Well i figured we needed a new thread up in the gear section so xDx and def can have some fun showing there massive gear knowledge off.

Let us have a discussion about Recording sound. Right now I am trying to figure out the perfect, most punchy, yet good sounding recordings from my setup. I have a RG100SC Randall 2x12 running and EMG-81'd ran into it, on the recording side i have an sm-57 placed about an inch right of the left speaker cone, running a monster cable from that into a berhinger 4 channel mixer, and that into an 8track BOSS digital recorder.

First question or discusion topic is, what is a good mic placement, ive heard if you mic it straight into the cone itll be punchy yet with lots of treble,a nd if you do it a little off of the cone it will be warmer and more full sounding, does anyone know what sounds you can get from differant mic positions?

Second whats a good eq'ing technique. Its all so confusing, you have so many options but i dont know what to do. Theres a volume and gain on the amp running into an channel input and master input and channel gain on the mixer running into an input and master volume on the recorder. I record at relativley low volumes, so i heard the best way to set it up is get the sound you like on the amp (treble, mid, bass, contour) then if you play at low volumes on an SS you get more distortion when recording, so turn the gain on the amp down, and turn it up on the mixer along with the input level. EQ it till it sounds good on the mixer then run it into the recorder. Now once you have all the settings right for the volume you play at, keep it that way, unless you turn the volume up and gain on the amp, then only change it on the mixer, keep the recording volume knob in the same position at all times. Anyone have any other techniques or suggestions.

Also i heard the best way to record is to do it dry, as in no effects, then add in all the effects on the computer with sound editing programs like audacity, cause if you wanna go back and edit your track and it has all these effects on it, you will have to re record the whole thing if you wanna change the effects or add new ones or take ones away. I know this isnt possible for all types of effects, like if your doing some sweeping techniques using the delay.

Also in some of my recordings i get a crack sound everyonce in a while like im pushing the speaker to much, im thinking this could be a number of things like shitty headphones, gain and volume on the mixer or recorder, or even mp3 decoding when you compile it all. Anyone else ever have this problem.

Thats about all of the recording knowledge i know, if anyone else has suggestions or would like to tell me how they do there recording it would be great, i am interested in knowing. Thank you.

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everybody has different techniques. if you are serious about actually recording, then your probably gonna have better luck actually playing around with the equipment and finding a good sound. THEN go back here and ask for help on achieving a certian sound with an instrument, and give details on what it sounds like now so we can help you change it. Im working on an album with some guys right now and we spent almost a week just doing mic placement and volume setup just for the drums.

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i dont really need help, i am just interested on what other people do, like your mic placment and what types od sound you got from those mic placements, i am interested in what equipment your using to record the albim with, like recording equipment, and how your going about recording it and shit. I dunno just curious.... it interests me, i someday want to be a sound engineer or somthing along those lines.

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I get the sound I want live first and then don't touch my rig again. I record with an SM-57 hanging from the studio ceiling. I do the EQ for recording using a pink noise generator set (RANE RA 30 Realtime Analyzer with calibrated microphone). First I hang the calibrated mic in the same location as the SM-57. Then I run the pink noise through one of my PA speakers using a clean PA amp. Then I compensate for the PA speaker's frequency response with a 31 band EQ. That makes sure that the pink noise level at the microphone is even from 20 to 20,000Hz. Next I switch back to the SM-57 mic and correct for it's frequency response curve using the second channel on my 31 band EQ. Then I'm all set and I record with a laptop using a Waveterminal U2A USB 24-Bit digital audio interface. This has worked very well for me.

As far as mic placement goes, the primary reason engineers put the mic right in front of the speaker is for isolation purposes in a live situation where an external PA is being used. I would not personally recommend that for recording purposes. Your ear doesn't like being right in front of the speaker and neither does your microphone. You should get the sound you want and then hang the mic right where your head was when you liked the sound best. If you use a mic stand you might get external microphonics like that "crack" sound you were talking about.

thanks that first post was way above me lol, i had no idea what you were talkin about.

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Right on. It's easy enough to figure these things out if you keep working on it. Once you know how to manipulate sound equipment by yourself you won't have to put blind faith into the studio monkeys. Nine out of ten sound guys don't really know what they're doing...