Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Get that song on tape! Errr... disk?
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cauger
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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by cauger » Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:05 pm

alberto2000 wrote:I just don't get to record the Twin with its natural bottom end, it always sounds veeery harsh and trebly when recorded, always misses the bass and juice... tried SM57, SM58, different mic positions, outer cone, angled, room positioning... is there any secret?
I'd suggest experimenting with how you're setting the EQ on the amp before going off and buying new mics; bright switch off, treble down, bass up etc.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by WhiteTorty » Sat Feb 02, 2013 6:00 pm

alberto2000 wrote:I just don't get to record the Twin with its natural bottom end, it always sounds veeery harsh and trebly when recorded, always misses the bass and juice... tried SM57, SM58, different mic positions, outer cone, angled, room positioning... is there any secret?
Alberto2000, what mics, preamps, and interfaces do you have access too? I see lots of people on this thread offering the help of $3000+ mics when you are starting with $100 ones. I would hope someone can get a good sound out of $3000+ mic. Great audio engineers (which I am not) get the best out of what they have to work with. It sounds like you are experimenting which is good, keep that up and you will start finding some sweet spots. I have had luck with finding a pretty sweet spot on an amp and then with my headphones on adjusting the amp, guitar, and whatever preamp tone settings I have until it fits. Whoever recommeded the cheap MXL ribbon mic, that is a great call. Can be found for $100 new and is easy to use. It is easy to recomment top of the line stuff and say you will get a great sound, but the truth of modern recording can be found on this link...

http://kevinheider.com/wordpress/wp-con ... e-Tate.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by WhiteTorty » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:23 am

Thank you for the essay detailing your offense that I could suggest Alberto may not need to spend thousands on mics. Alberto, if your passion is recording spend every bit you want to on your home studio. Its your dime, your music, your recordings, your time.

[quote="øøøøøøø"] A well-recorded sound at the source still largely determines the listener's impression of fidelity [quote]

While this is probably true, it completely misses the point. The point of the drawing was that musicians, engineers and people on internet forums or the are much more concerned with fidelity, gear, and having impressive looking things than the listening audience, who prefer the easiest consumption method available. Why? Because it is easy and they are more concerned with whether or not they can sing along with a recording than how much work went into making it.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by Murph » Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:59 pm

WhiteTorty wrote:Thank you for the essay detailing your offense
yeah fuck off man, keep your years of professional experience and your informed and helpful observations to yourself! Image
mate, I'm going on art college this summer.
am i hippedihip?

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by WhiteTorty » Sun Feb 03, 2013 3:59 pm

Murph wrote:
WhiteTorty wrote:Thank you for the essay detailing your offense
yeah fuck off man, keep your years of professional experience and your informed and helpful observations to yourself! Image
And thank you for cherry picking half a quote. I know that my sarcasm has improved the life of all around me and I'm quite certain that your sarcasm does the same for your loved ones. I'm sure everyone on the forum has a $20,000 mic locker so the idea of doing recordings on a budget is laughable. I'm sure I'm the only one here who is not playing professionally 200 nights a year and who has limited money to spend on gear. I keep forgetting that everyone else doesn't have a day job.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by Murph » Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:44 pm

the thing is, when you make a post in answer to someone's request for guidance, and then get all sarcastic when someone else with a lot more experience than you refutes your points, you're discouraging the people who have the most practical knowledge to share from bothering to post anything cause no one wants to get into a pissing match with you
mate, I'm going on art college this summer.
am i hippedihip?

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by cauger » Sun Feb 03, 2013 10:06 pm

Murph wrote:the thing is, when you make a post in answer to someone's request for guidance, and then get all sarcastic when someone else with a lot more experience than you refutes your points, you're discouraging the people who have the most practical knowledge to share from bothering to post anything cause no one wants to get into a pissing match with you
I appreciate øøøøøøø's posts on these forums but I also thought it was kind of ridiculous to suggest those mics to a person who's just struggling with mic'ing a Twin Reverb, I mean some of those mics cost more than the amp itself. I'd say that it seems more like a hobbyist question than a question from somebody who could possibly justify investing that kind of money into some recording equipment.

