What is Best Mic for Studio Vocal Recording Under $500

  • Thread starter Thread starter Teacher
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First to admit that my enthusiasm FAR outweighs any expertise and/or testing methodology, etc.

Having an opportunity to create "learning tapes" for various barbershop quartets allowed me to try some various microphones
on different singers. Some of the results were surprising and rather counter-intuitive.

Also being on friendly terms with some local employees in "pro audio" dealerships, gave me access to some high end items like the U87, and some hours experimenting with excellent monitoring systems, good acoustics,etc.

So...

To sum it up, not conclusive by any means, perhaps "compelling"
evidence at most.

Chris
 
And furthermore...

Admittedly biased towards the M88TG for two reasons besides the A/B comparison vs. the U87ai;

1) Only vocal microphone (so far) that "wowed" me on my voice.
(although others have sounded excellent)

2) Only vocal microphone (so far) that caused my wife to yell
"turn down the stereo" from upstairs! :D

Chris
 
MrZekeMan said:
Yea, I agree. Here's a perfect example:Can't stay under your bridge can you?
Here's another one for you MrTrollMan... bite me.
 
chessparov said:
Having an opportunity to create "learning tapes" for various barbershop quartets allowed me to try some various microphones
on different singers. Some of the results were surprising and rather counter-intuitive.

Also being on friendly terms with some local employees in "pro audio" dealerships, gave me access to some high end items like the U87, and some hours experimenting with excellent monitoring systems, good acoustics,etc.

That's the kind of pre-qualifier that can be most helpful, Mr. Parov. :D

Sorry for the tone. I just like to know the methodology, circumstances, details of people's conclusions . . . lest this place become a forum of misinformation.

Would like to learn more about your experiments, and I think it would make for an excellent source of info if you should ever get around to summarizing it in the form of an article or a formal user review.

Again, my apologies.
 
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

-a very wise person-
 
Interesting to see this thread come back. We've had a lot of these mics at several studios for over six months. We A/B them and they also get used by several engineers tracking on sessions. FWIW, here are the most popular under-$500 large condenser mics that the engineers actually use quite a bit on their own sessions - keeping in mind that we have about 200 mics here.

In no particular order:

MXL 69 Mogami Edition - male vox, amps
AT 4040 - amps
AT 4050 - (pairs) drum OH's, female vox
Red5 Audio RV8 - amps, vox
Studio Projects B3 - toms, especially low tom
ADK A-51-TC - vox, amps
Studio Projects C1 - vox


Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions
 
chessparov said:
And furthermore...

Admittedly biased towards the M88TG for two reasons besides the A/B comparison vs. the U87ai;

2) Only vocal microphone (so far) that caused my wife to yell
"turn down the stereo" from upstairs! :D

Chris

:D
 
No offense taken Senor "Rock".

Maybe someday with true studio experience behind me, and a
good pro engineer to train me, I'll write something more "formal".

Chris
 
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