Shure SM57, Sennheiser e609, EV Cardinal amp mic shootout

I thought it would be a good idea to check out the differences between micing a guitar speaker dead-center, off-center, and on the rim with a couple of different microphones. I used a Shure SM57, a Sennheiser e609, an Electro Voice Cardinal, plus two direct methods; a Behringer GI-100 direct box, and my Randall R212CB's Microphone Eliminator outputs.

My amp is a Marshall TSL60, and I'm focusing only on the overdrive channel because that's the voice that I've been having the hardest time getting down when micing my amp live.

This is same simple riff played a whole bunch of times and recorded it with different microphones in different positions. I know that it's a lame riff, I know that I could do about 100 things better, and I'm sure that a lot of people could do this a lot better. Still, I found the experiment very interesting, and I think some other people will too.

The SM57 and e609 are ones that people always recommend for micing a guitar cabinet, so I grabbed those, and the Cardinal is an all-purpose condenser that I love using for vocals, so I thought I'd give it a shot here. Please also note that the pictures that I provided during the clips aren't live. The SM57 and Cardinal were pointed straight forward when I recorded the audio, but when I went back down later on to do the pictures, I had them tilted back.

Anyway, I hope you find this informative, and hopefully you can hear the differences that simple changes in mic placement can make. For the full MP3 clip, go to :
http://bisticlz.com/guitar_amp_mic_demo.mp3

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Shure
• SM57
• Sennheiser
• e609
• EV
• Electro-Voice
• Cardinal
• Behringer
• Ultra-G
• GI-100
• Randall
• R212CB
• Marshall
• TSL60

[DiatonicVids]

In your experience, which position is closest to what you hear in the room?

[jbisti]

@DiatonicVids Hard to say. Our minds know how to basically remove the noise/effects from a room when listening to something, but if we heard that same "audio signal" on an album, we'd notice it right away and find it distracting, because we don't have the context to compensate for it. But that's probably not the answer you're looking for... In my (limited) experience, the best compromise for recording is a pair of 57's, one pointed right at the cone, one 12" back angled up about 30 degrees.

[mixermantim]

I just made a shootout on the 609 and the 906

[dreamstwice]

SM 57 FTW!

[SIRONEDRAGON]

cool : ) 

[jbisti]

@jwalsh8 No problem, man! I spent some time playing in wedding/bar bands where I really had to reign in noise, and those friggin neon signs and dirty power lines really create some terrible noise. If the other stuff I mentioned doesn't help, it might be time to drop $80 on a good noise gate. The Boss one is slow and muddy compared to the ISP Decimator and the MXR Smart Gate. Either of those will do you well.

[jwalsh8]

@jbisti THANK YOU :-D

[jbisti]

@jwalsh8 I haven't found the TSL60 to be all that noisy to start with, but there are a few tricks. First off, humbuckers will cut down on a lot of noise. Then, keeping the gain down quite a bit further than you might think it needs to be, and keeping the pickups away from other electronics will reduce non-guitar noise. If you're still having trouble with hum, make sure that the amp is properly grounded, and that you're not getting any ground-loop hum from other equipment. Good luck!

[jwalsh8]

@jbisti Can i just ask is the low amp hum due to the mic or are you using any tricks you can share with us.

thanks

[spentonmediocrity]

Dynamics sound stiff and lifeless compared to condensers...that's not just vocals but guitar as well.I owned the same Sennheisser and hated it for my guitar amp...sounded wooly and fizzy with no dynamics,totally unlike how my amp sounded.

I place my AT 2020 back a foot and a little off axis and it sounds very authentic and 3 dimensional,it's alive sounding and pickups the subtlties.

You can really hear the difference on uncompressed sound files,it's stunning.