Why do people record the mic touching the cab mesh??

[Rev2010]

I see all these YouTube vids that boggle my mind where they put the mic touching the cabinet's mesh. Why??? Wouldn't that cause vibrations that lead to weird extraneous sounds? Flapping, hums, buzzing vibrations, etc. I just don't get it. What's with this trend and what would it achieve as opposed to keeping the mic an inch or so away from the grill?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

 

[c7spheres]

It makes a difference but if it's noticable or not just depends. Usually taking of the grill is the best option, or making it just not touch it. I think this is why so many cab's have torn grill's in that area. - Usually with a sm57 just put it up there so it don't touch but is close as possible. I use to wear the studio phones and compare the noisefloor of the amp just hissing with the headphones on and off my head and make them match to what I want to hear as close as possible. With the phones on your head and moving the mic from center to edge, on/off axis and forward and back sounds like an eq filter sweep. Adjust to taste don't touch the grill or speaker. If reamping or doing guitars after other tracks it's great too because you can just mix most of the sound that way and it'll pop good with minimal cleaning up in the mix.

 

[crushingpetal]

Yeah, sounds dumb. Link a video where this is happening?

 

[Rev2010]

Yeah, sounds dumb. Link a video where this is happening?

Was just watching a few videos comparing mics for recording guitars and noticed the trend on a few videos. Won't call anyone out specifically, just didn't get why anyone would do it as I've always been of the mindset that you don't want anything physically touching the mic screen/grill as any additional vibrations will be picked up. But I guess there's probably not enough energy to vibrate the cabinet's mesh to have a negative effect. Another bad practice I see for vocal recording is people putting the pop filter too close to the mic, like a quarter to half inch away. Doing so greatly reduces it's effectiveness

 

[TedEH]

I've never seen anyone do this, but then I don't watch a lot of music youtube. It reads to me like the mic equivalent of needing the hottest pickups. Like someone thinks closer = better by default. Which.... I dunno, that seems counterintuitive to me. Nobody ever just jams their ear right up against a speaker (unless you're talking headphones), so it wouldn't meaningfully capture a good picture of what you think the amp sounds like. And yeah, the problem of the cloth or grill making more noise. Seems like just a bad idea.

 

[Carrion Rocket]

This Glenn Fricker's burner account?

 

[Rev2010]

This Glenn Fricker's burner account?

In 3 days I'll have been on this forum for 19 years Man it's been a long time. Was a simple honest question. Was watching a few more vids and one guy was putting the mic up to the grill and his Laney amp has a metal grill so he put rubber stick on feet on the mic body to stop the two metal grills from vibrating against each other lol.

 

[budda]

Then post the vids? Ask the yt creators why they did it in the comments?

 

[TedEH]

In 3 days I'll have been on this forum for 19 years

Could still be a burner. It's just a very slow burn.

 

[SalsaWood]

All of us sitting around hashing it out like we each don't know how to use a spectrum analyzer. Anyways, does it matter? I would imagine so. Does it matter enough to make a real difference? I would imagine not. If we are talking about cloth grilles. If we are talking best practice for strictly all speakers then distance and angle are obviously the bread and butter above all else regardless. There is also a distinction to be made between accurate fidelity capture and artistic capture, the latter being the philosophy most original music production initiatives take. That's how I approach it, and if it sounds good it's not wrong, so that's about all I worry about.

 

[TedEH]

Given the rattle-y bit on the end of a 57, I have trouble believing it would sound good to have it vibrate up against the grill of anything. And I'm not sure a spectrum analyzer tells you much in this regard. There's more to a signal than just how much of x frequency is in it. If that shape was all that mattered, mic position would be arbitrary, 'cause you could just EQ the difference away.

 

[Drew]

I dont know if I've ever had them make contact, but I''d have to think if its a cloth/string sort of grill material it would be pretty self-dampening. I assume the idea here is to maximize proximity effect, since there's at least an inch or two of airspace behind the grill cover.

Whether proximity effect is desirable is really up to what you're trying to do.

 

[sleewell]

savages

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

This Glenn Fricker's burner account?

Every other post isn't an over-done joke about bass players or complaining about drum samples so no.

 

[Rev2010]

Every other post isn't an over-done joke about bass players or complaining about drum samples so no.

Yeah you guys know me, been on here forever. I'll admit I had a few drinks before posting lol, but the logic still escapes me a bit. I mean we mount mics on shockmounts for vocal recordings so just the whole thought of pressing the mic up against the cab mesh (a much louder and more energetic source) physically seemed like it can take on odd vibrations. Again though, I'm realizing now it's probably still not enough energy to make something like a vinyl/nylon mesh vibrate. But also there's the "how much more proximity effect are you getting pushing it up on the grill mesh vs. right up to it but just not touching? We're talking 1/4" here?

Anyhoo, sorry for my phrasing that made the question sound daft to some.

 

[tedtan]

Technically, we mount condenser mics in shock mounts because they are very sensitive and can pick up vibrations transmitted through the mic stand without a shock mount. Dynamic mics, including ribbons, are far less sensitive and can get away without a shock mount, and even being hand held.

As for touching the grill cloth, that’s probably laziness or maybe ignorance. A proper studio would remove the grill cloth if they needed to get that close to the speaker for the tone they’re going for.

 

[Emperoff]

As for touching the grill cloth, that’s probably laziness or maybe ignorance. A proper studio would remove the grill cloth if they needed to get that close to the speaker for the tone they’re going for.

Imagine the cab is an Engl or similar with a metallic grill. clankclankclankclank

 

[SpinalTap]

Imagine the cab is an Engl or similar with a metallic grill. clankclankclankclank

It's basically hihats. I see no problem.

 

[DECEMBER]

Yeah, it's best 1-3" away from the cloth. Not just because it shouldn't touch the cloth, it also shouldn't be that close to the speaker. So many people use the Sennheiser e609 (square, flat mic) just hanging by the mic cable over the amp... This mic sounds terrible that close to the speaker.