why did my mark iii sound like a solid state marshall?

[mammothcave]

doing some recording yesterday, and the mark iii, sounded absolutely terrible. way too much presence (which was at 0), and the gain sounded terrible. tried lower gain settings, and it still sounded bad. i don't get it. through the cabinet, it sounded perfect, but through three different mics, it sounded like crap. what gives?

 

[ytse_jam]

what was your setup? mics, their placement, mic preamp... is it a combo? which speaker are you using?

 

[Neemo]

tubes going bad...?

 

[ytse_jam]

tubes going bad...?

no, he said through the cabinet it sounds good, so it is all related to the recording technique.

mammothcave, you have to remember that it is almost impossible to get the same sound you hear in the room through the mics! you should play with he knobs and everytime check what you hear from the mics and try to adjust their placement. Maybe the right setting to make the amp sound good through the mic would be not the best if listening in front from your cab as normal use.

 

[Paul Secondino]

THis may sound wierd but I suuggest locating a 1x12 cabinet to use. When I was a new guitar player in my first band, I was totally confused about how to get a good sound. And some years later, I tried a 1x12 with my rig and said " That's what my amp really sounds like ?

So I dialed in my rig with that 1x12 and recording my amps since then has been a breeze. You will need to try a variety of mic positions til you find the position that works for you.

Also, remember that a recording calls for a guitar tone that can be worked with. If you start out with too flat or bassy of a tone, you'll have a hard time doing anythign with it in the mix.

 

[SeasonOfPain]

I'd recommend before buying more gear (besides flat-frequency ear-plugs, see below), you spend at least a week's worth of time trying every possible mic position (on every speaker) of your existing cab. Believe me, moving or angling the mic a half inch can make a huge difference.

Start with the standards (as I always say, this sucks if you're the only person doing this, so try to find a buddy):

Put in flat-frequency-response earplugs, and get your head *right next* to the speakers. Move your head around until you've located approximately the best-sounding location on the best-sounding speaker. If you can monitor through your recording setup and play isolated from the cab, do so with the mic instead of your head.

Rules of thumb: if the tone is too trebly or shrill, move/angle the mic out from the center of the speaker cone. If the tone lacks presence, move /angle the mic in towards the center of the cone.

 

[mammothcave]

thanks for the responses, guys.

i'm sure you all know how easy it is to get widely different tones, but to illustrate what i was going through, check out a band called into another in the itunes store. listen to a song from the album "ignaurus" (either poison fingers or drowning)--that was pretty close to the tone from the cabinet. then listen to a song from 'creepy eepy.' that was the recorded tone i was getting exactly. it's incredible to me that it's from the same amp.

thanks again.