1st Condenser..(vocals, electric guitar, room mic, acoustic, etc) suggestions?

S

stratmaster713

New member
Current mic locker:

*Shure SM58
*Shure SM57
*Sennheiser MD421-II
*Sennhesier e609

1st LDCondenser..(vocals, electric guitar, room mic, acoustic, etc) suggestions?

Been reading rave reviews about the AT2035... and it's only ~$110.. I'm willing to pay upward of $300-400, should I look further than the AT2035 to some other model? The CAD m179 also seems to be a favorite.. I would rather shell out the $$ for a better microphone now than buy 3 sub-par ones..

Thanks!
 
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I would try and make sure that what ever your choice is for your first Condenser microphone make it a microphone that offers multiple patterns.
 
Omni on acoustic bass every time, as one example.
Then both figure of 8 or Omni for drum overheads with a stereo pair.

These are just a few examples of course.
 
well, if my MAIN use for this will be vocals and guitar cabs, a cardioid would suit most of those? I'm thinking it would be money "well spent" on a better cardioid rather than the same amt of $ spent on a multi-pattern mic? or is this not the case? Oh and i'm specifically looking at LDC
 
You can't say what polar pattern you might like for a singer--the most useful feature of a multipattern mic for vocals is the ability to tune the tone of the mic to the singer by changing the pattern. It's like having three (or five, or nine, etc.) mics in one. Off-axis rejection does not matter much when the singer is a few inches from the mic, so select pattern for tone. The largest difference you will notice is the amount of proximity effect--omni has (in theory) none, figure-8 has lots and lots. How much do you want? Change the polar pattern to decide. But there will be other differences elsewhere in the spectrum too.

Same consideration on a guitar amp.

Yes, you can use cardioid on both sources all the time, but you could say the same thing for omni, or for figure-8, etc. So be one of the people who use polar patterns as a creative tool.
 
stratmaster713 said:
The CAD m179 also seems to be a favorite..
Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought one of those about a month ago. I was just expecting it to be some crappy mic I could noodle around with, but it's actually quite handy for the price (and namebrand ;) )...however, I haven't used it on vocals at all yet, so I can't comment on that. Sounds good on everything else so far though!

Although if I had the $300-$400 to shell out like you say, I'd keep asking around! I'm sure there's better stuff for that price, although the m179 is a solid little mic for the $120 or so you pay for it!
 
sE X1, lovely little LDC and great bang for your buck its only cardioid tho but i use it a lot on acoustic guitars
 
From my experience of both mics, I much preferred the AT4040. I found the Bluebird to be quite harsh and thin sounding in comparison!
 
And I am finding the Bluebird to be extremely useful for various applications.
Both are excellent brands.
I don't own an AT4040 but do have the ATM450. Nice wee mic.
 
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