What now for mics?

philboyd studge

philboyd studge

New member
Been a very long time since posting on HR but here goes; My principle mics for the the last decade at least are a pair of early Studio Projects C1's and a pair of Oktava MC 012's recording a variety of acoustic instruments and my vocals. Though they've severed me well (I'm signed to a label with a second album with them coming out next month in the folk/Americana genre) I'm looking to take things up a notch or two. Looking at the mic marketplace is confusing at best. Any suggestions???
 
philboyd studge said:
Been a very long time since posting on HR but here goes; My principle mics for the the last decade at least are a pair of early Studio Projects C1's and a pair of Oktava MC 012's recording a variety of acoustic instruments and my vocals. Though they've severed me well (I'm signed to a label with a second album with them coming out next month in the folk/Americana genre) I'm looking to take things up a notch or two. Looking at the mic marketplace is confusing at best. Any suggestions???
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What are you looking for?

An SDC for instruments? or an LDC for vocals?

For a reasonably priced SDC I would look at: Microtech Gefell M300, Neumann KM184, DPA interchangeable series, Sennheiser MKH 8040 or Schoeps. All these are excellent, but the M300 and the KM184 are the most affordable.

For an LDC there is the Neumann TLM 102 or 103, the Microtech Gefell M930 or M930Ts - these are top quality and affordable. But there is a vast choice of affordable LDCs from very many manufacturers and you really should try a selection out and choose the one that suits you best.

But a good mic. from a top manufacturer will last you forever. My top 5 (alphabetically) are: DPA, Microtech Gefell, Neumann, Schoeps and Sennheiser - price for price I would say all these are pretty equal in quality, though they do have different characteristics and you choose the one which soits you best.

I hope this helps.
 
Thanks so much for all the input, I'll check out all suggestions. Now that this last album is done, project wise I'm heading into a good six months or so of building a library of acoustic primarily instrumental track for music placement....kind of how I began in this business eons ago. That said, I'm still looking for a LDC that'll handle it for I want to upgrade my LDC's the most. I wish there was a way to try a dozen mics or so here, then it would be an easier decision. At this point I'm leaning towards an AT 4050 and my guys in NJ can go well under street price.
 
I think those Oktava mics can still hold their own for SDC mics. There are so many LDC options and I admit, there are many I have not tried. I personally think the Neuman TL102/103 are not all the outstanding. I would suggest you at least give some consideration to the AT4033. It's an older mic, but for the longest time it was almost a standard for use in bluegrass and other genres that focused on accoustic instruments. I've never used an AT4050, it may be similar to the 4033.
 
If I was going to lay down a bunch of money for a good mic I'd probably want to know what I was getting into beforehand. Renting or auditioning mics beforehand can help. Sometimes everything might sound decent or fabulous or not so great until you've had a chance to live with it for a while and put it through its paces. If there's a studio around that has some contenders you might be interested in you might even want to throw together some backing tracks and go in to try the stuff out and then take the recordings home and live with them for a while. Process the crap out of everything to see what limits there might be. Even in that scenario you won't have YOUR room with YOUR chain imparting itself to the recording, but it might be better than going straight off of internet recomendations.

Also consider that a grand might be stretching things for a truly decent LDC. There's more options for top quality in SDC's and ribbons at that price point, plus there's a few top quality dynamic mics that are cheaper. I'm thinking specifically of the Beyer M88 and M201, and the EV RE20.

Used mics are another option. Maybe look at Vintage King.

For LDC's at around a grand, I haven't got any experience with these myself so cave eat empatator or whatever, but I've seen people mention nice things about Mojave, Miktek and Bock. You might want to check it out.
 
I regularly use the Neumann TLM103, it's an amazing mic in my opinion, it's my go-to mic for most things, especially vocals and classical guitar.
 
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