The description of the effects of placement and distance are nicely concise and easy to understand.
Placement = EQ. You get the brightest, most present sound with the mic aimed directly into the speaker’s dust cap (the little dome at the center). The sound gets darker/warmer as you move toward the cone’s edge. It doesn’t matter whether you move right, left, up, or down—further from the center means less treble bite.
The distance between grille cloth and mic also matters. A very close mic provides more low-end thump. Want more oomph? Move the mic closer. Too dark and wooly? Back it off. Beyond eight inches or so you start to pick up a lot of room sound. That can be a great thing (and a future topic). But close-miking is more idiot-proof, and it permits the most options when mixing.
Between “center vs. edge” and “near vs. far,” you have a powerful 2-band tone control—and equalization of this type is invariably more organic-sounding than EQ applied after recording.
Thanks Ben, should have know that when I recorded the three Tele sound bytes yesterday.
We used a simple Senheiser E835 about 100mm away, off centre on a Celestion G12H 70 anniversary speaker... Not sure how that would have impacted on the Tele sound but reading the article I feel we would have eliminated a fair amount of treble.
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.
"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible god and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this nature he's destroying is this god he's worshipping." - Hubert Reeves