Which Mic to get for around $300

Which one to get

  • Audio Technica 4033

    Votes: 10 16.7%
  • Audio Technica 4040

    Votes: 10 16.7%
  • Audio Technica 3035

    Votes: 5 8.3%
  • Studio Projects TB-1

    Votes: 12 20.0%
  • MXL V77

    Votes: 7 11.7%
  • Blue Baby Bottle (around $370)

    Votes: 6 10.0%
  • Other (please comment)

    Votes: 10 16.7%

  • Total voters
    60
OK. been there...

I submit my original question/point is still valid. I won't argue there are a few very nice pieces hidden amongst the long lists of Taktell metronomes, chromatic tuners, and other relatively inexpensive gear - but not nearly what you would expect to find in a typical high end studio. Again, this is not a slam - I'm all the more impressed given your client list, which is practically encyclopedic. But it still begs the question of how you have managed to resist upgrading your gear to include some of the world class pieces that it would seem you could afford if you wished.

And by the way, Zeke, your observation was a little misleading, since a TLM103 was the only Neumann that I noticed. Maybe I missed something - it was a long list!
 
hmmm...

mebbe Harv trimmed the list a bit?

I could've sworn I saw "Stephen Paul Mod" on there on a previous visit...

Queue
 
You're both right. When I left L.A., I sold off my B&K mics gave my AKG condenser mic to somebody, got rd of my Neumanns, and got out of the business.

Now many years later, starting all over as a bottom feeder in a small studio, I had to watch my dollars and try to find things that would be exceptional values at low cost while I rebuilt my stockpile. In short, I had to look for "deals". Old friends helped out by giving me great deals on stuff, or letting me pay things off over time.

That's how I got a lot of the high dollar stuff you see on the ITR list. The rest of it is pretty much an open book that's been written here on the Internet. I got most of the stuff you see from dealers, ebay, and sales on newsgroups.

Now to the "Stephen Paul mods". About 10 years ago, or more, I went to California to drop something off for repair at Tascam, and while I was near L.A., I stopped in at Stephen's house to show him a pair of Farchild F-22 mics I had traded something to get. They were a little noisy and Stephen immediately tore them apart. He changed out some resistors and the FET and there was a great improvement. When I put up my equipment list, I listed them as being modded by Stephen, which was true.

A couple of years later, I found that Dan Kennedy (of Great River) also loved the Fairchild F-22 mics, and he had a new class A circuit that dropped right in in, and ran off straight phantom power, instead of the 70 volts worth of internal batteries it used. Dan did the mods, which eliminated Stephen's mods, so I changed my site to reflect that it was now Dan's mods in those mics.

Finally, I think littledog asked if I still have "gear lust".

Absolutely not.

Well, maybe a little bit.

Yeah, I guess so.

But it's no longer gear lust so much as it is the realization that better tools make our job easier. As someone noted, I have only one Neumann - a TLM-103, but I've got some pretty nice ribbon mics. We pretty much use the board's preamps, but we have a few great pre amps here, certainly world class.

We'll be adding a 24 track HD recorder here in the next couple of weeks (used, for an insane low price, if this deal works out), simply to make tracking and mixing easier, and saving wear and tear on our 9 DA-38s which are running 10 to 12 hours a day, every day. They'll be used from now on to only back up sessions at the end of the day.

Over the last few weeks, we bought an old Goya guitar for the studio, a Fender Squire Strat, a 15 Watt Fender amp, and a Furman headphone system for the big room - all used, all cheap. I also bought two used stand-alone CD burners (one for each studio) so we could burn rough mixes directly to CD, bypassing a step to DAT. I bought a brand new CD burner for the mastering computer when my Plextor went out a few weeks ago. I bought 4 more MXL-603s.

Pretty exciting, huh? I'd like to get another Lexicon PCM-41 for the little studio, but I refuse to pay the $350 that they go for on ebay.

If a Neumann U67, M269, U47, or U48 ever came along for around $2k, I'd get a bank loan if I had to, and have Stephen do a full mod on them, but I ain't likely to see any of those mics for $2k.

Other than that, between the big mics I do have, I'm getting a damn good sound, and I'm sure I'll find something to love in Alan's little box of goodies I received last week.
 
Harvey,
Thanks for clearing that up...

And thanks for sharing your info with the real "bottom feeders" :cool:

Queue
 
Yes, thanks Harvey for your inspirational response. I was worried that my question might come across in some way as condescending or worse, so I'm glad you didn't take it that way! Continued good luck and success in your current venture.

The advantage you have over someone like me is you have been a "real" engineer for a long time, whereas I've been a musician who stumbled into engineering through some ungodly accident or curse! In spite of some modest success, there's still that insecure part of me that thinks "...if I only had that Cranesong Spyder and that U67 and that Pendulum Audio Compressor and that etc. etc. etc... my stuff would sound like a REAL engineer..." Obviously, you KNOW you are are a real engineer, and that it has little or nothing to do with gear, and therein lies the difference!:cool:
 
Harvey Gerst said:

If a Neumann U67, M269, U47, or U48 ever came along for around $2k, I'd get a bank loan if I had to, and have Stephen do a full mod on them, but I ain't likely to see any of those mics for $2k.


Obviously it wouldn't be exactly the same, but since the Soundelux U99 (which is supposedly U67-ish) can be gotten brand new these days for under $1700, do you think it be worth it to buy one of those and send it to Stephen Paul? Since he ends up replacing almost everything anyway, how much different would the end result be?
 
When I went looking for my go to studio workhorse mic....

I picked up the Rode NT2a. It has a lot of versatility with 3 switches for pickup pattern (Cardioid, Figure 8, and Omni), a pad switch (0, -5db, and -10db), and a low cut / HPF with the roll off at either (40Hz or 80hz, or bypassed). This allowed me to get one mic, that I can use for vocals, guitar cabs, or more recently as an overhead for my drumset. I got mine several years ago for $400. Now you can get it in a "Studio Solution" pack that comes with the mic, the shockmount, and pop filter for the same $400 price tag. BTW the shock mount on it's own is around $50.

I would look at the features list, and try to find the most versatile mic you can for the money. The more versatile it is, the longer its useablity in the long run. Besides which ever mic you pic it all really depends on what pairs best with your voice. The rough part is you wont know until you get one and use it repeatedly as to whether or not it will be a good match for you.

Pick one and run with it. :thumbs up:
 
Focus on the quality not the price .

EXACTLY! You would be surprised how much your quality will jump purchasing a mic like AT4047 (Which is 650$ brand new), I am sure you can get it close to 4-500$ used. Don't be to concerned about price, quality is just as important if not more. Mid tier mics IMO start at around 500-600$ If I have to put a price on it. I good initial setup will last you years, so spending a little more can go a long way in the long run
 
Get the cheapest mic you can get and have it modded by Michael Joly or John Bonnell. Bonnell is cheaper but doesn't replace the capsule. I've had mics done by both and they both sound excellent.
 
That's a tough question. We don't (at least I don't) know what you really want to get out of the microphone. We don't know your voice, genre etc.
I record vocal for blogs. Not singing, verse, rapping... I like to pace up and down. I don't want my foot fall picked up. I use a Fleximike from Speechware. Head mounted mono electret microphone which is light, comfortable and does a pretty damn good job for the price range.
 
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