Cheap Matched SDC Condensers for Acoustic Guitar?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robertt8
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Robertt8

Robertt8

Well-known member
Looking for a good cheap matched pair of small diaphragm cardioid condensers for recording acoustic guitar (fairly natural sound) and possibly use on drum overheads. Has anyone come across anything that could easily flip the bill for under $400 total?

If there are any little gems out there that anyone knows about for far less, well...that would be even better.
 
Audiopile 300C.

Don't be fooled by the price. Whomever wrote the description on their site was being modest.

I have a pair and they sound so good I never use my other SDC mics anymore. I've used these for overhead, snare, and strings. They don't offer a response chart for some reason. But they do sound smooth and natural. I have not noticed any "hype" in their frequency response.

http://www.audiopile.net/products/Microphones/300C/300C_cutsheet.shtml

You asked for little known gems. In my opinion this is it. (The EWI cables on their site kick ass too.)
 
Studio Projects C-4's. Cardioid and omni capsules, sound better to me on acoustic than the MXL 603/604. Well matched, good service, flight case and shock mounts included. What's not to love?-Richie
 
There's a good SDC shoot-out review, including mention of Richie, in the latest Tape Op mag. Has anyone already posted the results? If not, I'll add them later this weekend.
 
jeffree said:
There's a good SDC shoot-out review, including mention of Richie, in the latest Tape Op mag. Has anyone already posted the results? If not, I'll add them later this weekend.
Click to expand...

I wish you would. I can't find the article to save my ass. I know what *my* selections were, but I am interested in the overall results. Wow- what an intimidating excercise that was-Richie
 
Yeah, I participated as well. And it was hard!! I have the magazine around here somewhere. I'll see if I can find it. I was a bit surprised by some of the my own choices as well as others.
 
The Tape Op review's two pages (July/Aug 2009), with mics broken down by price point and a lot of disagreement evident. Here's the overall group of mics that received 7 or more votes from the 21-member panel:

In alphabetical order:

AKG C451 EB
AT 4021
B & K 4011
Beyer MC 930
Charter Oak M900
DPA 4099
Jim Williams-modded AKG C 460 B
Mark Fouxman-modded Octava MK-012
Mercenart Auio KM-69
Milab DC-06B
Milab VM44
Neumann KM 184
Nevaton MC49
Rode NT5
Sanken CO-100K
Schoeps CMC/MK5 omni
Shre KSM141
Sony C-535p
Violet Design Gold-Finger

Regarding the low-end SDCs requested by the OP... Mike Jasper, the writer, noted that three mics stood out in the under-$300 category:

MXL V67N ($129)
Naiant X-M omni with transformer ($69)
AT 4021 ($249)

He especially praised the AT 4021: " it easily surpassed higher-numbered AT models" including the 4041 and 4031 and has noise specs that "were some of best of any mic in any price class".

It's a good read, overall, but I'm reminded again of how much disagreement there is, even among pros, about mics, pres, monitors, and well, just about everything musical. Makes me feel better in a way about my low-end stuff.
 
I swear, for an article that so many people worked on for so long, it is like a closely guarded secret government file. An extensive search of Tape Op's web site and a Google and Yahoo search only turned up one link that I cannot access, and a lot of references *to* it. Will somebody please tell me where is the damned article, and do I actually have to subscribe to Tape Op to read it?-Richie
 
I once had a subscription to tape-op...but I had to drop it when things got tight arround here.:cool::p

Does anyone have this article who can scan it and put it in this thread?
 
Tape Op doesn't release their articles online until after a year. Please don't scan and post here, I will have to remove due to copyright.
 
Sorry...I meant send it to me and Ill put a link to in this thread.
 
You guys do know that Tape Op's free, right? The best deal in town.
 
Thank you for your clarification MS. Even if Tape Op is free, they have a right to manage their intellectual property as they see fit.-Richie
 
I'd get two adk vienna's. They are surprisingly cheap now the last time I looked on ebay. I wouldn't worry about getting them matched either.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
Sorry...I meant send it to me and Ill put a link to in this thread.
Click to expand...

Then I will remove the link under this provision of the TOS:

TOS said:
By clicking the Agree button, you warrant that you will not post any messages on this BBS that are:

• Requesting for or posting of serial numbers, direct links to cracks or any other information that violates copyright laws or any other laws protecting intellectual property;
Click to expand...

And you'll get a week's vacation from the boards.
 
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