Recording Electric Rock Guitar with Distortion

M

Mitch Miller

Sophomore
Oct 30, 2012
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Wondering what y'alls favorite mic (and technique) is for recording electric rock guitar with a good amount of distortion. Guitarist is playing through a Mesa Road King into a 4x12 cab with two Celestion V30s on top and a pair of G12T75s on the bottom.

We've been trying a number of positions with an SM57 and an Audix I5, but it seems like we get a lot of fizziness. (Incidentally clean sounds pretty nice, but the distortion is real buzzy / fizzy.)

Saw one recommendation to double mic the speaker in a comb filter configuration (one mic about 1" further away than the other, but both quite near the grill). That did seem to work quite well, but I'm looking for what others are doing and like.

Was considering upping my mic kit with an Nt1 or Nt1000 condenser.

Recording is going straight into my full X32. No other pres. And this is being done in my unfinished basement space (not even sure I should refer to it as a studio).

This has been a fun project and I've learned a lot through some experimentation. Hoping to find a little guidance here that I can run with.

Thanks,
Mitch
 
Re: Recording Electric Rock Guitar with Distortion

Assuming that the output of the amp actually sounds like you want with no mic, I'd probably pick a mic without a presence peak. Distorted guitar already has plenty of HF energy; there's typically no need to add more.

Of course, mic placement also plays a big role here. Have you tried adjusting the position and orientation of the SM57? What were your results? And have you tried changing th eorientation of the SM57 so that it points across, not at, the speaker cone?
 
Re: Recording Electric Rock Guitar with Distortion

Beg, borrow, rent, steal, sell your soul, etc,....... and get a Royer R-121 for your session.

Mic the cab with the R-121 and a SM57 (or I-5, etc)
That ribbon mic is smoooooooth.

If you want some good reading on the incredibly complex subject of recording distorted guitar, go here:
http://thewombforums.com/archive/index.php/f-10.html
 
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