Mics to stay away from.

  • Thread starter Thread starter ItzCashew
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littledog said:
219's are poo.
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There are some mods to make 'em decent, supposedly. I believe they are pretty much identical to the 319's, which are not great, but usable, the difference mostly being the body, which resonates or reflects or something in an unmusical manner. The mods, therefore, usually involve tearing up the body into a more useful configuration.

The web is plagued with sites describing fixes, I kept getting them trying to find the Scott Dorsey 012 mod, when I couldn't remember his name.
 
littledog said:
Otto, it's my understanding that it is not that hard to make an accurate mic, such as the many miniature diaphragm omnis that are out there. What is hard is to make one that is accurate AND has minimal self-noise.
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Right, the little Panasonic 1/4" capsule, for example, is pretty accurate, but a small capsule like that suffers from inherent self-noise and isn't OK for my purposes. I forgot to mention that factor.

Cheers,

Otto
 
I think that working from the bottom up is a great way to develop the ear and know better what you want when it comes to choosing a more expensive investment...My first LDC was a Behri B-1...I thought it was pretty good at the time, until I had opportunities to pair it with even comparably priced mics like the SP of the same name...I found that I was learning the delicate art of tweaking preamp settings as I went along, a beneficial skill. I've grown beyond the Behri, but don't have the dough for what I really want, and may not be all that sure I know what I really want, so I may continue working my way up the price/name ladder...

...In the meantime my main vocal mic has become a Sennheiser MD421II...It's what I got, takes much less tweaking to get a nice fat vocal out of, and it was a great investment (I paid under 3 bones) for it's myriad of applications...

Oh, back to my point; If you're just starting out and have the patience, the cheaper/harsher/muddier mics are a good learning tool. They teach you to learn and understand your signal chain...

Eric
 
"The C3000b is the worst mic I have ever heard. It's an overpriced mic for what its quality stands."

+1 on that. I've never heard or was able to get a good sounding vocal with it. Horrible value even at half price.
 
chessrock said:
I think they're worthless crap that should be avoided at all costs. In fact, I think the world would be a much, much better place to live in if it weren't for Rode mics.

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...if you take the time to go back and read this guy's rants about "Chinese" product a couple of years back, you'll see that it's his style to make broad, generalized, dramatic statements trashing products without any specific documentation...it's classic "Chessrock reasoning"...and then he goes and gives props to the MXL 990...

...hey...at least the guy's consistant... :D
 
BigRay said:
In a general sense, northern folks get under my skin. the attitude is hard to stomach. Southerners(in a general sense) try to be friendly. Notherners are rude and arrogant(generally speakng) that is how I see it anyway.

slavery is still going on. ever heard of mexicans? :eek:
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You're in Germany though yes? How much time have you spent in the North or South of the U.S.?

Or are you just in Germany now, or are you not really there at all?
 
If it says Nady on it anywhere then throw it away. Far away. All the way to the Radio Shack pile. :D
 
up-fiddler said:
If it says Nady on it anywhere then throw it away. Far away. All the way to the Radio Shack pile. :D
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I actually kinda like my Nady RSM-2 ribbon. But I am forced to agree with you on principle. ;)
 
dgatwood said:
I thought the harder problem was flat response with non-omni pattern, but I could be remembering wrong.
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No, you're not wrong. But I didn't think we were talking about non-omni's. Usually when people talk about an accurate mic, (for instance for measurement purposes) omnis are implied. Because of the difficulty in getting a flat response with a directional mic, as well as off-axis coloration and proximity effect, "accurate" isn't usually a term that is even associated with them.
 
RAK said:
You're in Germany though yes? How much time have you spent in the North or South of the U.S.?

Or are you just in Germany now, or are you not really there at all?
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Ray just lives in Germany now. And he is definitely really there, and amassing quite an impressive list of classical recording credits!
 
The only mics I've used that I absolutely hated were a pair of Superlux small condensors. In their defense, they sale for as cheap as they sound.

Ray, in my experience, alot of southerners are sweet on the outside but shitty in the middle. I've found the opposite to be true with most yanks that I've met. Some of them even let me light the tire fire and thanked me for removing a drunken yank from the flames after he passed out and rolled right in. :D

I'm from the south and I'll tell you that southern hospitality is a sham.
 
chessrock said:
I think the SM58 is pretty worthless as anything but a talkback mic. Don't even think it's particularly good for live vocals. That's all I can think of for now.
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If the sm58 isn't particularly good for vocals, why is it almost universally used for live vocal mics....people jus like using crap mics that are durable?
 
astoebe said:
If the sm58 isn't particularly good for vocals, why is it almost universally used for live vocal mics....people jus like using crap mics that are durable?
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Yes. And singers and soundguys are used to them.
 
watermelon said:
Is the 990 the best mic for rap?
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The top rappers use the Sony C800G, an $8000 mic. It's an incredible tube mic, considered by some the best mic currently being made.

Part of using that mic for the top rappers is the bling factor, along with drinking Krystal and driving Escalades.
 
stetto said:
I think that working from the bottom up is a great way to develop the ear and know better what you want when it comes to choosing a more expensive investment...

Oh, back to my point; If you're just starting out and have the patience, the cheaper/harsher/muddier mics are a good learning tool. They teach you to learn and understand your signal chain...

Eric
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Well, you can go that route, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I'd like to have a pair of high end condenser omnis that cost about $2000 each. Instead, I've located the best mikes I can find that I can also afford. My RE-55s cost less than $100 each and the SM-80 capsules were about the same. I don't think it makes a bit of sense to waste time on crappy sounding mikes. You will learn something with good mikes or bad, but you will learn what things really sound like and how to record them better with good mikes.

Now, if learning is what you want and you want to be well rounded, you will ultimately want to end up with at least one dynamic cardioid (say, SM-57), one SDC (say, SM-81), one LDC multi-pattern condenser (uhh, you name it, too many choices) and one figure-8 ribbon mike and maybe a true omni (little 1/4" cheapies if nothing else). Better yet, two of each and a copy of the New Stereo Soundbook, since you just might want to know something about stereo recordings.

I can't see any point to purposely choosing inferior tools. There are some good, cheap examples of several of these categories, and it makes sense to me to use all the information available to find ones that best serve your purposes. I also think there is a lot of benefit when learning to have an accurate omni mike (better yet a pair of them) because it offers you the chance to really listen and learn what things really sound like at various mike placements as a reference so that when you use other mikes you have that point of reference to compare to. Otherwise, you're just kind of flailing about.

Cheers,

Otto
 
littledog said:
And thanks for the offer from the guy who wanted it for $10, but it's not really worth the effort of packaging and mailing it for that. Besides, I might want to use it in a wall-of-shame art exhibit someday. Sort of like Fletcher did with his "ADAT-on-a-stick" sculpture.
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Damn. $20? If you reconsider, hit me up.
 
Drewcifer666 said:
The top rappers use the Sony C800G, an $8000 mic. It's an incredible tube mic, considered by some the best mic currently being made.

Part of using that mic for the top rappers is the bling factor, along with drinking Krystal and driving Escalades.
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So, because it's a new mic which costs $8000, what makes it better than say a vintage Telefunken Elam 251, which is around $18,000 or a U47, which is also anywhere from $6000-$8000 depending on it's condition.

Be specific.
 
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