Chapter 12

Microphones

Every microphone comes with a manual, so the advice to read those continues here like any other piece of gear. If not, find out what type it is, and the advice is usually quite similar for another brand of the same microphone type. You will be given suggestions on microphone placement and the tone quality resulting from the manuals. We will detail the types of microphones and how to use them shortly. First, we need to go over a bit about speakers.

The two main areas you need to know about are the axis in the middle of the speaker and the edge around its circumference. Placement descriptions involve these as reference points.

Directly at the axis or center of the speaker should deliver the most bass response. The edge of the speaker should deliver the most high-end response. You get a blend moving between these locations, and you will find that the sound does change around the speaker, even at similar distances from the axis or edge. That is how sensitive microphone placement is. Centimeters matter.

The microphone can be close to the grill and even close to the speaker by removing the screen in a front-loaded cab. As you pull back from the fabric, the sound becomes softer. It can be a softer, mostly bass response if aligned with the edge or a softer, mostly high response if aligned with the axis.

This diagram shows the naming system used to describe microphone placement. The top diagram labels parts of the speaker, and the bottom positions describe the microphone’s placement. The cap goes by several names.

You may be asking, with a 2×12 or 4×12 system, how do you know which speaker to use? The answer is you have to pick the one you dig the most. Think of it like you have more speakers to find the sweet spot you want—nothing to do with the top left or bottom right speaker being suitable for more bass or treble. It doesn’t quite work that way. You have more speakers for a tone search. Simple as that. 2x12s or 4x12s allows you to use different microphones in almost the same location on each speaker.

That is just a general idea of what should be happening. However, what goes on in practice can be anything because of variations in gear and environment. So your placement will always eventually be a custom job according to your ears. If your mic requires some odd position you have never used before, that odd position doesn’t matter if it gives you what you are trying to find. How you get there is irrelevant if it gets you there. Hunting for those spots can take a long time to get right. Sometimes, there are days of experimenting around before you settle on something.

Microphone types

You need to know about three types of microphones: dynamic, condenser, and ribbon. Most microphones have a moving coil/diaphragm assembly except for ribbon, which uses a low-mass ribbon element. Condensers tend to have a hot signal because of a preamp component in the microphone.

You will likely use a dynamic as your first microphone because they are the cheapest and a ribbon last as they are the most expensive. Condensers are mid-range priced.

Dynamic microphones cover many guitar frequencies, so you get something resembling recorded guitar audio from them.

Spend time at getting tone by making micro-adjustments to positioning. The room sound can not help you. Only the monitored sound is what you will record.

Shure SM57 dynamic microphone.

Sennheiser e906 (back) dynamic microphone with a three-way switch in the middle for different voicings. The front of this mic will be shown later on in this section.

Condenser microphones tend to be less fussy and quickly gather in sounds around them. So much so that you will hear everything else in the room, including string-picking sounds, if close enough. So, you have to be careful about placement in that respect. Some condensers can also lean towards high-end sound capture.

AKG C414 is a mid-priced condenser microphone with different voicings.

Neuman U67. Condenser Microphone with a tube inside. One of the highest-priced microphones around.

Ribbon microphones are very sensitive, can be damaged if misused, and break easily. One drop and you can easily wipe out an expensive piece of equipment, and we do mean expensive (four figures easily). The price of an amp and even more. Microphones are some of the most expensive gear you can own. This is a discovery that shocks many guitarists when they find that out. The way around this is to go to studios with those microphones to record your best efforts.

The advantage of ribbons is their incredible ability to tame a hot sound or piercing high-end into smoother, warmer vintage tones. Today, ribbons can be found that are more robust and cheaper but are questionable in terms of quality. Time will tell, so the experiment is on you. Why not try them? You likely won’t need an expensive one unless you are a studio.

Ribbon microphone. The Royer R-121 is a first-class microphone.

So, chances are it will be dynamic and condenser for you because of prices. Digital cab sims are very economical here. However, plenty of examples of epic tones are recorded on dynamics and condensers without a ribbon in sight. It should not be a constraint.

You can probably get all three microphones on a budget that will roughly add up to the same price as a 1×12 cab. So, if you are in for a 1×12 and want to record with microphones in a half-decent way, then be prepared to pay the same sum again for affordable microphones to go with it. Even then, you will cut corners on ribbons and condensers but will probably have a good dynamic.

As a note, phones depend on quality microphones. Most phones today use advances in software and microphones to record high-quality sound. Many new phones are already quite good at capturing how a rig sounds in a room for demonstration purposes that you can send to someone. It will not be far off how they hear the rig sound when playing it. The advantage to hearing rigs captured on a phone is that a rig captured with a microphone placement is much harder to replicate without the same microphone. You will have to discover the placement for yourself because it likely won’t be precisely the same as your rig, but close.