Audio Technica At4040 or Shure SM7B???

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FcukNormality

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Need help picking a mic.. Can someone list the advantages & disadvantages of both mics, don't know much about mics so if you have something that might sound obvious, say it anyways.. lol..

MORE INFO..

This is for recording in a home studio.. Absolutely no modifying of walls & rooms.. What mic would best suit my environment, I want a mic that can adapt to these such conditions.. Thanks.. :)
 
SM7b for that reasons you mentioned.

It's a dynamic mic. It's less sensitive to plosives so you can sing really close to it with no problems.

Because of that, the room noise and reflections aren't heard as much in your recordings.
 
Steenamaroo said:
SM7b for that reasons you mentioned.

It's a dynamic mic. It's less sensitive to plosives so you can sing really close to it with no problems.

Because of that, the room noise and reflections aren't heard as much in your recordings.
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Oh thankss!!!!!! I was almost about to buy the At4040.. Is there a mic that isn't as pricy but almost as good as the SM7B??
 
I've got both and use both. Yes, it's worth mentioning that, in order of importance, mics are going to come in below the vocalist (and technique), and the room and even the mic placement (that is, bad mic placement can probably do more damage than a bad mic), but, by varying technique, experimenting with placement in the room, taking furniture like sofas and stuff in to account, you should be able to get good tracks with either mic, even in a sub-optimal room.

The SM7b is nice for when you have a loud source and you want to smooth out some rough edges a little. The output of the mic is low -that's *not a problem when mixing!* (if you're going digital, because you can just turn it up in the mix), but, depending on your signal chain, it can be annoying while tracking, because if you don't have a good way to boost the track in the monitoring headphones, the vocalist won't be able to hear it, and that may affect performance - you may be tempted to turn up the gain on the recording itself (which will have the effect of raising monitoring level), and actually go hotter than you needed to. Anyway, just a word of warning - this problem doesn't normally affect *real* studios, because they have full featured signal/monitoring chains and know how to use them, but it can cause issues in a home environment with folks like me.

The 4040 is a great mic, in my opinion. It's more detail-friendly than the SM7b, to be sure, but still somehow smooths away some harshness. If you have a high-quality, non-shouting/spitting source, you can do very well with one of these.

Can you get both? :)


PS, as far as nice dynamics go, there's no perfect substitute for the SM7b, and other dynamics which perform as well are usually more expensive, in my experience. That said, depending on the source and what you're going for, certain handheld dynamics (e.g., SM57, can do just fine)
 
There are good and bad for both.
I used to have an SM7b. I found it to need a lot of gain to get to line level. I'm also not a loud vocalist so I found I get right up on the mic. This then added a great deal of low end which for the timber of my particular voice tended to make the vocal tracks really mud filled and would require a good deal of EQ. Also for my Material, I didn't particularly like the sound of the vocal recorded a half inch away from the Mic but when I tried recording from a couple of feet away I had to dime my preamps and although they are not noisy preamps, I didn't like the sound of them being pushed that hard.

So bring on the condenser Mic. For me I much prefer my voice through a condenser, I can get a nice result from a couple of feet out without killing my preamps and I don't have to deal with a whole lot of proximity effect, but.... Now I have to be much more careful with plosives and sibliance and really work to get the right amount of off axis angle to get the right sound but avoiding the harsh S,P,B and T sounds. Also since I'm a few feet off the Mic, the room is now a bigger factor. Good room placement and creative use of blankets and duvets to get a better room sound are now more critical.

The best advice I can offer is to go into this with as much understanding of the strengths and the shortcomings of each option and try to pick the solution that plays to your (and your gear/situations) strengths.
If you have a music store that does rentals, that would be a great way to start since you could try a few options without having to pay outright up front.

Also trust your own ears and judgement. One man's muddy is anothers warm and lush, one man's harsh is anothers sparkling and detailed. There is no absolute right.or wrong answer
 
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re20 or md421 might come in a little cheaper used.

They're all a little different from eachother but similar in that the are all big dynamics and you can get very close to them quite safely.

SM7b i find to be very full. I like it if the voice has to fill out a big portion of the mix.

