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Old 11-17-2017, 04:21 PM   #9
DrKev
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Paris, France
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jrk View Post
You got some good advice there, I'll add one thing.

Don't put your amp on the floor. For one thing, this can bring up the bass end over what you want.
Just like positioning monitor speakers, proximity to floors, walls, and corners of rooms make a difference to bass response to us sitting away from the speaker, but perhaps not the close miced signal. I seem to recall testing with short recordings at home and heard no difference. And I EQ my mic's proximity effect out anyway so I don't care.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jrk View Post
But more important, you'll be twiddling yr knobs to try to get your sound - while listening to it standing up with your ears way off axis - and then surprised when the mic-ed sound isn't like what you were hearing. Use some kind of amp stand, preferably angled.
Yes. I put it this way: "Mic position follows listening position".
It's a useful rule of thumb to get a decent starting place.

If you listen off-axis (amp flat on floor and you standing), mic off-axis.
If you listen on-axis (amp angled at your head), mic on-axis.

Listening off-axis we tend to hear less highs which beam straight forward out of the speaker. We tend to dial our amp EQ higher to compensate. If you then mic on-axis you are placing the mic in the brightest possible position for a sound you've made brighter. Result: too bright from the mic.

Conversely, if we listen on-axis, we get the full brightness of the speaker. We dial the treble down and perhaps the mids too (mid control on most amps also affects the treble). Micing off axis will be darker and bassier than what you want to record.
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