Record all my tracks with the same mic?

[antichef]

Lawson L47
M-Audio Luna
MXL 990
SM-57
SM-58

and my pres..... Avalon VT737sp
Presonus Eureka

How does the L47 compare with the 990? -- but seriously, you're not so bad off on the equipment side (read: over my paygrade, except for the 990). I'd vigorously experiment with what you've got, and assuming the rest of your signal chain is comparable (and your sources sound good, and your room is good, etc., etc.), I bet you can get very good results (except with the 990 ).

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Several years ago, I bought one of the first Neumann TLM-103's to hit the USA (one of the first 500 sold). On the rec.audio.pro newsgroup, other engineers were asking a lot of questions about the mic, so I decided to do a song using only the TLM-103 for all the main stuff. Bass and steel were recorded direct, and the drums had the usual mics. The two acoustic guitars, fiddle, accordion (at the end of the song), and vocals were all done with the TLM-103:

Borderline Nights​

 

[JM350]

Im pretty sure the beatles used Ribbon mikes and the Ampex Preamps mostly.

Are you joking, misinformed, or intentionally throwing out bad information?

Ampex was an American company, the Beatles used BTR (British Tape Recorder) machines on the early stuff and Studers on the later albums.

Preamps were mostly the Redd 47.

Ampex never made micpreamps exactly although the tape machine electronics did have a micpreamp built into them and they did make a couple of 4X2 mixers known as the MX35 and MX10 which had micpre's in them. I have never heard of any of these having been used on any Beatles recordings.

Neumann tube mics (U47, U48, and U67) were used on many or even most Beatles tracks, they did use a Coles 4038 ribbon for drum overhead on the early songs but their recordings are not famous for the use of ribbons. The AKG D19e (a dynamic mic) used as a drum overhead is actually more well known and sometimes referred to as a Beatles mic at least by people trying to sell one.

 

[hairylarry]

The Beatles, Elvis, and you

Hi,

I am assuming that you like the Beatles recordings since you are referring to their recording techniques. Unfortunately mimicing their recording techniques will not make you sound like the Beatles. Nor will it make your recordings sound as good as the Beatles recordings. There was a lot of real expertise that went into making those records far beyond picking a mic for Paul's bass cab.

The one thing you should take from the Beatles, George Martin, and the rest of the crew that made those records is their willingness to experiment. By being willing to experiment and by listening carefully to the results of those experiments you can approach your sound and develop your expertise. You will not do this by aping what somebody did fifty years ago even if it was at some of the most important sessions of all time.

I just interviewed Joe Lee who worked with Scotty Moore at Fernwood and learned his recording chops from the master. He told me they used to record almost all of Scotty's guitar direct. He said the amps at the time all had hum and only by going direct was Scotty able to get that clean clean sound.

Why is this pertinent to your question? Because I happen to think that Scotty's guitar work on Elvis' early records was pretty damn good and recorded pretty damn good. And so did George Harrison.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry