microphone for recording Brass

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baxman

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I have a marshall mxl 1006 and a shure sm 57. I am looking for a mic that will give me good results recording brass maybe a little darker sound than I am getting. Any one have a favorite for recording Brass?
 
Given your current collection, these are probably out of the question. But my choices would include ribbon mics like the Royer 121 or the Coles.
 
Brass Mic < $200

I have about $200 to buy a ribbon mike it sound like the royer is out of my budget. What would you recommendin this price range? I have a behringer mx2004 will this work for a pre-amp for ribbon type mics?

Thanks,
 
Would you mind telling the nature of music? If you are recording a ska band I would say you could use the sm57. But if you are recording a brass quintet, I would say go get your self some small diaphram condensors like the mxl603, or some octavas and find a church with good acoustics and ask if you can borrow it for 2 hours.

I think I have heard somewhere that a Sennheiser md421 is pretty good for close micing brass instuments. I would say any quality dynamic mic that you would use to mic a kick drum would work. Maybe an AKG D112 or a ATMPro25?? Maybe somebody with more experience with this will answer your post a little later.

Those are my suggestions though.
Beezoboy
 
Shure SM81.
Great mic for small acoustic instruments.
They run about $350USD retail. Might could find one on e-bay for less.
 
boycott Behringer

they reverse-engineer all their shite- everything they make is stolen from other companies
 
The advantage to ribbon mics is that they take some of the "edge" off that you would get if your were close mic'ing brass with something like the SM81. Since you were asking about a darker sound, this was the obvious answer.

On the other hand, using a kick drum mic might be too dark, although it's always worth a try if you have one lying around. I have used an ATM25 on trombone, but found i had to add a lot of hi EQ later.

There are a series of ribbon mics by Beyer that can be found used for around that price. They're a little noisier than the Royers, but still nice mics. Maybe someone can remind me of the model numbers... I believe M280 was one, but there are a couple of others.

The small diaphragm condensers would be very useful for room mics, or mic'ing from more of a distance, like in classical recordings. That would imply you need to first find a room with a good sound.
 
Beyer m260 (used for under 200$)
AKG 414b uls (borrow? only condesor that I know that works for Brass)
Sennheiser 421 (under 200$ used, look out for the grey one, the newer black ones have a presence peak that makes them sound a bit "spitty" on Brasses, albeit this might work for trombone)
beyer m201

try to put the mic off axis, do not point it straight into the bell (brass instruments are constructed to sound best from the side. )

I think that a sm58 doesn't work very well on Brass.
 
Oktava ML 19 ribbon is a nice choice also...You can find them for about $300.00 or so..

Don
 
thanks a bunch

I play contemporary Jazz and some "Chicago style" pop. Thanks for all the superb suggestions. I will head to the music shop and experiment around with some of the recommended mics.
 
For trompet, a 57 does the job great.
For sax of trombone I use the RE20 from EV
 
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