Help with room mic'ing

[petejt]

I've close-mic'ed the cabs now.

It sounds really good through the monitor speakers, pretty much just as it sounds live in the room. Very full, crunchy, and thick.


However I am bewildered by how different it sounds through the laptop speakers and headphones. It sounds a bit "small", and too "effecty" if that makes sense. For instance if I run the amps wet/dry with an effects pedal, it is like the effect is too strong and weakens the overall depth of the main distorted sound. I'm finding it rather frustrating. How do I counteract this?

 

[fuzzyguitars]

record dry and add effects in the DAW

 

[petejt]

DIY bass trap the corners and reflective panels on the walls...that is your first step. All that eggfoam stuff, get rid of it, prob only good for sucking out some highs while the lows stay a booming. Given your room, close mic. Cement walls are gonna create bouncing waves all over. Fail that, use room mics from one of the many IR's there are available for that "natural" sound. Third option, throw some reverb on those close mic'ed tracks and they will sound deeper. Room mics are better suited to good sounding/ treated rooms.

Thanks again for this advice.

I listened through the computer again and I can hear all sorts of phase cancelling, which would be from the reflections as you said.
If I listen to just one track in isolation, there's no phase-cancelling (but I only hear a quarter of the sound).


EDIT: (Rather than add another post I've collected some old clean small mattresses from kerbside piles, as they essentially resemble the bass traps I researched. I also rolled up the egg crate foam to put into the corners to help deaden the reflections (just trying to make use of it, since I paid a fair bit for them at the time). I have an old piece of carpet which I plan to hang up as a kind of curtain across the doorway. I have added a couple of big suitcases to act as buffers in the room, and also two old couch cushions.


Still I do find it rather odd that when listening to the playback via the main monitor speakers, at a higher volume- it sounds perfect! There's no phase cancelling at all...

 

[petejt]

record dry and add effects in the DAW

I prefer to run effects before the amp- so that process won't work for this.