Home Recording Microphone - Where To Start ?

Wazmeister

And...

.... down the rabbit hole we go...

I need a mic to record vocals and guitars at home. Just for my demos.

I know nothing about mics, so just need a good quality, quiet all rounder I guess.

These any good ? I only know these from the That Pedal Show and Paul Davids Youtubes.

Sontronic Orpheus, Warm Audio WA-14, SE Electronics, Neumann 184 ????!!!!!????

Thanks in advance,

Waz

Roland

What have you got currently?

Wazmeister

Roland said:

What have you got currently?

Absolutely nothing Roland !

I'll be using;

- 27" iMac
- Apollo Twin X Quad
- Luna/Logic

RaymondLin

Apollo Twin? Whats that like? I'm tonight getting my first interface, thinking of the Motu M4.

pintspiller

SM57/58 is reasonably affordable and what most use on a guitar amp. I use an AKG D5 which is similar. I just need to relearn how to use a vocal microphone as it's almost 20 years since I recorded vocals in demos.

Wazmeister

@octatonic - whats your thoughts mate ?

Wazmeister

RaymondLin said:

Apollo Twin? Whats that like? I'm tonight getting my first interface, thinking of the Motu M4.

Wazmeister

pintspiller said:

SM57/58 is reasonably affordable and what most use on a guitar amp. I use an AKG D5 which is similar. I just need to relearn how to use a vocal microphone as it's almost 20 years since I recorded vocals in demos.

I hadn't thought of a SM58 - we use those in the band. 

pintspiller

AFAIK a 57 and a 58 are the exact same on the inside.

octatonic

It is a rabbit hole and if there was one microphone that was best for acoustic guitar, electric guitar and vocals then I would buy it.
But there isn't.
I'm probably not the best person to ask at the budget end of things- most of my microphones are on the speedier side of things.

My short list, irrespective of price but in some sort of order of preference.

Electric guitar: E906 plus Royer 121. SM57 plus Royer 121, Josephson E22.
Acoustic guitar: Neumann KM84, KM184, Josephson C42, E22, DPA 4011A.
Male vocals: Neumann U67, U87ai, U47fet, Flea 47, AKG C12.
Female vocals: Neumann U87ai, U67, AKG C414.

(These are my personal favourites, not any recommendation of 'best').

On a budget:

Electric: SM57
Acoustic: Rode NT5
Male vocals: Rode NT1a
Female vocals Rode NT2

Stuckfast

The Austrian Audio OC18 is a lot of mic for the money and probably preferable to current C414s.

Audio-Technica mics are always good bang for the buck. Some of the SE and Rode models are nice too.

If you're willing to take a punt on something second hand, you might pick up a Calrec CM1050 for £100 or thereabouts. Those are fine acoustic guitar mics if you get the right one. They are still made in the UK, too, under the Hebden Sound brand. There are a lot of AKG C451Es around too and many people like those on acoustic guitars.

The Beyer M201 is a very decent mic that will do well on acoustic and electric, and isn't too shabby on vocals either.

Winny_Pooh

If you want one mic.

Of those mentioned the Warm audio wa14 (C414 clone) would be fine. I prefer LDCs for acoustic as the SDCs are a bit sharp, and way too accurate for vocals. From there on up a good valve mic will make you happy. 

The SE gemini II is a good budget valve condensor, but cumbersome. Loads of contenders in the £500 category.

spark240

The Aston and Lewitt mics are good value also....check out Warren Huart reviews....recording a whole band with one budget mic..

Stuckfast

Winny_Pooh said:

Of those mentioned the Warm audio wa14 (C414 clone) would be fine.

I'd be very interested to try that mic out. I recently tried another supposed clone of the classic 'brass ring' C414EB, which used the same capsule that WA are using, and it sounded comically unlike the real thing.

Warm Audio's KM84 copy is reasonably close, their U87 clone a bit less so.

dindude

For the limited recording I do, I’ve used a Rode M3 for everything, does great acoustic, mic’d electric and vocals, a fantastic all rounder for almost no money. 

