I get asked all the time...”Where's the best place to mic a guitar amp?” or “How do I properly mic up a drum kit?”. Of course, it's not that simple. If there was a best way to mic a guitar amp, everyone would mic up a guitar amp the same way. It would be easy for an audio engineer with 2 weeks experience and $1,000 worth of gear to compete with an audio engineer who's been making a living with audio engineering since before you were born. The beginner would simply have to read the directions and the sound would be great. IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

There is only one accurate answer for the “Where's the best place to mic a guitar amp?” question. I would love to sound like a smart ass, but this is not one of those cases. The best place to mic a guitar amp is the exact spot where it adds to the music the most. (Crappy answer?). It is a crappy answer because it still leaves open the possibility that there may be a right answer. It may even imply that you can eventually find this “right” answer if you look hard enough. Telling you the best mic placement isn't much different than me telling you that the “A chord” is the best chord on an electric guitar. It doesn't even make sense to approach it this way.

It's my opinion that if you are asking about the “best” mic placement, you are going about this music recording thing in entirely the wrong way. Audio recording is not like assembling a bookshelf you picked up at Walmart. (Step A – Insert thing B into thing C. etc). In a lot of ways, audio engineering is like playing left field in baseball. What's the best way to catch a fly ball? Answer: Hold out your mitt and squeeze. If the ball doesn't land in your mitt, you had better start running like hell to catch it.

I know, this sounds stupid. Work with me!

With audio engineering, you simply hold out your microphone and attempt to catch what is flying in the air in your direction. If you don't think you are going to make the catch exactly the way you want to, you need to move around so that you can. Predicting the best place to mic a guitar cabinet is about like predicting where a fly ball is going to land. So, be willing to start running to catch the sound you are looking for.

The Big Picture

So, to sum things up. Audio engineering is not about placing mics. It's about making music better. This means that setting up the instrument (the amps tone controls, drum tuning, picking the right room, and choosing the right instrument are all part of this) is just as vital as the mic placement. (Actually, MORE VITAL as you can see in my article, How To Achieve Pro Recording Quality. )

When you get the source sounding exactly like you think it should sound in the room, pull out the mics.

I think it's better to approach audio engineering (and mic placement in particular) as a search...kind of like Indiana Jones searching for the Holy Grail or something. You must keep looking and looking, and looking. You must try crazy ideas. You must experiment. You must do everything you can to find the best way to make X tone sound exactly like you want it to sound on a recording.

When you look at audio engineering as a “search” and not as a set of instructions, your skills will develop quickly. You'll push yourself to understand more about getting the sound in the room to be exactly what you want it to be. You'll realize that as long as you have a musician who can give you the sound you need, that your job is not all that difficult. You'll realize how subtle changes can make a big difference in the final mix. You'll also realize that sometimes micing a drum kit only requires 2 mics. Sometimes it requires 20 mics. It just depends. You'll realize that a pair of overheads captured some enormous sounding Led Zeppelin drums (check out “When The Levee Breaks”). Then you realize that some metal bands these days are recording their drums without any cymbals and then overdubbing or editing in the cymbals later. So, sometimes very natural techniques work. Sometimes more crazy tactics are required.

Personally, I'm in no hurry to try recording drums without cymbals. However, the fact remains that if a kid who buys the cd is inspired by the music and the audio engineering doesn't get in the way, the audio engineering worked.....no matter how ridiculous the tactics may appear to others.

Engineering Is Creative

For whatever the reason, over the years, audio engineering has lost something. I don't mean that modern records don't sound powerful. Modern records sound great (although they'd sound 1,000x better if they weren't mastered so aggressively). I am saying that there was a day when audio engineering was a creative art. Now, it seams that most bands are just looking for a non-creative guy to copy X sound. This mentality is highly crippling towards music, I think.

It's important to put mics in the oven or track instruments upside down. Basically, it's great to experiment to come up with new and interesting sounds. If you are simply chasing down the sound on X record, you are not doing your current recording any justice. While I do encourage intentional copying of other cds as learning exercise for the beginner, when it comes down to actually creating music, there is absolutely no need to copy anyone else. The odds are strong that no two songs on the same album will sound the same.

Conclusion

If you were looking for instructions on mic placement, too bad! You are not going to get it here. For me to post yet enough article online on “How To Mic An Acoustic Guitar” would be complete crap because I never mic an acoustic guitar the same way twice. These guides end up making beginners feel like they are “supposed” to do it this way instead of teaching them that they are supposed to find the right spot themselves.

However, if you realized that mic placement has nothing to do with “where” and everything to do with “why” then maybe I succeeded at my goal.

So, experiment more than a little. Really put some time into doing things wrong on purpose. Try new things. It doesn't matter where the mic ends up as long as the sound ends up being something the artist and hopefully the fans desire.