jsantos wrote:
Part of your state,ent is untrue ColorsFade.
Sigh.,.. Nothing I wrote was untrue. I don't think you understood what I was trying to get at...
http://books.google.com/books?id=ScUPniUxwL0C&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=wavelengths+sound+recording+distance&source=bl&ots=cebl_GQe43&sig=aza7JpmPbb41_kftaEjnBZnrDtM&hl=en&ei=7H1KSofaL4HdlAeMnfG0DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2jsantos wrote:The Sm57 is a unidirectional mic designed to isolate the main sound source while minimizing background noise.
And that wasn't my point. Minimizing extraneous noise is *one* objective of every recording engineer. That's common knowledge and practice. That's not what's interesting, however.
Getting an *accurate* representation of your amp is about understanding wavelengths and how to capture them. It's not about "room" sound. It's about getting the actual, true, and full range of the amp's sound, which is scattered over a bunch of frequencies. You can't capture it all with a single dynamic mike pushed up against the grill. You can't capture all of the waves in their fullness.
This is what I was getting at. It wasn't about eliminating noise; that's a given. It is about *accurately* capturing the amp. This is what has pained guitar players for decades...
You go ahead and record your amp with an SM57 right up against your cab, offset from the cone. Does it sound exactly like your amp when you are standing next to it? Not on your life. Your ears are picking up frequencies that the mike can't because of it's position to the amp.
jsantos wrote:The farther you position the Sm57.... the more back ground noise you can pick up.
Anyone who has ever recorded with an SM57 knows that you typically use it right up against the mesh of the cab for the reason you mentioned. So what do you get when you do that? You get one piece of the audio puzzle. If all you do is use an SM57 right up against the cab, you are missing out on audio frequencies that it cannot pickup because of its position; wavelengths that are longer in length and require more time from peak to peak cannot get picked up accurately.
jsantos wrote:The Sm57 captures the true sound emulated through your amplifier or instrument
Haha! No it doesn't!
I wish it did; it would make everyone's job a lot easier if we could just slap one SM57 against a cab and get the "true" sound of the amp. Doesn't work that way. You've either never done any recording with an SM57, or you have really inarticulate ears.
jsantos wrote:this is why sound engineers couple it with a "dynamic" mic to capture the room sound (usually on a separate track).
An SM57 *is* a dynamic mike...
Engineers typically couple it with a condenser mike, further away from the mesh (ideally about 4-5ft. in the air, some 2-6 feet away from the amp, but you gotta have a good, quite room to do this), although I've seen them used close up as well.
They don't do this to capture the "room" sound; who gives a f*ck what the room sounds like; it shouldn't *sound* like anything; it's a ROOM!. It should have as little effect on your sound as possible. Otherwise it's a pretty crappy room.
Incidentally, that picture you put up: the mike furthest away looks like an AKG 414, and that's a condenser mike.
Listen; not trying to be a d*ck here, but I've done this before. Miking an amp and getting the most accurate sound possible isn't as simple as slapping an SM57 against it. And if you give people the impression that it is that simple, they're going to be disappointed the moment they hear what you've recorded.
I know I was really disappointed the first time I recorded my Mesa with an SM57 by itself. It sounded thin and pale compared to the real deal. It was only later we learned about using condenser mikes in combo with the SM57 and additional dynamic mikes with different frequency responses to capture the full range of the amp.
