Volume sweet spot for micing cabs?

[GJgo]

Hey guys,

What's your opinion on the sweet spot in terms of dB when micing a cabinet? I've done everything from 95-120 dB and I feel like some days each is good & some days each is bad in terms of tone & clarity. Also, most of my tube amps don't start to sing till around 110 dB but other days I feel like at low volume the mic doesn't care. I will say that I don't start to get that chugging compression from the cabinet until around 110 dB or so.

Do you have any rules of thumb here?

Examples- starting at 2:08 here's an amp at ~105 dB.

...And here's the same amp at ~115 dB, starting at 2:40

...Then here's a different amp at 75 dB!

 

[Pentatonic Wanker]

I go with what "feels" right. In my current setup that's usually around 105db.

 

[Markedman]

Listening through my laptop, the 115 sounded the tightest in the bottom end.

 

[GJgo]

Thanks. I usually think 105 dB is a good compromise if I'm not trying to get a crushing bottom end. Going hotter it's a balance to be careful not to blow the mic out. It's totally possible it's a limitation of my low end gear. There's a lot of shit to figure out! lol

Over 115 or so the 6 tube amps will start to knock things off the wall!

 

[PDC]

I think this range may depend upon how much of your tone comes from the amp as oppose to how much natural speaker compression is part of the tone. A super high-gain amp using EV speakers would likely mic up well at lower volumes where a non-master amp pushing Greenbacks might need more db to get the speaker compression involved in the final sound.