Seeker of Rock
Let us be unburdened by that which has been ?
SAme with the preamp section, same here, same in a lot of other forums I would guess....Same question comes up....for my $100 or $200 or $500 (usually stops at $1,500 or so because by then you either have enough bucks to spend or have a good enough understanding to choose in the lower $$$ ranges).
He is what I have to offer, and half or more of it is not what you want to read...go try mics out. The best way to do things, and at a middle age I even forgot that a few weeks back until I made the time to actually do it. Yeah, it is a bitch to do, at least for me at my local guitar center, because my main guy I do business with is not a "manager" so the "manager" was all frustrated about having to pull mics out of that glass case in the pro audio section at GUITAR CENTER (yeah, remember that name) and having to use his key and his sales associates time to let me plug in some mics in one of the monitoring rooms to actually hear it. Now the guy I deal with is not a manager, but I have dealt with him through a couple of I'm sure what were lucrative commission transactions for him previously, and he treats me right. Crazy that a "manager" said to him, and I was there and heard what was meant to be said under his breath, 'we don't do that here...we don't pull the mics out for the customers. We have a return policy.'
Anyway, shitty as it can be (and maybe it is just the pro audio assistant manager at the Hallandale Beach location), the guy I always deal with and give my money to due to his Customer Service, agreed with me and finally got some mics set up to compare in an enclosed room with all things else being equal.
My point is, I know it is not always easy to audition mics and the pressure on you to walk out spending money even if you don't find something you like, but no matter how much of a chore the "assistant manager' made it for my tried and true sales professional, the sales professional still made it happen for me, knowing there may not be a sell, but knowing the effort against his resistant manager and past dealings I have given the sales associate, that when I'm ready to unload some cash it is he that will get the commission and I will call him out by name. If it is his day off, I come back. He gives me service, I make him commission. Plus on top of it all, he is a really good guy, I must admit.
So down to it....the neverending question of people not familiar with mics or their sounds and the posts, something like..."New here, what's the best mic for under $100, or what can I step up to for $300 and will I hear a difference, or tube vs. condensor vs. dynamic. It has been said a million times before here and I plead guilty of asking the same questions, but it really does matter on what you plan to do with this mic or mics, the style of music you are recording, are you a home recordist documenting your own stuff or are you planning to do other people's stuff professionally or leisurely, is there are particular tone to the specific or median voice you expect, or do you want something that is in the middle and tends to be more neutral.
I record my own stuff exclusively, no plans to record others at this point as I can't even find the time from my day job to take care of what I want to do. So for me I use a Joemeek JM47 that I will put up against anything I have heard, though I haven't heard the full spectrum, but it fits the PARTICULAR TONE of my voice better than other mics I recently auditioned, the Audio Technica 4033, the Blue Baby Bottle, and the Rode NT1a. Not that those were bad mics, to the contrary they sounded great, but I actually brought my JM47 in to do a side-by-side and the only other thing that suited my tone well was a Groove Tubes GT55. Point being, here I praise the JM47 (and some people tend to knock on it, not sure why...maybe it is just my voice tone but I tend to think it is unfounded "they heard this here", or some reputable person said this about it". Maybe I just got one that was a mutation and all of the others sound like shit, but trust your ears is the best advice. My ears have evolved through years of being involved in music, so I understand some that are new to music and may or may not have a lot of faith in what they hear want advice from people who have been in music longer. That is what this forum is for, I guess, so besides the advice of going to a music store and asking to demo a few mics in your price range, or even if not, and the potential reluctance you may or may not get, try and do it.
This BBS is the best out there in my opinion, a DRagon starting off with a 488 icon back in the day, and now it has grown into a great resource with a lot of great information. But when wondering or asking about mics, and "what is the best mic for under $100 or under $500, etc, well it really depends on what you want that mic to do. I know it is frustrating when people say this, that there really is no "right" answer, but detail your question as to whether you are using this for only vocals, vocals and acoustic instruments, what type of pres you are going into, whether this is recording you and your instruments only and if so what are they, what kind of recording environment, whether you want to start recording professionally and will be recording other musicians but don't have the full professional setup yet, etc. This will probably help you to get a better answer to the numerous recurring post here on the same general topic, and yes I stand guilty as charged in past posts. There are a lot of good mics out there. Read previous recommendations and audition a comparison between those most frequently recommended. If you don't really like any of them DON'T buy them because someone else says they are good and they like them. Direction is helpful, and use it because that is why this forum is at the top of the heap, but ALWAYS be a skeptic once you get a general direction (or some of you who are just born with the ability, never mind, you already have things figured out for yourselves
).
So concluding the Seeker of Rock book of mics, I'm not going to tell you the most popular because you can search them, and the information is out there. I like my JM47 for large condensor studio vocals, and I onsite compared it to HONESTLY come to that conclusion. I don't like it for my acoustic, I have to admit. Reason? It pick up too much of everything else like my pant creases shuffling or my foot moving in such a sensitive environment. Does it now start to make sense how each mic you choose is going to be on your needs? I'm going o need help on my acoustic and background mic because I don't like the JM47 for that, but when I post info I will be specific about it, and likely end up bringing my Taylor into local Guitar Center for another frowny-faced session between me, my awesome sales associate and the grumpy Pro Audio Section 'manager'. Ah, the things we have to do to follow our hearts.
LISTEN TO YOUR EARS, and use advice on here as a good guide.
