Mic & Pre Vs. Mic & Pre

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:21 pm

So In A Couple Days I WIll Be Purchasing A Rode NTK and A Presonus Eureka for a total of just under $1300 Dollars.

Can You Think of any other mic & pre combo that would give me better quality? i also thought of using the AT 4047.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:23 am

I'd do a search on the Rode NTK and the AT 40 series. They have been compared a lot on these forums. My impression is that the AT has usually been favored, but I don't own either, so you should check for yourself.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:47 am

What will this stuff be used for?

If it's primarily for voice...I think it's an okay package. I'd hesitate to shell out $1300 bucks for it though.

The Eureka is a far better device than it deserves to be, however, in that price range or slightly more, there are some very heavy competitors.

Do you have any wiggle room on your budget?

Have you looked at the Blue Bluebird? Have you checked out Summit 2BA-221 or Grace 101s? How about the Langevin dual mic pre (it's $1300 alone, but it friggin blows the doors off of anything mentioned yet for most applications.)

Maybe the Great River ME-1NV?? That plus the Bluebird would be a killer combination for almost anything! And it should set you back right around the same price point.

If you're really set on the Comp and EQ in the Eureka, have you considered using plugins? There are some great ones out there.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:47 pm

the ONLY use will be for me rapping. yes i check out the blue bird its actually cheaper then the NTK at my local music store, but i was under the impression it was for singers...

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:00 pm

also i heard that The problem with the Baby bottle is that the ends are not screwed on, they are just pressed on. If they get loose, (which half of them are right out of the box) the capsle with lean and the ends will spin, causeing the risk of damaging the mic

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:19 pm

I can't speak for the Baby Bottle as it's a different mic, but my Bluebird is screwed in place with a single set screw and it's perfectly solid.

As for its intended use, what makes a mic better for rap than singing or vice versa? Absolutely nothing.

This is a myth or misconception which is commonly bantered around and shows up here on these boards often as:

"Which mic is best for rap vocals?" or some variation.

The jokes usually begin to fly about certain mics having a bling factor due to gold grills and pop screens, etc.

The reality is, any mic will record rap vocals as it will also record drums, amps, orchestras, etc. Certain mics have certain frequency (and other) characteristics that make them great for one task or another, but again, they'll all work.

Some mics that seem ubiquitous for rap vocals are:
Shure SM7B
EV RE20
Sony C800G (way outside your budget)
U67 (ironically, I'm referring to the Bluebird as the poor man's 67 as it has that nice clarity to it with a good proximity effect and big low end. Of course, the U67 is much nicer off axis, but the bluebird ain't bad. Also the 67 is more polite in the 200-1200 Hz range making it a traditional Neumann sound. Polite as in smooth and lovely, not laid back.)

I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Baby Bottle incurs a 50% failure rate out of the box. If that were the case, Blue would not have the reputation that they do and they certainly couldn't command a decent price for their mics.

I can only say that my dealings with Blue and Skipper have been excedingly positive and I'm certain that if you were to ever have a problem with a mic of theirs, regardless of initial price tag, he'd be willing to help.

Cheers-
J.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:45 pm

I own both an NTK and an AT4050 and I find the NTK is a little bright in the high mids... in that respect, for a vocalist it works well with, it blows the AT out of the water, but the AT is alot more versatile, in my experience. As with any microphone, the results you get will be dependent on the tonal characteristics of the sound source (your rapper in this case) and how they blend with the tonal characteristics of the mic. In your case, I would probably vote for the AT over the NTK, as long as your recording environment is pretty quiet as far as background noise (though both mics are pretty good at picking up everything in the neighborhood, the NTK seems a bit better at rejecting background noise than the AT)... The AT 4047 is brighter than the 4050 if I remember, but I can't speak to it as well because I've only used it a few times.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that $1300 for the NTK/Eureka combo doesn't seem like a super spectacular deal. A quick google search shows retail prices for each around $500.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:44 pm

eureka 550 NTK 525 after tax its just over 1230 or something close, the extra coiple hundred is if i adsoloulty had to spend more. but thanks everyone for your input, i think im might go with the Eureka and NTK.... if i do will i need a pre amp? or is the Eureka firewire?

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:55 pm

The Eureka IS a preamp....and an EQ...and a compressor...I dont know of any with firewire.

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:07 am

^so how would i connect to my laptop? i need a mixer of preamp, but something cheap... will it lower the quality>?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:17 am

You need an ADC, with line inputs, preferrably FW.

Google: Firewire Recording Interface.

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:54 am

what about this combo Presonus Eureka, Presonus Fire Box Rode (NT100/NT2-A/NT1-A) Choose a mic lol.

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:45 am

I cant really fault the Presonus Eureka choice. For RAP its got most of the qualities necessary. The preamp is fast, the compressor is really good, and the EQ can be used to eliminate things....I personally think you cant make this EQ a musical device, but as a simple tool to remove something offensive, its really okay. You can use all these features to record with or not. It has variable input impedance. Not even close to the ability of the ViPre, but what is, but very useful as far as making microphones do things differently that the norm....

I kinda like my early 80's U87 through this pre....

As far as the mic... I can only assume that you've worked on this setup before and got a sound you liked or you wouldnt be so specific in thiese choices.

The mic has to have serious sesitivity and off axis response to be a good RAP mic. All the Rode mics will do this. The list you gave are all very very similar intheir sound, they all just have different perks about them. Which did you like when you tried it out? Didi you try out several?

If not, then book some time in someones studio that has the mics and try it out.

Its the only way to assess your choice in the type of use you'd have for this stuff.

We can give you a hundred choices and how many of em can you try out? Ya gotta go use the mic you want.....Its what you do...work the mic....

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:26 am

ive used them all, they all sound the same.. the nt1-a had the lowest noise but it was too low when recording!! i had to max the gain with distorted the quality. the ntk wa the best sounding. and the nt2-a and 1000 are in between the nt1-a and ntk.

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:34 pm

This doesn't make any sense.

First of all - the gain on a mic preamp not being able to elevate an NT1-A to usable levels for vocals. I don't think so. What preamp were you using?

Second, it's difficult to apply such broad-sweeping generalities to mics. It seems to me as though you are going by the price point of the microphone and assigning its quality based on it's price. This is a bad practice to do.

I'm also getting the impression that your mind is already set on the combo and that you're really just asking us for some kind of confirmation like "Yeah, it rocks dude! You're going to go triple platinum if you buy that combo."

You're still getting screwed on the price if you're paying that much for the 2.

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