Ok, I Need Help...quick!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter shAkEz_gk
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shAkEz_gk

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I wanna buy the following.

A condenser for vocals
A soundcard
A pre-amp

(soundcard can have pre-amp with it, doesnt matter)

I have a budget of $1,500.00

Whats the best I can get?
 
What kind of voice? The choice of mic can vary greatly.

That being said, you could do a lot worse than getting the Aardvard DirectPro 24/96 card (which has 4 preamps with phantom power) and the BLUE dragonfly mic, or the Neumann 103, or........

-lee-
 
RNP preamp...$475
RNC compressor...$175
LynxOne soundcard...$475
Marshall MXLv77....$299
 
the only thing I might change is the preamp....a Grace 101 would do great also... $559
 
A cad equitek 200 would be real nice, around $400.00 or less
 
1500? INSANE! There are lots of configurations you can build with this...

If you want a single channel preamp, how about a Grace 101? A truly GREAT preamp for about 600. The Aardvark, as was said before, has good, usable preamps in it. (Not like the Grace, but certainly very usable) That's 500, giving giving you 400 for a mic. Around there, you're looking at things like the CAD M9, Rode NTK (actually, closer to 500 for that), Baby Bottle, or maybe even a Shure SM7 (yeah, you said condenser, but gee, I've been having so much damn fun with the SM7 lately on male vocals. Through a Grace 101, it just kicks ARSE...)

If you can afford to, get a good preamp. If all you need is a single channel for vocals, the Grace 101 will do the job extremely well. There are abunch of others in that price range you might want to try, such as the focusrite, art, or presonus stuff, which might provide more features for the same or less money, but my personal experience has been that the 101 just KILLS. (I still don't know enough about the RNP's sound, but it's also a single channel around the same price range as the 101.) For live stereo stuff, though, the Presonus MP20 is quite good...
 
muttley said:
A cad equitek 200 would be real nice, around $400.00 or less
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go for the E-200. If you want a CAD multi pattern, get the M179. That's a VERY good sounding mic. Certainly one I'd love to secure a pair of for stereo recording...

And I don't know where you're seeing that E-200 for 400. That's way too much for a way too old mic. A good mic, but certainly outclassed these days...
 
OK, so there's a basic question... what's better, a 2-3 hundred dollar microphone through a $500. preamp, or a thousand dollar microphone through a decent (lets say equivalent $200 preamp)? I suspect few of us here have used many thousand dollar microphones...

-lee-
 
a Grace 101 ($559) can make a Shure SM57($79) shine......imagine what it would do for a decent condenser........
 
actually the RNP is 2 channels. Making it twice as good of a deal as the grace. But then again i don't know which one is better, i gather they are very close.
 
laptoppop said:
OK, so there's a basic question... what's better, a 2-3 hundred dollar microphone through a $500. preamp, or a thousand dollar microphone through a decent (lets say equivalent $200 preamp)?
Click to expand...

That one is a no-brainer. Go with the best microphone you can get your hands on, and worry about the preamp later. Better mics make an obvious difference, while better pres make more of a subjective (and often subtle) difference. Some of the better mics out there also tend to be less picky about what you plug them in to.
 
Gidge said:
a Grace 101 ($559) can make a Shure SM57($79) shine......imagine what it would do for a decent condenser........
Click to expand...

Probably much less. Keep in mind that most decent condensers are perfectly content with 1-2K load and higher (which is pretty standard for most budget pres); not to mention their higher output levels often require only modest gain. There's also a trend towards transformerless designs, which are even less picky about loading issues and so on.

So the fact that it makes a 57 sound good is a very good thing . . . but the things that make it good on a 57 or a ribbon, to use another example, aren't always necessary for most modern transformerless condensers.
 
On the otherhand from chessrock's comments, I've found that in recent years, a good mic and preamp combo results better than your $1k mic with some hohum preamp.
 
chessrock said:
That one is a no-brainer. Go with the best microphone you can get your hands on, and worry about the preamp later. Better mics make an obvious difference, while better pres make more of a subjective (and often subtle) difference. Some of the better mics out there also tend to be less picky about what you plug them in to.
Click to expand...

That would be my thought as well. Sorry Gidge, I have to respectfully disagree. I stand by my recommendation -- Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 soundcard with its built in preamps and either the Neumann or the Dragonfly. To do the best final choice which microphone would mean going down to the store and auditioning it with the particular voice to be used.

-lee-
 
Ok, I just went to 8thstreet.com and bought

Aardvark 24/96
Shure KSM-32
SP T3
 
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