Distorted Electric Guitar
Microphone Position: Where the dust cap of the speaker meets the cone.
Distance: About one foot away.
Additional Setup: We used 3 heads but one cabinet so we did not have to move the microphone. Each head was used for a different tone. Vox AC15HW1X Hand Wired for Clean, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Limited Edition for Dirty, and Marshall JVM 205H for Distortion. Our laser alignment was locked in for further microphone tests. Original guitar track was recorded with a Gibson Standard though an Anthony DeMaria Labs direct instrument preamp (ADL600) to Nuendo, then played back through a Radial XAmp for exact replication of dynamics and playing for every microphone test.
Our Comments: Of the condensers tested, we felt the Mojave Audio MA201, the Audix SCX-25, and Audix CX212 stood above the rest. Our picks for tube mics were the flat sounding Neumann U67, Lauten Audio Oceanus, and Mojave Audio MA200, which was full sounding but got rid of the high end buzz. The Royer R-122 gave us the definition we want when recording this type of tone. Of the dynamic mics, we preferred the sound of the Audix D2 with the Audix i5 coming in a close second.