How to Record Electric Guitar - Part 3: Comparing & Combining Mics 

Hi Chris, thanks so much for your feedback. Stay tuned for more tutorials, that we are currently working on ;)!

@@GeorgNeumannGmbH I very much look forward to them! :)

Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Thank you, Josh!

We are glad we could be of help! 🙂

Thank you, Jon. Your feedback means a lot!

Hi there, Basically, the same applies to an amp with several speakers as to a single speaker amp (proximity effect etc.). But there are a few things you have to consider: Crosstalk: The further away the microphone is from the amp, the more it records both speakers. This means that the signals of both speakers overlap and some frequencies are amplified, others cancel each other out. If you don't want that, you get close to one of the speakers, so that its signal clearly dominates. This is the standard procedure for live recording. But it can also be desired to capture exactly this superimposition, since it belongs to the sound of the amp / speaker. You go further away and look for a position where the microphone captures the amp sound the way you hear it in the room (see "dummy" head trick). Stereo: Some guitarists play with stereo speakers, where the speakers get different signals. To capture this, you have to remove both speakers (today this is done rather rarely as it was more of a 90's habit). Different speakers: Some guitarists like to experiment and build different speakers into one amp. Here, you also have to find out which one sounds best for the desired sound and mike it. Or incase you want to capture the different sounds of the speakers, then you mike both speakers again. You can also use various microphones and alternating positions to highlight those differences.

Georg Neumann GmbH Great answer. Thank you. Yes, what I want to do is capture the sound of the amp that I hear in the room, so that tip about the superimposition is great! I hadn’t thought of it in that way, so that’s very helpful. I tend to like the not-so-produced sound of a guitar in a big hall. Like in a place like the Meistersaal in Hansa TonStudios, for instance, à la bands like The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution or Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (their early stuff), etc. Very raw and very much a part of the room. I just bought a ribbon mic for amp recording and I had thought about placing it close while using a condenser further away. I may still try that, but your reply and this video helped me understand what I should be listening for. I am pretty new to all of this, and that’s why these videos are so great! Thank you very much again for taking the time to reply.

Hi Benjamin, have a look at our "Recording Basics" series in which we also talk about recording an electric bass: ru-vid.com/group/PLXo2VCZ_cSFci7LYuTmdBOFF8Om_L952W.

Hi Silvio, you won't overload the TLM 103 with an amp and you can't break the mic with it either. You would hear if something distorts and then it is only the microphone preamplifier that is overloaded.

@@GeorgNeumannGmbH Thank you very much for your attention, !!! 😀👍

Or mermaids... they're not interested in guitars either.