Cabinet mic and mix Tutorial!

[nicolasrivera]

Hope this help some get some good tones out of your Cab, this is a way i like to approach heavy guitars.

This is the photos reference of the mic placement, in the video i tell you the trek i use with this cab!

Mic placement and mix tutorial - YouTube

Mic placement and mix tutorial - YouTube

[LPCollector]

Thanks for your hard work Nico!!!!!

That was very cool!!!!

[cooljuk]

I missed just a little of the explanation in the beginning and end watching this on my phone, but are you running the cab wired up for 6 Ohms? What output on the amp?

It's a really excellent tutorial on mixing a multi mic'ed cabinet. If your mixer has phase reverse buttons, you can try reversing the phase of one or two mics also to get another whole set of combinations out of the sound.

You've got some great tricks, man! I dig it!

[nicolasrivera]

Thanks James! I totally forgot to do the phase thing! I tried it and it sounded great on the bass mic! Dam it, it is important to write down all the things you want to talk about doing a video.

Doing this with amp's output tubes distorting sound better!

The amp has a 8 and 4 ohm outputs so I'm running it on 4ohms!

[nicolasrivera]

Originally Posted by LPCollector

Thanks for your hard work Nico!!!!!

That was very cool!!!!

Thanks man, it's no hard work, it's fun!

[chef]

Neat technique, you are essentially creating a ported cabinet. I bet you could make different size ports to replace the speaker and vary the bass response of the cabinet.

[Leendrix]

Nic, great video man! Thank you in every sense of the words!

[Ewm]

Sweet mate!
Was looking for something like this to make my recording sound more 'full'...
Awesome job all the way mate

[Freddy G]

Great stuff Nicolas! Much appreciated, got any more tricks up your sleeve? You should do more of these videos.
BTW I clicked on the link to your new album and it sounds really good, very well done my friend!

[nicolasrivera]

Originally Posted by Freddy G

Great stuff Nicolas! Much appreciated, got any more tricks up your sleeve? You should do more of these videos.
BTW I clicked on the link to your new album and it sounds really good, very well done my friend!

Thanks Freddy!

Yes I have some more tricks!

[naturalblack]

Videos nicely done and well explained. Sounds pretty good too! thanks

[Big John]

Can't see/hear the video while at work...a few questions for you...is the cab in the pic a 3x12 with one speaker removed? What ohms are each speaker? How do you have the speakers hooked up?

[nicolasrivera]

Originally Posted by Big John

Can't see/hear the video while at work...a few questions for you...is the cab in the pic a 3x12 with one speaker removed? What ohms are each speaker? How do you have the speakers hooked up?

No, this cab is the 1965A from the 80's that have 10's, so it is a 3X10 hooked in series connected to the 4ohm output of the mesa.

Now this is for recording only and is a technique that works great for low watts amps. I would not use it live, for that its back to 4 speakers in series at 8ohms.

[Big John]

OK...just to be clear, what's the impedance of each individual speaker?

If they are 8 ohms each, then 3 of them wired in series is 24 ohms. All 3 wired in parallel is 2.666 ohms. When all four 8 ohm speakers are hooked up and the cab's total ohms is 8 ohms, that means the speakers are hooked up in a series/parallel configuration.

[nicolasrivera]

Originally Posted by Big John

OK...just to be clear, what's the impedance of each individual speaker?

If they are 8 ohms each, then 3 of them wired in series is 24 ohms. All 3 wired in parallel is 2.666 ohms. When all four 8 ohm speakers are hooked up and the cab's total ohms is 8 ohms, that means the speakers are hooked up in a series/parallel configuration.

Yes, thats why i hooked them in series, if i had done the parallel wiring with 3 i would have not been safe.

This cab had a combination of series and parallel from factory and i have read this is what Marshall does.

[Big John]

Ok, just watched the vid. Overall, you did a good job, Nico. I have just a couple caveats, but then you knew I would....

When you stated in the video that you should not use a condenser mic live because it's too sensitive and prone to feedback, this is simply not true. My main vocal mic is an SM-87A. It's a condenser mic, and has been a stage standard for years. The Royer R121 and R121L is a condenser ribbon mic (with a figure 8 pattern, too!) that a lot of pro guitarists use live. Zero feedback with that one. Using a condenser mic has nothing to do with any feedback problems.

As for pulling out a speaker for the sake of providing a port for a mic, I wouldn't advise it because of the severe impedence mismatch. If you're doing a long recording session with a lot of practice takes and playbacks, the amp's output transformer over time will get damn warm. It'll probably be fine if you're recording in spurts; 1/2 hour at a time. Either way, I would definitely say to run a cooling fan into the back of the amp.

One other thing to consider is the frequencies being accessed here. A SM-57 doesn't reproduce anything below 50Hz, and the resonance of most Celestion G10L's is 75Hz. This frequency neighborhood is occupied by the bass, the floor toms, and the kick. Not ony that, but if you listen to the sound of the signal as Nico brings up the fader, you'll notice that the structure of the low end is very spiky and narrow. How you can tell this is when he hits different chords on the guitar, but the low end always sounds the same with no fundamental shift. When you have this going on, it's end up fighting with the frequency neighbors (bass & drums); you'll see (and hear) real fast why this method isn't used a lot for guitar.

Ok, I'm done. Other than my little list of caveats, good job Nico.

[nicolasrivera]

Originally Posted by Big John

Ok, just watched the vid. Overall, good job Nico.

That was all you had to say....

Thanks BJ.