Microphone Selection, Your approach

[Erockrazor]

How do you choose what microphone to use?

Do you pick a few that would seem most suitable then have a mic shootout to find the best one? Do you know before you hear the source? What makes you choose a certain microphone? How do you know it's the one for the job?

I'd love to hear a few views on this, preferably from people with more than 1 microphone!


Eric

 

[mixsit]

Experience definitely adds a certain amount of familiarity that gets you in the ball park..
But that's probably expected.

Do you pick a few that would seem most suitable then have a mic shootout to find the best one?

Yes -if needed (sometimes 'best first guess' works fine) and/or to take advantage of the opportunities -to the point of being appropriate-
At some point you begin to cross the line where you should be moving the session along. I also believe there is often a range of choices -of small differences, that fall into 'different' but not necessarily better. Also weigh into that how subjective this is, and how even our own perception is a variable over time.

 

[EdWonbass]

I was recording an acoustic guitar the other day and just wanted to put an LDC up in front of it. Now I don't have great mics but I get by.
I tried my best mic an Audio Technica 3032 but it just didn't sound good at all. Then I dug out my Behringer B1 and it sounded great.
That got me rethinking the B1 for use on vocals so the next day I tried it and it just didn't cut it. I threw the 3032 on the stand and it was much better.
I guess the idea is to learn what your mics can do and what they can't and it will save time later.
I always thought that a nice mic will make anything sound good but I guess you just have to go with what sounds best on the source.

 

[Richard Monroe]

I have a set of favorites that usually work for me. The only time I stray from them is when something isn't working, or my first choice is already in use. The big exception is vocals, where I have *several* favorites. For overheads, I use Neumann KM184's, Oktava MC012. For cabs, Shure SM7b, AKGC2000B. For kick, AKG D112, Audix D6. For snare, AKG D770, Sennheiser e835, or Shure SM57, sometimes with AKG C414B-ULS on the bottom. For most acoustic instruments, KM184, C414, or B.L.U.E. Kiwi. Vocals is tough, because you never know what will work. I usually start with SM7b on rockers, screamers, and gravelly blues guys. For pop or folk type singers, B.L.U.E. Kiwi, C414, Rode NTK, AKG C2000B, Oktava MK319.

The MK319 is my first choice for clean female vocalists, and NTK on guys. AKG C2000B is the swiss army mic. Any time the mic I really want to use is already up, or nothing is working, I will come back to C2000B. I've used them successfully as overheads, on toms, cabs, acoustic guitar, mandolin, strings, woodwinds, sax, Djembe, piano, and on male and female vocals. They are among the most versatile cheap condensers on Earth.-Richie

 

[antichef]

(1) I don't have as much time as I'd like to use for recording (and usually have to setup/teardown a lot, making things even tighter for time), (2) I went nuts and picked up over 80 microphones in the last couple of years (mostly after reading about them here), and (3) my only (minimal) professional studio experience has been as a musician (who didn't pay attention to what the producers/engineers were doing ), so I still don't really know what I'm doing.

Add those three things together with the a) several different things I want to record, and b) the many different techniques and placement options I read about on here, and you'll see that any process I could use will be sub-optimal, at best - OK - disclaimer out of the way:

I start by reading to get a general idea of what to do and what not to do - for instance, I won't spend a lot of time trying to get a good recording of an acoustic guitar using a dynamic mic placed across the room. Then, based on what I think might work, unless I already know what I want, I try two or three at the most (no more due to time constraints) different mics in three or four different placements - sometimes adjusting gain staging, and then run with what's best.

Ribbons for cabs (TnC ACM-2 or ACM-3 for me, with new transformers), LDCs (modded ACM-6802T (tube), modded Oktava MK-319, AT4040, Baby Bottle, C414B-ULS others) or dynamic (SM7b, EV-RE10, EV635a, modded SM57, SM58, others) for vox, one dynamic (SM57, modded SM57, MD421, or I5) on top and SDC (SM81, C451E, MK-012) on bottom for snare, MD421 for toms, C414B-ULS, or MK-012 for overheads, D112 for kick (because that's all I have), stereo SDCs for acoustic (modded MXL603, MK-012, SM81) for acoustic guitar, stereo LDCs and Ribbon or (C414B-ULS x2 + SM7b or ACMP ACM-3 or ACM-4) dynamic for bagpipes, ribbons or C414B-ULS for small percussion, etc. If I were to write about what I tried and decided *not* to use, the list would be longer, but not that much longer, mostly due to reading here and similar places.