New mic ... multiple mic question ... Amp Cab

[Dale]

OK.

Background:
I am pretty new at this recording thing, well past haivng owned stuff an dpushing "record" anway. I have been mic'ing electric amp cabs with a SM57 for several years (close micing) in my home studio or live. This last year I was given a pair of inexpensive mics (MXL 990 & MXL 993) so I began to mic close with the SM57 (basically on grill cloth on edge of just off center the dome) and used the 990 back in the room (3-4 feet) and chest high (about same height as speaker cone). I would then mix the the 990 track into the the 57 in Home Studio XL. It picked up detail seemed brighter and flatter in eq was the 57. I have not had any phase issues. I do not know if that means I have just ben luck or if the 1 to 3 rule someone taught me is the reason (if using 2 mics one must be at least 3 times the distance from the source as the closest one). I have these 3 mics (SM57, MXL990 & MXL 993) and an older Radio shack Optimus condenser mic (ss-3017) if that matters here. I often multitrack (seperate takes) the guitar parts (rhythm).

Question:
Today, for an early holiday present, I picked up a Heil PR-30. It gets good reviews and sounded nice when I heard a clean guitar part miced with it recently. I am thinking it wouldbe a nice compliment to the SM57.

What I want to do is get a bit more sophisticated (probably not sounding any better!) with my mic'ing. I thought I would try the PR-30 about on the grill with the 990 stiling used as room to mix in if I wanted to do so. I could use the 57-990 par the same way for a second track (actually 2 tracks but second take). Is this a no-no in some way? Can I run the 57 and pr-30 both close micing at the same time? I would think the latter will canuse "phase" issues. Is there a way around that issue? Does the multiple takes with different mics as I decribed previously (PR-30/990 take with seperate take using 57/990) probably cause phase issues? Any issues when I get to laying a lead over any of theses? If so is there a process I need to learn here?

Also, there is a "phase" button in Cakewalk. What does it do?

Sorry, I am not even sure of the question (or terminology) to do a decent search here.

[kludge]

I'm a big fan of two mics on a cab - one close mic and one room mic. If you try to close-mic with two mics, you'll almost certainly have phase problems.

What I usually do is a close dynamic and a room ribbon (the PR30 would be a good substitute). Crush the HECK out of the room mic - lots and lots of "colorful" compression. Record them to separate tracks, and mix to taste afterward. Works really well for a punch/clarity/naturalness sound.

[kludge]

Oh, and another thing you could do with two mics is use two DIFFERENT amps and blend them together. One dirtier, one cleaner.

[Dale]

Thanks! Some folks appear to mic front and back of the cab. How does one do that without phase issues?

Dale

[Dale]

OK. So I was just reading about someone tracking the guitar (rhythm) having 2 tracks 100% right and left with another 2 tracks down the middle. How are they doing this without phasing issues?

[kludge]

Originally Posted by Dale

OK. So I was just reading about someone tracking the guitar (rhythm) having 2 tracks 100% right and left with another 2 tracks down the middle. How are they doing this without phasing issues?

There are two ways I've done the hard left/right thing that I've liked. First, there's straight double-tracking - track the guitar twice, pan them opposite. Second, there's running the dry signal on one side, and a slightly delayed signal (20-40ms) on the other side. Both can sound huge.

I'm currently playing with a mix where the signal was split into two amps at tracking time (dirty Boogie, semi-clean Savage), and then double-tracked, so I have four tracks total. Panning each pair hard right/left, but swapping them (left has Boogie 1/Savage 2; right has Boogie 2/Savage 1). Sounds enormous!

[Dale]

Thanks!