03/16/2021
Our favorite = Dynamic mic + Ribbon:
SM57 centered, Royer Ribbon or RCA Ribbon offset the cone
Our preferred method:
Get Two takes, digitally align them (unless a guitar god), pan sm57 tracks as your middle, pan the different ribbon takes as wide as you’d like, one left and one right... low cut the ribbon tracks. For doubling, copy tracks and pitch shift one side track a few cents up and the another down.
(If only able to get one solid take, duplicate the ribbon track and use L/R pitch shifting as described)
Send all of that to a bus w a compressor set to analog and tape distortion. The buss will feed into master buss but also sends to aux effects. EQ if necessary
The aux verb should be dark, w lots of predelay, clean w low diffusion and should have low and high cuts, and should be leveled down 5-15db depending
The aux Parallel compression/distortion should be set to a crusher setting, leveled down 10db to start
The optional aux delay should be adjusted to taste w lows and high cuts as well, leveled down
In the latest instalment of our guitar-recording column, we turn our attention to the dark art of cabinet mic’ing.