Cape Town GF get together and microphone shootout

matta · 2009-04-09T13:56:24+00:00

Hey Guys, As promised I intend to have a GF get together and 'mic shoot out' at my studio, www.dockyardstudios.com I have the industry staples like MD-421, Sm57, Sm7 and will arrange a Royer 121. I've got a 64' Fender Black Face Bandmaster and Champ to play with and we will reamp a few different passes through different mics and pres and compare the results. Feel free to bring your own mics to compare them if you like. The date will be NEXT SATURDAY, April 18th, at my studio (directions are on the 'contact' page at the link above), Time will be 12pm. Please bring some chips, beers, whatever you want and bring to share... so don't be cheap and bring 1 BEER, bring a 6 pack! It is ABSOLUTELY free, and hope to see as many of you as can make it. Please do me the courtesy of posting here if you are attending so I know how many people to expect. Cheers Matt

AlanRatcliffe

Well done and thanks Matt!

I've downloaded them all and am just waiting for a chance to audition them.

Spyke

Matt, would you mind a helping us out with a brief description of each file name for those of us who couldn't attend?

on cab vs off cab? Axis and model seems quite self explanatory.

matta

Spyke wrote Matt, would you mind a helping us out with a brief description of each file name for those of us who couldn't attend?

on cab vs off cab? Axis and model seems quite self explanatory.

Will do, as soon as I get an hour or so to write it up!

Cheers

Matt

aja

matta wrote
Spyke wrote Matt, would you mind a helping us out with a brief description of each file name for those of us who couldn't attend?

on cab vs off cab? Axis and model seems quite self explanatory.
Will do, as soon as I get an hour or so to write it up!

Cheers

Matt

matta I wanna know I wanna know!

hehe

matta

Hey Aja,

Sorry man, I should have done this ALONG time ago!

Right, ok, so on the day I illustrated various mics, 3 staples in the industry, the Sm57 (THE definitive guitar mic), a Sennheiser MD-421, another great dynamic mic I use a fair bit on guitar cabs and the Royer 121 Ribbon Mic.

The SM57 for me has this weird mid-range honk that can be both a help and hindrance, given that a guitar cab is really only putting out a limited bandwidth with regards to its frequency range, the 421 is a little more 'hifi' and doesn't have this honk, smoother if you will. The Royer is still tight and focused but has a VERY creamy/smooth top end to it because unlike traditional it rolls off on the high alot quicker.

The main thrust of the day was really to show that just by offsetting the microphone access by an inch or 2 can dramatically change the tone of a recorded guitars.

We REAMPED the same guitar passage so that we had a constant source, so as to remove discrepancies in the performance.

I tend to mic OFF AXIS most of the time, I like to be a little off the grill to allow air to pass, this results in a more amp like tone... nobody listening to a guitar can with their ear on the can right? In this case the OFF CAB samples are 30cm away from the cab, we measured each time with a tape measure to make sure we had the same spot so the differences you hear are the mics themselves, gain was left set at the same level on both the pre and the amp.

Micing ON AXIS causes the mic to get the brunt of the SPL coming off the amp, which I find doesn't translate very well, yielding a hard 'in your face' tone, OFF AXIS is a bit smoother/warmer.

That is basically the gist of it, let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers

Matt

aja

Very interesting, thanks! I will have a listen again when I am near my headphones...

I never knew about the SM57 midrange boost you encountered. Perhaps that is why it is so popular in the guitar world? (seems counter intuitive since most seem to scoop the mids)

matta

aja wrote Very interesting, thanks! I will have a listen again when I am near my headphones...

I never knew about the SM57 midrange boost you encountered. Perhaps that is why it is so popular in the guitar world? (seems counter intuitive since most seem to scoop the mids)

It depends on the style of music, Metal/Heavy Rock seem to scoop the mids, push the lows and highs, 'classic' rock and roll tends to push those mids, 1-5Khz, gives the amp more 'bite', cutting the lows tends to clean up the sound in relation to the other instruments.

Cheers

Matt

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