The re20 doesn't seem to need just as much gain but it's designed in such a way that proximity effect is eliminated.
(It doesn't get boomy if you're up close)
It sounds a little more scooped to me. Not as heavy in the mids and a little brighter than sm7b.

Md421 can be nice and to me is kinda like a middle ground.
Proximity effect is more pronounced on it as the capsule is much closer to the grill than with sm7b.
Possibly the cleanest/clearest of the three? Definitely so if it's a md421 II.


You can pick up an old 421 for about £160 on the bay.
 
antichef said:
I've got both and use both. Yes, it's worth mentioning that, in order of importance, mics are going to come in below the vocalist (and technique), and the room and even the mic placement (that is, bad mic placement can probably do more damage than a bad mic), but, by varying technique, experimenting with placement in the room, taking furniture like sofas and stuff in to account, you should be able to get good tracks with either mic, even in a sub-optimal room.

The SM7b is nice for when you have a loud source and you want to smooth out some rough edges a little. The output of the mic is low -that's *not a problem when mixing!* (if you're going digital, because you can just turn it up in the mix), but, depending on your signal chain, it can be annoying while tracking, because if you don't have a good way to boost the track in the monitoring headphones, the vocalist won't be able to hear it, and that may affect performance - you may be tempted to turn up the gain on the recording itself (which will have the effect of raising monitoring level), and actually go hotter than you needed to. Anyway, just a word of warning - this problem doesn't normally affect *real* studios, because they have full featured signal/monitoring chains and know how to use them, but it can cause issues in a home environment with folks like me.

The 4040 is a great mic, in my opinion. It's more detail-friendly than the SM7b, to be sure, but still somehow smooths away some harshness. If you have a high-quality, non-shouting/spitting source, you can do very well with one of these.

Can you get both? :)


PS, as far as nice dynamics go, there's no perfect substitute for the SM7b, and other dynamics which perform as well are usually more expensive, in my experience. That said, depending on the source and what you're going for, certain handheld dynamics (e.g., SM57, can do just fine)
Click to expand...
WOW, I can't believe you have both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Envying you right now lol.. I wish I can get both though, I'm still a student though so I don't really have the money.. Thanks for the detailed information, well when i record.. The only background noise there is is my computer & a fridge which is a couple of meters away which i think is the worst place to record.. If i get a new mic, i'm going to record in a different place.. Here's a sample of my vocals which was recorded with the At2020.. I mixed it alot though to get it sounding half decent..
I'll pm it to you..
 
Bristol Posse said:
There are good and bad for both.
I used to have an SM7b. I found it to need a lot of gain to get to line level. I'm also not a loud vocalist so I found I get right up on the mic. This then added a great deal of low end which for the timber of my particular voice tended to make the vocal tracks really mud filled and would require a good deal of EQ. Also for my Material, I didn't particularly like the sound of the vocal recorded a half inch away from the Mic but when I tried recording from a couple of feet away I had to dime my preamps and although they are not noisy preamps, I didn't like the sound of them being pushed that hard.

So bring on the condenser Mic. For me I much prefer my voice through a condenser, I can get a nice result from a couple of feet out without killing my preamps and I don't have to deal with a whole lot of proximity effect, but.... Now I have to be much more careful with plosives and sibliance and really work to get the right amount of off axis angle to get the right sound but avoiding the harsh S,P,B and T sounds. Also since I'm a few feet off the Mic, the room is now a bigger factor. Good room placement and creative use of blankets and duvets to get a better room sound are now more critical.

The best advice I can offer is to go into this with as much understanding of the strengths and the shortcomings of each option and try to pick the solution that plays to your (and your gear/situations) strengths.
If you have a music store that does rentals, that would be a great way to start since you could try a few options without having to pay outright up front.

Also trust your own ears and judgement. One man's muddy is anothers warm and lush, one man's harsh is anothers sparkling and detailed. There is no absolute right.or wrong answer
Click to expand...
Thanks for that info, yeh i don't think i've got a loud voice either.. Yeh i agree, need to see which mic will best suite my voice..
 
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