09/01/2024
When I'm recording electric guitars I prefer to mike the amplifier (well, the cab in the case of a stack). A dynamic mike just off axis , away from the cone centre and placed close to the cab front gives a great starting point.
Too directly pointed in to the cone centre gives a very bright and harsh tone and coming away (sideways) from the centre reduces the mid-range. Distance (in front) from the speaker rolls off the bass response, so I like to keep it pretty close. These three variables allow me to capture a rich, balanced tone.
Sometimes it's not possible to record the amp at volume (a bedroom studio, a noisy studio atmosphere, a tube pops on the session), but a few options are still open: Cab simulation in fancy, modern FX pedals like the Helix, Quad Cortex and Kemper can substitute for at-volume production using DI to capture only the guitar sound source but another alternative is re-amping.
If you can capture the guitar tracks, through the pedal chain and into a DI, you'll have no spill from external sound source. You can then, at a later time, feed this signal back through your amp and record it as if it miked up in the first place. This is process is called Re-amping.
How do you prefer to capture guitars? What's your favourite mike to use when recording electric guitar?
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