Recording guitar with two microphones allows you to either blend the tones or simply choose which one you prefer later in the mixing stage. With that in mind, I thought I’d do an overview of guitar recording with two microphones. Note that this is specific to amp recording with multiple microphones; for information on acoustic guitars, check out my tutorial on acoustic guitar recording techniques which includes a number of two microphone recording techniques.
Now on to this overview on guitar recording with two microphones!
Guitar Recording With Two Microphones
Thinking back to my overview on the best microphone for guitar amp, I cited dynamic microphones in particular for their advantages in recording louder sources like a guitar cab, and specifically mentioned a workhorse and long mainstay in the cheap but effective Shure SM57.
That’s a great option for one of your two microphones, but that’s not to say that a condenser microphone can’t work (see dynamic vs condenser microphones).
It’s a good idea to use the onboard gain cut (usually 10 decibels) on most microphones if they feature them to ensure that you’re not overloading it, not to mention keeping the preamp on your hardware at a low responsible level until you have your amp set up with the level you’re going to feed it.
Microphone placement is key; as I covered in my overview on how to mic a guitar cabinet, the position of the microphone relative to the amp and specifically its speaker will drastically affect the tone:
When recording guitar with two microphones, I specifically like an SM57 centered up with and right in front of the speaker.
The SM57 tends to have a warmer, even darker tone to it in general, so I want to make sure I’m feeding the brightest, punchiest sound to it.
You can balance this out with a ribbon microphone like the R1 Active MKIII Active Ribbon Microphone from Golden Age Project as your second microphone.
I’ll look to use a mic which has a brighter, more dynamic sound, then put it up close to the amp itself but more off center, 3 inches up and 3 inches left or right of the speaker’s center.
This pairs a darker amp sound via the positioning with the relative brightness of the microphone. This is comparison to the warmer mic that we just paired with the brighter sound of the amp via its positioning.
This is the best way to get a nice blended tone between the two which works well if you want to keep the two guitars near one another or pan them wide against one another in the stereo field.
For another option and to slightly change the tone, move that second microphone 1-3 feet behind the first microphone which is right up on and in front of the speaker. This gives you more of a room sound blended in as you’re capturing more of the natural reflections off the walls and other surfaces in the room.
Alternatively, you can leave both those first two microphones where we initially had them and add a THIRD microphone in that 1-3 feet from the amp spot to act as the room microphone.
This gives you a lot of options when it comes to panning, potentially leaving that first microphone centered or slightly off center and panning the other two wide to give you a wall of guitar from only one performance.
You might want to record your guitar DI, meaning straight into your audio hardware interface via the 1/4″ instrument cable, then subsequently reamp output that recording to play through the amp while you move the microphones around to find your perfect balance (see my guide on how to reamp).
This allows you to hear in real time what a perfect take will sound like as you monitor the sound through your headphones, moving the microphones closer or even changing settings on the amp in real time (see my guide to guitar amp EQ).
Check For Phase Issues
One thing to mention anytime you use multiple microphones to record the same source/performance is to be aware of phase issues before or especially after you record.
Phase issues refer to when the waveforms of two or more tracks which are simultaneous recordings of the same performance are out of sync.
Despite the relative fast speed of the speed of sound, even a difference of a few inches can result in audio reaching and thus being captured by two different microphones at two different times.
This can result in something that looks like this when comparing the zoomed in waveforms of the two tracks together:
This will make the two tracks sound thinner as they’ll lose their combined low end and yet muddier and weaker at the same time. This is especially obvious when you force the mix to mono.
Even worse than slightly out of phase audio is when it’s completely 180 degrees out of sync (phase cancellation):
Phase cancellation results in silence because the two tracks are literally cancelling each other out and is very noticeable in mono which is another argument for mixing in mono.
As I covered in my overview of how to fix phase issues, you can use a plugin like Waves’ InPhase or simply manually zoom in and drag one track left or right by a microscopic amount (typically a few milliseconds) so that its waveforms are aligned with the other track.
I recommend going to the start of the performance to ensure they’re in alignment from the beginning and to ensure you’re not seeing a coincidental alignment later on in the performance.
In phase audio will look like this:
The two tracks will sound as intended and more importantly their best when the audio is in phase, bright and full of body, regardless of how you pan them.
Tips for Recording Guitar With Two Microphones
- Recording guitar with two microphones can give your guitar a fuller sound in the mix without having to do a second take.
- The types of microphones you use and their placements relative to the amp and specifically the speaker will significantly alter the tone.
- The closer the microphone to the amp and specifically centered with the speaker, the cleaner and brighter the sound will be with less room reflections.
- Contrast a warmer microphone focused on the speaker for a brighter sound with a crisper microphone focused off center of the speaker or farther away from the amp altogether to create a more natural sounding blend of the two microphones.
- Be aware of phase issues whenever using two or more microphones to avoid weaker sound or phase cancellation by zooming in to the start of the performance on both tracks on the timeline and adjust accordingly to get the peaks and valleys in sync for the best tone.
