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anonymous 13 May 2005

I want to pick up a couple of small diaphram condensers for home tracking into a 002 rack with the stock preamps. Most of the tracks will have vocals x 2-3, bass, synth and percussion as well.
The acoustic style will be fingerstyle/ fingerpicking (bare finger-no nail) on some high end instruments.
Please give me some direction among the choices in this price range.
I'll probably add a Seb 2 channel preamp next year, but want to get started laying down tracks now.
Any help will be much appreciated.

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anonymous Fri, 05/13/2005 - 13:02

They are okay but if you have the money it's a no-brainer to go for the josephsons.

Two methods that have worked for me:
1. Stereo pair X/Y configuration near the 12th fret, 6-12 inches away.
2. One at the 12th fret like above, the other over the right shoulder of the player. This has worked great when the song requires both solo and rythmic parts, beacuse I can pull up the shoulder mic to bury the guitar in the mix a bit more, then bring it down and the fron mic up when more attention is needed (for solos).

anonymous Fri, 05/13/2005 - 13:11

The josephsons are fairly bright mics, not as bright/brittle as the newer Nuemanns IME, definately not as bright as some of the other more popular SDC pairs used (shure, akg, etc...) I really really like them on classic finger-style guitar. Not so much on picked steel string guitar, for that I'd like a darker mic to tone down the noise, like a ribbon mic. The Rode nt5 is a mic that also may be a good choice if you like things relatively dark sounding, so I shouldn't be so quick to say no to it! I almost bought the NT5 when I was testing out different mics, but ended up with the Josephsons C42s instead. I too was looking at $1000 or less.

sdelsolray Fri, 05/13/2005 - 17:41

Came to the party late. For solo acoustic guitar, bare fingers, no nails, on high end instruments, the Josephson C42s would be fine, but perhaps not the first choice. The C42s are colored, they have a pronounced HF bell rise and fall. They're creamy and sound very good. Match that with a colored pre that the OP suggestd, a Sebatron, and that might over-color and under-represent those high end guitars being played fingerstyle with bare fingers and no nails.

Not that there are numerous other choices in the $700 to $1,000 price range, but the OP should at least consider SM81s, AT 4051s, AKG451Bs, Peluso CECM6. Might as well also hunt for used pairs of KM184s, KM84s, AKG480s, MG M300s.

Just some thoughts, given the stated application.

Fruition2k Sat, 05/14/2005 - 13:27

With many major studio closings, be ready with cash in the bank
when the right deal comes along. Ebay is obviously a fair indicator
of values.

They were made as far back as early 70's, but you can check Neumanns website and its history, and once you get a pair or get a serial number....you can email Neumann, who has all of the shipping information and trips it made back to the factory which they will gladly inform you for free.

When you do a search, try KM84, KM84i, KM85, and KM85i..
Price range may start from $450 and go higher depending.....
Good luck once again,

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