what are some good cheap allaround studio mics

  • Thread starter Thread starter destorctr
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FYI, the sales pitch comment was a joke. you cant argue, though, that your post certainly reads as such.
 
thank you all i apoligize for not being more spacfic in my frist post
but we are headed on the right track now ,i have taken all of your advice and ran with it , thus i have ordered a pair of sm 81 condencers,now the question is what will be the vocal , amp, ext.
mic i was lookin at the large diaphragm condencers such as the oktava mk-319 and teh c3000b akg the shure ksm32sl and the at4033 all of the mics have simmular specs minus a few minor details ie.db noise spec,and responce range such as 20to 20k
and capsule size . so i guess what i am askin is what specs do i look for in a good vocal and simmular applications mic? oh also has any one played with the t.c.eletronics helicon voice prism that thing is rad i was wandering if any one who has it would recomend it ? and one more thing whats a good tube pre amp? avalon?
 
shadowfax said:
FYI, the sales pitch comment was a joke. you cant argue, though, that your post certainly reads as such.
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No problem. :)

When I reply with a recommendation to someone, I always try to be somewhat informative about what I'm recommending & include some reasoning as to why I'm recommending it & I appreciate it when others do the same with their recommendations to me. I don't see what use a recommendation is to anyone without at least some nfo & reasoning to back it up. I can see how that could lead to being mistaken as a sales pitch.

The give away clue to differentiate between an honest heart felt recommendation & a sales pitch though is that with a sales pitch, the nfo & the reasoning would be mostly of irrelevant matters. :)
 
destorctr said:
.... amp, ext.
mic i was lookin at the large diaphragm condencers such as the oktava mk-319 and teh c3000b akg the shure ksm32sl and the at4033 all of the mics have simmular specs minus a few minor details ie.db noise spec,and responce range such as 20to 20k
and capsule size . so i guess what i am askin is what specs do i look for in a good vocal and simmular applications mic? oh also has any one played with the t.c.eletronics helicon voice prism that thing is rad i was wandering if any one who has it would recomend it ? and one more thing whats a good tube pre amp? avalon?
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Just wanted to say don't put too much weight on spec sheets as they will tell you very little about what any particular mic will sound like.
The Octava MK-319 is one of my all time favorite vocal mics. It's a dark, round, warm sounding mic without the hyped high end a lot of budget condensor mics suffer from.
The C-3000B is a decent mic but the high end of this mic is definately hyped, not horrible but hyped none the less.
The 4033 is like a Swiss Army Knife. It sounds very good on a lot of sources, including vocals, but it is not a large diaphram mic like the othrs you mention. It's a 5/8" diaphram so it's a more mid size. I have no experience with the Shure mic you mentioned.
Oh, and an Avalon is an EXTREMLY nice preamp, but in that price range it should be.
 
I wouldn't spend the money on an Avalon for home recording, I'd only buy it to attract customers to a pro studio. The Peavey VMP2 www.peavey.com or the UA M-160 www.uaudio.com would be my first choices just based on the reviews and word of mouth. HHB Radius 40 or TLA Audio might be good too www.macmidimusic.com I'd buy the Peavey for $750 and spend you're real money on microphones. If you have THAT kind of a budget maybe you should consider vocal mikes a little more expensive.

Neumann TLM103
AKG C414
Rode NTK

...or for a cheaper mic, AT 3035 or 4033, Shure KSM27, Studio Projects C3, Rode NT1000, or the ADK 51. destorctr- I don't look at specs....I read reviews and buy mikes and try them at home for a couple f months. If they don't work out I sell them on Ebay and move on to the next one.

The AT 4033 has a big sensuous tone, who cares that it isn't a LD. It sounds like a LD. It has slightly exaggerated lows and highs and attenuated mids. Slightly hollow sounding because of the lack of mids but that mic through almost any tube preamp is awesome. Isn't that what sonusman used to say too :rolleyes: What happened to that guy....did he find a better crowd to hang with. :) Anyway, I've always agreed with him about the AT4033 and ART tube combination.
 
SP B1 !

The AT 4033 isn't a bad mic, but I find it a bit expensive for a mid size electret. There is a new AT4040 which seems to be the "real" single diaphragm version of the 4050. I haven't had a chance to test it, but it looks a lot more interesting to me than the 4033. They're both the same price.

My real recomendation, however, is the Studio Projects B1. To be honest, I bought it out of frustration when I was in NYC and couldn't get the pair of MXL 603s I originally wanted. Then I saw the and said to myself "why not buy one of those, it's only 89 bucks and it looks good, too." I took it home to Germany and used it as an all purpose utility microphone, mostly for micing my guitar amp. I didn't use it for vocals, though, as I thought it didn't sound as flattering on my voice. But last weekend I did use it, just for a change, and I really liked the results. I used it on a song that was a bit above my usual vocal range, and it didn't sound as edgy as my Superlux tube LD. I think it's a good vocal mic for stuff that a lot of inexpensive LDs don't like: screaming, bright or edgy voices. The B1 sounds pretty smooth on stuff like that. At $80-90, it's a great value. If I was in America I'd buy a second one in no time. I think it's a no brainer.
 
The B1 into the Avalon ? There's a vocal chain that makes sense. :rolleyes: I prefer a Radio Shack into a D.W. Fearn but that's just me.
 
:D lol.

If you're looking at a vocal mic that would be considered a step up for under a grand, I would have a look at either the Neuman TLM 103 or a Rode NTK.
 
thanks for all your help i am headed to the store to get my new mics as we speak i shall return and tell you all how it went
 
destorctr said:
thanks for all your help i am headed to the store to get my new mics as we speak i shall return and tell you all how it went
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NO, WAIT, DON'T GO YET!!!.....I have some really impor....



Oh, crap! Too late!
 
"The B1 into the Avalon ?"

Yeah, well it didn't sound bad into my MX8000; I don't suppose it gets worse into the Avalon. :)

A TLM103 or Rode NTK might "make more sense", but on certain voices the $80 B1 may just be the ticket. I think it's a great inexpensive addition to any mic locker. You know, Bjork recorded her vocals using a SM58. I don't think she rented a Behringer mic pre, because the expensive ones in the studio didn't make sense. :D
 
i would like to thank everyone for there direction and helping me make my selections i ended up with the at 4050 , a b2 , nt5, and a tps tube pre amp. thanks agin they all sound astounding i will post some of my sonic results when i get a chance
 
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