Budget Small Diaphram Condensers, MXL 993s, Piano, and Stands

[JJJackFrost]

Hey Homerecording, I bothered you guys a while ago (https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=3126225 in case you're interested) about micing upright piano on a 300 dollar budget. You guys recommended a bunch of stuff. I began putting away money to get the Studio Projects C4s with the intention of borrowing any vocal mics from friends of mine.

However, an opportunity has come up. Craigslist turned up a matched pair of MXL 993s. I've heard mixed thngs about these and I'd like your opinions. Essentially, I could get this used pair for 80$.

If I get these, I need mic stands. Hell, even if I don't I need mic stands. I recently learned not all mic stands are created equal and I was wondering what your advice would be.

These stands only serve to hold mics while I recording Upright Piano. Any suggestions?

I'm kind of eager to get this done because the school year is almost up. Any recording I'm doing is going to be done at a college around an hour away that has a fairly soundproof room with a much better piano than I could afford.

I appreciate all your responses.

 

[JJJackFrost]

Oh, and also as far as accessories go, I've heard people talk about how essential decent cables are. Any suggestions on those would be appreciated.

 

[dgatwood]

Cables basically don't matter. I mean obviously you don't want a cable that is defective, and more expensive cables should last longer before they fail... maybe... but in terms of the sound, there's not a dime's worth of difference unless you are in an electrically noisy environment like a light booth (in which case you might benefit from star quad or similar).

I think this post sums up my opinion on the subject:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showpost.php?p=2994524&postcount=2

From that post:

Put another way, with the exception of actual miswiring of the cables (failing to hook up the ground pin, failing to hook up a signal pin, or hooking two cables with ungrounded shields together), the components of a good recording in order from most important to least important:

• performance (voice quality, musicality)
• room/location (environmental noise, reflections, etc.)
• song (does it suck?)
• competence of the engineer (including microphone placement, mixing ability, etc.)
• microphone
• preamp
• converters
• dithering vs. truncation vs. rounding
• dithering algorithm
• clock jitter
• use of balanced vs. unbalanced line-level interconnects
• color of the performer's jacket
• phase of the moon
• barometric pressure
• mic cable quality

 

[JJJackFrost]

So anyway I got them a couple days ago and picked up some chords.

I get some pretty high screeching if I turn up the gain enough to get some good volume on acoustic guitar in a normal room. Is this just condensers? I mean, these are my first condensers and they're sensitive as fuck. It's like listening to what I heard played back, just shittier. Heh.

I mean, I guess I'm just paranoid about cords. I got the live wire advantage cables, I think they're guitar center brand.

Yeah, I just used to have some horrible, horrible cables that were just the worst thing ever, so when something goes wrong I immediately think it's the cables.

Anyway, any recommendations on stands to get and positioning for when I go to recording upright piano?

 

[dgatwood]

Anyway, any recommendations on stands to get and positioning for when I go to recording upright piano?

Yeah. Use stands.

But seriously, I personally like the Tama stands if you're looking for a good all-around mic stand, but for that purpose, you could probably use any cheap low profile stand and get by with it.

A common arrangement is one mic up near the top end, one near the bottom end, both about halfway up the soundboard, spaced a few inches out from the soundboard. I've also seen people take out the kick board (the front face of the piano that the pianist kicks clumsily as he/she sits down about half the time) and put mics on the inside of the piano at the bottom in a similar arrangement.

 

[JJJackFrost]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions man, I appreciate it.

 

[dkelley]

the 993 is imho the worst sdc you can buy.

it has a HUGE HF lift over the entire upper range that peaks at 10 db (!!).

i'm sorry to say it, but I find the 663 (which I also dislike) FAR superior to the 993.

I guarantee you can get decent recordings out of them, but you have to compensate wildly for that huge, super low Q resonance issue in the HF region.

they're cheap, but then it's for a reason I guess.

but anyway, if you have them or whatever just remember you'll need to tame that high frequency area like mad. look at the frequency response chart for the mic on mxl.com for an idea of what is obviously wrong with that mic.

cheers and sorry for my opinion being negative this time

Don

 

[dkelley]

and as for cables, if they connect, they work. they shouldn't pick up noise etc unless they're utter crap from a back alley. yes, better cables are more resistent to noise, and may affect the tone less of the mic. but the differences are all very very subtle and aren't worth worrying about unless you have very expensive gear in a very controlled recording environment or are getting paid well for your recordings.

same with stands to a point. it takes pretty pricey stands to not pick up lots of floor noise. all cheap ones, while not created equally, do tend to all suffer from lots of rumble issues and your mics WILL require decent shockmounts. most chinese mics come with shockmounts, they are better than nothing certainly.

but again, those mics, I'd rather use almost any pair of LDCs than those "matched" sdcs. I'd be surprised if they were really matched at all, why would mxl bother for the price? but anyway, they look great, they do pick up sound, they're really in your face tone-wise and very bright.

cheers
Don

 

[JJJackFrost]

Oh, that's a shame. But since I bought the pair for only 80 I'm sure I'll be able to resell it for around that.

Thanks to you all for the input though, much appreciated.