Poll : Best all-round mic for beginner

  • Thread starter Thread starter schnoops
  • Start date Start date
Look at the specifications of a SM57. At 6000Hz, a huge presence peak of about 7db (very unpleasant frequency for recording). At 15.000Hz the level is already more then 12db lower then that peak!

SM57 Sensitivity: 1.9mV

www.shure.com/pdf/userguides/guides_wiredmics/sm57_en.pdf

Compare this to a mainstream low budget condenser like the AKG C2000 and you will see a completely flat response with a mild boost at about 11.000Hz and still almost flat at 15.000Hz

C2000B Sensitivity: 20mV (ten times higher then the SM57)

www.akg-acoustics.com/english/microphones/index.html
Go to C2000B then Specifications


Compare this to the highly praised TLM103

www.neumann.com/infopool/mics/produkte.php?ProdID=tlm103
Go to Tech data and Diagrams

TLM103 Sensitivity: 21mV

Basically this means that:

The specifications of a cheap condenser like the C2000B are already very high (compare them to the TLM103). The low sensitivity of something like a SM57 calls for high gain pre amplification, which, as we all know comes at a high expense.

The C2000B has an output that is equal to the TLM103. Plugged into a crappy mixer, you won’t need to turn up the gain half as much as the SM57, resulting in much lower noise!

I repeat what I mentioned before: The SM57 is not an all-round recording mic. It is a typical live mic or a nice mic that you use in the studio for snare drum etc.

If I have to mic a guitar cabinet I still prefer a good condenser over the SM57

Please remember that I own the SM57B, C2000B and TLM103

Put them on a pole next to each other, plug them into a mixer, put on headphones and try the difference. If you can’t hear it, please stay with the SM57, or go and get your ears checked by a very good doctor!

The SM58 or SM57 is the mic that I always advise to any beginning band, playing live, but if I would have to do it all over again on a small budget and I could afford just one mic, I would go for the condenser.

Best advise for the beginning recording artist:

Don’t buy any mic! Try and borough it from a friend with more money. I always did that when I was young

If you play live, you already know the SM57 or SM58, but please remember that any vocal or instrumental recording will improve dramatically ones you upgrade to a condenser.

An airy vocal sound with a SM57? Forget it!

If you want to do construction work, don’t use your microphone, buy a hammer. Even though I must admit that the SM57 sounds very close to that.

Jan
 
I don't know a mic under $1000 that gets "air" frequencies well. Sibilant ones, yes, but not air.

Bear
 
I thought we all agreed that the SM57 was the one and only microphone that can replace everything else ever produced.

Even Phil Collins uses it for vocals didn’t we forget?

I now somebody tells that no mic under $1.000 can produce an airy sound.

I think we will have to start this discussion all over.

BTW, my TLM103 costs less then $1.000

But then of coarse I’m not claiming that it has an airy sound. For that I have my SM57, just like Phil Collins!

Jan
 
Hey Jan,
My post was meant to be funny.
Didn't anyone get it?

I thought it was funny.
Oh well, 45 minutes down the drain...


A1MixMan
 
Your post is funny!

Even if it looks like I’m making a rather strong statement against the SM57. I mainly do it because I can’t stand postings in which everybody starts agreeing with each other.

Everybody just starts mixing everything up, like: “did you ever try a SM57 through a good pre-amp?” That’s just the point, a beginning home recording artist does not have a good pre-amp. He has a crappy Behringer mixer! Its rather silly to recommend to a beginner to buy a SM57 with a Neve pre-amp, because that’s what you’ll need to get any sound out of it.

I think that any beginning home recording artist will be able to get excellent results with an investment in a decent middle class condenser and a decent little mic pre.

If you don’t want phantom power you can still try the Rode NT3 or the AKG C1000B (although the C2000B is considerably better!)

We have to be critical, and my personal experience from the past was that the upgrade from my SM58 recordings to the strange small diaphragm condenser I bought from a friend who worked at Philips in 1989 was the biggest improvement in the quality of my home recordings.

I completely agree with Chris Harris posting here above:

“Bottom line is that since the time I began recording with condensers (hell, ANY condenser) my tracks stopped sounding quite so "homemade." The extra $100 is very well spent on a decent condenser”.

Take care,

Jan
 
57 good preamp?

Wait..so you guys are saying a 57 through a good preamp sounds better? I thought it would just bring out more of those subtle little defects we all tend to ignore for the good things about it...?

-Sal
 
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