[Harp-L] Re: Mic's on multi speaker amplifiers

[BluzeHarp@xxxxxxx]

Hmmm, no sound engineer worth his or her salt would point a mic at the  
baffle board instead of a speaker,  but that seems to have  already been 
covered.  The other thing to remember with multi-speaker  amps is that sometimes 
the speakers are of different types and/or sizes.   There's no "one size 
fit's all" rule here, work with each speaker  type until you find your sweet 
spot.  I've even seen 2 mic's  on the same amp so more of the overall tone is 
captured, probably a hard  sell if your band isn't running the board and only 
useful  with amps that have more than one type of speaker.  
 
Here's a tip for micing any amp with multiple speakers:  Mic the  speaker 
cone towards the inside of the cabinet next to another  speaker.  This will 
let the mic pick up more of the adjacent speaker  instead of other sounds 
from the stage.  It will be a more accurate  capture of just your playing (less 
mud) & may even tend  to feed back less.  
 
Position your amp so it is not directly in line with any of the  monitors. 
Tipping it back is sometimes of benefit.  The less the amp  speakers & 
monitor speakers 'see' each other the better.
 
Seeing it hasn't been mentioned.  Avoid using omni directional  mic's in 
live settings, and never use one to mic a stage amp.  An  exception might be 
if you need to capture something like a trio  of horns or multiple vocalists 
with a single microphone.
 
Christopher Richards  -  Twin Tone Harmonica  Microphones