software

today my singer and i spent about 2 hours screwing around with mic placements in his (slowly but surely growing) home studio. the amp being used was my dual recto (running at 50 watts) through the marshall 4x12.

our setup is whichever mics we happen to be using ---gt; yamaha 16 channel board ---gt; M-box interface ---gt; dual G5 mac ---gt; protools. our goal was to get the best possible sound we could without having to use any additional EQ or any other plugins after it had been tracked.

we started out with a single SM57 on one of the speakers, which was moved around several times to different areas of the speaker. it just wasn't capturing the tone of the amp very well by itself, so we decided upon using more mics in different locations. after a couple hours we found that we got the best sound by putting one SM57 about 6 inches back, on a very very small angle pointing just outside the center of the speaker cone, and a beta 52 (yes, the kick drum mic) almost right against the grille cloth at the very outside egde of the speaker.

the sound we got was very full, but the tone was still missing something compared to how the amp sounds to your ears. i know the best way to find the best sound is to mess with multiple mics and mic placements and see what sounds best for yourself. for all those who have experience with recording, what's your favorite way to mic up a halfstack that gets the most natural sound the way it comes from the amp? i understand that this is a lot more difficult than just throwing a mic in front of the amp and plugging it in, but any input is greatly appreciated.

also, the way the room sounds could probably use a lot of work. it's about 20' by 20', carpet floors, cieling tiles, and drywall. there isn't a terrible echo or anything, but is there a particular spot in the room where you like to place the amp to record it? should we be competely ghetto and put blankets up over the drywall?

As far as room treatment, if you're not doing anything too professional, I'd just make sure to block any reflections comming back in as best as possible.

For mic placements, try one SM57 a bit to the left of the cone on your favorite speaker (try every one of them miced in the center of the cone, find which sounds best), and almost right up against the grill cloth. if you still need more, take another 57 and place it on another good speaker about 6 inches to a foot back, slightly off axis. Make sure your phase is all right, and see how that does it.

Remeber, a tiny move in the mic position can make a huge difference, so play with that first one untill you can get it the best possible.

Also, using a multi-band compresser on a guitars low-mids can do wonders for a mix. Check out a Waves C4 plugin, it works great.