so i have about $300 bucks as a budget now... (danger this is a long question!)

[guitar junkie]

Ok so i started with working with a little folk group... we have some songs we wrote and some really nice vocals out of the girls (two sisters who sing harmoney together) the group lineup is like this.

acoustic guitar & vocals

Violin & vocals

acoustic lead Guitar and some back up vocals (me) although this member is known to play Banjo, fiddle, Mandolin, as well as some other odds and ends of crap.

we have a budget of about $300 for mics and that includes cables at this time.
now i have read great stuff about the MXL product line such as...

the 603s for acoustic guitars...

not sure about some other models but some people seem to like the v67G for its sound and price. the 990 seems to be the luck of the draw so i am not really looking at it... i am not sure much about the newest 900 series right now as far as the rest of what they make.

now i have stands that i got out of the trash bins at work just needed the duct tape taken off of them and some TLC like a new pop rivet and some screws re-threaded so i have enough stands for what i plan to do....

see the girls live in a older brick house that seems to be pretty sound proof. with a huge living room 9' high ceilings and an 18' by 40' room so its nice and big! the acoustics are great for live work (but would suck for mixing) nice clean reverb not a lot of bass problems due to the sofa, so our plan is to take a few gobos i made in the shop and sort of set things up so we all track together. the girls will have to sing together as thats the only way they have ever sung at all. myself i want to capture a good moment or two in the studio! so i am thinking a 603 on the one guitar (she just plays it to keep time) one on the fiddle and something else on me (i already have my AT4040 and D770 that i use ) that would leave me on vocal mics next. (and me still wondering how to pay for it all) well i was on Front End Audio and found the the pack of one 603s and one MXL 2001 for $99 a pack! now that is not bad as the 603s seems to be $99 bucks alone but this pack has the LDC also in it. is this a good deal? for the same money what would be worth looking at?

as for a mic pre i have a FIREPOD. so we are in ok shape there i guess.

i want to order from Front End. they in my book are kind of like one of our own companys, also Warren has been nice to me in the past about not being full of BS. but at the same time i have a guy at the music store that sort of owes me a great deal and i might be able to talk him into giving me some cable or at least cutting the price a lot

the whole point of this thread is to help me not just blow the bands budget on something that will not be worth it for us. HELP!

thanks guys you always seem to have been there before also.

 

[daav]

You can probably find 2 603s used if you look around for very close to $100, i hear the MXL 2001 is a piece of crap. One is OK, but I really like them XY for acoustic, and they do ok as overheads, which might suit you for other applications like for the guitars and fiddle together to add a room sound to the mix.

Not sure if guitar centers anywhere still have any of the old Otavas in stock, but the MK 319 i got there is a pretty decent vocal mic for what use i have had on it, at $79, you can get some good milage out of it.

Those are the extent of my real experience, but if you want some wild speculation based on heresay, the v67G dces seem to have some adamant followers, I have considered that for my next mic (after a kick mic, and a decent entrylevel preamp, oh and not to forget...).

Daav.

 

[BigRay]

If I were you, id get a pair of 1006(200 bucks for the pair) and the pack you mentioned....they are all MXL mics..and all great. The 1006 has a similar frequency response as schoeps, thus making it really nice for near AND diffuse field recording. Thats my suggestion.
http://www.micguys.com/marshall/marsh_1006bpKit.htm
get two 1006(great for ANYTHING, vocals, guitar, mandolin , dobro, anything really)
and the 99$ pack. I know the guys at mic guys, have dealt with them several times. They are great folks...at any rate...the 1006 comes with shockmount and all. so two of those and the pack you were talking about...cant go wrong.

teddy

Ok so i started with working with a little folk group... we have some songs we wrote and some really nice vocals out of the girls (two sisters who sing harmoney together) the group lineup is like this.

acoustic guitar & vocals

Violin & vocals

acoustic lead Guitar and some back up vocals (me) although this member is known to play Banjo, fiddle, Mandolin, as well as some other odds and ends of crap.

we have a budget of about $300 for mics and that includes cables at this time.
now i have read great stuff about the MXL product line such as...

the 603s for acoustic guitars...

not sure about some other models but some people seem to like the v67G for its sound and price. the 990 seems to be the luck of the draw so i am not really looking at it... i am not sure much about the newest 900 series right now as far as the rest of what they make.

now i have stands that i got out of the trash bins at work just needed the duct tape taken off of them and some TLC like a new pop rivet and some screws re-threaded so i have enough stands for what i plan to do....

