What mics do I need?

[Bob Womack]

What mics do I need?

Transducers are the hardest part of the equation to get right.
A bad transducer can introduce readily noticeable and hard-to-remove artifacts into the recording.
Buy the best mic you can afford. Not the most expensive, the best.

-and-

As the old engineer said when asked this question, "It depends."

Bob

[Fran Guidry]

I just did a series of mic comparo videos that address the question, "How much difference does a mic make?" There's also a blog post that includes downloadable clips so you can pull the clips to your system and listen carefully without YouTube compression. http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2014/...es-a-mic-make/ And if you want to listen "under the microscope" as it were, I've learned of a new ABX tool: http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2014/...-new-abx-tool/










Not to prejudice the result, but it seems pretty clear to me from these samples that the mic makes a lot less difference than people suggest on the internet.

Fran

[Ty Ford]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

It's also very hard to take the room sound out of the recording when using an LDC because of its sensitivity

Equally true of SD condenser mics. Super or hyper cardioid patterns are your friends as the room gets worse, but in using them up close, you need to stay away from too much proximity effect.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[sam-v]

So what little things can I do to make recordings as clear as possible? Besides the obvious turning off any noisy appliances/TV/etc. to eliminate background noise. Bear in mind please I definitely don't have the money to get my room acoustically treated so that's totally out of the question. The room I'll be using is small and has wood panelling walls, will this affect the recordings in a good/bad way?

Also, do I need a preamp? All I have is my M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface, and if a preamp is not a necessity there's no way I'm going to spend the extra money on it. I've slowly invested quite a lot of money into building up this project already, and the more I ask questions and research this stuff the more I start to feel discouraged because just when I think I've finally got everything I need, there's apparently some other $300-$600 essential piece I'm missing.

I just want the bare necessities for high-quality home recordings, so hopefully a microphone, recording interface, laptop, and midi controller is all I really need for this?

[ChuckS]

Originally Posted by sam-v

So what little things can I do to make recordings as clear as possible? Besides the obvious turning off any noisy appliances/TV/etc. to eliminate background noise. Bear in mind please I definitely don't have the money to get my room acoustically treated so that's totally out of the question. The room I'll be using is small and has wood panelling walls, will this affect the recordings in a good/bad way?

Also, do I need a preamp? All I have is my M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface, and if a preamp is not a necessity there's no way I'm going to spend the extra money on it. I've slowly invested quite a lot of money into building up this project already, and the more I ask questions and research this stuff the more I start to feel discouraged because just when I think I've finally got everything I need, there's apparently some other $300-$600 essential piece I'm missing.

I just want the bare necessities for high-quality home recordings, so hopefully a microphone, recording interface, laptop, and midi controller is all I really need for this?

Your M-Audio Fast Track Pro has built in preamps; you are set there. Try micing pretty close to your guitar to minimize the room effect.

Why not just experiment with what you have and get the best sound you can? You've got to realize that when you ask this group you will always get suggestions to buy more stuff.

[sam-v]

Originally Posted by ChuckS

Your M-Audio Fast Track Pro has built in preamps; you are set there. Try micing pretty close to your guitar to minimize the room effect.

Why not just experiment with what you have and get the best sound you can? You've got to realize that when you ask this group you will always get suggestions to buy more stuff.

That's true (and was to be expected) but I mostly just wanted to know if what I have right now will do the job, if it's worth spending $200 on a new microphone if all I have is an interface to plug it into. I'm really new at this all and genuinely don't have a clue what the essential components of this whole thing will be, which is basically what I wanted to know here haha.

[Doug Young]

There are lots of sources that will list the basics you need for recording. For example, I just did a web search and saw:

http://www.basic-home-recording-stud...-diagrams.html

Which at a glance seems quite reasonable. Your interface + a mic or 2, a computer and recording software (which can be had cheap or free), and something listen back on (headphones or speakers) should be fine, unless you need some of the more complex scenarios described in that link.

Will it sound good? It can. That has more to do with your skill at both playing and recording, and your room acoustics. If you're completely new to this, it probably won't immediately sound great, regardless of how much money you spend. There's a learning curve, but that's half the fun. If you just want to get a recording done and be sure it sounds as good as possible, spend your $200 going into a studio. You should be able to find good local studios with experienced engineers for maybe $25-50 an hour. If you want to learn to do it yourself, just dive in with what you have and start learning. What gear you buy matters less than what you do with it.

(BTW, starting by recording at least one tune in someone else's studio is not a bad way to start - you'll see what's involved, and have a recording that gives you a goal to shoot for when you try to record yourself. It can answer a lot of questions.)

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

Not to prejudice the result, but it seems pretty clear to me from these samples that the mic makes a lot less difference than people suggest on the internet.

Fran

Interesting, Fran, and does not disagree with what I found by my endless pursuit of "better" sound:
A/B of 2 GLS SM57 clones vs 2 CAD small condensors (both of these brands are cheap mics) vs 1 AKG Perception made virtually no difference in the recorded sound in an untreated room, all at about 6" from the guitar. When I did a spectral analysis, I could see small differences at certain frequencies, and the AKG of course had a higher frequency capability (not that my old ears hear above 15K), but when listening it was almost impossible to distinguish between them all. As my usual songs are many parts, not just a single acoustic guitar, the minor differences completley disappear in the mix.

To sam-v: wood paneling on the walls is not good (unless its a huge room). My primary music room is about 11' x 10'6", old oak paneling. When I recorded in there I never got good results -the quick (flutter) echo made what should have been decent guitar or vocals muddy. Once I added some bass traps (my first 6 that I built cost me $250), I noticed the difference immediately. I had been ignoring the 'experts' advice for years, wish I had just done it earlier! And now that I have some better studio monitors I can hear the difference on playback, too.