microphones for home studio

[crazydudeman]

If you could start over, what would you choose?

Howdy folks. I haven't done anything out of the box for over 10 years, too much traveling. Just DI'd guitars... I'll be back to recording soon enough, standard rock/pop stuff/r&b stuff - guitars, drums, bass, vocals and the miscellaneous acoustic instrument.

I sold most of my old recording gear and stayed with only a single sm57. I'm trying to put a budget and list together for a mic collection under $2000 - used.

This is what I've got so far:
MD-421 -$250
E609 - $100
D12 - $400 - I never liked the d112 or b52 but I loved this one.

That leaves about $1,2500 for a
- LDC,
- a stereo pair of overheads (I guess pencil) and
- an affordable ribbon mic.

I'm a bit lost with these, I'm afflicted with choice paralysis. Because I lack variety, I've always gravitated to very neutral mics. Just makes more sense to add any colour ITB if needed.

What's good in the market these days? Are the DIY kits worthwhile? a U47 for less than $1000 sounds too good to be true.

Thanks and appreciative of any suggestions...

 

[Boswell]

Are you talking about recording as a group, or under studio conditions where the individual instruments are in separate rooms? If as a group, in what acoustic, and what ceiling height?

Is the LDC for vocals? If so, what voice type?

What do you intend to use the ribbon microphone for?

What models of pre-amps are you planning to use with the mics on your list?

 

[crazydudeman]

1. Recording live and isolated overdubs, My setup is portable, so I will be recording out in practice spaces, and in my studio basement (low 8' ceiling)
2. LDC is multipurpose. Guitar cab, Room mic - for ambience of single instrument or for live recording. Multipattern would be nice, but not necessary. Acoustic instruments in conjunction with stereo pair mics.
3. Ribbon is mainly for guitar cab, occasionally drums
4. Preamps are just interface preamps - various Metric Halo units stacked together

 

[kmetal]

Akg 414 for ldc. Beyer 160 for ribbon. Those mics both shine in your intended use case.

 

[crazydudeman]

I was never particularly fond of the 414. Don't know why. And they are still quite expensive compared to the off brand stuff available for less. I'm surprised there haven't new names mentioned yet!

 

[miyaru]

A friend of mine has a pair of these: https://www.thomann.de/gb/aston_mic...iLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImVuIn0= They really excell over mics costing twice, they will be my next mic buy!!!!!

 

[Kurt Foster]

I was never particularly fond of the 414. Don't know why. And they are still quite expensive compared to the off brand stuff available for less. I'm surprised there haven't new names mentioned yet!

i would go for a couple of 414's. they can do double duty as ohs for drums vocals guitar cabs and they are multi pattern so you can do Blumlein pair and MS techniques.

what ldc's are you thinking about? Neumann? ATM? i lean to the standards. 414 / U87 while avoiding the wanna be's like Rode. i wouldn't however go for the high end if i were doing remotes. in your situation i would definitely look at some of the clone mics, especially the Warm Audio stuff.

 

[kmetal]

Lewitt makes some good cheap mics.

I was never particularly fond of the 414. Don't know why. And they are still quite expensive compared to the off brand stuff available for less. I'm surprised there haven't new names mentioned yet!

But they are also quite cheap compared to the other long time studio staples they contend with. I was disappointed with my old 414 until i used in a decent sounding room.

The truth is there just aren't any really good but affordable LDC's. Plenty of mediocore mid priced mics however. They are all kinda crappy and kinda pricey for what they are. Id rather the crazy low priced AT 3035, than any other 500$ or less LDC, because it sounds good and is under 100$.

The Nuemann tlm 102 is a good all around performer.

 

[crazydudeman]

But they are also quite cheap compared to the other long time studio staples they contend with. I was disappointed with my old 414 until i used in a decent sounding room.

Ah there's the rub, I'm recording in a home studio most of the time or in a practice space. Sometimes the rooms sound cool on their own and I like to pick that up, but the most treatment I've ever worked with is at home with some traps and absorbers. And my basement ceilings have been low low, 8-9 feet normally. I had the opportunity to use a U47 a much more talented and successful friend brought over once, and it sounded AMAZING on guitars. I also used it as an overhead and ambience mic in an unremarkable room and it still sounded incredible.

So I know it's possible for a mic to sweeten a sound in suboptimal positions, not sure the 414 is that mic. I had a Rode NT2000 that was fairly neutral bleh sounding, I still usually preferred it over the 414s...

 

[kmetal]

You may get some more mileage out of a solid dynamic mic like the sure sm7 or sennheisser 441. The 441 has the tightest pickup pattern of any mic ive ever used. This comes in handy in less than ideal rooms.

So I know it's possible for a mic to sweeten a sound in suboptimal positions, not sure the 414 is that mic.

Im not sure the mic would sweeten sub optimal positions or rooms, but its possible for a mic to pick up less of the bad stuff. Dynamics do this with less sensitvity in general than condensers. With LDCs you sometimes have multiple pickup patterns. The u87 and 414 both offer this feature. I would shy away from low budget multi pattern mics since figure 8, and omni, require two matched diaphrams, and this takes precision manufacturing and quality control.

You might be interested in peluso mics which are clones of great mics at a lower cost.

 

[pcrecord]

You might be interested in peluso mics which are clones of great mics at a lower cost.

I've just checked Peluso, interesting, their smaller mics are a bit expensive and at closer prices than the originals.. but when you go to the U87, U47 and others.. It gets better !

 

[pcrecord]

With some motivation and a bit of skills, there's the DIY route as well.
I have 2 mics from microphone-parts.com and I love them... I would own more if the dollar exchange rate wasn't so bad (usd-cad)
https://microphone-parts.com/

 

[kmetal]

With some motivation and a bit of skills, there's the DIY route as well.
I have 2 mics from microphone-parts.com and I love them... I would own more if the dollar exchange rate wasn't so bad (usd-cad)
https://microphone-parts.com/

+1 the mics you built are very good sounding, and have impressive performance per dollar.

 

[crazydudeman]

I'll check out the 441, hadn't considered it. Any opinions warm audio vs microphone-parts? They're both roughly the same price.

 

[pcrecord]

Any opinions warm audio vs microphone-parts? They're both roughly the same price.

If you buy already built mic from microphone-parts, yeah the pricing is similar.. But the cool thing about them is that you can buy kits and build them yourself.
For exemple the S-87 is 579$ and the kit is 359$... Of course you better be good at soldering but other than that their instructions are amazingly simple to follow..
I built the T12 and T47 btw, I love them !!