Best mic for recording electric?

[Timi]

Totally disagree with you man, I personally hate the Beta52 and its equivalents (D112, D6 ect) on bass. They are made for getting a modern kick drum sound, so they have overhyped lows and a really scooped midrange, and this works for a modern kick sound, but using one on bass will mean the overhyped lows will get in the way of the kick drum, and the scooped midrange will make it hard to hear the tone and will probably result in the bass being too high in the mix (and really bassy), a common trait of amateur live sound engineers.

Any of the broadcast style mics (M88, MD421, RE20 ect) are good if you want a natural sound with solid lows, but I really like the SM57 on bass, I think bass is the best thing that mic can be used for. It doesn't have huge low end, but it has enough and in the mix it blends with the kick perfectly since the bass should sit just above the kick.

In the studio ribbon mics sound great on bass if you want a really smooth but natural sound, but you often end up rolling a bit of low end off.

My opinion only of course, many people seem to like kick mics, and many people won't even mic a bass amp at all.....

[thehenderson]

To be fair though TIm, that scooped out bass sound is desired by soooome genres. I once saw Blindspott play BDO, and they went for that sound. I thought it was an awful mess, but they clearly do it regularly. It's that sound that (in my experience) the MAINZ students love doing at the rockquest. A sort of psuedo stadium rock sound. It fits with that I think. As long as there are baggy cargo zip offs and five strings there will probably be a D6 or something on the bass..

But personally for recording, always AB with some emulations. I've found that unless you want a super close mic'd guitar sound, the (lack of) quality of the room you're recording in can mean that the emulations do pretty well. Especially if you're not prepared to go back and retrack guitars a whole bunch, an amp emulation plug in can work towards a better mix in some cases IME because you can go back and tweak later in the context of the full mix

[Timi]

But if you are going for that modern scooped sound it will already be coming out your amp. Accentuating that further will mean some pretty extreme eq on the bass channel on the console, which could be eliminated by not using a kick mic.

I'm not sold on emulators, maybe it's because I have a variety of nice mics and pres, plus when I am recording it's usually another band who have their own sound and all I need to do is capture it. Having limitless options later in a mix often means spending way too much time on things, I prefer to get something sounding good and the commit.

[RuBear]

SM57 is the safety mic and a good place to start. Sometimes it is perfect, but it will always be alright. If you want a warmer smoother sound look at a ribbon mic, or if you want a brighter sound look at a condenser.

I've got some Sennheiser e609s. Great for live because you don't need stands and have very little bleed, but I'm not into them for recording. Similar to a 57 but with more 5kish, but not smooth top end like a good condenser. My Audix i5 is kinda similar, I find the top end quite plasticy on guitar, but it sounds GREAT on a snare. Sennheiser MD421 is cool too but the top end is a bit weird. Not so into it by itself but when used with something else it is great for getting a nice beefy sound.

What about the 909s? have you tried them for recording? I'm thinking of eventually getting a mic for both jobs (recording/live) and that style would just be so much easier for me live cause we often play in tight spaces, but I don't really want a bung recording mic. What makes it bad for recording? How obvious is it?

[mr_sooty]

Sennheiser e 606 and e 906


Plug a cable in and you can just hang it over the front of your cab- don't even need a mic stand.

Yeah we use these - or the model down, without the switch - for miking guitars at church. They're really good. If I was gonna buy a guitar mic I'd probably get one of these, especially for live.

NoooooOOOOOOO! I hate Rode NT1s!

Really? Why? I use one for voiceovers and really like it. When I was in radio I had some Nuemann's in my studio (including a vintage U67) but they were really badly maintained and the company decided to replace them instead of getting them serviced. Anyway, I ended up with a Rhode NT2A and thought it was great. That's why when I was looking for a cheap vocal mic for home I got an NT1a. But for guitars at home I use a Shure PG57, which is kind of like a 'squire' SM57.

I've been experimenting with using the PG57 up close, and a (Rode) a little further away, and recording the two simultaneously, then blending the two to try and get a more natural sound. Seems to be working well. Bender is far more qualified to answer than me though!

[bender]

Sennheiser e 606 and e 906


Plug a cable in and you can just hang it over the front of your cab- don't even need a mic stand.

Yeah we use these - or the model down, without the switch - for miking guitars at church. They're really good. If I was gonna buy a guitar mic I'd probably get one of these, especially for live.

NoooooOOOOOOO! I hate Rode NT1s!

Really? Why? I use one for voiceovers and really like it. When I was in radio I had some Nuemann's in my studio (including a vintage U67) but they were really badly maintained and the company decided to replace them instead of getting them serviced. Anyway, I ended up with a Rhode NT2A and thought it was great. That's why when I was looking for a cheap vocal mic for home I got an NT1a. But for guitars at home I use a Shure PG57, which is kind of like a 'squire' SM57.

I've been experimenting with using the PG57 up close, and a (Rode) a little further away, and recording the two simultaneously, then blending the two to try and get a more natural sound. Seems to be working well. Bender is far more qualified to answer than me though!

The Rode NT1 has an absolutely brittle and unforgiving top end. If you use it for VO on someone with a bit of sibilance and you've got something that even the best De-esser will struggle to smooth out. NT2s are better but every Rode mic I've used has the same problem to differing degrees. The top end just gets so raggedy and sounds awful. I'm not just talking about in comparison with a U87 either. The cheaper CAD mics sound much better for the same sort of price as a Rode and once you start looking in the $500+ range there is no shortage of smoother sounding mics. The SE mics are in a totally different league altogether.

As for the mic technique you're talking about- it's a good one but you need to be careful about the spacing due to phase cancellation. Ideally you need to be moving the spaced mic around while you play to really hear it. If you get it wrong you can effectively be EQing certain frequencies and all of their harmonics out of your tone- it sounds particularly bad in a mix. I discovered it the hard way.

[mr_sooty]

Teach me, o mentor.

[Hot_Grits]

I carry a 57 for live duties. I'd prefer to use a Heil PR30 for live, though, that's a great dynamic mic. Also good for getting a dynamic sound n the studio.

As far as studio goes, my fave used sofar has been the U67.

I'm not a fan of those dangle Sennheisers for any application. Nasty top end.

[badmotor]

I carry a 57 for live duties. I'd prefer to use a Heil PR30 for live, though, that's a great dynamic mic. Also good for getting a dynamic sound n the studio.

As far as studio goes, my fave used sofar has been the U67.

I'm not a fan of those dangle Sennheisers for any application. Nasty top end.

Heh... you said "dangle" and "top end" in the same sentence...

[otisredding]

Yep, close and distant micing an amp is a two person job for sure. But man it can hugely improve the sound of a recorded amp (if the room is any good) IME. I would rather distant mic than close if I have to choose only one. I hate the sound of close mic'ed amps on their own... just doesn't sound like what I hear when I play.

I also find single speaker amps are easier to get a good sound out of in the studio. I used an old AC15 with a single 12" for my whole King Size CD 'cause we just couldn't get the Bassman happening.

I still think an SM57 for live is still pretty much the go. Hate 421s on guitar and def not a fan of the 609 - peaky and nasty in the high mids IME.

[GrantB]

Yep, close and distant micing an amp is a two person job for sure. But man it can hugely improve the sound of a recorded amp (if the room is any good) IME. I would rather distant mic than close if I have to choose only one. I hate the sound of close mic'ed amps on their own... just doesn't sound like what I hear when I play.

+1

Normally we have one up close and one back...the other dayy only one mic available so we went about 2 feet back - sounded great. Up close a different story - less harmonic break up came through, more compressed sounding and in general, blah. Where does this close mic thing come from and do people actually think it works in a studio? If so, why? What am I missing here?

[bender]

Yep, close and distant micing an amp is a two person job for sure. But man it can hugely improve the sound of a recorded amp (if the room is any good) IME. I would rather distant mic than close if I have to choose only one. I hate the sound of close mic'ed amps on their own... just doesn't sound like what I hear when I play.

Yeah, me too Darren. I tend to use a large diaphragm condenser mic spaced about 2 to 3 feet from the speaker, more if the room sounds really good- basically just to avoid the proximity effect. That's kind of splitting the difference in that it's not really distant micing but it's not close micing. The rooms I record in are mostly pretty dead so you don't get a lot of benefit from backing it off much further. I also like micing the back of an open backed cabinet for a different kind of tone.

[Cdog]

Here is a studio experiement I recently listened to... hopefully you can still download it, and you will need to join the forum to have a look. It has a write up and soundbytes so you can compare the tones of an identical guitar line recorded through different mics and different placements. I found it interesting.

'How does the Royer R121 stack up against the Shure SM57, Shure SM7, Cascade Fathead II, and Sennheiser MD421?'
http://forum.recordingreview.com/f91/ki ... bie-23015/

[te_chris]

Neumann u87, AKG 414, or other sweet large diaphragm condensor about 4-5 inches away

Or for that ribbon sound that some people love, royer r121 or aea r84/92 can sound incredible. And maybe a 57 too just to get that really aggressive mdirange that those mics do so well

Oh if you guys want some thing cool check this out.

The chance to hear a whole bunch of mics on a whole bunch of gear without paying for it. pretty sweet

http://www.frontendaudio.com/Articles.asp?ID=169

[tubeswell]

Another vote for SM57.

But don't just dangle it over the top of your amp in front of the speaker - it won't pick up the right freqs that way. You should stick it on its own stand 6 inches in front of the speaker pointing more or less directly at the speaker. Then set up the desk for clean sound as loud as you can get it whilst staying clean. (BTW for live stuff you really want to have a PA system worthy of it too. - but you just don't want to have to lug the PA around - get some groupies to do that bit for ya )

2CW