pros / cons for Studio Projects C1

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TaylorEGO

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I am just getting into the digital recording world,
and am looking into purchasing an SP C1 as my main vocal mic.
I have read a lot of reviews and BBS posts about it, and for the most part it is all positive, especially in the $200 price range...

I am just wondering if anyone thinks there is a better mic for the money in the vocal condenser family.

or if anyone has anything negative to say about the C1...

on a side note, I am looking for a good way to get 8 channels of decent preamp to go into a motu.
any suggestions?



thanks,
-T
 
The C1 is a good mic especially for a lot of male vocals. A more versatile mic for a home studio is the AT4040.
 
try a used T#3 better but the c#1 is a good one-i have both and want a C#3 too :) ;) :p :cool:
 
TaylorEGO said:
I am just getting into the digital recording world,
and am looking into purchasing an SP C1 as my main vocal mic.
I have read a lot of reviews and BBS posts about it, and for the most part it is all positive, especially in the $200 price range...

I am just wondering if anyone thinks there is a better mic for the money in the vocal condenser family.

or if anyone has anything negative to say about the C1...

on a side note, I am looking for a good way to get 8 channels of decent preamp to go into a motu.
any suggestions?

thanks,
-T
Click to expand...

There are several mics in the C1 price range that would (could) work. Vocals are a funny "instrument". A C1 might work for my voice, but it might not work for yours. SImilarly, a CAD M179 might work for you, but not me.

There are certainly better and much better mics out there than the C1 or it's siblings or their competition. Catch is, you'll have to spend more or much more.
 
mikey@thecave said:
try a used T#3 better but the c#1 is a good one-i have both and want a C#3 too :) ;) :p :cool:
Click to expand...


The C3 is nicer than the C1, to me. It's got less high-end peak, and seems to have a more pleasant coloration to it, over the C1. Three patterns makes it pretty versatile.
 
thanks for all the info,
i actually picked one up today for $170 and I'm pretty stoked to get it home and try it out.
 
TaylorEGO said:
thanks for all the info,
i actually picked one up today for $170 and I'm pretty stoked to get it home and try it out.
Click to expand...

Congrats dude.
 
I think you're going to like the C1, Taylor. Let us know when you've given it a test drive.

The pros for the C1 is that it sounds better on more people on vocals than most mics – regardless of cost. As a $200 vocal mic nothing beats it, IMO.

The cons are that it's not a very versatile mic. We've found it to be good for vox, amps and some drum applications - mostly snare [ not overheads ]. As an acoustic instrument mic it's an average performer at best, IMO.
 
Pros: Good vocal mic; particularly for pop / R&B. Good value for the money. Attractive, sturdy. Has sort of a scooped sound to it with pretty decent high end sheen . . . for a Chinese / 797 mic. Unusually good SPL handling.

Cons: Can be sibilant on some vocalists. Harsh-sounding on certain instruments. Not particularly solid or as defined in the midrange as it could be -- not a lot of bite. This could also be a pro, depending on how you look at it. Liked Dot mentioned: not particularly versatile.
 
I'm new to this board and I find everyone very helpful and for the most part friendly.
It's cool to see people helping each other out.
especially to a beginner like me.

anyone have any ideas for my other problem..?
getting 8 mics into a motu 2408
I need a set of preamps and I'm not sure if I want to just get a board with 8
or 4 units with 2 preamps each or 8 individual preamps.

seems silly, but I will only really need 8 at a time fro drum recording, so maybe if I split it up I can get better preamps for each individual application instead of 8 of the same?

any thoughts?
 
TaylorEGO said:
I am just getting into the digital recording world,
and am looking into purchasing an SP C1 as my main vocal mic.
I have read a lot of reviews and BBS posts about it, and for the most part it is all positive, especially in the $200 price range...

I am just wondering if anyone thinks there is a better mic for the money in the vocal condenser family.

or if anyone has anything negative to say about the C1...

on a side note, I am looking for a good way to get 8 channels of decent preamp to go into a motu.
any suggestions?



thanks,
-T
Click to expand...
For the right voice on the right project the C1 could be the perfect mic... I recommend that you give the C1 a good listen too,
and see if it's the right mic for you and your project or not.
 
Last edited:
TaylorEGO said:
I'm new to this board and I find everyone very helpful and for the most part friendly.
It's cool to see people helping each other out.
especially to a beginner like me.

anyone have any ideas for my other problem..?
getting 8 mics into a motu 2408
I need a set of preamps and I'm not sure if I want to just get a board with 8
or 4 units with 2 preamps each or 8 individual preamps.

seems silly, but I will only really need 8 at a time fro drum recording, so maybe if I split it up I can get better preamps for each individual application instead of 8 of the same?

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you have the money I'd definately go with 8 different pres. U'll have a variety of flavors.
 
ok,
that makes sense, but are there for example a pair of preamps that would be better for overheads? kick drum? snare? toms?
and one preamp thats worth putting a little extra money into for vocals?
 
DJL said:
For the right voice on the right project the C1 could be the perfect mic... I recommend that you give the C1 a good listen too,
and see if it's the right mic for you and your project or not.
Click to expand...

Such hateful words for Studio Projects....DJL when are you EVER going to quit???? :D
 
Concerning pre-amps.

If you're looking for pre's on a budget (assuming you are since you bought a $200 mic) and you need 8, here's what I might do. I've got a DMP3 and the C1, and the dmp3 is a pretty nice step up from my old behringer mixer and I like it with the C1. You could get the yamaha mg12/4 (or something like that) mixer - the one with 4 mic pre's in it. You'll get some versitility out of the mixer, and you can use the mic pre's to mic drums - I've read everywhere that for a budget mixer the pre's are really nice. Then you'd have 2 left where you could do something a bit different. The studio projects VTB-1 is supposed to be pretty nice, and a bit colored. You could add 1 more pre of your choice after that, whatever you might need.

I'd go with this possible set-up:
DMP3 - 2 channels - clean/colorless
Yamaha mg mixer - 4 channels
VTB-1 - 1 channel - little colored
(add a 1-channel pre of your choice here - whatever sound you're looking for)

Gives you a mix of versitility of sounds with the versitility of a mixer.

My 2 cents.
 
TaylorEGO said:
on a side note, I am looking for a good way to get 8 channels of decent preamp to go into a motu.
any suggestions?

thanks,
-T
Click to expand...

My method for doing just that is using a Presonus Digimax LT 8 channel preamp and running that into my Motu 828 MkII's ADAT input. This leaves my normal 8 input channels open for specialized preamps in the future.

http://www.presonus.com/digimax_lt.html

M-Audio also makes an 8 channel ADAT capable preamp, the Octane. It has a few more features, but overall there seemed to be a shade more noise vs. the Digimax, and its knobs are plastic (afraid they would break).

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Octane-main.html
 
sile2001 said:
M-Audio also makes an 8 channel ADAT capable preamp, the Octane. It has a few more features, but overall there seemed to be a shade more noise vs. the Digimax, and its knobs are plastic (afraid they would break).

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Octane-main.html
Click to expand...



That M-audio unit wich I just found for $450 sounds like it will do the trick and leave me 8 extra channels for future upgrading really easily.

thanks for the ideas! I didn't know they made preamps that went into the adat input
 
You can get a used Digimax 48K for around $400-450 on eBay. This is the model that comes with the built-in compressors, its not the LT version. No inserts but it does have line outputs and ADAT out if you ever go with a digital recorder of some type. I have two and I am very happy with them, a roughly mixed sample of a song recorded with just the Digimax and my mics is here:

 
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