Looking for a mic, considering the Roswell Mini K47 and others

C

_caustic_

New member
Greetings the HomeRecording community, you can call me "caustic" and I have a hopefully quick question on a mic purchase.

I am looking to buy a microphone, I already own a CAD m179 but found it doesn't work with a lot of voices (okay for instruments) and I also own a Blue enCore 100 that has worked out well but I want to get some better gear.
So I'm looking to get another mic or two just so I have more to work with. My budget is around $300 for the microphone give or take I can work around that.
I'm primarily looking for a mic for vocals at the moment.
This list is a little large and cumbersome but I know not everyone has tried every mic and I want to know what your experiences with them have been like with them if possible.

  • Roswell Mini K47 - from what I've read and heard it seems to have much more tamed high-end then some cheaper mics and a full tone. The included shockmount is nice ;)
  • Karma Unity - It's a cheaper mic and while it has a brighter K67 capsule it seems that it's designed with this in mind where this isn't an issue.
  • Kam C3, Kam R3 - C3 seems brighter than the MC3 and the R3 is a ribbon which is warmer and I'm not opposed to that. Not sure if R3 is a long or short ribbon.
  • Golden Age Project R1 MK2 - A cheap ribbon but with better QC than brands like Nady and Apex. I found I really like the ribbon warmth on spoken material.
  • Apex 460 - Average cheap tube mic with somewhat high distortion but it might be interesting sounding. But if I really wanted I could just save up and purchase a Stellar CM5 too.

I know it's impossible for anyone to say "get this mic it will work 10/10 best mic will work perfectly for you" over the internet but hopefully you guys can give me some direction. You input is greatly appreciated.
While I'm looking to get a mic partially for my own voice I am interested in recording other sources/variety so I'd love to hear your other thought on the mics, thanks a bunch and sorry about the mess!
 
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okay, I removed the AKG c4000b cand CAD M9 and Trion condensers due to lack of information I could find on them.
 
Look at some reviews of the Aston Origin. It may still have the free shockmout for a cost of $249. It is a $250 mic that sounds more like a $600 mic. Some feel that it sounds more like a $2,000 mic. Made in England.
 
I'm very confused. What are you basing your purchase on? So many new, niche, boutique and just plain odd mics. Not a usual list and typical of those reviewed by people full of flowery language and little history. Out of all of them you discounted the 4000 which is a pretty useful multiparty mic, yet out of your budget? If you have beginner money, and little to waste, then choosing via reading is a terrible way to find a mic that matches your voice. You might need to travel, but you need to be listening if your requirements are precise. EVERY purchase I have ever made in a long career via reviews from sources I do not know or trust has been poor. Every purchase made by my ears is still in my mic box. Consider older and second hand mics. A new 4000 might buy you a decent used 414 if you work hard.

As a Chinese mic importer, buying two mics a month apart gives you a totally different sounding mic. Maybe better, maybe worse. Pretty well you are buying hand made mics, and the test at their end is one two, one two? Yep works. Dynamics don't work? None of them? You may have fell into the trap of reading and reading and losing the real question. What do they actually sound like? This needs ears not eyes. Being told clinical, open, clean, coloured, spiky, breathy, harsh, dull, warm, cold means what? Do you like X or Y? That's a simple choice to your ear. Add in ten others and confusion creeps in, and that's by listening. Choosing by reading means you will reject ones that could have been brilliant for you, like maybe the 4000, or maybe you were right? It could be horrible for you? Borrow or rent a few no matter what they are.

Ribbons are wonderful. I rarely use them! My recording space has the wrong acoustics for them to work properly, even though they are on the shelf. If you look at people's mic collections, they always have workhorses in there. Tough dynamics and quality condensers. I still have the oktava 319s I bought before the Berlin Wall came down, and I love the sound for some things. My AKG 414s are very different. I use both, but I also after three years like the EV320 I bought, which I hated at first. Mainly because it hates me, when I tried it on somebody else as an experiment, I was impressed. It just hates me!

I have not heard any of the mics left on your list. One last question. You are talking about retentioning the ribbon? What on earth for? You want to start fiddling with internals? Why? Tweaking ribbons is foolish, unless you have a corrugator and endless patience, and incredible manual dexterity. I have broken far more than I fixed when they failed. Usually blown. Taking a working one and fiddling rarely improves it, and it is a skilled job, and often unsuccessful. You seem to be going down the audiophile route. A dangerous journey, and one only for a small number of us. If you have a lowest budget, then you will be able to get an ok mic. Not brilliant, but workable. Chinese can be fine, but shelf life is weeks. A good review six months ago means nothing when the next batch use completely different innards, which is how they are made. They are luck, nothing more. Good luck.
 
I actually listed mics that were out of my budget because I can find used ones at a good price. The budget if more of a "preference" but I can fudge it a bit.
I know the list is weird, sorry about that. I actually have tried out quite a few mixed mics in the past (beyond the two I mentioned) so I kinda am getting a grasp on what I prefer/need.

The 4000b seemed to be a workhorse-type mic, I found only a couple audio examples and I thought it did well there.
I just didn't find a lot on it beyond that which is why I took it off the list. I'm still considering it but maybe not as an immediate purchase, all depends if I would still benefit from it by then.

