Best budget LDC?

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thomasrolewis

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Hi

Im looking into buying a LDC for as a good all round studio microphone, however there is alot of choice. Im looking to spend no more than around 250 pounds.

I have looked at Rode nt1000, nt1a, nt2, nt2a. AKG C3000b, AKG C214 and he usual suspects inbetween.

I have decided to go for a C214, this decision is based upon the quality of the c414, as apparently it has a very near similar tone on cardiod to the c214. Also i decided this because its a very renowned microphone and evan when i start to expand my collection it is good enough to keep around.

what are our views? is this a wise decision? any advice would be apprisiated!

thanks
 
My favorite budget LCD is an SDC. AKG C2000B, is IMHO, a much better all-around mic than a C3000. The C214 I've never used, but if it is anything like it's elder brother, C414, it will rock on acoustic instruments, piano, and percussion, and will be hit and miss as a vocal mic, more miss than hit. It works for Celine Dion. Will it work for Willie Nelson? Maybe not. My honorable mention goes to B.L.U.E. Baby Bottle in that price range. For a low mid-priced Swiss Army knife, C2000B has performed very well for me. Hell, I'd go for a pair just to use them them as overheads, and as a stereo pair.-Richie
 
Hey Richie!

Saw a TV special with Willie Nelson a few years ago. He was using C414's for guitar and vocals on that occasion.
 
omtayslick said:
Hey Richie!

Saw a TV special with Willie Nelson a few years ago. He was using C414's for guitar and vocals on that occasion.
Click to expand...

See? Maybe not, but maybe yes. There's no telling what mic will work for any given vocalist. Then again, could just be that C414's were what they had.-Richie
 
omtayslick said:
Hey Richie!
Saw a TV special with Willie Nelson a few years ago. He was using C414's for guitar and vocals on that occasion.
Click to expand...



I don't know ...Willie may have been stoned out of his mind and when asked what mic he preferred he said "4-20" and the engineer got as close to that as he could.:laughings:



:cool:
 
Richard Monroe said:
See? Maybe not, but maybe yes. There's no telling what mic will work for any given vocalist. Then again, could just be that C414's were what they had.-Richie
Click to expand...

moresound said:
I don't know ...Willie may have been stoned out of his mind and when asked what mic he preferred he said "4-20" and the engineer got as close to that as he could.:laughings:



:cool:
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with both of you. I just thought it was funny after what Richie said.
 
haha, In my experience the c414 has always sounded nice on vocals. But then again i dont have much experience hence why im asking advice!

I will check the C2000b out, i beleive my university has one. are you talking about the AKG blue model mics?
 
Another vote here for the 214.

Depending on the voices you're recording the NT1000 or NT2a could work real nice as well.


Charlie
www.intuneaudio.ca
 
thomasrolewis said:
haha, In my experience the c414 has always sounded nice on vocals. But then again i dont have much experience hence why im asking advice!

I will check the C2000b out, i beleive my university has one. are you talking about the AKG blue model mics?
Click to expand...

No. The AKG Perception series are blue. They are made in China, and are relatively good examples of a standard cheap Chinese condenser. and can be OK for some things. C2000B is made in Austria. It was developed for instrument recording, with a nod toward live sound stages, and is used quite a bit for classical instruments as a spot mic. Because they didn't sell as well as hoped, you can often find them used for $100-$150. New ones are like $329.

I've often described it as not the first mic I put up for anything, but the second mic I put up for everything. For some vocalists, it is the ticket, but there's almost nothing it can't be used on. It is interesting that on my list of AKG mics preferred for various applications, it is selected by AKG engineers in preference to the C414 on several sources. I use it on those vocalists it works on, guitar cabs as the go-to mic, toms, hand percussion, Djembe/doumbek. I used to use it on acoustic guitar, where it's been mostly replaced by a C414 and a pair of KM184's. It's simply the mic where I say, "Oh, the Kiwi and the 414 are already being used, and I need another mic..." It has won out over quite a few mics as "another mic".
 
omtayslick said:
Hey Richie!
Saw a TV special with Willie Nelson a few years ago. He was using C414's for guitar and vocals on that occasion.
Click to expand...


TV is much like the internet. Ignore half of what you see and don't believe the other half.
The special you had seen, with the use of the C414s, may have been due to some backroom promotion trade off deal.
Where as if Willie was to be filmed shown using the 414s, AKG would in turn do something say like......pay for his tour bus rental for a season of touring.
A lot of wacky deals are often struck that make no sense in real life applications! It just falls back onto the all mighty dollar and how to make more of them.



