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I need mic advice

F

funkadelickbass

Aug 13, 2006
308
0
37
Milwaukee, WI
Disclosures
Social Media and Sales: www.creamcitymusic.com
#1
I am getting a band new computer tower and as soon as that comes I am planing on gettin ga FirePod so that I can start doing some recording for my band...I have a good idea of what I am doing but I am cluless when it comes to recording mics. I have a set of live mics but I was told that I need a large diaphram condencer for my vocals and then a few random mics for this and that.

Can anyone give me advice on a cheap but quality condencer mic for vocals...and maybe a a few different small condencers too. I want to spend as little as possible because I am droping a huge chunk of change for the computer and the firepod.

Thanx
andrew
 
#4
The Rode NT2-a is an incredible-sounding large diaphragm condenser. Vocals sound so crisp and sweet through it, and it's great at mic'ing lots of other stuff too (works well on acoustic guitars, for example). So that gets my vote.

The AKG C414 is also an excellent mic, and popular because of that. Might want to check that mic out, too. I use it when recording grand piano (in combination with another mic) or vocals, (some people also use it for drum overheads, but that seems like a good way to ruin the mic over time) and it gets a lot of definition.
 
#5
what is your budget? The Rode or the AKG are both excellent suggestions. Another decent and reasonably price large diaphragm condenser is the AKG c3000. AKG c451s or c1000s make pretty good overheads, depending on what you want to spend. Also the sennheiser e914 (? i think thats the number) is a good small diaphragm condenser. Other than that you cant go wrong with shure sm 57's.
 
#6
Depends how tight your budget is. A lot of people have liked the Studio Projects mics:

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I've heard good things about the CAD M179, though I haven't tried it (I've got an older CAD, an E200).

If bucks are really tight, Musicians' Fiend has some specials on MXL mics and packages.

There are lots more these days. You might want to go to a dedicated recording forum and ask around there. You might want to be as specific as you can about what you want to spend: in this modest thread alone, you've gotten suggestions ranging from $100 to $1000.
 
#7
Im going to get shot down here probably. but here goes.

My band bought the 3 pack of mics behringer have, they are stupidly cheap, and it was basically just so we had our own mics at practice, the rooms we use do have akgs and sm58s, but they are pretty knackered.

When we recorded last time round, we used two of these mics for the guitar, with each mic pointing across the others path. I cant remember what its called, but the mic on the left would point to the right side of the speaker cone, the mic on the right would point to the left side of the speaker cone. The sound was pretty good for what they are!
We did vocal recordings with both a single mic and using two as we did with the guitar for the singer, and they turned out pretty good. Considering it was through a cheap behringer mixer and it was the singers first time doing anything like that.
 
#13
my budget isn't exactly tight but I would like to keep the cost as low as possible...I think the better question would have been...

"can I get a decent sound with a cheaper mic?"

I was looking at an audio-technica pack... Invalid Link Removed

I have used some of their stuff before I have had all good experiences with it, but I have never used a large vocal mic like this and don't know what to expect.

also I have never used MXL...any opinions on them would be awesome...
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I think this would be almost exactly what I want if it could provide a decent quality output.

Thanx
 
#15
i'll second what anomalee said earlier about the shure 57. the sm58 is great as well. both of them are inexpensive, widely used, and basically idestructible. depending on what your voice sounds like and what kind of music you are playing should drive your choice of mic. the 57/58 is great for vocals but also for micing a snare drum and guitar amps.
 
#16
funkadelickbass said:
my budget isn't exactly tight but I would like to keep the cost as low as possible...I think the better question would have been...

"can I get a decent sound with a cheaper mic?"

I was looking at an audio-technica pack... Invalid Link Removed

I have used some of their stuff before I have had all good experiences with it, but I have never used a large vocal mic like this and don't know what to expect.

also I have never used MXL...any opinions on them would be awesome...
Invalid Link Removed
I think this would be almost exactly what I want if it could provide a decent quality output.

Thanx
Click to expand...

Check here for good advice about mics...Invalid Link Removed
 
#17
these_go211 said:
i'll second what anomalee said earlier about the shure 57. the sm58 is great as well. both of them are inexpensive, widely used, and basically idestructible. depending on what your voice sounds like and what kind of music you are playing should drive your choice of mic. the 57/58 is great for vocals but also for micing a snare drum and guitar amps.
Click to expand...

The 57 (or 58) is a great starter mic, and I'll guarantee you'll get a lot of use out of it not only as a general instrument/amp mic, but also a killer snare mic. The 57 and 58 are actually the same mic, except the 58 has a grill.
 
#18
You could try making a binaural dummy head mic to use as drum overheads/room mic/reamping. You would have to be 'okay' with soldering. You could place a couple cheap panasonic ECM capsules in a mannequin head and wire up some preamps for the capsules.
 
#20
A LDC mic will generally give you a fuller more "open" and "airy" vocal sound when recording, which is usually desired.

The Studio Projects stuff is definitely good for the $$$. They just revamped (possibly improved?) a lot of their stuff too, which was already considered very good (again, for the money).

Another brand worth looking at is Cascade (http://www.cascademicrophones.com/). Their Fat Head ribbon mic seems to be garnering some fanfare... less than $150. I was using a pair of their M37 SDC's for drum overheads at my bands practice space for a bit... they sounded pretty good (I actually got them for free with another purchase). Only problem was that our drummer wails too hard sometimes and they don't have a -10dB pad built in. Ended up getting a pair of Studio Projects C4's to replace them... and they are an overall improvement (also have the pad and LF rolloff options).

I have a Joemeek JM37 LDC... not very impressed by it at all in the couple times I have used it.

Also have a couple MXL's (770, 990). Again nothing impressive. I've seen people say the Mogami edition they have is decent, but I have no experience with it.

The Shure KSM (preferably the 32, the cheaper 27 seems decent as well) series is worth looking at for an LDC. The SM7 is a classic (if you can spend a bit more).

For the AT's, the 40xx series get a lot of decent reviews... not so sure about those 20xx you linked to.

I'm pretty jaded these days though, as I recently picked up a Red Microphones Type A with a couple capsules. No other mic I have owned/touched comes even remotely close. Then again, it probably costs nearly the same as all my other mics combined (and I have 15 others).

As with everything, you get what you pay for. I can tell you that a better mic will generally require less work to get good sounds (if you know/learn proper mic placement techniques) and also make things easier to mix. Try before you buy if you can.
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c
 

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