Home Studio Start-up (Microphone Dilemmas)

[thecyclegoeson]

Howdy. I'm starting up a small home studio, and I have a number of questions to those of you who are willing to dispense advice. I know a little bit about recording arleady, but this is the first time I've had to start from scratch, and I don't have a Nuemann budget to work on.

Obviously I'll need one good large-diaphragm condenser for vocals- the question is what would be the best microphone to capture a rock tenor voice (say a voice similar Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Gnecco, or Raine Maida)? If there's a good answer to that under $200, it would be nice.

Another question I had was concerning guitar amp mics. I'm going to be building a number of iso-cabs for amps to save us money, and I plan on permanently mounting mics in the iso-cabs. I've had to mic amps before, and I know that I'm NOT going with an SM-57. I'm looking into Sennheiser E609 for the guitar cabs and a Shure PG52-XLR for the bass. I'm not sure if those are good choices, but I've read good reviews on both mics.

My band's sound runs the gamut, so I need versatile mics that will capture both the crisp high end of a delay laiden guitar and the thump of an overdriven monster. I'd like to also stay under $200 for these, and if there are any alternatives for amp mics that you have, please, let me know.

If that's not a challenge to the recording elite, I don't know what is. Please, let me know what tips you've got. Anything at this point would be a HUGE help.

Peace, Love, and Bananas.
-Steve

 

[DJL]

Hi Steve... I see no one has tried to help you yet, so I'll try. You really need to audition some mics to find the one YOU like best for vocals. With that said... I recommend checking out a Shure SM7, it may be a little out of your price range... but, you should at least audition one none the less. There is not too much to pick from in the $200 LDC mic range for vox... but, you could checkout some mics like the CAD M179, Marshall MXL V67G and etc.

The Shure PG series mics suck eggs IMO... but the Sennheiser E609 is a good guitar amp mic... one of my favorites is the Sennheiser MD421.

Anyway, I hope this helps you.

Best wishes,
Don

 

[noncon]

Hi Steve, I'm sure you will get a wide variety of responses that will point you in the right direction. From reading the board it seems like there are certain Studio Projects (B1, B3, C1) and MXLs (603, V67, V69) that would definitely be worth checking out in your price range.

If you haven't browsed through it already, take a look at:

http://www.hr-faq.org/

 

[thecyclegoeson]

OK... so I'll check out the MXLs and the Studio Projects. I've heard nothing but good things about the Shure SM7 (Johnny Rzeznik recorded all of Gutterflower on one SM7), but they do sound a bit pricey. The Sennheiser sounds like the one to go with for guitar amps, so I'm buying two of those. The quetion that remains is what to do for my bassist's iso-cab. He needs a mic to throw in there, and I don't really know of many bass friendly amp mics. Suggestions? Keep the feedback coming. It helps.

 

[noncon]

From looking around the board it seems there's a lot of suggestions for bass amp mics, but almost everyone agrees that going direct through a quality DI is a good idea, either by itself or blended in with the cab sound.

Some have suggested that a good mic for a bass amp is one that would work well on a kick (Shure Beta 52 mentioned a few times), but others have also made the point that it depends on what sound you are after. The Sennheiser MD421 and Beyer M88 were mentioned very often as excellent for bass cab, but I think they're out of your price range.