TOTL Instrument or All-Around Mic?

Jimster80

New member
Hi. I need a top of the line mic for instruments or multi-purpose if possible. What do you recommend? What's the best out there?
 
One mic to rule them all? Seriously?

What instruments, how many mics are you talking about? You planning to do a drumkit with one mic? The same mic for a piano? Some parameters here....
 
Let's say my price range doesn't matter, if you could have a set up what would it be? Should I go for one mic to use all around, or separate mics? I won't be using it for piano, only acoustic guitar, cello, bass, various drums, random percussion. I think the best way to know how I'd like my music to sound is with some samples:

For guitar, strings, something like

Steve Reich - Different Trains

Pat Metheny - Electric Counterpoint - Slow (definitely this song)

Definitely R&G

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Hanuman


Drums, something like this guy Jacques (he only uses one mic for all percussion, not sure how his mic would sound with drums using only the one mic)

Jacques - Phonochose #1 : Live-looping à l'Amour


Jacques - *Dans La Radio


Also these for drums, definitely Floating Points (jam session style, very good sounding drums, I think it's only 1 mic)

Floating Points - Peroration Six

Pharrell - Happy (I personally like how clear his music sounds and how his instruments attack with force, but from what I can hear it sounds like he edited each drum sound in this song)


The mic's don't have to sound exactly like these songs but if you can tell me a few mics that would sound excellent for the instruments I need, I mean top notch then by all means, let me know what you know. Btw sorry I couldn't post links for the videos, I haven't posted enough yet.

EDIT: I also must mention mic's that have good synergy with one another. If I buy different brands will that affect synergy?
 
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Weel , I think you're kind punchin cows here. The whole reason to use different mics is that each instrument and voice produces a unique timbre. Each sound source also sounds different depending on factors like temperature, humidity, string age, touch , etc. Microphone design and construction is also a series of compromises in the body, electronics, capsule type and size, materials ,etc. They also react to all the same factors that affect instruments/voice. Which is why pro studios have mic lockers. There is no "One ring to rule them all" when it comes to recording. I've seen interviews about recording some famous people, like Steven Tyler , who apparently has a voice that sounds better on a dynamic than a $30,000 Neumann. There are Reference mics that are used to spec equipment that have incredibly accurate response and they aren't used for recording because most things don't sound right when recorded completely accurately. Because each ear hears differently also-every sound you hear in the room gets "Eq"d and "compressed" by your own hearing apparatus. So to choose one mic for everything, while it can be done, is kinda doing things the hard way. Not only that, a single mic will put its "sound" on everything, which can get real boring real quick. One of my favorite all around mics is the AT050. It sounds good on anything. But there are many mics that sound better on x, y or Z. There are several companies that make very high quality microphones , all of which make different mics for different purposes. If you could buy one perfect mic that mic would have long since made all the rest disappear. There is absolutely no good reason, especially if money is no object, to stay with one mic, one manufacturer, one type of diaphragm , etc. your goal is to capture the best performance. Someone like Pharrell has probably got samples all over his tracks and those samples weren't made with one special mic. There were hours spent in the best environment with the most pleasing sounding mic recorded in the most pristine fashion, carefully edited on high dollar systems to produce those samples in many cases. So if you are looking for a conclusive mic list for that list of instruments I can only say, there isn't one. There are many, and if you spend some time looking through the posts in this forum you will find hundreds of good examples. And as most everyone on this forum will tell you-the mic is only one small part of the picture !
 
Pretty sure I heard a stereo panned drumkit in at least one of those examples, so that's a bunch of mics right there. You could get a "pack" for a few hundred dollars (5 mics typically) to mic up a kit, or you could buy individual mics and burn though a thousand dollars on just a couple mics for the toms. There's just no simple answer befause as [MENTION=196554]Gtoboy[/MENTION] says, there are a lot of different mics for different reasons.

Just watching a couple of the Rodrigo y Gabriela videos (thanks! never saw them before!), they use a large condenser as well as the guitar's plugged in system (didn't track that down) in the studio, but on a live stage they were using a small condenser. Both sounded good.

To start, for the stuff you listed, you need a a large condenser and small condenser will cover acoustic instruments, and a dynamic can be used for a guitar cab (though lots of folks record electric direct and use amp sims). If you buy a drum pack, you can probably borrow a dynamic from there for guitar cabinets. Will they be the best for your room/performer/ability? You won't know until you try them. Get your room set up, treated, and line up who you want to record and try a couple mics.
 
I have found over the years that if you get a good sounding mic you can get good results on most things. OK, there may be a better mic for acoustic guitar or drums than the good vocal mic you are using, but if you do have a good vocal mic recording acoustic guitar or strings with it should not be a problem, using it as a drum overhead, micing a guitar cab, no problem you will get a decent result.

If I only had one good mic I would buy a good vocal mic. The real question is how top of the line are we talking about. To recommend something we need a price range or we could be recommending a mic that costs $15,000.

Alan.
 
Thank you for all the reply guys. I really do appreciate it. Do you know what mic Steve Reich used in the Electric Counterpoint album?
 
I think the point everyone is trying to make is that it doesn't do any good to know what mic so and so used on such and such because you aren't using the exact same mic with the exact same player with the exact instrument in the exact place etc, you won't get that sound. The idea is to capture a performance, so if you aren't hearing it in the room , the mic isn't going to give it to you. I posted the url's above because they all have info on what different mics sound like, the frequency patterns, recommended usages, drawbacks, etc. Any given recording situation will have many possible input path combinations that can achieve the desired sound. Pro audio engineers spend plenty of time as interns learning how different mic and source combinations sound and that's pretty much how us unpaid amateurs have to do it to-research then experiment until we can get as close as possible to the sound we are going for.
 
SHURE KSM27.... not too sensitive, not too dull and is built like a tank for studio or live....and cheap as hell used.

with SM7 at 1.2mv/pa sensitivity about zero! and a U87ai at 28mv/pa....the KSM27 is a nice 14mv/pa works well with about any interface preamp too so a person doesnt need a outboard preamp either.

its actually built tougher than the more expensive KSM44 due to the thicker metal grill.

its also small so it can be stuck into drum sets and the like....
compared to SM58 it sounds like studioness....
it was always overlooked and blah'd on because it wasnt the 32 or 44 (both phsycily bigger and more expensive)

needs a foam cover though because it does plosives well, but the foam cover as SOS mentioned and I agree 100%, the foam makes it great mic, that $2 piece of foam is like magic with the thing...lol
 
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