I'm not too keen on what the D112 and the Beta52 mics do to the top end. Both were designed principally with the bass drum in mind and they have built-in presence peaks to accentuate the "click" of the beater hitting the batter head. Unfortunately they also tend to roll off the higher frequencies. They boost the lows a lot and I find that unnatural-sounding too. I tend to prefer more neutral mics, both dynamics and condensers. The Senn 421 is a great dynamic as is both the E/V RE-20 and its lower-cost sibling the PL-20. Blue Mics make the Blue Ball *giggle* which is supposed to be a great multi-purpose dynamic. The Blue Baby Bottle mic was bundled with my Digi002 and I use it a lot. It's a large-diaphram cardioid condenser. It captures lots of detail and it can handle very high SPL's. It also has a very high output so if you have cheap, noisy preamps like the ones in the Digi002, you can get a much cleaner signal to disc than with comparable dynamic mics, which usually have a much lower output. Yes the Baby Bottle, like most large-diaphram condensers, has a presence peak too but it's less intrusive than the D112 or Beta52, IMO.
Here are the curves for the
D112
and the
Beta52
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Sources:
D112 specs: http://www.akg.com/products/powerslave,mynodeid,15,pid,261,id,261,_language,EN,_view,specs.html
Beta52 specs: Invalid Link Removed
You can see that the D112 has a peak centered around 3.5kHz and the Beta52 has a huge one around 4kHz. You can also see how much they bloat the low end, depending on proximity. The Beta also rolls off sharply past 6k and that's where all the good stuff is, IMO. That's what I want. The room sound and the "air" is up there. They're fine for live stage work but for recording, I like a more detailed mic. I usually blend with a DI so the mic is providing the air instead of the fundamental.
As far as miking positions go with your cabinets, start with the basics. If you're going to be doing any engineering it's always a good idea to get a good text to consult. "Modern Recording Techniques" is a standard text in many schools and it pretty much explains everything. Generally speaking, if you want a tighter more focused sound you would mic one of the 10" speakers. If you like the woolier sound of the 15", you could use that one instead. Many of the engineers I've worked with would, in this situation, mic one of the 10" speakers and not even hook up the 15" to the amp. It all depends if you're just going to use the mic sound alone or if you're going to blend it with a DI. If you're just using the mic as the single source, you'd want to get as much low end as you need but if you're blending with a DI, it's common to get more high end since the DI usually has plenty of lows. Meanwhile, some engineers record the basses and guitars thin and add lows during mix-down since they feel they can control and sculpt the bass better, resulting in better seperation of all the instruments.
I usually remove the grille(s) before recording to minimize the chance of anything rattling and ruining a take. Be aware that you'll get a variety of different sounds if the mic is positioned over the middle of the speaker (voice coil), towards the edge (surround), "on-axis" (90deg) or "off-axis" (45deg). I tend to prefer miking my cabs off-axis near the surround or on-axis at the edge of the voice coil. Generally speaking, positioning the mic "on-axis" has more bass while "off-axis" has less bass. Near the voice coil it's generally sharper and near the surround it's rounder. Then when you factor in distance, you have a few variables to experiment with. Not to drag on but also remember that during the recording and mixing process, you lose some high end so some people compensate for that during mic positioning. I've gotten just the tone I wanted and then when I listen back to it in the mix, it's a little too dark. Now I've gotten used to tracking with a somewhat brighter tone so that the final product is what I was looking for. What might sound great by itself or in the cans might not be quite so great once you mix it down. Just a thought....or five!
Here's a song that was done with an RE-20 off-axis at the edge of an Epifani UL112 blended with a little DI.
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