see the girls live in a older brick house that seems to be pretty sound proof. with a huge living room 9' high ceilings and an 18' by 40' room so its nice and big! the acoustics are great for live work (but would suck for mixing) nice clean reverb not a lot of bass problems due to the sofa, so our plan is to take a few gobos i made in the shop and sort of set things up so we all track together. the girls will have to sing together as thats the only way they have ever sung at all. myself i want to capture a good moment or two in the studio! so i am thinking a 603 on the one guitar (she just plays it to keep time) one on the fiddle and something else on me (i already have my AT4040 and D770 that i use ) that would leave me on vocal mics next. (and me still wondering how to pay for it all) well i was on Front End Audio and found the the pack of one 603s and one MXL 2001 for $99 a pack! now that is not bad as the 603s seems to be $99 bucks alone but this pack has the LDC also in it. is this a good deal? for the same money what would be worth looking at?

as for a mic pre i have a FIREPOD. so we are in ok shape there i guess.

i want to order from Front End. they in my book are kind of like one of our own companys, also Warren has been nice to me in the past about not being full of BS. but at the same time i have a guy at the music store that sort of owes me a great deal and i might be able to talk him into giving me some cable or at least cutting the price a lot

the whole point of this thread is to help me not just blow the bands budget on something that will not be worth it for us. HELP!

thanks guys you always seem to have been there before also.

 

[BigRay]

and I am STILL there. I never left the "been there before"
I play in a "old timey" acoustic country/folk rock band myself that has a similar instrumentation. WE have mandolin, dobro, pedal steel, 3 vocalists, two acoustics, a drummer, and an upright.

Teddy

Ok so i started with working with a little folk group... we have some songs we wrote and some really nice vocals out of the girls (two sisters who sing harmoney together) the group lineup is like this.

acoustic guitar & vocals

Violin & vocals

acoustic lead Guitar and some back up vocals (me) although this member is known to play Banjo, fiddle, Mandolin, as well as some other odds and ends of crap.

we have a budget of about $300 for mics and that includes cables at this time.
now i have read great stuff about the MXL product line such as...

the 603s for acoustic guitars...

not sure about some other models but some people seem to like the v67G for its sound and price. the 990 seems to be the luck of the draw so i am not really looking at it... i am not sure much about the newest 900 series right now as far as the rest of what they make.

now i have stands that i got out of the trash bins at work just needed the duct tape taken off of them and some TLC like a new pop rivet and some screws re-threaded so i have enough stands for what i plan to do....

see the girls live in a older brick house that seems to be pretty sound proof. with a huge living room 9' high ceilings and an 18' by 40' room so its nice and big! the acoustics are great for live work (but would suck for mixing) nice clean reverb not a lot of bass problems due to the sofa, so our plan is to take a few gobos i made in the shop and sort of set things up so we all track together. the girls will have to sing together as thats the only way they have ever sung at all. myself i want to capture a good moment or two in the studio! so i am thinking a 603 on the one guitar (she just plays it to keep time) one on the fiddle and something else on me (i already have my AT4040 and D770 that i use ) that would leave me on vocal mics next. (and me still wondering how to pay for it all) well i was on Front End Audio and found the the pack of one 603s and one MXL 2001 for $99 a pack! now that is not bad as the 603s seems to be $99 bucks alone but this pack has the LDC also in it. is this a good deal? for the same money what would be worth looking at?

as for a mic pre i have a FIREPOD. so we are in ok shape there i guess.

i want to order from Front End. they in my book are kind of like one of our own companys, also Warren has been nice to me in the past about not being full of BS. but at the same time i have a guy at the music store that sort of owes me a great deal and i might be able to talk him into giving me some cable or at least cutting the price a lot

the whole point of this thread is to help me not just blow the bands budget on something that will not be worth it for us. HELP!

thanks guys you always seem to have been there before also.

 

[guitar junkie]

Well I decided that the best bang for my buck is to build the cable that I need. and just buy some bulk parts and a spool of nice cable...

I am still looking for mics and wondering what will happen at christmas time... what will they come up with to make people spend money?

The 603 seems great! the 604 seems better...

Still need to find a couple LDC mics but I think I might be able to pull it off now if I can cut the budget a little bit through making the cable myself.... I have never done this but I have a really close friend who makes all his cable so I know it can be done....

Hey i built 2 guitars already so whats cable gonna take?



I might take the girls into Sam Ash where the local guy owes me a good deal... see if we can use the treeted room and maybe A/B a bunch of mics

 

[jkokura]

Making cables easy if you know how to use a soldering iron...I like doing it.

Jacob

 

[guitar junkie]

one thing that i have some use of. to me its all just metal work and i have been doing that most of my life now so i should be able to tackle that. still looking at mics and hoping for a change at Christmas time.

 

[BigRay]

How to build the basic mic cable..
you'll need the following:

[a] soldering iron
rosin core solder
[c] cable
[d] connectors
[e] wire strippers or blade of some sort
[f] multimeter

Mic / Interconnect Cables
Making your own mic cables can be a great way to save money. All it takes is a little soldering skill (and I mean little) and the correct parts. For mic cables, I like to use Neutrik connectors (part nbrs here) and Canare Starquad cable (L-4E6S). These instructions are specific to the Canare Starquad cable, but will be very similar for other cable.

[1] Gently remove the outer plastic housing off the end of the cable. This should reveal a paper sheath and metal shield as well as the wires within the shield.

[2] Gently cut away the paper sheath and unbraid the shield. You should now have access to 4 wires inside the shield - 2 blue, 2 white.

[3] Strip the plastic housing off the tips of the 2 blue and 2 white wires within the shield.

[4] Twist the ends of the 2 blue wires together. Twist the ends of the 2 white wires together. Twist the unbraided shield strands together.

[5] "Tin" the blue wires that are twisted together; then the white; then the shield. Tinning is like priming - coat the wires with a small amount of solder. This will help hold the twisted wires together and make the final solder connection more secure.

[6] Solder the blue, white and shield wires to the XLR connectors' pins as follows: 1 = ground (shield), 2 = (+) (blue), 3 = (-) (white). Whether you solder blue to pin 2 or 3 (and likewise for white) doesn't really matter as long as you're consistent on both the male and female XLR on each end of the cable. But "blue to two" is easy to remember. Smiley

[7] Check for continuity with your multimeter. Basically you want to make sure that an electrical signal can be carried from one pin of the XLR cable, through your soldering, across the cable, through the soldering and to the same pin on the other XLR cable. Set your multimeter to the "continuity" setting. Apply one lead from the multimeter to the XLR male connector, pin 1. Apply the other lead from the multimeter to the other end of the cable, XLR female connector, pin 1. If the multimeter beeps, you have continuity - this is good! If the multimeter does not beep, you have a problem. Likewise, apply one multimeter lead to pin 1, and the other to pins 2 or 3. The multimeter should not beep. If it does, you have continuity across pins. This is bad. If you don't have a multimeter with a continuity setting, but do have a resistance setting, I assume you know how to check for continuity already.

That's it! Pretty easy, eh?
__________________

Soldering Guide
http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderpix.htm
__________________

another xlr cable building site...
http://www.recordingeq.com/EQ/req0400/cords.htm
__________________

 

[guitar junkie]

sounds easy enough how much is the Multimeter going to cost me?

most of my parts i think will come from Parts Express unless i can get a better price someplace else. i want to make some speaker cable for my PA also and some guitar cables later as well...

 

[BigRay]

sounds easy enough how much is the Multimeter going to cost me?

most of my parts i think will come from Parts Express unless i can get a better price someplace else. i want to make some speaker cable for my PA also and some guitar cables later as well...

I also have a friend who custom makes silver XLRs and interconnects. multimeter, dont know..
Teddy

 

[Adam P]

I just made eight 25 foot mic cables with Canare cable (NOT the quad cable) and Neutrik ends. It wound up costing me $97 plus shipping from Markertek. I sprung for the 3-day UPS which was 12 bucks. I placed the order on Monday morning and the box was waiting for me when I got home today. No too bad if you ask me (plus you can get different color cables...I made four blue and four yellow).

 

[guitar junkie]

I just made eight 25 foot mic cables with Canare cable (NOT the quad cable) and Neutrik ends. It wound up costing me $97 plus shipping from Markertek. I sprung for the 3-day UPS which was 12 bucks. I placed the order on Monday morning and the box was waiting for me when I got home today. No too bad if you ask me (plus you can get different color cables...I made four blue and four yellow).

thanks for the tip.

 

[Adam P]

No problem. Part #s are L-2T2S for the cable and NC3FX and NC3MX for the XLR connectors, female and male respectively. The cable seems to be good...its got a thick jacket and a fully braided shield, but its not too stiff or unpliable.

 

[mshilarious]

I'm coming late to this thread, but for old-timey folk music with those instruments, you could do it all with a ribbon--the Nady or one of the similar ones. Especially with the fiddle. I only hesitate because the Firepod doesn't have that much gain, but if you play and sing loudly enough, between that and your AT4040, it could work great.

As for the multimeter, I've made plenty of cables before I had one, but Radio Shack has some very inexpensive models that work fine. I think mine was $20 or so. I use Parts X for my cable supplies and the Dayton mic cable works fine.

 

[guitar junkie]

yeah the Nady seems nice. if i can get one on sale it might be worth it. right now i kind of like the looks of the 603 or the 604 from MXL. still looking for the one on vocals though. but hey we don't even have the money right now so... we are going to research this till we do and then see what happens. i am thinking that Christmas something will come out that is new, and wonderful and high Quality and blows the rest of the mics out out of the water! what always happens right?