Mic *placement*

[jeffbrown]

Sorry if this has been beaten to death; I did a cursory search for mic placement, finding a lot of opinions about which mic to use but not about where to put it in relation to speaker(s).

I'm looking for advice on distance from speaker/cab and angle of offset, if any.

Is there a definitive thread on this, or can someone make suggestions based on real world live experience? I use either an Ampeg 610HLF or two Fender 15" cabs stacked.

Many thanks!

 

[two fingers]

Another age-old debate here. I usually do about what you see in the pic.

 

[JimmyM]

When I was micing, I'd just stick it dead in the middle of a cone straight on, a couple inches away from the grill.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

Generally, pointing directly at the center should yield more hight end, and that should roll off as you go out toward the edge of the cone. Also, closer to the driver, the greater the proximity effect (added low end bump).
Ideally, you should move the mic around until the engineer hears the "sweet spot" that sounds the best. Quite often touring engineers will mark the sweet spot for their particular mic choice on the cab grill.

 

[seamonkey]

I'm looking for advice on distance from speaker/cab and angle of offset, if any.

Back a couple of feet from the cabinet. Your own ears are a few feet away from the cabinet and that is how cabinets are designed. Sound from multiple drivers and ports combine a little ways out.

But then you have all the other stage noise you may have to deal with.

Cardioid mics have holes in the sides and back to cancel out sound. Many are meant for mic a single point like a mouth, and reject sound from the sides and back. A multi-driver cabinet can cause the mic to cancel out some frequencies. The mic picks up what is directly in front of it, but the other nearby drivers send in the same frequencies to the sides. This combines to cancel out some frequencies in front.

It is a consideration if a close mic doesn't give you the sound you expect in the FOH.

 

[Ender_rpm]

Back a couple of feet from the cabinet. Your own ears are a few feet away from the cabinet and that is how cabinets are designed. Sound from multiple drivers and ports combine a little ways out.

But then you have all the other stage noise you may have to deal with.

Cardioid mics have holes in the sides and back to cancel out sound. Many are meant for mic a single point like a mouth, and reject sound from the sides and back. A multi-driver cabinet can cause the mic to cancel out some frequencies. The mic picks up what is directly in front of it, but the other nearby drivers send in the same frequencies to the sides. This combines to cancel out some frequencies in front.

It is a consideration if a close mic doesn't give you the sound you expect in the FOH.

For studio work, a couple feet works. For Live? It HAS to be close miced. I put mine on the seem between cap and cone, about 1-2" off the grill. But I play a 215 most of the time, no tweeter.

 

[JimmyM]

For studio work, a couple feet works. For Live? It HAS to be close miced. I put mine on the seem between cap and cone, about 1-2" off the grill. But I play a 215 most of the time, no tweeter.

Anyone who thinks you can't get the sound of your rig in the PA through close micing has never done it.

 

[the Arsonaut]

live? I'll place the mic perpendicular to the speaker grille...usually a lil bit off center of coil. Keeping mic from 1-2" from grille...no grill? 2-3" from face of speaker.

Recording? Have fun with it...try same method above...maybe 12-16" off of those 15s...

As far as mic'n as far back as where you stand, go ahead and try some room mics, for some ambience. An old standby is the 1:3 (distance of 1st mic to source : distance of 2nd mic from 1st mic).
However, microphones are not [human] ears, and this is most apparent the farther from source. That's one of the first hurdles of field recording...a [stage] microphone does not pic up the same patterns that our ears do.

 

[seamonkey]

For studio work, a couple feet works. For Live? It HAS to be close miced. I put mine on the seem between cap and cone, about 1-2" off the grill. But I play a 215 most of the time, no tweeter.

Not as bad as you might think. Drum overheads can be 3ft away. The mic pattern may be tight enough.

If you have multiway speaker you may need to mic farther back, or have multiple mics.

In any case as I said it is a consideration.