John Petrucci on mic position:

[Drew]

Originally Posted by John Petrucci

"Well, I think I’ve found the secret, at least for me. I recently played a solo on Marty Freidman’s new record and I played a solo on Derek Sherinian’s new record just yesterday. In both instances I walked into the studio and told them I needed my cabinet and my head [Editor’s note: John used a Mesa/Boogie Road King head and Traditional Rectifier 4 x 12 cabinet] and two microphones, and got a guitar sound in five minutes. This is what I do. First of all, the cabinets are usually closed back, so there’s no need to mic the back. They have Celestion Vintage 30’s in them, and they’re the smaller Traditional Rectifier cabinets, not the big ones. I think the cabinet should be in a fairly big room. Anytime I’ve ever tried to put a cabinet in a closet or a small room, it just doesn’t sound right. There are too many weird reflections happening in that case. The speaker cabinet needs to have some sort of throw, like when it’s in a big room. You can put a baffle in front of it if you need to, like maybe ten feet out front, but otherwise I think it needs to breath, for whatever reason. I use a [Shure SM] 57 like this [Editor’s note: John showed mic position to be on axis, about an inch and a half radially outward from edge of dust cap in center of cone, close mic’d, almost touching grill cloth]. You never want to put the microphone in the center of the speaker; it’s just way too bright. Then you can fool around with how much off center you go. Obviously, the further away from the center you go, the duller the sound gets. Also, I use a Sennheiser MD421. That’s the second mic, and I position it the same way. You can either place it on the same speaker or on a different speaker. Then, you just blend the two of those. Usually, if you have two faders, the 421 is sitting below the 57. So the 57 is the basic sound, and the 421 is a little darker and it’s very fat."

from this article.

Good stuff.

[Shaman]

Thanx mate

[eaeolian]

Heh. That's exactly what we did on "Trinity", mic-wise. I love the 57-421 combo.

[WayneCustom7]

So in other words, the mic is touching, but not in the center, off to the side of the speaker? I wounder if the is how the GT-8 spaces it's mics, it has center, then certain numbered distances...

[zimbloth]

That's good to know. I always like trying different methods such as this.

[Drew]

I've actually never tried multi-micing with two close-mics, I've only done a close mic and a room mic. Silly of me not to think of this before, as it certainly has potential.

[zimbloth]

I've done that. I recorded my old band's album with a SM-57 and KSM-32 in a similar fashion, but with not as good mic placements. The KSM-32 is similar, it adds a lot of warmth and guts. Unfortunately I did a poor job of mixing and had the KSM32 too much in the mix so it sounded a bit muddy.

[Drew]

I'll be trying this with a C1000s for the time being - sure, it's a small diaphram condensor, and they're supposed to suck for guitars but I've actually been pretty surprised at how it's worked so far (I bought them mostly as a set of stereo acoustic mics, which they rock for), and it has a bit more depth to it than the Audix i5 that I've been using. Maybe it'll work, maybe not.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by Drew

I've actually never tried multi-micing with two close-mics, I've only done a close mic and a room mic. Silly of me not to think of this before, as it certainly has potential.

actually Drew, it does open up & make it a more hi-fidelity sound, from my experience. I used a couple SM57s in the same way that John uses the 2 mics recently, and blending them like that does sound really good.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by desertdweller

actually Drew, it does open up & make it a more hi-fidelity sound, from my experience. I used a couple SM57s in the same way that John uses the 2 mics recently, and blending them like that does sound really good.

The Oracle has spoken. If it's good enough for Vince, it's good enough for me.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by Drew

The Oracle has spoken. If it's good enough for Vince, it's good enough for me.

Thanks for the compliment, Drew

But Petrucci's the oracle of guitar tone, I'm just a schmuck with a mic in a bedroom

[DSS3]

SM57 on a V30 = ....ing tits.

Throw in an MD421 for some beef if needed, and man...

[Matt Crooks]

Originally Posted by eaeolian

Heh. That's exactly what we did on "Trinity", mic-wise. I love the 57-421 combo.

Both ran through a Neve 1272 preamp as well. When it was mixed the 421 was mixed 5-10db lower than the 57. It's been almost 4 years since that was recorded, so I don't remember all the details anymore