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anonymous 31 December 2004

hi all

i'd appreciate some advice on a mic. it's for my home studio and i've been happy with my trusty sm58 for years but i think it's time to upgrade my mic since i would like to raise the quality of the vocals recordings (with the odd acoustic instrument every now and then).

my problem is that my studio is relatively noisy (it's just off my living room and if someone honks outside it can get picked up) -- i know it's not ideal, but it has worked fine for me and i have concentrated on putting down good tracks rather than perfect recordings. i have done as much as i can to reduce the noise (and it's not *bad*, it's just sometimes there, and i get rid of it just about fine with a noise gate).

so my question is this: is there any point in upgrading my mic? or does it only make sense in an "ideal" environment? i had in mind something like the AKG 3000, but i've seen some pretty bad reviews on these forums so if you have any other suggestions i would be grateful. i can't really spend more than about $300.

thanks for any input...

charles

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anonymous Mon, 01/03/2005 - 07:52

chundle wrote: any suggestions on this? to summarize: "will a better quality mic pick up even more of the background noise?"

It probably would, but the overall quality would improve that much more so it would be well worth it anyway IMO.
Take a look at the ADK mics. Not that expensive but a good step up from the SM58 in a studio environment.

anonymous Thu, 01/06/2005 - 01:04

thanks for that, i've had a look around at the ADKs, there don't seem to be that many reviews on them. are they are relatively new company? there also seem to be a wild range of model names (A51 has about 5 different suffixes!), would you mind suggesting a particular model you think might be good?

searching the forums i've also come across the rode NT1000 -- does anyone have any thoughts on how this might fare with my noise issue?

thanks....

ccool Thu, 01/06/2005 - 15:38

I'd recommend an Electro-Voice RE-20 or RE-27.

Here's my story. I only do voice over work. And, in December a client called for a TV commercial job. I was in L.A. (away from my home-studio) and contacted a home-studio producer I know. Well, he agreed to do the job on short notice. He had several mic's (RODE, etc.) and decided to use an EV RE-27.

I was absolutely amazed, as the computer and his gear were in the same room where I did the recording. He even turned on a fan and stationed me almost in the middle of the room -- and I could hear it.

We did the recording and when I asked my client if the quality was good enough for her, she said the quality was fine.

The mic really rejected a lot of noise that was almost distracting to me. It also left me scratching my head wondering exactly what had happened and how.

When I get a couple of extra bucks, I'm definitely adding that mic to my tool box.

CC

anonymous Fri, 01/07/2005 - 03:34

hi ccool
thanks for that info, that might be the sort of thing i'd like to look into... only problem is that it is out of range of my budget (found a place doing it for $450). also looking at the info sheets, seems like it's aimed more for broadcast, rather than music vocals that i'm looking for...
the seearch goes on!

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