Mic Advice

[Skaarface]

Any advice on a relatively inexpensive mic with good all around performance? I don't have any experience with home recording but would like to start recording an array of accoustical instruments. For example, I would like to record some hand drums (congas, djembe) and require a mic that would be able to pick up ghost touches and sounds that are less audible than others but are still important to rythyms. I'm sure that I will probably need to get more than one mic in the future but I need some direction to get started. Oh, yeah... I will be recording via my PC and a friend recommended FAsoft recording software. A good investment or no?

 

[El Barto]

What do you classify as relatively inexpensive? You could get the Shure SM57 ($79, plus a cable) which is the standard for recording basicly (everyone has at least one), but you might not get that perfect clear sound with it. What you might be looking for is a good condensor mic. They're more sensitive, give you a better quality sound, etc. A good one would be the RODE NT1, which is pretty popular around the recording world, especially home recording. This will cost you $200, plus you'll need a 48V phantom power adapter (Rolls sells one for $30-$40), plus 2 cables for that. It'll be a little more expensive but it's perfect for your situation. You can record everything you named and it'll sound great. But I have to warn you, if you're anything like me (or a lot of other people around here), home recording is a drug. You think "Oh, well this will be enough." Then you find out you want 8 tracks instead of 4, you wanna mic each drum instead of 2 overheads, you wanna compress, limit, boost signals...AGH! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!! !!