Demo recording preferences?

Do you prefer cell phone recordings? Direct out? Miked Amp?

  • Cell phone

    Votes: 4 23.5%

  • Miked amp

    Votes: 12 70.6%

  • Direct

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Total voters
    17
OldGtrGuy

OldGtrGuy

Well-known member
Saw some chatter about opinions on amp demos regarding how it was recorded and it got me curious what everyone prefers.

Given there are endless options these days feel free to add a reply for a method that wasn't listed.

Personally, I prefer cell phone recordings. It's come a long way from a blanket over a boom box with a built in mic and a cassette tape and I think a cell phone gives the best interpretation of what you're going to get.

Endless mic choices, interface, placement choices and DAW processing!!! I don't like having so many variables that can alter what an amp would actually sound like if I bought it.

Yes you can make placement choices with a cell phone but I think it gives the best interpretation. I've heard shitty amps sound amazing with enough engineering work and I've also heard amazing amps sound like complete shit because the way someone records.

What do you guys all prefer?
 
Many like to say clips don’t matter at all and should never be a determining factor in choosing an amp
 
A cell phone recording doesn't really tell me anything. All amps tend to sound at least ok in cell phone videos as long as you're not clipping the mic because the low end sounds full and and any harsh or fizzy characteristics are generally filtered out by the room.

I know what an SM57 sounds like. I know what a 421, a 121 and a e906 sound like. Unless it's a really unorthodox speaker choice, I'm going to know what that speaker sounds like. So with a close mic'd example or an IR, I'm hearing what the amplifier is actually doing, not what's bouncing off of walls with either node frequency buildup or cancelation.
 
Both is my answer. No clip will truly capture what the experience is in person, but the more variety of clip types we get the better educated of a guess we can make on the in person experience. Sort of like if you are going to meet someone from an online dating app, the more variety of pictures you can see the better of a guess you can have over what they’ll look like in person to minimize getting catfished

In both in both cases you still might be very surprised once you experience both in person vs just pics/clips, but it can also be very interesting and fun to see how they compare like that
 
I can’t even believe this is a conversation, that “iPhone clips” are somehow relevant or tell you anything. What do they tell you? If you move around the room, you are getting massive variances in sound dispersion and where it’s hitting the phone at. Plus, what about room reflections? So much of what you are hearing in a room is the reflections OF it, not the source itself. And then the big one, frequency range. An iPhone can’t produce much below 300 hz, and yes I’m aware you could listen on headphones but then you are back to problem number one and two. I don’t know who said it was the “most accurate” way to get the sound of the amp in here but it is far and away the most out of control batshit not true thing I’ve ever heard. If you guys bitch about an sm57 on the speaker, how in the world are you not bitching about an iPhone mic 30 feet away from an amp? I mean it’s the same thing. I think your argument is all wrong for iPhone clips personally, I feel like there is WAYYYYY more variables that you can’t control when doing that. You can control ALOT of variables when you close mic an amp…and then I don’t even bring up the argument that is also how you hear an amp 100 percent of the time when listening to music, so there’s that.


People clip the inputs on their iPhones, then sometimes it’s nothing but string noise, and then sometimes it’s in a place where it just sounds fucking awful…actually that’s 100 percent of the time, but I digress. It’s seriously dumb as all hell to me. If you wanna hear an amp with an iPhone clip, fine. But refrain from making any kind of opinion whatsoever on it and what is actually going on with the amp.
 
RaceU4her said:
i know when i hold my iPhone up to my ass to record farts coming out with the voice recorder to send to my friends, it sounds accurate as fuck to what im hearing at ear level at least
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This is totally different, farts are definitely accurate via iPhone. I have plenty of experience with this to feel this is factually credible and accurate.
 
I prefer close miced clips, because i'm so used to the sounds of the common ones (57, 121, 421, etc) I can translate it to what they will sound like in the room. To get an actually accurate room sound, generally I need at least 4-6 mics - a 57 or 2 57s fredman clipped, a 421 or 121 all close miced, a sub/kick mic for thump, and then a decent ribbon or condenser in the room, all phase corrected. To me, that's a much, much more accurate representation of an "in the room" sound.

In my experience IRL, most of my friends who like cell phone clip demos to check out new amps play at super low home volumes most of the time, and for whatever reason the cell phone clips seem to capture the sound they're used to better.... even if I think it's kind of stupid, that's fair enough, other opinions are allowed.

Any clips at all are better than no clips though, and if I hear a cell clip and a decent close mic clip I feel like I have a good idea of what the amp sounds like.
 
DanTravis62 said:
Any clips at all are better than no clips though
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Micd amp is the way.

Literally the only reason guys say cell phone IMO is because there’s multiple microphones on an iPhone and it is therefore recorded in stereo. People can’t comprehend what a stereo signal would equate to from a mono signal.

Recording direct and just using amp sims is totally fine and being done on major releases at this point… I prefer micd amps. Reamping real amps with IRs is good too, just be aware some amps are REALLY affected by impedance curves while others aren’t as much.
 
I have been testing this heavily lately to try to achieve the closest to what the amp/speaker sounds like to my ear when playing back through my system.

If the recording sounds different than what I hear in the room by too great of a variance, it is not usable for relaying specific information, though I could use it for recording a track.

I am doing speaker testing now and am being extremely specific in the setup, even ensuring that the tubes I have in aren't gaining up the signal too much to affect the tone.

I want whatever relays the closest to what I would hear in person. That being said, my Rivera has a built in Rock Crusher Recording and it sounds super close to the amp through various speakers without needing a cab or mic. Great for recording.

I have found that I was able to fairly easily mic up my guitar cabinet and get a clearer sound of what is in the room and sound of the speakers as opposed to my phone.

My phone does not record bad clips though and I have used that as well. All being said, use whatever sounds closest to the way the product actually sounds.

I hate it when people edit or intentionally compress the hell out of it or touch up a sound for a demo, negates the point to me.
 
DanTravis62 said:
Any clips at all are better than no clips though, and if I hear a cell clip and a decent close mic clip I feel like I have a good idea of what the amp sounds like.
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braintheory said:
Both is my answer.
In both in both cases you still might be very surprised once you experience both in person vs just pics/clips, but it can also be very interesting and fun to see how they compare like that
Click to expand...

These are the best answers IMO




I've been mildly happy with this too:

4V0581ul.jpg





Ben Waylin said:
🤏 ☎️

cell phone is bast recording device
Click to expand...
*best

Even though I am pretty sure you are joking as usual :lol:
 
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