My best vocal mic is
a Beyer M260 ribbon that I sent to Stephen sank for repair - he puts in an RCA 77DX ribbon and the mic then sounds like the RCA... quite close though I have never sung through a 77. It sounds really good, as good in its own way as the Lawson which I liked as much as any Neuman I ever sang through. I also have the cardiod version of the ksm44, a ksm32 and I use that sometimes through the DVC. It also works well. I have used a borrowed at4060 an that I also like a lot, haven't tried the 4050. The only problem with the DVC is it doesn't have huge amounts of gain so it only just squeeks by with the Beyer which is low output. I make up a little gain by twisting up the output on the comp section. I am building another preamp to solve that problem.
For the money the DVC is awesome. I like it because it is very easy to use an dial in a good sound... I only use my ears for stuff because engineering theory is too hard. I just twist knobs until things sound right and the DVC just has a few knobs that do the right thing when I'm recording voice. For the money I think it is a great value. I also use the direct in for bass... quite cool with the EQ and el-op compressor. I mean if you can afford
a Voxbox I would go for it but the DVC does really well for about $15-1600 I think from Fletcher. I lucked out an got one a week old one from a friend of a friend.
You can use the pre and comp section seperately btw which comes in very
handy.
Oh an the Beyer can be bought for anywhere from $150 to $300+ use, I have one from the 60s, and may have a whacke ribbon but the Sank repair is only $125. You can call Stephen an yak about it.. he's cool an knows what he is doing.
hth,
Kiira
http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec