Sennheiser and AKG vs. SHURE

V

voodoovelcro

New member
here's my new concern... i went down to GUITAR CENTER to check out the microphones and talk to people.... i asked about shure's and they said they were good, but when i explained what i was gonna do ( record guitars with lots of distorsion, and vocals ) they said that there are microphones that work much better than SHURE 75 or 58 (or even beta versions) with digital equipment ...


so they showed me two microphones : Sennheiser E835 ($99.99)and AKG D790($199.99).... there was one old fella', he was very helpfull, he even had a huge 'GUITAR CENTER' tatoo on his arm, he said that he'd been working with microphones for over 35+ years and he's had better experience with these two mics than he did with 57 and 58... he also said that 57 and 58 were the best microphones for a long time, but with Sennheiser E835 my stuff would sound much better and i wouldn't even have to buy two microphones ( one for vocals, one for guitars ).... since that was the only time that somebody was trying to sell me less equipment than i intended to buy, and spend less money than i was going to spend, i kinda believed him.... or maybe it's his "guitar center" tatoo and 35+ experience...


i checked out Sennheiser E835 online, it says that the mic was developed specially for "stage, lead vocals".... how can a mic like that be good for recording guitars in studio?


does anyone have any experience with these mics?
 
voodoo, I've owned and used both the AKG and the Sennheiser.
They're both good dynamic microphones.
The E835 has a wider polar pattern than the AKG, so it's more forgiving
of less than stellar microphone technique. Scott Dorsey (pro engineer)
has remarked that a fellow pro engineer like the E835 very much on
guitar amps. I gave my AKG to a friend for free so he'd have a good
mike to practice his singing with.

You can only know whether any of these microphones are "better" for
you, however, by trying them out directly. This can also be a matter of
personal taste. FWIW, my favorite all rounders are the Sennheiser 421,
and Beyer M88.

Chris
 
thanx for info, unfortunately i can't try them out cuz GC doesn't accept microphones back, so i don't have that 'bring it back within 30 days' deal there....



if it's Sennheiser's good for recording guitars, i'll buy it, as far as vocals go, we're gonna have 4-5 different singers on this project ( both male and female ) so i wouldn't know what's good for me even if i had a chance to try it out....


anyways... what's the cheapest place to buy one? musiciansfriend.com has them for $99.99... and whats the difference between E835 and E835-S?


Voodoo
 
I sold a mint E835S (S=has a on/off switch) for $35 on this BBS a while
back. If you get it used off e-bay you'll save a substantial amount of money.
Dynamic microphones are way less fragile than condensers,
so it's a safer bet than buying a condenser used.

Chris
 
Of course, mic'ing an acoustic guitar with a dynamic is a really different beast than using a condenser. You either have to be in the near field of the guitar (to get adequate signal-to-noise), or have a pre with a LOT of clean gain. Otherwise, in my experience, you get a lot of noise.

Not to say that it can't be done, but FWIW, I prefer the sound of a condenser on acoustic. When I was looking for a mic for the same purposes you're talking about, I eventually settled on the Rode NT-3, which can be had for ~$149 or less.

-mg
 
I think it would have made more sense to hold off a week or two and order a Sennheiser e609 from musiciansfriend that has them for $100 right now, or grabbed a used 421 off ebay. The latter would have been the smartest move.
 
There's a Beyer Soundstar MKII on e-bay, where the auction is going to end
in a matter of hours from now, and it's a top level dynamic mike IMHO.
The value on these should start appreciating BTW, as they're no longer in
production. It's sibling, the X1N, was about $120 or less a year ago,
now they've started to climb to around $180+ on e-bay.
The X1N has a slighty higher frequency response than the 421,
yet has a similar mellow tone to the fast becoming ultra-collectible "grey"
421's.

I know Tubedude got a hell of a deal on a MKII-because I sold one to him! :)
Kept one for myself to keep permanently in the 'ol locker.
Harvey, one of our resident pro's, alerted me to the value of this microphone
through some posts I found on another BBS.

Chris
 
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