I'm guessing that the majority of us don't usually dial our amp in with our ears directly in front of the speaker, so if the OP just wants to try and recreate the sound of the amp as he hears it in the room I think he'd be better off experimenting with the mic a couple feet away from the cab and possibly off axis. Alternatively, setting up the microphone position at a point on the grille and then dialing in the EQ to that position could be another way of hopefully getting a better result.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by WhiteTorty » Mon Feb 04, 2013 5:51 am

Murph wrote:the thing is, when you make a post in answer to someone's request for guidance, and then get all sarcastic when someone else with a lot more experience than you refutes your points, you're discouraging the people who have the most practical knowledge to share from bothering to post anything cause no one wants to get into a pissing match with you
I assure you that he does not have more experience than me. I have been a sound engineer for 15 years, run my own studio for a decade, and worked in both live sound/recording sales and installations for over five years. My experience tells me that when someone is struggling with their gear, the first thing I do is get an overveiw of the rig and signal chain and then their technique. You cannot make a very good recommendation without that information, and truthfully operator error is the problem most of the time in my experience. So Alberto says he is having trouble placing a 57 on a twin, which loads of people use for guitar amps, and the first suggestion is a Neumann. Ridiculous.

Does the member suggesting the Neumann have experience? Maybe, I don't know him, I did not assume that he does not know what he is talking about, as you did with me. I just don't want to seem people get dicouraged from trying to record because they feel judged by their gear, which happens all the time. I don't think this is the case here, but forums are full of people who have never had a job or gig in the industry suggesting that the only way to get good sound is to get the top of the line boutique thing. Again, the gall here does seem to be that I suggested that you can make music without owning top of the line gear, which I suppose is blasphemy in a forum dedicated to gear.

I know there are folks on this forum with loads of gear, I have loads of gear, but there are more with a limited amount of gear and money to spend on it. My point really was that it is ok for those people to make music and record it and have a good time, because in the end whether we are a garage band or U2 our music will end up in the same earbuds of the audience.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by Murph » Mon Feb 04, 2013 8:06 am

you're right, i incorrectly assumed you had little experience based on what you said in that initial post and your tone when reacting to øøøøøøø's response, sorry about that. i don't think anyone in the thread was implying you can't get a good sound with a 57 and a twin, or that you can't get good sounds without expensive stuff. that's definitely not what øøøøøøø was saying, so when you got fixated on that it sounded to me like you were one of the people with little experience who gets in these threads just to argue. sorry i misread you
mate, I'm going on art college this summer.
am i hippedihip?

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by noisepunk » Thu Feb 07, 2013 5:24 pm

Find a later model twin with Line-out ;D

I was seriously surprised the first time I tried using mine- I was pretty convinced it either wouldn't work at all (it's an old amp and has been fucked with quite a bit), or would sound no better than DI into the computer... but I was very wrong- pretty interesting considering no speakers or room sound was involved. If your twin has this, you might consider at least trying it.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by budda12ax7 » Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:39 pm

Murph wrote:ha ha i forgot about the Jimmy thing on this board!
Image
(it subs Jimmy for p-o-o-p when you type it)

There was a dude J I M M Y who got kicked off of here, we honor him with Jimmy.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by alberto2000 » Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:22 am

whoa seems like i've been missing out on this thread for a while :-)

i just want to say thanks for pointing me in some directions. i've now tried to set a condenser mic (dont know the specs) some 3 or 4 meters away from the amp, pointed at some angle to it. also, i'm using the rhythm circuit on my jazzmaster which is far more dark and it seems im getting quite goog results this way. anyhow, ill keep experimenting. but yes, im really just trying to get the sound i hear into the recording at the problem still is that the recorded sound is always very harsh and trebly, it lacks all the fullness, meat and bottom end..

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by honeyiscool » Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:42 pm

An MXL V67G is a cheap way to get a warm, smooth sound. With condensers, you'll have to back that thing up in the room. Try pointing it in many different directions. A foot away at the cone is probably my favorite place to spot a condenser mic, but if I wanted more warmth, 4-5 feet away off-axis would work better. When you're using sensitive mics, trust your ears. If you move your ears around until you find a good spot, that's a good place to start with a mic. The reason why your SM57 is not picking up well is probably because you don't listen to your amp 2 inches from the grill. Plus, I always thought SM57 was more of a dimed Marshall kind of mic anyway.

When you want warm, I feel like a large condenser is the easiest way. Using a large diaphragm dynamic is also useful, but I feel like those still have more punch than warmth. I use a small condenser most often because once other things are mixed, it's easier than large ones.

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by Bvoshus » Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:29 pm

What's a good large diaphragm dynamic that would be good for recording a twin? At a price within reason please

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Re: Correctly micing a Fender Twin Reverb

Post by Bvoshus » Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:43 pm

How much would an electro voice or a bery watever run me

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