Guitar Gear Forum

So i'm going to try to record from my cab through a mic for the first time.

I have a 4x12 cab and an AKG C414 mic.

Where should i start as far as placing the mic?

Also, the mic has several settings, what would be best for recording in this scenario?

Cardioid
Figure 8
Hyper Cardioid
Omnidirectional
Wide Cardioid

Any other suggestions or tips?

Honestly, experiment with all possibilities. Spend a day dedicated to fucking around with mic placement and mode.

And get an SM57. Save yourself some headache.

I thought this was a pretty helpful video... I don't know if you will be recording heavy guitars or not, but this was pretty good!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfEh79A0b0U&list=UU-f76NUQN5M-Z0cd0MOP5xw[/video]

Cole

For most cab miking situations, you'll want to use a cardioid response pattern. Maybe hypercardioid if you're playing live and want to minimize any spillage. If you're in a good sounding room and want to get some reflections in the sound, then figure 8 or omnidirectional might be good, but most of the time that's done with a separate distant mic so you have more control and aren't trying to compromise with the more direct sound. For just one mic close to the cab, the vast majority of the time you'll want to go with cardioid.

Mike LX-R wrote:Honestly, experiment with all possibilities. Spend a day dedicated to fucking around with mic placement and mode.

And get an SM57. Save yourself some headache.

The C414 is a great mic. Not that price should matter, but it also costs about 10 times as much as an SM57 and it's not just some random obscure knockoff mic. SM57s may be the go-to mics for guitar recording but you can definitely make some great guitar recordings with a C414.

With condensers I'd ordinarily be a bit cautious about sound levels, but the C414 can take up to 140 dB SPL so there's really no harm in sticking it right in front of a loud cab.

Yeah, 414s are great on guitar. And you haven't LIVED until you've used some as Tom close mics in hypercardioid. Seriously. Of course, the owner of the mics might try to kill you but fuckem.

Condensors are really fun on high gain distorted guitar for a more open detailed sound - unlike a '57 with muddies up then thins out the bass, compresses the lower mids down into something that'll stay tucked neatly in a busy mix, hypes up 3K then turns anything higher into generic smear.

Note that sometimes I love '57s.

The video posted is cool. Good advice for finding the best speaker in the cab. Once you've got a favourite stick to it. I'd start with the mic in cardioid, 6db pad and HPF off*, pointed straight at the grill cloth, over where the dust cap meets the cone, about 3" away from the grill.

Then, and this bit is tricky when you're standing next to the amp, sweep the speaker and listen. What I like to do is turn the master down to talking volume and crank up my headphones so I can really hear what the mic is picking up even as I'm standing in front of the amp. I'll loosen all the mic stand connections so I can move the mic freely with my left hand, and strum+palm mute the open strings with my right hand.

Then it's just about finding a spot where the treble isn't too harsh or muddy and the character of the breakup is what you're looking for. Some parts of the speaker might some more or less grindy than others. twist the speaker as you're moving it about because where it's pointing affects what it will hear. Once I find the spot (usually for my amp and style it's about 2" from the edge of the speaker, 3" from the cloth, and pointing at where the dust cap and cone meet but it depends on the rig and production), I'll clamp the stand in place, turn the amp back up to volume (remember to turn the headphones/ mic gain down first!) and do some test recordings. The character of the low end will change as the volume is brought up so I might find I move the mic a little more - further towards the middle if it's too dull, or pulled back a few more inches if the lows become to overbearing. By pulling the mic back you're reducing the proximity effect. Sometimes if I want to let the bass do the work in the low end, I like to pull the mic right back a foot or so. You get a sound that's a lot cleaner and sounds more like an amp in a room, with less artificial low end thickness.

* Funnily enough I hardly ever use the High pass filter setting on any mic unless it's a live show and I want to clean up the low end. When recording I'll pretty much always either adjust the source or pull the mic back a little. I think when recording with outboard gear like compressors I'd probably use it more because you could affect how the compressor is being hit, but when you're going mic-pre-interface I usually figure I can high pass later if I choose to without having fucked anything up...

Wow, some very detailed responses! Thanks guys! I'm going to try this out over the weekend. I appreciate the help.

Something I used once that worked... I placed a large diaphragm mic, about 1 yard in front of the cab, exactly centered between all 4 speakers.