I leave eq decisions after tracking, but what I consider a great mic for something is when I don't have to apply much EQ to it.
but I wonder at what cost sometimes.
one Uber big studio YouTube guy went on and on about the uber expensive mic and at the end of his summary the biggest goal seemed to be his comment "I don't even have to eq it!!" and I thought ok, but when did turning a knob become painful and or a mouse eq.? ...that's the cost justification? I don't have to turn some knobs.
I understand the holy grail plug n play and no work is needed studio beauty mic with no "help" needed...its great, no doubt that's a great thing....but at what cost?
$2800 or $4500 for a mic no eq vs a $250 Lewitt or whatever mic, that sounds great too with eq ...it seems crazy.
I was messing with my dry bone flat "boring" KSM 44 and then when I pressed a couple buttons on the JoeMeek VC1Q (opto comp and eq and more) it could be in another world, so is that really such a bad thing? it doesn't seem bad but it is like "helping" the mic.
Then I wonder why spend more on a KSM44, when a SM7b or a old RODE or MXL can get customized with the "help" of a channel/outboard too. The KSM 32 is even flatter and less sparkle than a 44 and $285-$300 and it can sound like 1,000 mics with eq applied in various ways. I haven't done much with the RODE NT2 but I will, it was free basically...
That's why trying all these mics out is fun but perplexing at times.... U89, U47...U67i vs new 67 or a clone and everyone's making better and better clones and the original U47 are dying off and don't even have the original parts anymore or reskinned capsules...and cost the price of a used car. ..I don't want to dive deep into psychology but how much of the Neumann is emotional, its the brand of our fav stars and famous studios etc.. Like Rob was doing in his videos, black market mics from China ....maybe a $123 U87 off AlibabbaExpress and eq it, compress it, put a vocoders on it and who would know?