Holes in Mic Cabinet

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phosphene
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Phosphene

Phosphene

Horse Diaper
I have big holes in my mic collection. I don't own any ribbons or tubes. Here's a list of my mics, please throw out (any kind) mics that would round out what I have.

SM57 x 2
421 U5
441
D112
EV R-15
EV 635a
AT 4050CM5
KM184 x 2
414TLII
AKG 3000 (selling)
Baby Bottle
U195

I am an under $1500 kinda guy. I tried out a SP T3 and it was kinda cool. I have very limited contact with ribbons. I would imagine you would all recommend a ribbon.
 
Your mic collection is fine.

I always like to have a pair of reference-type condensers around, but that's just me. Something like Earthworks, Audix T-40, or even those cheap crappy Behringer ECM-8000's.

Tube and/or ribbon mics aren't absolute necessities, but if there happens to be one you really like, then get it.
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I would vote for the Beyer collection of Ribbons they are really great and useful on many applications. I own a pair of Beyer M260's, they are Hypercardioid and great for acoustic instruments and drums, very sensitive though so i wouldnt recommend them for vocals. The M160 and the M130 Figure of eight are both astounding mics. The M160 is great for vocals, in fact ive used it on a wide range of stuff and got great results of it.
 
i'll echo chessrock--you've got a perfectly acceptable mic collection as is.

but ones you might want to look at under $1500?

first and foremost, a Royer 121 or 122.

after that, maybe an SM7 or RE20.

you've already got a great vocal LDC in the U195.....but something along the lines of an SP T3 or MXL V77 might complement the U195 pretty well and give you a "decent enough" tube mic. i love my V77.

outside of that.....maybe look at getting a 2nd and or 3rd of something (421, 4050, etc) so that you can have a pair. i'm thinking 421's on toms, 4050's as overheads/room mics, etc.


cheers,
wade
 
Yeah, not shabby at all. He has several really nice dynamics, so I would look to a ribbon or two before an SM7 or RE20.... even though the SM7 rocks. I think I would also get a second AT4050 as they are so flipping useful. An AT4060 is a heck of a mic too. Past all fo those, despite having a lot of dynamics, maybe an e609 or i5 for another guitar cab flavor above the 57s and 421? Or an SM7. Or a boundary mic for kick drum flavor? Jeeze, you have some good stuff, so it is a tough call.
 
i can only imagine you have great stuff to compliment those mics...but what pres are you using? that might be a more worth-while quality upgrade.

as far as mics go...the AT 4060 is a tube mic and gets rave reviews on this board/interviewed engineers. i believe it's around 1100. the gt66 is supposed to be outstanding for the money...though very colored and different. you could probably pick up a pair of those in your budget.
 
The gt66 is a pretty nice mic. I often picked it over my baby bottle, just seems to sit better in a mix. You may also want to check out the sputnik by Maudio. It looks to me like Maudio has taken over the distrubution of groove tubes mics, there seem to be a lot of striking similarities between their mics and the now discontinues groove tubes mics.
 
I have heard but am waiting confirmation that our company in China will be making the GT mics under a different name. (I can't remember the name, but it didn't even resemble GT)
 
chessrock said:
I always like to have a pair of reference-type condensers around, but that's just me. Something like Earthworks, Audix T-40, or even those cheap crappy Behringer ECM-8000's.
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I've heard the term reference mic quite a bit, but I don't think I could give a definition of them. I think they are just totally uncharactured, uncolored mics? Please correct me.
 
tsl92802 said:
i can only imagine you have great stuff to compliment those mics...but what pres are you using? that might be a more worth-while quality upgrade.

as far as mics go...the AT 4060 is a tube mic and gets rave reviews on this board/interviewed engineers. i believe it's around 1100. the gt66 is supposed to be outstanding for the money...though very colored and different. you could probably pick up a pair of those in your budget.
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There are some holes here too.

I use a Roland VS1880, but for pres I use:

Avalon 737
Great River Me-1NV
Sytek (MPXii, I think)

I run them through my Apogee Rosetta and bypass the Roland pres/converters.
 
Phosphene said:
I've heard the term reference mic quite a bit, but I don't think I could give a definition of them. I think they are just totally uncharactured, uncolored mics? Please correct me.
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They are omni directional condensors used often for measurment purposes such as with an RTA.
 
Phosphene said:
I've heard the term reference mic quite a bit, but I don't think I could give a definition of them. I think they are just totally uncharactured, uncolored mics? Please correct me.
Click to expand...

Yea. Just very flat, accurate mics.

Great for when you want to get a hyper-realistic sound ... like the listener is "right there" in front of the drum kit (or whatever it is you're tracking).

With the right technique and experimentation, you can get some stunningly realistic stereo imaging ... which can be kind of cool. Provided everything sounds great in the room, obviously. Not for the accoustically challenged.

.
 
I don't know what a "reference mic" is. I have heard the term "measurement mic" quite often, which refers to small diaphragm omni-directional condensers that have a very flat frequency graph. Measurement mics are not always the best for music, because they are not necessarily designed to minimize self-noise.

But, the idea of having a pair of small diaphragm omnis is still excellent. The advantage of omnis is you can close mic without worrying about proximity effect. This makes them great for things like pianos and harps, and since they are extremely accurate at very high frequencies (i.e. they pass the "jangling keys" test) they are excellent for hand percussion, epecially things like triangle and tambourine that have an abundance of high end.

I use a pair of Earthworks QTC-1's quite a bit. But Earthworks makes some other models that should do the job that would fall into your budget.

If you are mic'ing a lot of guitar amps and are not thrilled with your sound, maybe you should get that ribbon mic (Royer 121, etc), but if you already feel you have guitar amp covered, I'd go with a pair of small omnis.
 
littledog said:
If you are mic'ing a lot of guitar amps and are not thrilled with your sound, maybe you should get that ribbon mic (Royer 121, etc), but if you already feel you have guitar amp covered, I'd go with a pair of small omnis.
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Good point. To answer your question with a question, Is there any particular quality you feel is lacking in any specific application?

You already have a great collection, the only thing that I see really missing is a matched pair of SD or LD condensers for stereo recording. If you're ever recording drums, you'd want a decent kick mic (maybe an AKG D112) and a pair of SDCs or reference/measurement mics, but, otherwise, you've got pretty much everything else covered.
 
Daniel Reichman said:
Good point. To answer your question with a question, Is there any particular quality you feel is lacking in any specific application?

You already have a great collection, the only thing that I see really missing is a matched pair of SD or LD condensers for stereo recording. If you're ever recording drums, you'd want a decent kick mic (maybe an AKG D112) and a pair of SDCs or reference/measurement mics, but, otherwise, you've got pretty much everything else covered.
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I have the KM184s, but yea, they are definatly NOT matched (different colors!). I have an AKG D112 already.
 
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