One mic for freak folk

  • Thread starter Thread starter amarach
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amarach

amarach

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Hello all!
To expand on the threads title;
I try my damnedest to, along with some friends, create atypical acoustic based music.
I need to record an alto female voice, a male voice, a lapsteel, an autoharp, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, piano, keyboard, melodica, drum machine, drums, percussion and bass...i think that about covers it..
not counting the electric guitar, drum machine and keyboards...i need one microphone that is decent to better than decent on most acoustic sounds as detailed...(oh dear, the subjectiveness of it all)
i was leaning for something like the studio projects T3...
is this a heinous move?
anyway that kind of €500-600 mark (oh, i'm in ireland btw) is what i'm looking at...
any help would be greatly appreciated (especially from those guys who have seen countless "what's the best mic for 200/300/400 dollars" posts...)
thanks in advance
 
This is the internet, not the insta-net.

How about doing a search of all those "best mic" threads???
 
the insta-net?
i posted 2 days ago...
anyway, unlike those best mic threads which i have laboriously read, i didn't want this thread to start/end in juvenile slander but guess what, c7sus, you've started it!
congratulations
 
Yeah, way to go C7!

Have you ever thought that your question sucks? Its not particularly well worded, nor does it address if you need the mic to record everything at once, or if you're doing overdubs. Why just one mic? Maybe you should reword your sentence before starting shit.
 
amarach said:
the insta-net?
i posted 2 days ago...
anyway, unlike those best mic threads which i have laboriously read, i didn't want this thread to start/end in juvenile slander but guess what, c7sus, you've started it!
congratulations
Click to expand...

If you had laboriously read all those threads you searched for, you now have a list of mics to work with and have read plenty of opinions about them.

C7 is right. Use your search function. Nobody's slandering you. Lets just say that the topic of "which mic for (insert range) has been covered rather thoroughly.
 
where's the penny whistle, bohdran and uilleann in your list?? You could get pretty far with some 57's and some MSH-1's
 
Besides that, what works for any of us may not work for you. There's a lot of "tones" out there, and a lot of what you hear isn't just the mics, it's also the preamps. Especially when you start stacking 20 tracks.

Whose "sound" do you want to sound like??? I guess that's where I would start.

There simply isn't a single be-all/alpha-omega condensor mic.

Look at your list of what you want to record.

Female vox

Male vox

Drums

Lapsteel

Acoustic tones

Piano

Yeah, it's gonna be very subjective. What sounds good on a male vox may not work at all for the female. If detail and clarity are important I'd stay away from cheaper tube mics myself. I've had good results recording acoustic guitar with an NT-2. It's not brittle like a lot of the cheaper condensors, IMHO. But it doesn't work on everybodys' voice, that's for sure. For recording amps the best results I've had are a mix of an MD-421 on the grill and an LDC 2-6' out depending on how much room is wanted in the recording, through Davisound pres direct to Lynx2A.

I also have an NTV and a Cactus. The difference is night and day. The NTV sounds dark and kinda muffled. It's 6dB louder than the NT-2 but doesn't have the mid or high detail.

The Cactus is just another league altogether. In Fig8 my wife channels Judy Garland through it. I doubt you could get a harsh tone out of it, no matter what you stuck it in front of. But it's not forgiving on my voice AT ALL. :( As far as doing acoustic instruments you could get a decent to fabulous recording depending on the player/room/preamp combo.

I haven't read anybody around here doing drums with a single mic.
 
thanks recording proi have an sm58 which is good for its robustness but i was thinking of something more subtle too... are the naiants that good?
 
amarach said:
thanks recording proi have an sm58 which is good for its robustness but i was thinking of something more subtle too... are the naiants that good?
Click to expand...

They're amazingly good for the price. He's got his omni SDC on sale for around $20 right now. Definately worth trying.
 
Yup, get a pair of Naiants and a CAD M179 and go record something....
 
Instead of using your money to buy just one mic, how about splitting it up on different mic's.Maybe buy a matched pair of Naiants and like a CAD m179 or something. That would give you the matched pair and a mic with 3 different patterns. Since your list is extensive you know youre going to get subjective opinions. This route would give you 3 mics , for less than what you were looking to spend. It could potentially sound better than just 1 mic on everything.

Also , if you already have the sm58 , with this pair and large diaphragm , you would be able to mic drums pretty well if you're multi tracking and overdubbing. sm58 on snare, matched overheads , and back the CAD away from the bass a little and I bet you could get a pretty good sound with that.
 
ok thanks for the help guys....i'm heading off recording now...thanks a lot
 
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