Members StratoSlacker Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 I record with a Line 6 UX2 Toneport. I'm currently running into two amps and I want to capture the stereo sound by recording with 2 mics into the UX2. Can someone recommend a type and a specific, affordable brand of mic to use for this purpose? The UX2 is swell for recording with the guitar plugged in directly, but I play better through my amps vs. listening through headphones or monitors. I love the sound through a real amp far more than through amp models too...of course. Not looking for gold record quality, just something that does a decent job of capturing what I'm hearing and makes playback tolerable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeathTongue Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 I'm interested to hear comments about this as well. I've got a UX2 as well, and would like to use it to record acoustic and vocals. In particular I've started hosting bands at my home for house concerts and have been wondering what I should do to start recording the concerts. Would a single Omnidirectional LDC work or should I use two mics at opposite sides of the "stage"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratoSlacker Posted November 18, 2008 Author Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 As far as mics I'm not really sure, but try close micing with one and make sure you get the room mic a good distance away (I think the rule of thumb is 3x greater distance from the amp than the first mic or more) to avoid phase cancellation issue. I use some pretty cheap MXL condensors for both room and close micing, and they seem to work pretty well but I'm no experts on mics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members songsforbears Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 I have three of these. One or two on the amp, one or two about five feet off of it. I record in a room with hardwood floors and it sounds fantastic. No clips, sorry! Vocal mics are vastly underrated for guitar work. And M-Audio's products are even more underrated. If you can wait a little bit, sometimes you can get B-stock ones for $60 from MF or M123. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flummox Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 For what you want, a pair of 57s would be fine. You could also go with a pair of cheap condensers like the MCA SP-1. But they need phantom power, and condensers are lousy at rejecting off-axis sound - which means they'll pick up everything else going on in the room, like your computer, traffic noise, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frets99 Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 For what you want, a pair of 57s would be fine. This Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 not quite sure what you want to do close mic both amps? not exactly stereo, more like dual mono. best choice would be sm57x2 distant mic to capture room sound in stereo? pair of condensers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ganjaseed Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 If You just need to close mic your two amps, just get a pair of 57's as others said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratoSlacker Posted November 18, 2008 Author Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 not quite sure what you want to doclose mic both amps? not exactly stereo, more like dual mono. best choice would be sm57x2distant mic to capture room sound in stereo? pair of condensers I was initially thinking about capturing the room sound in stereo. However, there's probably way too much noise in my house to get get a nice sound. Now I'm starting to lean towards close mic I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members taintric Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 I prefer Sennheiser e609's over sm57's for this sort of thing. That said I usually use a beyer m160. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 I was initially thinking about capturing the room sound in stereo. However, there's probably way too much noise in my house to get get a nice sound. Now I'm starting to lean towards close mic I think. get some directional cardioid room mics (will probably still pick up the toilet flushing) personally, never liked the sound of room mics on EG (could be my {censored}ty room). mixed in with close mic is okay but a little tricky to not get phase cancellation. prefer close mic with artificial verb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burgess Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 You're not going to get much better than a SM57 and it just so happens they're fairly reasonable at roughly $90 - 100 or so. If you wanna go cheaper than that I've had decent enough luck using MXR mics. They have a full range lineup, they are stupid cheap and they don't sound half bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuproSuper Man Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 depending on your budget, if your straped for cash then these two brands of mics are fairly good reviews and if you go to musicians friends and hit the sort the mics by best selling these are up at the top, with good customer reviews too.. some are saying the Behringer XM8500 is just as good or almost as good sounding as a sure SM58 which are great mics for vocal and instruments such as electric guitars.... Behringer XM8500 Microphone 3-Pack (Overall rating : 8.85) Price = $59.99 or you can buy them individually Price = 19.99 another brand thats getting great reviews for a mic in its price range are the NADY brand of mics Nady SP-5 Microphone Special - Buy 1, Get 2 More! (Overall rating : 8.76) Price = $29.99 so just some options that i spotted some time ago on musicians friend, But i would suggest that if you read the costomers reviews at the side of their page and also do a google search on them too for more reviews to see what others are saying about them before buying them. I havent tried them but if they do sound somewhat like a sure SM58 as people are saying then that would be just the thing for a person on a budget that needs more mics ... link to page of mics that are sorted by customer ratings Technique ive used for dual amps that works fairly well in a small room...but you will need 3 mics... place a mic up close to each amp, turn the amps up fairly loud and point the amps away form each other a bit...since the amps are very loud the individual mic gain level can stay low, which means the mics wont pickup much sound from the other amp so you get nice separation for amps that are fairly close to each other...Now take the third mic and place it back at the other end of the room so it will pickup room ambiance and echo or what ever etc...but again cause the amps are loud your mic dont have to be turned up to be so sensitive, with loud amps the mic will only hear the amps and it wont hear the quieter computer ,,,only the loud amps and their echos mostly will be picked up by the mics... But your amps have to be up loud. say at drum volume level...we do this in a 12 by 12 jam room and we are always surprised at how very good the separation is between the mics.. you can use a more sensitive mic for the room mic, but after you might need to apply a software noise gate to its track to raise the threshold and block out the lower level noises... I like to put the amps paned to either side and last i slowly bring up the room mic paned dead centre till it just adds enough texture or ambiance to the mix.... Phase .... i dont worry too much about phase problems anymore, most of todays recording software has a phase button that will revese the phase of each track after its recorded so when i do encounter phase problems i just hit the button and that usually fixes it....sonar and reaper both have phase buttons built in for each track .... cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratoSlacker Posted November 18, 2008 Author Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 thanks Supro, that's a lotta mic for not a lotta cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hubert Stumblin Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 not quite sure what you want to doclose mic both amps? not exactly stereo, more like dual mono. Yes, and no. Bringing each amp up on it's own channel and panning will create a stereo effect. But it will not be the same stereo that would be heard standing in the room with the amps. There the natural phase interactions between the amps would be determined by the nature of the room. If that is what the OP is going for then some kind of stereo coincidence mic set up is needed. However, I think for controlability it would be wise to close mic each amp and give them each a channel. Ideally, you'd do both the close and stereo coincidence mic placements to open all options to you. That depends on the limitations of number of mics at your disposal, equipment you have, budget, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuproSuper Man Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 I added or edited some more to that last post regarding recording tips,,,take what you will from it, you might find some of the things we did useful, but it all depends your particular set up in the end wether or not it works for you... good luck with the mic hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flummox Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 Yes, you can get a mic that reportedly might be somewhat as good as a 57 for less money. Or you can cough up a lousy $90 and get the mic that's been used on countless hit records and pro live shows, that's universally accepted as THE industry standard dynamic, that has a reputation for incredible durability, and that will always be worth what you paid. You'll never run out of uses for a 57. Great for male vocals, pretty good for acoustic guitar even. About the only thing it doesn't do well is drum overheads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SirJackdeFuzz Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 anyone? SM57's ??? That is what i have, and that is the only ones i can recommend. At $99.00 each, they are not bad . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fusion1 Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 Behringer ECM8000 Measurement mics. I've used 2 of them for over a year now to record band rehearsals and they work excellent to capture a room sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuproSuper Man Posted November 18, 2008 Members Share Posted November 18, 2008 cough up a lousy $90 . I agree with the quality of sure products my brother owns a pair of sure 58's great mics no doubt i agree fully that they are great mics... But "a lousy $90" ...... well for some of the pro's and people with more funds at their disposal it might be a lousy 90, but for others on this forum its a dear hard to come by 90, and that 90 might have taken them a long time to acquire. So the chance of them getting 3 sure mics at $270 is not likely to happen any time soon or anytime at all in some cases... so if there is a lesser costing mic that is known to give good results, and when for one third the price of a shure you can have 3 mics that will give your little set up more options then why not....as long as you understand the limits pros and cons of the product before buying it.. its just that sometimes the cheaper gear will give a person with a limited budget more options,,,such as two or three mics instead of just one... we have a mix of people on these forums, seems some are doing great financial while others are just getting by and trying to make the best of what life has dealt them...thats why i think its important that along with suggesting or mentioning the expensive good quality industry standard gear, that we should also be willing to point people in the direction of gear that will do the job for them yet not be a big burden on them financially... I dont mean to rag out on you flummox,,, your right, if you can afford the the better gear go for it, but there are valid reasons for pointing out cheaper deals on gear too,,, namely that not all of the people on these forums who enjoy playing music can afford the price of the "industry standard" gear... Its just that when you said "cough up a lousy 90" I had to laugh cause I too wish that all i had to was cough and 90 would pop into my hand.... wish i could retrain my darn cat to cough up $90 bucks instead of those disgusting fur balls .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flummox Posted November 19, 2008 Members Share Posted November 19, 2008 I agree with the quality of sure products my brother owns a pair of sure 58's great mics no doubt i agree fully that they are great mics... But "a lousy $90" ...... well for some of the pro's and people with more funds at their disposal it might be a lousy 90, but for others on this forum its a dear hard to come by 90, and that 90 might have taken them a long time to acquire. So the chance of them getting 3 sure mics at $270 is not likely to happen any time soon or anytime at all in some cases... so if there is a lesser costing mic that is known to give good results, and when for one third the price of a shure you can have 3 mics that will give your little set up more options then why not....as long as you understand the limits pros and cons of the product before buying it.. its just that sometimes the cheaper gear will give a person with a limited budget more options,,,such as two or three mics instead of just one... we have a mix of people on these forums, seems some are doing great financial while others are just getting by and trying to make the best of what life has dealt them...thats why i think its important that along with suggesting or mentioning the expensive good quality industry standard gear, that we should also be willing to point people in the direction of gear that will do the job for them yet not be a big burden on them financially... I dont mean to rag out on you flummox,,, your right, if you can afford the the better gear go for it, but there are valid reasons for pointing out cheaper deals on gear too,,, namely that not all of the people on these forums who enjoy playing music can afford the price of the "industry standard" gear... Its just that when you said "cough up a lousy 90" I had to laugh cause I too wish that all i had to was cough and 90 would pop into my hand.... wish i could retrain my darn cat to cough up $90 bucks instead of those disgusting fur balls .... Point taken. I'm not rich either, and actually I have a pair of cheap Chinese condensers that sound great and cost $40 apiece - the MCA SP-1. But I can't use them because I record with my computer in the room, and they faithfully pick up every db of fan and drive noise no matter where I put them. As well as the so-so acoustics of the room. If I were in a real purpose-built studio, they'd work great, but if I could afford that, I wouldn't bother with $40 mics anyway. I also have a pair of those Nady dynamics in your other post - bought them for almost nothing from MF. They do sound like a 58 - buried in a shoebox full of damp dryer lint. I think I paid $30 for the pair. Do I use them? No. Know what they're worth now? Nothing.So the reason I suggest the 57 is because I know it works within the conditions most home recorders record. I know you can get a good guitar sound with it - and, more importantly, if the guitar sounds like {censored} you'll know it's not the mic. I know it'll work every time. I know you can use it in a room with a lot of extraneous noise and it won't get picked up. Sure, it's fun to experiment with the cheap stuff - once in a while you do strike gold. But most of the time you end up with a drawer full of stuff you don't trust and don't use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Posted November 19, 2008 Members Share Posted November 19, 2008 About the only thing it doesn't do well is drum overheads. not my 1st choice but they don't exactly suck as overheads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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