
I started with working out the X/Y placement. Starting from the center of the speaker, I moved the mic towards the edge & recorded each take in my DAW so I could go back and analyze. We all know that the generally best place is where the dust cap & cone meet, but it's important to note that moving in 1/8" increments I was getting audible differences. I put this vid up to talk about it.
Note in all these tests I repeated with my SM57 as well as my E609, and they always had the same sweet spot. Which is convenient.
Next I worked on the Z axis- distance from the speaker. I started at the grille cloth & came back in 1/2" increments to 3". As it turns out. right on the grille cloth sounds like cold wet ass. I had a theory that there would also be a "focus" point on this plane of clarity & punch. There was a wider sweet spot here, but with my cabs I settled on 1.5" from the cloth being optimal.
After that I worked on the output volume. Of course the amp sounds best when it's cranked! ...but I've noticed the recorded tone does not always match. I tested recorded volumes (balancing recorded volume with the interface) starting at 100 dB in front of the cab and going up in 5 dB increments to 120 dB. This was more subtle, but the punch & clarity was best around 105 dB.
Once all that's done & consistent, now I can really work on turning amp knobs to get the tone I want! This shit is time consuming!
My hope in all this is to make my recorded tones consistent enough that a) I'm happy with them and b) I can convey what I'm hearing best in the room.
