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[El Chiguete]

Ok so hear me out first: I'm finishing of my rig and the main use I will give to it is to entertain myself doing videos and posting them in youtube. So now that I start to think about what mics to get (I have a stereo rig) I was thinking that I either go 2 ways:

a) with the old trusted SM57, do a bit of post eq or not and have what the SM57 adds to the tone... or
b) get a mic that has a flat response that its more like "what your ears would listen if you stand up next to the cab" than "what your ears would listen on a recorded miked cab"

Do you think that option B is a valid way to think things or am I crazy for not doing the normal choice? The only reason I'm thinking of this options is because maybe Im wanting to show off "what my gear really sounds like in person" rather than "what my gear sounds thru a recording" since a recorded tone has A LOT to do on the post editing, mixing, mastering, etc...

What do you guys think?

[rnolan]

Hey El, Best way IMHO is MP2 cab sims direct with 2 Mullard long plates LOL... Sorry.. Or with MP1 a setup like MikeBs also direct.
Do you have 2 57s? I assume you want it to be in stereo ? And you want to show off the cabs sound (well total rig)?
Both A and B options are valid, use both and pick between and/or better mix them together.  If you use decent recording (condenser mics), you'll pick up lots of other stuff (like cars going buy) depending how sound insulated your recording area is. So the up side of 57s is they're dynamic mic designed to work best @ 1 & 1/2" or closer.
What are you sampling/recording with ? can you record multiple tracks at the same time ? I'd start with 4 tracks L/R 57s and L/R condenser, 57 close to cones a bit off axis and L/R condensers about 3 feet out aimed L/R at the cabs. Then mix that together.

[El Chiguete]

Wow now you are talking about 4 mics??? take it easy remember this is my first try at this! jeje I have a M-Audio Fast Track Pro 4x4

Yes I want to show off my complete rig, just bought some kick ass speakers so I'm not planing on going direct and do speaker simulation or anything like that!  jeje

Im hearing that the SM57 work best if its to go in to a mix of a full song and now to good to go on a guitar track alone... but maybe they do sound good when I mix it with a backing track of ontop of a mp3 song that im playing with... dont have experience on this and it will be hard for me to get a hold of different gear to experiment with different configurations, so I'm trying to see if someone tried to get something similar to what Im trying to do.

[rnolan]

Hey El, your speakers came  I remember you were waiting on them. The comment re 57s being better in a mix is probably because they (as does 58) have a presence boost (hump) @ 5khz to help a vocal cut through. So they are not a "flat" freq response mic.  If you wanted a flat dynamic mic the best is EV RE20 (also great kick mic and very popular with Radio DJs). Quite expensive but there is a Chinese made (licensed though) variant which I bout for $300 ish, the US ones are around $1k or more.
Ok so you can only record 2 tracks at a time (bummer, oh well..). Depending how much room you have to move them around (and you need 2 x 57s BTW to keep stereo), you could close mic a little off axis (close will give bass boost also from proximity effect), or move them back so the speakers and sound waves get a chance to open up.
I've micked plenty of cabs for live and recording, but not for youtube. I have to now adjust for the crappy sound quality of the modern age (mp3, ACC) to try to make those formats sound ok, there are things you can do to mix for these formats to make them sound "okish" Goes against all my audio engineering instincts and principles though...

[El Chiguete]

Ohh yeha the speakers came a MONTH late but they are in my cab now and Im just loving them! Thats why I want to mic them and not just do speaker simulation... I guess the only way to show of stereo effects is to close mic them correct?

[rnolan]

Hey El, sorry I didn't see this earlier, didn't tun up in my show new replies..
Hey glad the new speakers came  and your loving them 
There isn't a simple answer to your question, there are lots of way/ideas how to mic cabs and lots of variables (can do you head in LOL). Oftena conbination of mics and placements mixed together give a good result (hence my 4 mic idea, I just expanded it (in my head) to 6 mics and stereo cab sims so 8 tracks  , but I don't have enough mic stands at home at the moment  ).
Lets start with what mics do you have ? I assume you one 57 ? (do you have or can use any others ?)
57 is good for close mic (but it doesn't have to be to close at guitar volumes, you can back it up a few feet and aim at cab/speaker) as it reduces spill and if close enough gets a bass boost along with it's built in 5khz boost. Also handles high SPL from speaker without bottoming out the diaphragm (but senhiser 421 is better for high vol) though generally you'd go a bit off axis (like on a snare drum). So if you want good stereo speaparation, and there are other sounds in the room you don't want in the sound, then that's a good technique for that end... A pair of really good condenser mics (e.g. Rode NT5s) 3 feet or so away and angled/pointed at the cabs with the cabs a "cab" width apart will be much more accurate (but they'll also pick up everything around (like a car going past etc)).
Mostly it's trial and error working with what you have to hand (gear/space). Hey close mic 57s is a good place to start 

[rnolan]

Had a good story with my Rode NT5s (http://adadepot.com/index.php?topic=1008.0), they are very accurate, so if you want your speakers to sound on the recording exactly as they sound, highly recommended.

[El Chiguete]

Cool I didnt know about those mics... one question, having them set up like that, did you picked up in Mic A on cab A any sound from other cab (cab B)?

[rnolan]

Hey El, in that setup I used my stereo wired ADA slant stack, so I aimed one mic at one speaker (L), the other, the other speaker (R),  a tiny bit off axis on each but it wasn't high volume so I kept it fairly perpendicular and reasonably central to the cone (see pic). What I got was a very (very) good representation of what the speakers were doing.
Was there spill between the 2 mics ? maybe a little, I had them so close to the cones and aimed sightly away from each other, so not so I noticed (and BTW I notice!!). Have alisten to the clean posts I did for MJMP, tell me if you hear spill between the mics, hey in a split single box, there will always be some (albeit internally).
Just spent 40 mins or more playing around with the JPLP and my IPS33 turned on with various harmonies, interesting and very good BTW, I'll do some sound posts..

[El Chiguete]

I listen to them but I hae no idea on knowing if there was spill from one mic to another (dont have that trained ear like you jeje)

[rnolan]

Trained ear helps  , it will be hard to tell particularly with the stereo FX. Main thing is does it sound good  a very subjective area LOL

[GuitarBuilder]

When it comes to mics, you must determine your budget first.  Then we can talk about candidates.

[El Chiguete]

I think I'm just going to say f*ck IT and get a 57 (or a pair of them to go stereo) because I will get miced anyway live when I play and probably by a 57!

[rnolan]

Hey El, having a few nice new 57s around is always a good idea, but if you want your cabs to record as exactly as they are/sound though, try a pair of Rode NT5s. Man since I did a couple of sound clips for here with them... they sound just like the cab does live when recorded. (Hey I'm a 57 fan BTW the NT5s are in another league, but a pair of 57s never goes astray LOL)