I like how nobody really gets the point here.
Admit that most of you WANT to believe that there is a cheap solution and will stand stubborn behind anyting that supports that.
I don't post in the mic forum much because of this, but I have to show up and put on the game face from time to time just so you all have something to argue with me about.
In a nutshell:
"I need a mic for cheap that sound great"
answer 1 "Buy this cheap such and such, it is awesome"
answer 2 "Yeah, I have a cheap such and such and it is awesome"
answer 3 "The cheap such and such is just as good as anything I have heard" (have heard little, but THAT don't stop them from using the marketing type wording in the recommendation)
answer 4 "For a few more buck, you can have something that will last you a life time. I wouldn't recommend unproven unless you know what you are looking for and can test it before buying"
reply 1 to answer 4 "That's BS!!!"
answer 2 "Yeah, you don't have to pay more to get the same"
answer 3 "Joe Blow said it was good and he writes abou this stuff more then I do. He MUST be right and you are wrong"
answer 4 "Yeah, Joe Blow gave it a glowing review in magazine X. You are full of BS"
etc.....
Post found later in some other forum:
"I need help. I recorded a whateveryouwanttoinserthere with my X brand mic and it sounded really good until I compared my recording to a professional recording. What do I do?"
answer 1 "Compress it with X brand compressor"
answer 2 "Eq it a lot"
answer 3 "Give it some reverb"
answer 4 "Use the Antares mic modeler on it to make it sound like Y brand mic"
answer 5 "You need gizmowidgetgadget by Cheapbrandstuff if you want THAT sound"
answer 6 "I told you so....." (posted by answer 4 to question 1.
I use a $450 mic/preamp combo for vocals and $200 mic/preamp combo for most instruments (same preamp, so the total cost is $550 for two mics and a preamp) that continually produces results that makes people ask a lot of questions about how I got the sounds, and many statements about how they wished they could get that sound. As happy as I may be with it, it is still short alot of times of the big boy results.
Without being rude, "condescending" (as some have put it), or challenging about results other "pros" get (usually none of which you have heard), what makes my advice on this subject so wrong?
Here is a quicky review I am going to do on a AKG C1000S, a $200 small diaphram condensor:
I used the C1000 on a recent recording session with a female vocalist recently, as well as the main drum overhead. Here was the "results".
As a drum overhead, very detailed. The sound was smooth and articulate. It didn't pick up the toms quite as well as a pair of Nuemann U87's do (a $2400 mic!) but the tom sound was reasonable, and the top end was just as good.
On the vocalist, the mic had maybe a bit more proximity effect then I would have liked, because she is a rock singer and tended to move around a bit while performing the part. Other then that, the sound produced when she was in the "sweet spot" was very well balanced, warm, and very clear. You could hear breath intakes, and when she hit the mic hard, there was no audible distortion from the diaphram.
I could go on and on here. Let me ask you though, what have you "heard" of my results?
What makes what I have to say about this mic better or worse then what someone else reviewed about it?
Ahhhhhhhhhh...the mic forum. Land of a lot of opinions with few results to back them.
That is the blind leading the blind at it's finest....
Ed
If I could convert some of this expensive ass tuition in som mics, and maybe a ghost, and some good a/d d/a converters, that would rock. By cheap, buy twice. Yes, that is the plan. I need something now, but I don't have the financial wherewithall to be buying the kind of mics I want to end up with. So I'll buy the cheapest ones possible. And if some like Harvey Gerst who seems to know his shit, recommends them, well then hell, that just seems to seal the deal. I wouldn't have any skills at all to place good mics well anyway.
