Mic recommendation for classical guitar and voice

U

urobolusmusic

New member
Good afternoon, it has been a while since I've been to the forum. School keeping me busy as hell so haven't been able to pursue music as much as I'd like.

Anyway, I was just looking for some mic suggestions. I've been studying classical guitar for the past year and sold a lot of my equipment so I could by a decent classical--a Ramirez R1. I want to start recording stuff again through my Edirol DA-2496 (which I really want to upgrade, but that can wait), so I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. It will mostly be used to record classical guitar, maybe some voice and percussion, but not too often. I'm tired of buying shit equipment so I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount which I know is subjective. Basically, I'm looking for the most bang for the buck. If I can get a $300 mic that sounds comparable to something $700, then why not.

Thanks again for the help. You guys are always incredibly helpful,

Uro
 
You can get great results with an AT3035...and they have been going for cheap used...I bought 2 for $50 each...for $300 used you should be able to get a KSM32.
 
Is $300 your limit?

Just to throw an idea or two...
The 3035 is a good choice but I've never had much luck on my vox with it. Guitar? Not bad at all. Worth checkin into.
ymmv.
I've used a pair of SDC's (KSM 109's) in stereo for ac guitar and a V67G for vox and had good results.
The 67 goes for around $100...the 109's were $160 ea but that was a few years ago and new. Haven't checked used $$$.

I've also had good luck with the AT4050 for both ac guit and vox. Not a mic you'll grow out of anytime soon. (imho)
Also worth a look into.

Peace......Kel
 
AT4033a is supposedly good for guitar. gearwire.com seems to like it. I had one, but had to sell it to get a field recorder. Roughly $200-ish used. I got mine with an art tube MP and after market shock mount for $250, which I sold for the same many months later. A nice mic, the gearwire sample rocked on guitar, but for brass ensemble, a little whacky EQ wise (sans baritone) for my uses. i.e. It favors female vocals. Or I could be wrong.

I've drooled over a 4050 for a while. A pair of sE Titans would be nicer. Or KSM 44's. But I'm not very frugal, especially not these days.

SM81 is a common mention for acoustic guitar. I don't think it'd do vocal that well though. Although it's a common mention for choirs too. It didn't work for me though, max SPL + brass ensemble were not a good combination with that mic. But it was a good mic. And as long as the ensemble was small it worked (sans audience / sans live room).
 
Shadow_7 said:
AT4033a is supposedly good for guitar. gearwire.com seems to like it. I had one, but had to sell it to get a field recorder. Roughly $200-ish used. I got mine with an art tube MP and after market shock mount for $250, which I sold for the same many months later. A nice mic, the gearwire sample rocked on guitar, but for brass ensemble, a little whacky EQ wise (sans baritone) for my uses. i.e. It favors female vocals. Or I could be wrong.

I've drooled over a 4050 for a while. A pair of sE Titans would be nicer. Or KSM 44's. But I'm not very frugal, especially not these days.

SM81 is a common mention for acoustic guitar. I don't think it'd do vocal that well though. Although it's a common mention for choirs too. It didn't work for me though, max SPL + brass ensemble were not a good combination with that mic. But it was a good mic. And as long as the ensemble was small it worked (sans audience / sans live room).
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From what Ive heard the 3/4" capsule type charged electret LDC does the best job on acoustic instruments and overheads...I think the KSM32 is the best of them...but the AT4033 is highly reccomended.
 
The AT4033a did very well. It's a good room mic. It picked up everything, from the kids playing in the back corner, to the ice machine, to the A/C, to the crickets. And the group too. It's EQ characteristics made it a little off though. I play trombone / baritone / euphonium. And even if I moved that mic closer to me to try and balance the ensemble, it was still week in that baritone / tenor voice. (This was before I started using EQ). It sounded awesome on Tuba / Bass. A little hyped on Alto. And trumpet / Soprano was a decent level. Not to say that some of that wasn't the group. But at one point I was blending it with a $10 electret mic to try and balance the ensemble better. Back in those early days....
 
Dogbreath said:
I've used a pair of SDC's (KSM 109's) in stereo for ac guitar...
Peace......Kel
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I second this. I don't think a LDC is necessarily the best choice for classical guitar. I would think you want to avoid any proximity effect and a matched pair of SDCs will give you the most transparent representation.

You can find a pair of Rode NT5s on Ebay for $300. Then you could always get the omni caps when you have a bit more $$$ which would be ideal for your classical music.

Best,

Matt
 
Thank you for all the suggestions!

Someone asked about price range and I guess I should set one: probably $500 max per mic since I plan on stero mic'ing the guitar and I can at least buy one at a time.

Thanks again!

Uro
 
You should go for a pair of Shure KSM32 mics...quite a few big time engineers say they are the best instrument mics and are using them...it was the only instrument mic used on Steely Dans last CD.
 
hartt97 said:
...I don't think a LDC is necessarily the best choice for classical guitar. I would think you want to avoid any proximity effect and a matched pair of SDCs will give you the most transparent representation...

Best,

Matt
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Just to make sure our proximity effect info is clear, it is a result of polar pattern, not capsule size. It can also be controlled by mic placement.
 
tdukex said:
Just to make sure our proximity effect info is clear, it is a result of polar pattern, not capsule size. It can also be controlled by mic placement.
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Sorry if I was unclear. I was suggesting SDCs for transparency and omni caps for the OPs application.
 
hartt97 said:
Sorry if I was unclear. I was suggesting SDCs for transparency and omni caps for the OPs application.
Click to expand...

While there is nothing wrong with SDC mics...the 3/4" medium LDC mics seem to give you the best of both worlds...and sound the best on instruments.
 
Just out of curiousity, what kind of vocal/percussion performances will you also be doing and how often? If you've upped your price to $500/mic and you can save your pennies a bit longer you can get into some very nice SDC matched pairs. I've been loving my Beyer MC930s on my Ramirez 1a as well as the main stereo pair for my guitar trio. Sound great on classical piano, too, and I have a feeling that they'll do a decent job on pretty much anything I throw them in front of. If you search around a bit, you should also be able to find a few audio samples of them in a variety of settings.

Beyer MC930+classical guitar = bomb.
 
I had Great Results with the Shure KSM27 and you cand get it on the evilBay for $150-$180 There are other cheap options like the Studio Projects B1 and the AT3035-That one is Awesome with Nylon String.
 
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