:cool:
 
I've had some vocals sound fabulous through my NT1000 and then have had others sounds not so fantastic, but it also works nice on almost anything else I throw at so it was well worth the 400 dollars I paid for it.

Just my .02
-Barrett
 
thomasrolewis said:
Hi

Im looking into buying a LDC for as a good all round studio microphone, however there is alot of choice. Im looking to spend no more than around 250 pounds.

I have looked at Rode nt1000, nt1a, nt2, nt2a. AKG C3000b, AKG C214 and he usual suspects inbetween.

I have decided to go for a C214, this decision is based upon the quality of the c414, as apparently it has a very near similar tone on cardiod to the c214. Also i decided this because its a very renowned microphone and evan when i start to expand my collection it is good enough to keep around.

what are our views? is this a wise decision? any advice would be apprisiated!

thanks
Click to expand...

Well your talking in pounds so the natural choices that we have here in the US would cost you a lot in taxes.
What are your choices where you live?
That is why I all ways tell people to put in their location in their personal settings so as to not recommend a piece of gear that can't be purchased where they live, and if they can purchase it, would cost a lot !



:cool:
 
I've never heard a C214, but I can say- if it sounds like a C414, you could do a lot worse. The 414 is one of my go-to mics, for almost any acoustic instrument, almost any percussion. Good on piano, good as a drum overhead. It's been used on cabs extensively. Good on strings. Works on some vocalists, usually good ones. You see it on the studio shots of American Idol. Makes sense, because it is a good teaching mic. It reports whatever you did, including the sucking. I prefer C2000B on other sources. Singers who aren't American Idol material, cheap guitars, strings, because it tends to airbrush bow scratch, and percussion in general. They are both worthy mics. The 414 is also a great stereo pair, but two of them does cut into the budget a bit. The B.L.U.E. Baby Bottle is also a pretty good mic in the 214's price range.. I'm pretty sure that the 214 won't be everything you want for vocals, but it will be a very good all-around mic. - Richie
 
moresound said:
Well your talking in pounds so the natural choices that we have here in the US would cost you a lot in taxes.
What are your choices where you live?
That is why I all ways tell people to put in their location in their personal settings so as to not recommend a piece of gear that can't be purchased where they live, and if they can purchase it, would cost a lot !



:cool:
Click to expand...

I will be buying online, so there isnt much problem with avalibility. Over here tax is included in the price as standard. Iv looked around alot and there isnt much difference in price wherever i look, maybe 10 pounds at a push.

is the c2000b a fixed pattern mic?
 
Yes. C2000B is a fixed cardioid mic, with a -10dB pad and a high pass filter 6dB/octave below 500 Hz. Want to see flat? Here's a no-hype frequency curve for ya-

http://www.akg.com/mediendatenbank2/psfile/datei/61/C2000B4055c229ec0b0.pdf

Of course, frequency curves don't tell you what a mic sounds like, just what it picks up. And they can be made to lie, but not, I think, in this case. In considerable mic shootouts, C2000B compares favorably to Neumann KM184, which is not bad for a cheap mic. The good part is- it sounds like an Austrian mic to me, or a Russian mic, but not a Chinese mic. There some things that bumped high midrange sound is good for, but a workhorse isn't one of them. I must say, I do like MXL V67G, which although cheap and Chinese made, doesn't have too much of that hype.-Richie
 
wow, thats pretty good. Im deffinatly going to look into this microphone, might try and borrow my university's.

Thanks alot Richie! and to everyone else who helped!
 
If the University has got one, do it. What you hear when you plug it into your gear is 1000% more important than what I think about it. If they have one, I bet you this much. You may decide it doesn't give you the sound you are looking for, but I doubt you'll come back and say it sucks. I got my first one used at Guitar Center for $99. The salesman, who gave me invaluable advice when I was building my studio, when asked why I should buy it, said, "because it's a good mic for $99. You're going to need a bunch of mics." Damned if he wasn't right. I bought my second for $150, and traded it for something I really wanted, regretted it, and bought another from Bob's Mods, used. He said he never modded it because there was basically nothing wrong with it. I think you could clean it up and make it sound like a Neumann, but I want it to actually do what it does. I think there are other mics where there is more to be gained by modding, such as MXL V67G and Oktava MK319. I've got a recording of a 60 voice choir I did with a pair of them on a Zoom H4n, and it has actually made money! I'll be recording them again in August because they liked the recording so much. No doubt, the little suckers are workhorses.-Richie
 
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