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Need help with buying an amp microphone!

2K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  Drew 
#1 ·
I need a temporary solution for my band rehearsal place. I have this 40 watt Peavey triple XXX combo (With my POD X3 in front of it) that I need to mic up to go into our PA! What is a decent, but fairly cheap microphone for this? I've heard good things about the shure sm57, but I don't really know much about this subject so I thought I'd hear what you guys have to say!

My budget is VERY limited so I believe I have to go with this solution for now until I can afford a good rig.
 
#3 ·
Any reason you can't send the POD straight to the PA?

Or, send one channel of the POD to the PA and one to the amp?

Also, what Dave said. SM57 all the way.
 
#4 ·
Well the thing is, lining it straightly doesn't really get any punch IMO. I could be wrong. If so you could always correct me, but it doesnt really have any punch at the moment. I know Opeth use Boss pedals into the clean channel of their Laneys and then mic those.

Is this even worth it? I just got the feeling that it will sound a lot better, because at the moment I line it directly and I'm not quite happy. :)
 
#16 ·
Well the thing is, lining it straightly doesn't really get any punch IMO. I could be wrong. If so you could always correct me, but it doesnt really have any punch at the moment. I know Opeth use Boss pedals into the clean channel of their Laneys and then mic those.

Is this even worth it? I just got the feeling that it will sound a lot better, because at the moment I line it directly and I'm not quite happy. :)
Well, running a distortion pedal into a clean preamp, and running a modeling preamp into a poweramp are two VERY different things.

My thoughts? Normally I'd never advocate this, but if you're on a tight budget, you lose nothing by experimenting some more with running direct into the board. The sense I'm gettiing reading your post above is that you've been told micing up will make it "punchier," but you haven't had firsthand experience. It might help, sure, and while there's a steep learning curve to micing up an amp, I'm a big advoocate of learning the art... But if cash is a concern, you should be able to get perfectly acceptable results if you dial in the modeler right.

Make sure your cab simulation is on, and then try using a little less gain than you think you'll need, as Line6 has always struck me as over-gaining its amp models. It just might work out.

Also worth noting - a lot of guys running sound systems will have mics for the gutiar amps - while it's not a bad idea to have your own mics just in case, more often than not if a bar has it's own PA, they also have mics to go with it. So, you could always hold on to your money and make two sets of patches - one set up to go direct if they don't offer you a mic, and one set up to run through your amp if you can mic it up.
 
#6 ·
Sry that I'm bumping this again but I need to know rather quickly if it is worth micing the amp instead of doing a direct line into the PA? I just figured it would sound more like an amp than a Line 6 pedal. I think I'll be buying it tomorrow or in 2 days.
 
#7 ·
Honestly, I'd DI... but that's just me. If the Line 6 is dialed in properly, it works fine... just make sure you've got enough guitar in the monitors to play properly. It does put a lot more control in the hands of the sound guy, though, which can be a good or a bad thing.
 
#8 ·
If you turn off the cabinet and mic simulators on the POD and then mic it through an amp, it could give you an acceptable solution, and one that more sound guys are likely going to work well with. I've been essentially doing this with my GT-6 for years.
 
#9 ·
So you're saying that it would be preferable to do it this way? Getting the tone through a Guitar amp speaker just seems more right IMO, and doing it this way would solve that! The DI would work OK, but I haven't been able to get that "ampy" tone from it... Just a flat half-bad hifisound (better than nothing though!).
 
#11 ·
Im just using the tones from the POD and the XXX to make it, what i believe, sound better... I could be TOTALLY wrong, though. I just thought that a real amp speaker miced would make it sound better and more "real". I dont know now though. If I line the Pod directly I get this to gritty sound and no real bottom. Micing a small amp maybe wouldn't change that?
 
#12 ·
Depends on how small you mean by small. Wattage of the speaker, what kind of range it has will all effect what comes out of it regardless if you're using a POD or not.

The only negatives I can see to DI with something that's made for DI'ing is you won't have the stage volume for the audience in the front row and if you're monitor mix is fucked, so are you.

As far as running a Pod into the XXX... I'd have to hear what your setup sounds like, but the only time I've ever heard a Pod in front of something sound mic worthy was when it was run through a clean power amp, which is basically the same thing as DI'ing into a small PA.

As far as mics go, I'd suggest an SM57 or E609 for cabs.
 
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