Where does it go?

I was setting up to record guitar for the new Sairie E.P. today when it occurred to me it might be worth writing a bit about how I mic amplifiers. I have read so many articles and interviews about recording over the years where engineers talk about their special method for miking an amplifier – one inch off the speaker cloth, three inches from the centre of the cone, aimed right at the centre of the cone, on axis, off axis, right on the edge of the speaker pointing at the centre etc. etc... it can all be a bit bewildering, especially if you’re new to recording, struggling to know how to do things and just want to record some guitar (I haven’t even mentioned types of microphone!) But it really doesn’t have to be bewildering. I have a very simple technique for placing microphones that I’ve been using for years. Straight up I need to point out that I didn’t invent this technique, I think it came from Steve Albini. When I say I think it came from him that’s because it was actually told to me by a friend who had seen S. Albini talk about it in an interview. This was all so long ago though and I didn’t read the interview myself and my friend is no longer here to ask and even if he were (god how I wish he were...) he probably wouldn’t remember because quite often important things that people tell you aren’t necessarily all that important to them. That being so, I’m not completely sure of the provenance of this information but I am sure that it works.

Anyway… Switch on your amplifier but DON’T plug anything in to it. Crank up the gain really high so that the amplifier is humming and hissing nicely then, with headphones on so that you can monitor the sound coming from the amp, take your microphone and move it around until you hear what you’re looking for. This may sound like a vague direction but as soon as you do it for yourself you will see that it isn’t vague at all. If you move the microphone around in front of the speaker you will hear the hiss of the amp come in to focus and that’s your sweet spot right there. Tighten up the stand and turn the gain back down to where you want it (unless you want to set up another mic, in which case, turn down the pre-amp gain on the first mic and repeat the whole process with the second one). Now you’re ready to record and you didn’t hurt your ears. That’s all there is to it. I told you it was simple.

When it comes to types of microphone, that’s a bit more complicated, well it is and it isn’t. I mean, you can use any microphone on a guitar amp and get a great sound really. There is so much gear fetishising that goes on in the recording realm, it can really get you down esp. if you’re new to it and/or don’t have any money. When you’re looking at recording forums and there’s a bunch of people chatting about how they wouldn’t ever use anything but a Coles ribbon or Neumann just ask yourself ‘how much music do they actually record?’ Chances are they just talk about equipment all day and buy a ton of gear that doesn’t get used. I really don’t trust elitism and snobbery in any realm. Expensive mics are very nice of course but just use what you have or can afford, commit to it, put it in the right place, believe in it and make great music, that’s all that matters.

Whilst we’re here, I think I’ll say a bit about using multiple microphones on the same source. This is of particular interest to me because I studied audio engineering for three years solely because I couldn’t understand why if I recorded my guitar amplifier with two microphones and both of the recorded tracks were played back together they were quieter than if one was played on its own (I mean that was why I decided to study sound properly, it didn’t take me three years to find out the answer). For anybody out there like me, or at least like I was then here is why that happened: The problem I was having with my guitar recordings was to do with phase and the fact that the two microphones were out of phase with each other, actually in this case the phase polarity of the microphones was reversed. In other words, if you zoom in on the wave-forms of your recordings in your DAW you will see that they are represented by a wavy line which looks like a profile view of a landscape filled with hills and valleys, if the little hills in the signal on one microphone are going up and the little hills on the other one are going down the two signals will cancel each other out and two will become weaker than one. I had no way of seeing this at the time because we were recording on to tape (actually in this particular case we were recording onto a completely forgotten format of data mini discs) and had no visual representation of the wave-forms.

Two guitar tracks out of phase

The same two guitar tracks in phase.

There are various ways of overcoming this problem. Many microphone pre-amps and mixing desks and all DAWs have a phase reverse switch which looks like this: Ø, you can just switch that in and then the phase polarity of the sound-wave will be reversed and everything should be fine and dandy. You can also avoid the problem by physically placing the second microphone three times further away from the source than the first one. But if you are recording onto DAW it really doesn’t matter that much because there are multiple ways to change the phase polarity and it’s very easy to see if something is in phase or not. Just zoom in to a particular hill or valley on the two sound-waves (the beginning of a note is usually best) and you will see if they are aligned or if they are mirrored. If they are mirrored, just reverse the polarity on one of the tracks, it doesn’t matter which one. Of course, you may prefer the sound of two mics being out of phase for whatever reason (that’s entirely up to you). Another thing that DAWs make very easy to do is to pull different mics into time with each other. For various reasons (the microphones may be different distances from the source or may be different types of microphone- dynamic mics react slightly slower than condenser mics) if you have multiple microphones close miking a guitar cabinet the two signals will almost always have reached the DAW at slightly different times. In most cases this will be incredibly negligible and not really noticeable but if you pull the two wave-forms into alignment with each other it will noticeably tighten up the sound. To do this zoom right in on a particular hill again (I usually just pick the first note) you will be able to see where the line of the first hill crosses the centre line to become a valley. Put the playback cursor at that point and move one of the wave-forms until the two are aligned.

The two guitar tracks out of alignment

The same tracks aligned

I hope this is clear and easy to understand and of interest to some (some years ago I would have been reeeeeally happy to read this information!)

Now - let’s all go forth and fill the world with beautiful music and recordings!