Reply To: Recording guitars with room sound?

[Anders IsbergParticipant]

Some of the coolest and most unique guitar sounds I've got, has been by using alternative ways of recording. One trick I've done on a few occasions is to use a single large-diaphragm mic placed a couple of meters from the amp. I'm not shure how much of the sound is due to the room ambience. I suspect most of it is up to the mic used and the fact that you get a different sound just by not using a close-mic. Other times I've cranked a small combo in a big room and had one dynamic close mic and one or two condenser mics to pic up the room sound. Great if you after that Neil Young-ish, burning amp sound. I've also recorded a stereo, two-amp set-up with one single stereo mic to get the most out of the stereo effects used (delay and tremolo).

It definitely has to do with the genre and the sounds you're going for. Most of the time the traditional way with one or two close-mics works the best. But when you want a unique sound or just a more organic sound it can really pay off to experiment with different rooms, mics and unconventional mic placements. Not that one is better than the other, just different.