SM57 vs SP-B1

  • Thread starter Thread starter scottn5388
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Drummer4Life05 said:
DJL: Since your and Dot's ratings differ, is it safe to say that the usage of the mic depends on the users opinion?
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Well, I guess I can live with that.
 
Right, now, which B1?

Okay, many folks love them, now let me make sure that the B1 is that one I am thinking of...
I have been reading along with great delight as I set myself up for home recording and I get to the store and the B1 is a Behringer. The clerk gives me the standard "don't know what you're talking about," and I second guess that I KNOW the B1 of fabled first studios is a Studio Projects mic, right?
Well, RIGHT?
Are they the same mic, they have the same specs and even look the same, (except for the obvious difference in brand names) but then...tell me I'm not nuts.
Thanks in advance,
Kip
 
It's a bit confusing indeed, but the Behringer B1 is a different mic than the Studio Projects B1.
 
DJL said:
PS...
Now lets throw the Sennheiser MD421 into the equation...
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Of course, the Sennheiser MD421 is more than three times more expensive than either the B1 or the SM57.

And as far as your assesment of the 57 goes, I couldn't disagree more. It sucks on everything except toms, snare, and amps. It is not a workhorse, it is a specialty mic, and it bugs me to no end when it is billed as a workhorse.

Just the fact that you rated both the B1 and the SM57 as "OK" on acoustic shows how biased you are against Studio Projects, for some inexplicable reason. The B1 is clearly superior to the SM57 in that application.
 
cominginsecond said:
Of course, the Sennheiser MD421 is more than three times more expensive than either the B1 or the SM57.
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It's worth it too... save up your pennies.
 
can someone tell me, how the heck they control all that bleed when using a B-1 on a snare drum and toms?

anyone care to post pictures of B-1 mic plasement on snare, toms, overs?
 
I just cut a track with a SP B3, the cousin of the B1, on electric guitar, and it's the best electric guitar track of my life. I tried a 57, an Oktava ML52, and the B3 on this track, and the B3 beat the other two mics hands down.
 
DJL said:
It's worth it too... save up your pennies.
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That's your opinion, not mine. I think the 421 is worth 3 times the price of a 57. But the SP B1 is a very different animal, which you can't compare to either the 57 and the 421.

Like comingsecond says, he has the best track of his life, I know what that means.

Last week I recorded a britpop band and the guitarist has a Marshall amp. Uses clean and distorted sounds.
We've put a number of mics on the cab, 421, M88, M201, 441, Neumann M149 ,yes M149! and a B1.

The guitarist doesn't know what mic he's listening to when he makes his choice. And it happen to be the B1, the cheapest of them all.

That's pretty odd, the crappy B1 with it's even more crappy clip.:D

We've been recording for two days and at least a dozen times he said how much he liked the guitar sound.

FYI, the rest of the 'chain' is the DDA concole's pre and a 2" tapemachine, nothing else, the console's EQ was bypassed.

It may look that I'm spamming here, but I'm not. I don't like AH's attitude at all, but it simply is a very nice cheap mic.
 
DOT,

beautiful pictures bro!..thanks. do you find a lot of bleed problems, especially the hats into the snare and everything into the toms?

for an all around sonic picture of the kit, especially for jazz, maybe its not too much of a problem? but how would all that bleed effect pop/rock/blues close micing with LD mics?

thanks again, very interesting stuff.
 
Han said:
That's your opinion,
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Yes it is... and there are many other mic's I like better than the B1. One should remember that many people on this forum have every low end preamps and little to no monitoring system and can't even hear the difference between a B1 and C1. IMHO, the B1 is an ok budget LDC mic... but if one can afford a better mic they should get it instead... heck, I think even the MXL603S beats the B1 on most things like acoustic instruments. And I'll trade you B1's for MD421's any day.
 
Funny, I have six 421's and over the last years I've only used them on toms.
 
What's even funnier is, I use MD421's all the time and replaced the B1's with better mic's.
 
DJL, with all respect, it's obvious you have something against the B1.

Which LD condenser mics in the $80 range are better sounding and more versatile than the SP B1?

I have mics that are much better than the B1, but some cost 50 times as much.

For a novice homerecording engineer all this jabbering about microphones is only confusing.

IMHO the B1 is as much bang for the buck as the SM57, although I personally don't like the 57 very much, it was good enough for Frank Sinatra.
 
Han said:
For a novice homerecording engineer all this jabbering about microphones is only confusing.
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Oh ok, that's why no matter what someone want's a mic for you say the B1.

I need a vox mic... you say, get a B1.
I need a kick mic... you say, get a B1.
I need a snare mic... you say, get a B1.
I need a tom mic... you say, get a B1.
I need a sax mic... you say, get a B1.
I need piano mic's... you say, get a B1.
I need a bass amp mic... you say, get a B1.
I need a guitar mic... you say, get a B1.


I need a mic... you say, get a B1. Why... because you don't want to confuse them.
 
The Studio Projects B1 could become another "all-around" workhorse mic in any recording studio. ;)
 
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