As a newbie soundman, what are the tradeoffs in deciding whether to mike a guitar amp (SM57) as opposed to running it through a direct box to the board?
Mike guitar amp or plug into direct box?
- Thread starter David Kulick
- Start date
One rule of thumb is that if the amplifier is an integral part of the guitar sound (typically the case with electric guitars, but not typically the case with acoustic guitars), you should mic tha amp. If the guitar amplifier is not (supposed to be) modifying the sound, a DI will generally give you an easier signal to work with. Note that the same general rule applies to other instrument amplifiers as well. In the case of the "modeling amplifiers", I'll generally take a "post modeling" direct out (although I haven't seen that many in the wild).
That brings up the matter of how to mike the bass guitar. This interesting thread suggests using a mike and DI. It's possible that I'll have enough channels to do that, but wouldn't there be phase issues? The line feed should be instantaneous while the amp has to produce the sound, have it hit the mike, and have the mike convert it back to electrons or whatever. It's certainly easier to just use a DI, but doing both would be interesting.
My guitar player uses a stereo pedal. I tap left for DI and right from his amp. It gives me great phasing effects when he uses his phaser. It also gives me a nice DI/Amp split for recordings.
Put the mic in one channel and the DI in another. You can compare the sound and you can also combine them.
Radial JDX48 is a really nice tool for capturing guitar sounds on small stages.
Lead guitar amps add their own characteristic sound that would be lost from a DI. If you have extra channels maybe try both and see for yourself.
JR
JR