Recording Fender Twin with 2 Mics

[siderealxxx]

Aloha,

It never really dawned on me before but the Fender Twin amp has 2x12" speakers partly to give a supposed wider sound-field. Has anyone here tried recording it with two mics, one on each speaker and hard panned?

Curious how it might sound and whether it's worthwhile. I will test this at some point but mine packed up (again) last week so awaiting repair :/

Thanks

[Wonks]

It doesn't give a wider sound field. Quite the opposite. It gives a bit narrower sound field in the horizontal direction due to the interaction between the two speakers. Think of it as a small line array column speaker on its side.

Having two speakers do give a bit more bass end as a result, and as each speaker is dealing with less power than a single speaker, you get less thermal compression when the volume turned up, so it is a bit louder overall than a single speaker (and when the Twin first came out, it was often necessary to need two speakers to deal reliably with the power the amp produced).

That said, each speaker will have a slightly different sound, though whether enough to make much difference when listening in stereo is down to how different the speakers sound. You might find one sounds significantly better than the other, and stick with that one.

(A Marshall 4x12 cab has an even less wide sound field as it's restricted in both the horizontal and vertical directions due to the speaker layout. However it does mean that the sound in front of the cab is louder than the single speaker equivalent, and the 4 speakers provide greater bass extension).

[Stuart79]

Mike Senior wrote an article on guitar amp recording for the magazine a while back. You can find it here: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... -recording

There are audio files of different microphone positions to go along with the article. They were made with a Tele and a Twin Reverb so might be of interest to you.

[siderealxxx]

Interesting stuff thanks chaps. I realise it's probably slightly academic, was just curious. Will check out the artilce too.

[Sam Spoons]

More interesting options might include positioned the mics to aim at different parts of the cone, mics at different distances from the speaker, and even one mic in front and one behind the cab.

[Stuart79]

Another good article on the topic from Paul White: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... r-tracking

Some good advice on checking in mono if you do try it.

[Hugh Robjohns]

It never really dawned on me before but the Fender Twin amp has 2x12" speakers partly to give a supposed wider sound-field. Has anyone here tried recording it with two mics, one on each speaker and hard panned?

No... there are much better and more aurally interesting ways of achieving a stereo effect.

Remember, stereo requires a large degree of incoherence between the two channels. Assuming the two speakers are the same and working properly, there will be negligible difference in their output. So putting matched mics in the same places in front of the speakers will give something very close to dual mono.

You could try placing one mic at the cone edge and the other near the centre, and use completely different unmatched mics. That would give differing tonalities in the two channels and a small stereo effect.... but I'm not convinced it would be worth the effort.

[Matt Houghton]

Mike Senior wrote an article on guitar amp recording for the magazine a while back. You can find it here: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... -recording

There are audio files of different microphone positions to go along with the article. They were made with a Tele and a Twin Reverb so might be of interest to you.

Ah, my trusty old snakeskin "The Twin"! I still have that amp, and love playing through it.