Best Condenser For Bluegrass/Old-Time Country

[PHILANDDON]

For that forward sound,

I'm thinking Audio Technica 4040. What do you think?

[Kasey]

at4040 is a good mic for the price for any purpose.

[guitar junkie]

i use the AT4040 a lot and its fine although i sometimes wish that with a big group i had two of them but hey.... it works well for the money

[Chris Shaeffer]

I have no experience with the 4040. I do have experience recording bluegrass and I can echo guitar junkie's thought:

Get 2, if you can. Pretty much all I've had to do with decent bluegrass players is throw up a couple of mics in X/Y configuration and say 'That's the audience." They know exactly what to do. The banjo player will step forward and center a little when its his break, then step back for the fiddle players break, etc. You may have to move the bass player closer to the mic than s/he really wants to be and do a few trial runs to make sure everything sounds good... but its usually like a 5 minute process.

Pan those 2 tracks hard left and right. Boom. Done.

I've had great success with using Studio Projects C1's that way. I wouldn't call it forward, though. The players do the forward part and the C1's just give me a natural reproduction of what's happening in the room.

-C

[Ronan]

ad 20 and go with a 4060

[BigRay]

What about the AT4050, three polar patterns, great sound, great price?

I have a pair of these, and they sound amazing on stringed instruments, voice, hell, anything.