New mic or new strip?

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normonster

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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.
 
FWIW - I have the RND 5017 and it is an *outstanding* sounding preamp. Highly recommend.
 
What about room acoustics? They're probably more important than mic choice which, in turn, is far more important than the preamp.
 
Thank you gents. Reality checks are good!

@jamesperrett It’s just my bedroom with tapestries on the walls. I’ve never thought about adding anything.
 
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...
 
Thank you everyone for all the replies and points of consideration. Much appreciated!
 
I haven't been back here for a while, so I thought I'd necro my own thread with a happy ending. :) A lot has come and gone in the last few years, and how strange that the date there of my last post is almost exactly the same day of the year.

After many mic trials and various other gear trials I have a chain I'm really happy with now.

Pow-R Bar switched power supply, 8/8 xlr patchbay, desk mounted boom stands
DAW is Cubase Pro current version
Vocal chain is WA87re > RND Newton Channel
Guitar chain is WA84 (omni cap) > PreSonus Studio Channel
Interface is the RME Fireface UCX II, hitting a Mackie Bigknob monitor controller
Monitors are Presonus Eris 7 & Presonus Temblor T10, WA Hp among others
Mains are QSC K8.2's
Controllers are Kensington Slimblade, EditorsKeys Cubase edition, and Launchkey 25

The patchbay and UCX allow a ton of various routing options, so I always keep an SM58 and a SM57 plugged in as well for practice, on a dual mic stand. I've also added some degree of room treatment (and switched rooms). Now and then I push the signal over to my QSCs and pretend I'm playing a show. Ease of routing is so fun!

Anway, that's where I ended up and I'm pretty happy. I'm almost ready to start offering some free studio time just for fun. I'm getting decent quality of myself now, so I'm actually looking forward to working with material from someone with real talent.

If anyone has any comments or questions about any of this gear, I'm happy to put in my observations. Most interesting of all may be the comparison of the preamps, but it's probably been hashed out already.

Cheers!
 
RND Newton...
Presonus SC...
I'm curious what you think of them. How does the Presonus stand up to the RND?

To buy a 87design mic, is a busy-mental task.
I watch the YouTube's all the time, then the new87 vs old87, a lot of interest in it. obviously a classic. The WA87 is more old-lower sensitivity which would be
better for my room. With so many 87-types, how'd you choose the WA87? v1 or v2?
 
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