Is my list good for a home studio?

  • Thread starter Thread starter atifkt
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atifkt

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Due to payment problems I cannot import the products I wanted to in India and have found a dealer who is officially signed with the manufacturers and is selling me the microphones and equipment for their original prices.

My List is -

* Focusrite scarlett 2i2 audio Interface
* Shure Sm58/ Audio Technica At2020/35 ( Tell me which microphone I should Go for )
 
If importing is an issue, I'd look at the used market.
Keep an eye on local adds. I presume there's ebay in india (that's not meant to be a joke or jab).

It may be your best bet.

I think maybe 3 of my mics were bought new. I have about 30 or so.

If you can lay your hands to an NT1a or something like that it's a fine enough mic. I don't know about the AT models.
A 58 is a great vocal mic, but a lot of people wouldn't rely on it for 'proper studio use'.
I would if it fits.

Maybe there's something in the classifieds on here?
 
I just wanna know how you knew atifkt was from India, Paul.

Must be a huge import tax then to purchase off of ebay?
 
atikft has been agonising over this purchase for months now, Henry...and at Indian prices I fully understand.

Import duties there are insane. Back when I was working in news, we wanted to ship a new camera kit to Delhi. Typical cost of a Betacam kit was between $50 and $60 thousand dollars. They wanted to charge us over $100,000 in duty to officially import the gear.

Without going into details, we, er, found a slightly unofficial route....

For the OP, the Focusrite is a nice interface so no problem there. For the mic, I'd go with one of the AT condensers--I'd lean towards the 2035 for the pad and HPF both of which can be useful.
 
Between the At and mxl v67g which would be a better choice?

If I had to make the choice - I would go with the AT2035. but that's just me.

There must be a huge black market in India!
 
haha cant risk it in the black market. You wont come to know if its the original audio technica.

THough rather than the mxl i've come to a different choice.

* at2020/35
* akg perception 120
* Shure sm58
* Rode nt1a

WHich mic would you prefer?>
 
If it weren't for the horrible import prices, I'd suggest a CAD M179. But if my quick Google search is any indication, for what those things cost from dealers in India, it would be cheaper to order an M9 (which is a great vocal mic, IMO) from Amazon and pay the shipping and import duties to bring it there from the 'States! Yikes! :D

The AT2020 is a decent workhorse mic for most purposes. It is passable for vocals, but there are better choices for that. My memory is that it works well on (acoustic) guitar, cello, etc. Incidentally, this mic is under $63 from B&H. Even with 26% import duty, you'll still probably come out ahead, particularly if you buy several things so you can bundle the shipping costs.

Although I have not used it personally, I'd expect the AT2035 to be very similar to the AT2020 in terms of overall usability. According to various reviewers, it pretty much sounds the same as the AT2020, just less noisy (and thus a bit better for recording quiet instruments, such as acoustic guitar).

If you can find any of the Chinese ribbon mics (Nady, Apex, T.Bone, ShinyBox, Cascade, etc.), those can be good choices for a lot of things where the 2020 would be less than ideal (e.g. vocals, brass, etc.).

I wouldn't waste money on an SM58 unless you're either gigging or recording acoustic drums. It's a great mic for live sound reinforcement because it rejects feedback pretty well. It tends to be usable for almost anything, but it is rarely the best choice. I can't think of any situation where I'd pick an SM58 over an AT2020 except for drums (because A. you're close-miking something loud, and B. drummers have a tendency to hit microphones with their sticks).
 
So the first thing I tried was to to get the product imported from amazon but my payment was rejected. They have weird payment process. Secondly I also thought that if the products were damaged it would be a time consuming process to get them returned.

And the Cad M179 costs almost 400$ here.

And what about the the akg 120 and rode nt1a. Are they good for rap or vocals?
 
Which would be a better microphones?

Akg Perception 120
Audio Technica at2020
Mxl v67g

For what? Vocals? Probably the MXL, if I were guessing, but it's just a guess. It's the only LDC out of the three.
 
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