Mic Preamps

[Stealthtech]

I received an email from a client asking about mics.
Im not an expert in this field but would like to give him some advice on this subject. So for those of you that know this stuff well, please give a brief comment on the following questions if you feel you can.

Quote:

1) When a person shops for a microphone preamp, what do you look for?

2) Do you purchase two types of preamps, one for studio condenser mics that use 48v phantom and one for vocal stage mikes that do not require 48v phantom power? Do you purchase a single mic unit or a dual mic unit or both? Or what?

3) Could you explain what a good studio microphone setup consists of so I can work on getting there?

 

[alanhyatt]

1) When a person shops for a microphone preamp, what do you look for?

2) Do you purchase two types of preamps, one for studio condenser mics that use 48v phantom and one for vocal stage mikes that do not require 48v phantom power? Do you purchase a single mic unit or a dual mic unit or both? Or what?

3) Could you explain what a good studio microphone setup consists of so I can work on getting there?

Stealth,

This is an open ended question. Do you need a mono mic amp, a stereo unit, 4 channels, eight channels, solid state, tube, both...? What application is your client after? This information will help.

Having more mic pres is better than having just one, but one that has 48V with a defeat switch will work for studio and live application. What features are you needing? Do you need inserts, phase reverse, Mic/line switch etc.?

As for what a good setup consists of, well that is a microphone and mic amp you or your client are happy with. There is so much to choose from. What is the clients budget?

Sorry, but you need to be more specific for more detailed answers....

 

[Richard Monroe]

Grasshopper, you ask BIG questions. In a sense, this entire forum is the last, best, answer to your questions. But I will try-

1. What do you *listen* for, not look for. Low noise. high gain. Some pres are "clean". They don't change the sound, they just make it louder. Some are *colored*. They have a personality. They introduce selective distortion which can make music sound much better, or much worse. I recommend 2 channels of each, the best your budget can take. Cheap ones-$80 Excellent ones- $800-$2500 per channel. I'm sorry, expensive ones are usually better, which means your sound is better. Cheap- M Audio Audiobuddy and DMP3, Studio Projects VTB-1 moderate-Joemeek VC1Qcs, FMR Audio RNP, Grace 101 High end- Avalon, Great River, Pendulum, and a host of others. If the mic is the brush, preamps are the paint of recorded music. Good mics need good preamps. Which leads into-

2. I prefer pairs of channels, so you have 2 similar channels for stereo mic'ing. At least one clean pair, and one colored pair.
You don't need special preamps for dynamics. You can just turn the phantom power off, which won't hurt them anyway.

3. This is the biggest question. What mics you need has everything to do with what you will record, and the room or rooms you will do it in, about which I know nothing. However, there are several main types you will want. I will make a couple suggestions in categories, but YMMV.

Main vocal condenser mic. Usually a large diaphragm. Cheap-Studio Projects B-1, MXL V67B middle level- B.L.U.E. Dragonfly, Neumann TLM103 High end-Neumann U87 many offerings by Soundelux, AKG, Shure, etc.
Probably a good 25% or more of the mic cabinet budget will be spent on this mic. For a real pro commercial setup, you collect these like baseball cards.

All purpose instrument mics. often used in pairs
large Diaphrgm- B-1, AKG C414B-ULS are favorites of mine.
small diaphragm- wait for Studio Projects C-4! cheap-MXL603 cool-Neumann KM184. Notice a pattern here? Personally, for cheap mics, I like lots of stuff, but most of the time, a Neumann will be just fine, if you can pay for it. You should have a pair of big ones, and a pair of small ones.

kick drum- I like AKG D112. I've heard old D12's are wonderful.

cheap dynamics.- a moment of relief! Something is cheap! Shure SM57. Many things that start with EV are good. Sennheiser 441- way cool. 2-4 is good. Use for drums and guitar cabs, or almost anything else.

high end dynamics- Where more detail is desired- snare, vocals, some guitar cabs, especially clean- Shure SM7 and Sennheiser 421 seem to have dedicated fans, including me. EV shows up here as well. have 2-4 to go.

tube mic- good for adding color to a thinner voice or instrument. Cheap- Studio Projects TB-1. I like Rode NTK and Studio Projects T-3 in the middle range. I also believe a B.L.U.E. Cactus or a Neumann U47 would be cool, when I win the lottery. One of these is often the main vocal mic. I think you need at least one of each for vocals. Tube mics, however cool, don't work well for everything.

Ribbon mics- Need good preamps because their signal tends to be weak. Delicate and silky, especially good for jazz or vintage swing. For cheap (not really), Oktava ML52, M-17, Big Time- Coles, Royer, RCA.

There are many more specialty types, many made for broadcast or movies and adapted for music, like shotguns, boundary/PZM's, a whole world of technobabble, but if you cover the bases I outlined above, you will build a respectable mic cabinet. Start with dynamics, because they're cheap and simple. Then add instrument mics, and finally, the vocal mic that works best for the singer you have. The hard part, aside from the money is that the mic that sounds good on one singer (or violin, or song, or key, or weeknight) doesn't sound good on the other, so you need to have options. The ultimate goal is to have every possible option, and the skill and luck to find the right one quickly. The frightening part is that after you shell out all the money for those mics, some guy with better ears than you is going to make a better recording than you, because he knew the right place to put the SM57! Oh well, hope this helps.-Richie