The book copyright of Yourownopinionmatters, Inc., and Dragonworks Inc. though the latter does not endorse or necessarily support anything explicitely implied herein.
He is what I have to offer, and half or more of it is not what you want to read...go try mics out. The best way to do things, and at a middle age I even forgot that a few weeks back until I made the time to actually do it. Yeah, it is a bitch to do, at least for me at my local guitar center, because my main guy I do business with is not a "manager" so the "manager" was all frustrated about having to pull mics out of that glass case in the pro audio section at GUITAR CENTER (yeah, remember that name) and having to use his key and his sales associates time to let me plug in some mics in one of the monitoring rooms to actually hear it. Now the guy I deal with is not a manager, but I have dealt with him through a couple of I'm sure what were lucrative commission transactions for him previously, and he treats me right. Crazy that a "manager" said to him, and I was there and heard what was meant to be said under his breath, 'we don't do that here...we don't pull the mics out for the customers. We have a return policy.'
Anyway, shitty as it can be (and maybe it is just the pro audio assistant manager at the Hallandale Beach location), the guy I always deal with and give my money to due to his Customer Service, agreed with me and finally got some mics set up to compare in an enclosed room with all things else being equal.
My point is, I know it is not always easy to audition mics and the pressure on you to walk out spending money even if you don't find something you like, but no matter how much of a chore the "assistant manager' made it for my tried and true sales professional, the sales professional still made it happen for me, knowing there may not be a sell, but knowing the effort against his resistant manager and past dealings I have given the sales associate, that when I'm ready to unload some cash it is he that will get the commission and I will call him out by name. If it is his day off, I come back. He gives me service, I make him commission. Plus on top of it all, he is a really good guy, I must admit.
So down to it....the neverending question of people not familiar with mics or their sounds and the posts, something like..."New here, what's the best mic for under $100, or what can I step up to for $300 and will I hear a difference, or tube vs. condensor vs. dynamic. It has been said a million times before here and I plead guilty of asking the same questions, but it really does matter on what you plan to do with this mic or mics, the style of music you are recording, are you a home recordist documenting your own stuff or are you planning to do other people's stuff professionally or leisurely, is there are particular tone to the specific or median voice you expect, or do you want something that is in the middle and tends to be more neutral.
I record my own stuff exclusively, no plans to record others at this point as I can't even find the time from my day job to take care of what I want to do. So for me I use a Joemeek JM47 that I will put up against anything I have heard, though I haven't heard the full spectrum, but it fits the PARTICULAR TONE of my voice better than other mics I recently auditioned, the Audio Technica 4033, the Blue Baby Bottle, and the Rode NT1a. Not that those were bad mics, to the contrary they sounded great, but I actually brought my JM47 in to do a side-by-side and the only other thing that suited my tone well was a Groove Tubes GT55. Point being, here I praise the JM47 (and some people tend to knock on it, not sure why...maybe it is just my voice tone but I tend to think it is unfounded "they heard this here", or some reputable person said this about it". Maybe I just got one that was a mutation and all of the others sound like shit, but trust your ears is the best advice. My ears have evolved through years of being involved in music, so I understand some that are new to music and may or may not have a lot of faith in what they hear want advice from people who have been in music longer. That is what this forum is for, I guess, so besides the advice of going to a music store and asking to demo a few mics in your price range, or even if not, and the potential reluctance you may or may not get, try and do it.
This BBS is the best out there in my opinion, a DRagon starting off with a 488 icon back in the day, and now it has grown into a great resource with a lot of great information. But when wondering or asking about mics, and "what is the best mic for under $100 or under $500, etc, well it really depends on what you want that mic to do. I know it is frustrating when people say this, that there really is no "right" answer, but detail your question as to whether you are using this for only vocals, vocals and acoustic instruments, what type of pres you are going into, whether this is recording you and your instruments only and if so what are they, what kind of recording environment, whether you want to start recording professionally and will be recording other musicians but don't have the full professional setup yet, etc. This will probably help you to get a better answer to the numerous recurring post here on the same general topic, and yes I stand guilty as charged in past posts. There are a lot of good mics out there. Read previous recommendations and audition a comparison between those most frequently recommended. If you don't really like any of them DON'T buy them because someone else says they are good and they like them. Direction is helpful, and use it because that is why this forum is at the top of the heap, but ALWAYS be a skeptic once you get a general direction (or some of you who are just born with the ability, never mind, you already have things figured out for yourselves
).So concluding the Seeker of Rock book of mics, I'm not going to tell you the most popular because you can search them, and the information is out there. I like my JM47 for large condensor studio vocals, and I onsite compared it to HONESTLY come to that conclusion. I don't like it for my acoustic, I have to admit. Reason? It pick up too much of everything else like my pant creases shuffling or my foot moving in such a sensitive environment. Does it now start to make sense how each mic you choose is going to be on your needs? I'm going o need help on my acoustic and background mic because I don't like the JM47 for that, but when I post info I will be specific about it, and likely end up bringing my Taylor into local Guitar Center for another frowny-faced session between me, my awesome sales associate and the grumpy Pro Audio Section 'manager'. Ah, the things we have to do to follow our hearts.
LISTEN TO YOUR EARS, and use advice on here as a good guide.
The book copyright of Yourownopinionmatters, Inc., and Dragonworks Inc. though the latter does not endorse or necessarily support anything explicitely implied herein.