I tend to look at some odder mics just because I like the idea of buying from less common brands, I like to see what they have that is "different".

For me to consider a mic I prefer to hear at least a few audio samples of it but sometimes these are far and few between and reading up on people's experiences with them can sort of supplement that. On there own words don't really make sense.
I don't care much about the fluffy words but more on if people like them or not, where/what they use them on, where they find they just don't work, and stuff like that. Maybe a general "bright" or "dark" or "bloated" or "muffled" but going beyond that really doesn't mean much descriptive.

//tilts his head contemplating// Yeah mics can be a bit of a gamble, whether they sound good on someone or not is just chance. :?
In my situation I can't really go out and try mics in a store so I have to look at a mic's "general" characteristics and where people like them most often and take the plunge.
Sure I've wasted some money hear and there but I'm used to it and expect it until I get mics that fit in where needed. It's all very clumsy and slightly embarrassing/silly.

The examples of cheaper ribbon mics I've found online I thought sounded really interseting, I'm actually working on my recording area a bit so I think they would work fine.
I agree that messing with a working ribbon would be stupid, I meant if I just got a really cheap one and the ribbon was sagging that I would be willing to (at least make an attempt) fix that manually if I had to.

I actually just bought an used SM7b (finally) which I found to be very handy, I am still looking for maybe one or two mics right now to do what that can't do.
I should probably fix the first post so it's not that confusing, I'm bad with words. :o

Thanks.
 
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I removed the Cascade ribbons from the list, even though I can find the Victor and Vin-Jet used for great prices I really don't know how they compare or sound in general so I decided against them.

I'm still looking at some obscure mics which doesn't help me with my search for info on them regardless.

JefferySmith said:
Look at some reviews of the Aston Origin. It may still have the free shockmout for a cost of $249. It is a $250 mic that sounds more like a $600 mic. Some feel that it sounds more like a $2,000 mic. Made in England.
Click to expand...

I didn't see your post until now, oops. I found the Aston Origin a little bright for what I wanted. It sounds great though!
 
I guess it depends on what you want to do. For twenty plus years I rather wanted an sm7 or an EV, and eventually bought one. I'm really glad I didn't buy one when I was starting out because although it's good for some things it's not a good all rounder. If I had bought one of these earlier, I'd have hated it. I bought two identical mics and having two decent ones worked well for me in my early years. I still buy mics in pairs whenever I can, and find individual one offs never earn their keep. Looking back to my teens, first mic was a Shure 545, then one SM57, then my first pair of beaten up but nice sounding STCs which were dual dynamic and ribbon, which I always used the dynamics elements, now I wonder if simply because the ribbons were shot. Then my first pair of AKG 451s, second hand again with cardioid capsules, then one beat up U87 that was awful, constantly failing on me. After that, budget end larger condensers, which I still rather like, plus numerous Chinese condensers when I did lots of live big band recordings. Not a single boutique product anywhere, simply real workhorses. A few dogs in the collection, now reserved for when I run out, but I really can't see me buying blind any of the special products. I read one magazine here in the UK. Sound on sound, where I respect the reviewers quality and background, especially a couple of the older guys they have on staff. I would buy something they liked. I don't know either personally, but over the years I have come to trust their opinions. I'd see if they have reviewed any of the ones on your list, and see what they think? That opinion I would trust.
 
That it is. My voice doesn't do well with "dark" microphones (like ribbon mics). I found that the Aston requires relatively little tweaking with my voice over stuff (at least so far). My "studio" is my office at home, and with temperatures in the high 90s for several months, I've been forced to use a small diaphragm hypercardioid mic to minimize the AC noise in my neighborhood.


_caustic_ said:
I removed the Cascade ribbons from the list, even though I can find the Victor and Vin-Jet used for great prices I really don't know how they compare or sound in general so I decided against them.

I'm still looking at some obscure mics which doesn't help me with my search for info on them regardless.



I didn't see your post until now, oops. I found the Aston Origin a little bright for what I wanted. It sounds great though!
Click to expand...
 
A new line of mics that seems to be getting some attention are the Neat microphones. Marketed through Gibson, they seem to have origins through BLUE. They have gotten good reviews, but look like hell, with black and yellow bee stripes on them. Well packaged, but with a manual on bee-keeping included. Strange.
 
I have 2 Roswell Mini K47's. I love them for anything acoustic or voice. I wish they had a db pad. They get very good reviews. You can't buy a better sounding mic for $300.00.
 
Okay, I'm probably going to end up getting a Mini K47 since it seems to be of good quality and an SDC and I'm going to be pretty set for a good while. A decent group to do various things.

I saw the Neat brand but they just seemed...very gimmicky? Like quite a lot of the cost seems to be attributed to branding and aesthetic rather than the product.
Could just be me being overly suspicious.

I still wonder what the others are like but that's more for curiosity's sake than anything else now.

Thanks a bunch.
 
I took a chance with both the Aston Origin and the Neat Microphones King Bee, and I'm smitten with both for voiceover. Both are odd-looking, but both sound great. I never look at either when reading a script, so I don't notice the looks. Both impress me more than my Rode NT1A.
 
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