New mic or new strip?

N

normonster

New member
Fun decisions!

I record vocals/acoustic guitar exclusively for now. Thinking of a new microphone with maybe a little more sizzle but have discovered tube preamps and wondering if maybe I should pickup a Neve pre with silk.

I have the standard SM’s, an NT1A and a Sm7b. The Presonus tube strip I just got really brought the Sm7b to life, though interestingly I discovered that I like the Martin through the NT1A.

Until this tube pre I was thinking about a SM27 or KSM32 but now I’m not sure I need another mic. The Neve 511 is highly praised online so now considering that instead.

Which way would you go if you were in this desirable situation? New mic or new pre?

Cheers!
 
I tend to believe that the signal chain starting with the Mic/Guitar/Bass > Preamp > Converter > etc... is the most important. i.e. starting with the Instrument/Mic. So I'd upgrade my Mic before upgrading my Pre.
 
What about room acoustics? They're probably more important than mic choice which, in turn, is far more important than the preamp.
 
Its funny that a couple of years ago, Billie Eilish had the hottest song in the country done on an AT-2020. Right now, Oliver Anthony has the #1 streamed song done on an NT1A.

We obsess over gear (yeah, I do too) but in the end, it's the song that makes or breaks the recording. One of my crappy songs done with a Neve console, Neumann mics and a Lynx Aurora interface and a stack of vintage outboards would still be crap!

But, yeah, a different mic with a different flavor might give you a sound that you like, which might inspire you to do more. I think that transducers (mics/speakers/guitar pickups) are the things that have the more variability. Look at the specs and you'll see variations of 5 or 10 dB in the frequency responses. Many preamps today (maybe most) have pretty good specs for things like frequency response and distortion, like being down 0.2dB at 20kHz). Measuring a voltage and assigning it a number is pretty much a straight forward process.
 
If you take a mic, and split it into two, you can invert one and when you add them together in the mixer, you get 100% silence.
if you EQ one of the two channels, the silence is replaced with what you did with the EQ, the cut and the boosted element that no longer cancel. Sounds very strange. I’ve never tried this with any of the super-preamp. It would be interesting to see what the difference, the bit added by the device, or done better, or worse, sounds like. If anyone has a posh super preamp they love, it would be great to hear what it actually did, vs a basic decent one. I’m not sure how we’d interpret it, but the differences would be in frequency and level but would it also be the distortion components the device adds? I really don’t know.
 
Mics or Channel Strip? hard question..

The channel strip, is the poor mans slice of a expensive a$$ console, but today less consoles. more...DAW.
Go in Clean or Go in like a old school console way. with eq, filters, comp, filters. Channel Strip...?

Hardware vs PlugIns?

You already have a channel strip so you are wondering if other strips are a better high?
You would have to try like 10 of them to get a personal taste. I did that and found out some things...like its personal taste.

microphones are all over the place once you start turning the eq knobs, then one mic can be 1000 mics.
the Gold records done with NT1 or SM7b or <$400 mics....MXL 990....they all went through processing. probably a whole bunch of processing....
so AT2020....etc.... if you have a crap room, LDC will pickup more of it,....crap rooms, get up close on the mic, SM7B., RE20...then eq and slap stuff on it. Stick it up against the guitar speaker or kick drum...SM7b or RE20 again...those type mics. U47 didnt make the gold record alone, it had a big studio and a big console with big name singers and pro players and mastering speakers and tube eq fairchilds...tube compressors...so even a Real U47 in my closet with me playing wont sound like the dreamy magicdust recordings of historic sounds.So I over thought the whole $$$$ mic thing.

Ive had the KSM series, 27 $80-$100...its ok....KSM32 popular and flat, MidSize, dia.... KSM44...has it all and can be found $350-$400, used without case and stuff...probably the best and you cover everything, a well respected mic too....I'd save up for a used 44, not the 44A , its just more money for a miniscule spec of idle quiet stuff...
The 27 with eq and stuff slapped on it can sound great too, as can a MXL $99 LDC....but the 44 made me "feel" like I had a top built LDC to compare others too.
Some prefer the 32, which can be $250 without the case and things... The SM7b gets the most usage around here, on vocals and drums...even kick drum!

good luck...big question...
 
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