2 Studio Microphones under $500

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nimrodrg

New member
Hello, my name is Nimrod and I'm a singer - songwriter.
I've decided to teach myself some music production, since I find it really interesting and important for me.
I started to build my setup which right now consists of a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 as my audio interface.
The only mic I have is a Shure Beta 58 which I originally bought for my live rig.

Let me tell you a bit about my uses for the mic and my voice, I'll make it more specific that way:)

I'm write music in the style of Cat Stevens but accompanied by piano. I'm a beratone singer, and my voice usually doesn't get too loud when I'm singing. I don't consider my voice to be thin.

I want one mic to first of all, fit my voice. Sorry but I don't have any examples online.
I want this mic to be versatile in terms of fitting other voices as well, so I can record others while still sounding great most of the time.

I want my second mic to be used mostly on instruments. I will probably use a Roland RD-700GX as my piano for my recordings, which means I want it to work on guitars, both acoustic and electric, strings, brass and woodwind. A piano will be a bonus, but not necessary. I'm planning to learn music production seriously but when I'll start recording my actual piano, I'll probably buy a dedicated microphone for that.

I was looking at the Blue Baby Bottle for a microphone for instruments and maybe some voices, will that be a good choice?

Just to clarify, I meant that each microphone by itself up to $500. Not both of them together.
Thanks in advance for anybody who helps! If there is more information you need to have, ask me and I'll give you an answer:)
 
Hey man, firstly welcome to the board.

Secondly, in that price range there are so many options and do you need two separate mics? are you planning to record vocals at the same time as guitars etc or just one at a time.
 
Hey, and welcome.
As justsomeguy said, are you planning to use both mics simultaneously?
If not, you might find a cracking condenser to cover both bases, like a tlm193/103 or something like that.

If you're able to post up an example of your voice, that'd be great.
A nice bright condenser mic might do your voice favours, but I guess we'd need to hear you to really know.

Get back to us, yeah?
 
thanks for the reply:)
I want to have that option of recording live.
I have a song
it a bit old but other than having more control over my voice, I don't think it changed that much
just one problem, is says that I can't post any links until I have at least 10 posts in the site.
Is there any other way I can give you a link to my song?
 
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Last I heard the notification was wrong and you need 15 (or was it 20?) posts.

There's a thread in the newbie sections for building up your posts...just talk crap for a minute or two in there. :)

If you want to record live but maintain separation, it's going to be difficult because there is always some degree of bleed.
Maybe you should consider a dynamic mic for vocals after all. They allow you to get much closer to them, keep the gain down, and therefore lower the level of instrument bleed.

As far as instruments mics, if you want to cover a whole range of things, consider an akg c414 or similar, or some of the nice pencil condenser mics. SM81, mk012, even nt5s.
Any of those will serve well for acoustic guitar, piano, and a whole lot of others, although personally I'd want a stereo pair for piano.

(I often use an sm81 and an sm58/sm7b for live recordings acoustic guitarists/singers btw)

There are many ways to skin this cat though. It's always a compromise, but that compromise will vary depending on the persons needs.

My recommendation : A good pair of pencil condensers and a good dynamic voiceover/vocal mic.
 
sorry for taking so long to reply
im going to do what you said, and ill post my song in a few minutes i hope
i want to have the option to do so, but it not going to happen very soon
I will listen if you recommend me to do otherwise, but isn't it better to have a mic that is dedicated to a specific task, whether it is instrumentation or voice?
because that is my main logic besides the option of recording live, for buying 2 microphones.
 
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