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/rode-m3

Best advice I have is don’t disappear down the rabbit hole unless proven to have the time, inclination and patience for the process. 

One good iPad recording a few years ago and I quickly disappeared down the Mac / Daw / Thunderbolt interface / Multiple mics route. Didn’t use or enjoy any of it, completely crippled my creativity, went back to iPad and Cubasis and far happier. Not everyone’s the same I know, but I find buying recording kit can be a massive distraction to actually making music, more so than guitar gear even.

lukedlb

I'm going to jump in on this thread as I went through this last week by trying my old share sm58. The recorded guitar sounded fine though it wasn't anything like what I heard in the room: all the highs and space in the room was missing. I was particularly surprised at the absent highs. I was sitting in the direct line of fire with the mic in between. Luckily my headphones protected me as the mid-to-top end in the volume was painful (at vol.1 on a 100watt superlead). Why would you want to hear that anyway? Well, when the guitar was dialled back, all that beautiful sparkle was absent. 
I tried moving the mic away from the cab and the sound improved a little though nothing to write home about.
Which makes me think a second mic is necessary: a room mic.
I forget the TPS episode title, but it's the one where Mick explains their recording setup, with a mic comparison including an iPhone.
Would it make sense that an SM58 could capture the mid-freq and a room mic captures the highs? Is this what @octatonic was referring to with the SM57 plus Royer 121 combo?

I should note that I bet the single mic recording I captured would fit better in a mix than one with all the frequencies. However, I wanted to capture what I heard exactly.

I should also add that what I heard during the actual recording sounded awful; playback was much better. Not sure how to fix this. It was my first try with a mic so give me a chance yet.

lukedlb

And you'll need a mic stand, and gauze pop guard thing (is that what it's called?).

Snap

this might sound a bit noddy, but the SM57 doesn't need phantom power either right? 

I've only used powered mics before, and need to buy a mic for my daughter that doesn't need phantom power.

pintspiller

57 and 58 mics don't need power. They will also ignore power sent by a desk. Win win.

Cirrus

Mics up close on the speaker never sound the same as your amp sounds to your ears in the room. The trick is to get a sound through the mic that sounds awesome in the context it's being placed in - ie the mix.

Little changes in position make a BIG difference. Broadly speaking, you've got three variables;

1; the position of the mic on a line from the centre to the edge of the speaker. The middle is both brighter and punchier. As you move towards the edge, the sound gets more mellow, softer and hazy. You find a position along that line that sounds good to you. You may ask, does it matter which direction you travel out from the center? Left, right, up, down? The answer is yes, a little bit but not much unless the cab's really unbalanced.

2; The angle of the mic. Keeping the front of the mic in the same place, if you turn the body of the mic you can shine a spotlight on different parts of the speaker from that one position. This is on- or off-axis. Turning the mic often gives you a softer sound.

3; Distance off the speaker. If you're right against the grill cloth, you're getting a very unbalanced picture of the speaker. As you pull back, the mic sees more of the speaker and also most mics have a proximity effect which means that close sound sources get a bass boost. So pulling the mic back reduces the amount of low end.

Personally, I tend to start with SM57s or 58s (they sound slightly different, SM58 is smoother on top), about 1/2 way between the centre and edge of the cone, twisted slightly towards the middle - to point roughly where the dust cap meets the speaker cone. And I like the mic right up against the grill cloth, I don't move it back unless the bass is too thick.

I almost always use a second mic, to be fair - SM57s are amazing for their grainy aggressive in your face sound, but usually I only want that to be one part of the sound I capture, so I use a condenser to get more of the airy highs.

If I go into the considerations of phase when using multiple mics this post would be way too long, so suffice to say that usually I try to get the two mics as close together as possible to keep the sound from getting washy.

octatonic

Stuckfast said:

The Beyer M201 is a very decent mic that will do well on acoustic and electric, and isn't too shabby on vocals either.

Beyer M201 is a good shout.
Affordable too.