Haven't we all heard/said this ten zillion times:
"When I record, I can't get the tone I'm hearing when I play." Or "I just can't get the tone I'm hearing in my head."
Listen.
I record guitars nearly every day. Mine and session guys'. And here's a fact: if you're standing up and your guitar cab isn't at ear level you aren't hearing your tone at all. You're hearing the room. No matter what you think, what is really coming off your speaker cone is going to sound different than what you think you hear standing up.
Sound bounces around a room and in the course of that process, some of it is absorbed by the materials in the room, some is reflected around the room and comb-filtered, and some of it just echoes echoes echoes...but in any case, you're not hearing what your guitar and cabinet sound like. And you're certainly not hearing what the microphone hears.
Some here know I'm a believer in acoustic platforms, isolation risers, and acoustical treatment. But even with that, you're going to hear room. To understand what is actually coming off the guitar speaker cone, you have to be in the direct field of the cone. And guitar speaker cabs are beamy devices, especially in the high frequencies. So what you want to do is sit down, so that your ears are in the direct field, but far enough away that you won't go deaf (sound pressure level is reduced by about 6 db if you double the distance between yourself and the speaker). I find that if I'm seated about 8-10 feet away from the cab, and the cab is even as low as 6 inches from the floor, I'm hearing the direct sound of the speakers much better if I'm sitting with my ears in that direct field.
And here's the thing: It's the best way to hear your amp. Whether you're setting up pedals, or working with your amp controls, or wanting to hear what the microphone will pick up, this is the way to do it. Don't stand with your ears 4-5 feet above the level of where the speaker is aimed and think you're hearing it correctly. Even angling the cab, which is a good idea, and helps, isn't perfect if you're not in that direct field of the cone.
People in a studio often stand, and get what they think is the perfect tone, and then listen to playback where the mic is an inch from the speaker right on the cone, and they can't figure out what the heck happened. What happened was that they had absolutely no idea whatsoever what was coming out of that speaker cone.
And of course, if you're not in the direct field, you don't hear the high frequencies correctly, because they are more beamy than mids and lows. So you tend to crank the treble and the result sounds good standing up, but what is coming off the speaker is harsh, and sounds harsh to the mic - and to a live audience who are farther away from the cab than the player, and are in that direct field of the cone. So they plug their ears!
So...sit down, shut up, play yer guitar, and listen to the speaker, not the room. Then you can set everything up right.
I do this even to set up pedals, set my amp controls, etc. No surprises.
"When I record, I can't get the tone I'm hearing when I play." Or "I just can't get the tone I'm hearing in my head."
Listen.
I record guitars nearly every day. Mine and session guys'. And here's a fact: if you're standing up and your guitar cab isn't at ear level you aren't hearing your tone at all. You're hearing the room. No matter what you think, what is really coming off your speaker cone is going to sound different than what you think you hear standing up.
Sound bounces around a room and in the course of that process, some of it is absorbed by the materials in the room, some is reflected around the room and comb-filtered, and some of it just echoes echoes echoes...but in any case, you're not hearing what your guitar and cabinet sound like. And you're certainly not hearing what the microphone hears.
Some here know I'm a believer in acoustic platforms, isolation risers, and acoustical treatment. But even with that, you're going to hear room. To understand what is actually coming off the guitar speaker cone, you have to be in the direct field of the cone. And guitar speaker cabs are beamy devices, especially in the high frequencies. So what you want to do is sit down, so that your ears are in the direct field, but far enough away that you won't go deaf (sound pressure level is reduced by about 6 db if you double the distance between yourself and the speaker). I find that if I'm seated about 8-10 feet away from the cab, and the cab is even as low as 6 inches from the floor, I'm hearing the direct sound of the speakers much better if I'm sitting with my ears in that direct field.
And here's the thing: It's the best way to hear your amp. Whether you're setting up pedals, or working with your amp controls, or wanting to hear what the microphone will pick up, this is the way to do it. Don't stand with your ears 4-5 feet above the level of where the speaker is aimed and think you're hearing it correctly. Even angling the cab, which is a good idea, and helps, isn't perfect if you're not in that direct field of the cone.
People in a studio often stand, and get what they think is the perfect tone, and then listen to playback where the mic is an inch from the speaker right on the cone, and they can't figure out what the heck happened. What happened was that they had absolutely no idea whatsoever what was coming out of that speaker cone.
And of course, if you're not in the direct field, you don't hear the high frequencies correctly, because they are more beamy than mids and lows. So you tend to crank the treble and the result sounds good standing up, but what is coming off the speaker is harsh, and sounds harsh to the mic - and to a live audience who are farther away from the cab than the player, and are in that direct field of the cone. So they plug their ears!
So...sit down, shut up, play yer guitar, and listen to the speaker, not the room. Then you can set everything up right.
I do this even to set up pedals, set my amp controls, etc. No surprises.
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