Mic'ing distorted guitars

[theguitarsquall]

Hey all,
I'm doing a home recording and using a Shure sm 57 and sm 58 to Mic my amp. The clean sounds absolutely brilliant in the recording, but the distortion sounds awful. I find it strange because when not listening to a recorded sample of the distortion, (i.e. just listening to it in the room) the notes are clear and well defined, it sounds awesome. In the recording it sounds like mush, there is basically no distinction between notes or chord changes. I've tried putting the mic's in several different positions (both close up, both far away, one close up, one far away) but nothing seems to remedy the problem. Any suggestions?

[Moo]

My first instinct would be to turn down the gain. You don't really need as much for recording. Turn it down to about 3/4 of what you have it at. It sounds like you're clipping; getting digital distortion somewhere in the chain. What's the waveform look like?

If that doesn't work, mess with the amp's EQ. Most of the definition is going to come from the high end, so emphasize the treble and cut down on the bass. Depending on where you put the mic in relation to the speaker (dead center, edge of the cone), you're going to get a different kind of signal.

Why are you using two mics? You're going to get roughly the same sound with those two, and you might encounter phase issues if you're not careful. Concentrate on getting a good sound out of one mic and then deal with the next one if you really need to.

[theguitarsquall]

My first instinct would be to turn down the gain. You don't really need as much for recording. Turn it down to about 3/4 of what you have it at. It sounds like you're clipping; getting digital distortion somewhere in the chain. What's the waveform look like?

If that doesn't work, mess with the amp's EQ. Most of the definition is going to come from the high end, so emphasize the treble and cut down on the bass. Depending on where you put the mic in relation to the speaker (dead center, edge of the cone), you're going to get a different kind of signal.

Why are you using two mics? You're going to get roughly the same sound with those two, and you might encounter phase issues if you're not careful. Concentrate on getting a good sound out of one mic and then deal with the next one if you really need to.

Tried turning down the gain, sounds awful in the recording. I don't think I'm clipping...none of the gauges show the signal ever exceeding the threshold -- however, the waveform is like one thick solid line of color, it shows almost no distinction between notes.

As far as messing with the amp's eq, I get the same problem as with turning down the gain: once I get a clearly defined waveform signal, it just starts to sound bad. I'll try messing a little more with it, but I'm not sure that's going to be a permanent fix.

The mic's. Yeah...haha, for some reason I had it in my head that the sm58 was a dynamic and the 57 a condenser, that's why I was using both. I'm just gonna focus on one mic for it.

[theguitarsquall]

Tried turning down the gain, sounds awful in the recording. I don't think I'm clipping...none of the gauges show the signal ever exceeding the threshold -- however, the waveform is like one thick solid line of color, it shows almost no distinction between notes.

As far as messing with the amp's eq, I get the same problem as with turning down the gain: once I get a clearly defined waveform signal, it just starts to sound bad. I'll try messing a little more with it, but I'm not sure that's going to be a permanent fix.

The mic's. Yeah...haha, for some reason I had it in my head that the sm58 was a dynamic and the 57 a condenser, that's why I was using both. I'm just gonna focus on one mic for it.

[Niels]

If you have one thick line of colour as a waveform (as you explained), I think the input level is too high? That would be my guess, but I don't have a lot of experience with recording though.

[big Idiot]

Yeah, if the waveform is one thick line with little to no discernable dynamics, you should turn the input level down a bit, that might help.

Have you experimented with mic angle other kinds of placement? I've gotten some pretty good results lining up the mic away from the speaker cone, more towards the edge of the speaker. THat may not be good in your situation, but you can always try.

I've been recording with a fellow geek for a few months now, and we've been putting an SM57 a couple inches away and about 45 degrees off axis to the speaker cone. We've been getting great results that way. Just experiment more wih mic placement... you're bound to get something good.

[Moo]

You are definitely clipping somewhere along the line. You should not be getting a rectangular wave form.

You need to manage your gain stages. Something in the chain is clipping. Say you have a preamp going into a mixer. If the preamp's distorting, you can turn it down at the mixer stage, but the distortion is still going to ruin the signal, it'll just be quieter. You have to turn it down the preamp to get a clear signal.

What is your setup?

[MassacredHatred]

it's already been said, but the waveform is definitely not supposed to be a solid bar. The level needs to be turned down somewhere.

Another thing to consider is that what the mic hears a few inches away from the speaker is a lot different from what you hear several feet away. When you EQ it, try to put on some headphones and EQ to what you're hearing there instead of what you hear in the room.