First Set of Mics...

[magic_joel]

So i'm looking for a good set of mics to buy to get the majority of jobs done when it comes to recording different instruments/vocals and what not, I don't have a huge budget, so the cheaper the better! (but at the same time, i don't want a piece of garbage!)

Any advice would be great, thanks

[NeveSSL]

What is your budget and what are you recording primarily?

What other gear do you have?

Brandon

[magic_joel]

I have a Firepod and KRK RP6's, aswell as an maudio axiom 49 midi controller.

What i'd record primarily may change, as i record quite a large variety of instruments from guitars to drums to accordions and so on.

[NeveSSL]

At the moment, what are you recording the most of?

The reason I ask is that will largely determine what mics you start with. There are not any mics that do everything, so why not buy mics that will help you where you are?

Hope that makes sense.

Also, what is your budget?

Brandon

[magic_joel]

oh sorry i forgot to mention budget in that last post! errm about £300 i'd say, and to start with probably mainly acoustic/electric guitar, drums, vocals, just the instruments most commonly found in todays rock music mostly, buying an SM57/58 will be done as a given, as they'll always come in useful, so i was wondering about what others would be a good starting point too?

[NeveSSL]

For each of the things you mentioned, you will probably want a different mic.

Its possible to get enough mics to do all of those for your budget, but probably not very well.

I would recommend you start with one "area" to buy mics for. Some of them will be able to do double duty (you could buy some SDCs that would work for acoustic instruments as well as overheads... possibly the same could be said for LDCs), but you probably won't want to use a kick drum mic on a vocal.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, though. Are you wanting to just start your mic collection or are you wanting to buy mics to do everything you listed? Again, its possible, but I would recommend saving yourself some money (by not re-buying mics a year or two from now) and buying the best you can of a mic or two to get some stuff done, maybe rent mics to do everything if you'll just be doing it part of the time, and slowly buy more and more mics as you can.

Brandon

[magic_joel]

Thanks for the info, and i'd much prefer to get a few mics that are great at one or two things rather than a mic which is strictly average at alot, as you said, i'd have to effectively rebuy mics to do those jobs better in the future, so i may aswell get ones which are far superior but only in a few fields.

[NeveSSL]

Cool deal, man.

Now what do you want to focus on?

Brandon

[magic_joel]

To start with probably Vocal and/or drum mics, due to the fact that i can get a pretty good tone for guitar and basses via DI and some plug-ins which do the job for now, and the amps i own aren't ideal either.

For micing drums i wouldnt go over board with mic's, but something like 2 overheads, bass drum and snare?

[hairylarry]

magic joel,

There are many budget mics listed in my fifty dollar mic thread. Here's a smattering.

Dynamic omnis - EV 635a, Realistic 1070b

Condenser omnis - Naiant stereo pair

Dynamic cardiod - EV RE10, EV RE11, EV PL80, AKG D770

Condenser cardiod - MCA SP-1, AKG Perception, CAD M177, various MXL, some of these may be a challenge for fifty bucks

Kick drum - Superlux FK-2, Superlux kit

MIcs a little higher than fifty bucks

Audio Technica ATM25 - Dynamic kick and bass instrument mic
Audio Technica Pro37 - Cardiod SDC (small diaphragm condenser)

One ATM25 and two Pro37s make a great basis for a drum kit and they are versatile too.

None of these mics suck. Many of them are favored by engineers world wide. Many, many hits have been recorded using some of these mics.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry

[magic_joel]

wow thanks for that!

I've just had a look at the superlux kit, any opinions on that?

i'll browse more as we speak!

[NeveSSL]

4 mics would probably work well. With proper placement, you could even do 3 mics (stereo OHs and a kick).

HairyLarry covered a huge group of great mics. I would definitely look at the Naiant (and actually am looking at them myself ) mics for two overheads and maybe get a Audix D6 or AKG D112 kick mic used for your drums. Then maybe pick up a Perception for vox.

HTH!

Brandon

[magic_joel]

Do naiants ship to the UK though? because i've been trying to find out but no such luck so far!

[AndrewClaycomb]

I'll vouch for the Naiant X-M matched pair. It's basically all I've been using for drum overheads and acoustic guitar.

They didn't sound so great when I tried them on my Wurlitzer piano but that could have been my horrid mic placement when I tried it. (I now use LDC's for piano)

I also only have the transformer balanced output model which is not what Naiant recommends for piano. (recommends active balanced model)

I would also say a couple of Shure SM57's definitely couldn't hurt. You can literally mic anything with them and get usable results with proper placement.

For LDC look into a Cad GXL3000 or a Cad M177. Both can be had for around $70 or less new if you watch the Stupid Deal of the Day on musiciansfriend.com

For kick drum there really isn't a good way to go under $100. There are plenty of mics which can work (including an SM57) but ideally you would look into the usual suspects. AKG D112, Audix D6, Shure beta52 and higher up in price would be the RE-20 and SM7b.

Also look into getting a cheap ribbon mic to start. Nady, Apex and Cascade all make good mics which will work depending on the situation. I use an Apex 210 ribbon and it gets used on electric guitar in combination with another mic (depending on the sound) more than any other mic I use.