First real sdc/pair - for acoustic guitar

[Yamaha Man]

I saw a mic review of Shure SM 57's being used on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, and bass, all sounding very good, they were more concerned about mic placement, than mic choice......I was wondering how you guys feel about the SM 57's for sdc mics.....

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by olidward

Thanks, I was able to embed old Mason Williams in a thread for the youngin's.

Thank you everyone. Sort of an update: a forum member that is willing to part with a set of MK41's has contacted me offering presumably an understanding price; that made my day. He turned out to be quite an interesting fellow and we blew past the mics and talked story. That made my day too.

I think 41's will do you well
Yes Chris is very experienced with lots of different microphones and if my old memory is correct he even built the acoustic guitars that he gigged before he retired .

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Yamaha Man

I saw a mic review of Shure SM 57's being used on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, and bass, all sounding very good, they were more concerned about mic placement, than mic choice......I was wondering how you guys feel about the SM 57's for sdc mics.....

For acoustic guitar I would suggest a condenser mike (more sensitive and detailed sound).

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by Yamaha Man

I saw a mic review of Shure SM 57's being used on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, and bass, all sounding very good, they were more concerned about mic placement, than mic choice......I was wondering how you guys feel about the SM 57's for sdc mics.....

I have heard great recording with inexpensive mics & cell phones. Recordings that catch my attention.

Many people claim it is more about the engineer. And like you said...mic positioning & the room. There are also so many plugIns today, in which can be used to enhance your audio.

In direct regards to your question...it is impossible to answer. It depends on your playing style, your guitar...and just how critical you are. So for some of us, only a high grade mic will do, for others an SM57 works fine.

So that is what you have to ask yourself. How critical are you? Do you have a guitar in which you have spent a lot of money on and love every nuance that it can deliver? Or do you just play in a standard form with out great dynamics. And yes, there are many great songs of which were recorded on lesser guitars. And yet the sound suited the needs of that song. And in fact sounded superb in that context.

Often you will have to pay 80% more to get 20% better in sound. To some, that 20% makes all the difference. To others it will make little difference. To me, it does. I need the extra high end mics to get what I am looking for my style of playing.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by Yamaha Man

..I was wondering how you guys feel about the SM 57's for sdc mics.....

I think for a lo-fi track as part of a mix, or a loud strumming rock thing.. or on a mid-range-y old archtop it could be just the thing. But for the Windham Hill inspired/classical-ish style of recording guitar in stereo that we talk a lot about here on the AGF, a dynamic doesn't really have the full and satisfying frequency response you'd likely want. And it typically needs to be so close to the source that it's not taking a big enough picture of the guitar, if that makes sense. But again, two inches from an F-hole of an arch top, can be fantastic. And I've used 57's live to play to play solo guitar sets to hundreds of people with no other reinforcement and it's great. You can even use it as a hammer!

[Yamaha Man]

thanks for the input, i'm now considering the SP1's from universal audio.

[Yamaha Man]

I ended up ordering the SP1's from Universal Audio, I'll post a full report after I try them out. I'm waiting on Fed Ex now....

[Yamaha Man]

I'm really happy with the SP1's.......

https://waynekraft.bandcamp.com/trac...lvarez-sp1mics

[Rudy4]

These Behringer C-2s are "real" mics, but at $50 for a "matched pair" some might feel offended not to spend way more:

[Yamaha Man]

Actually your sample of the C2's sounds pretty good, but I'll stick with the Universal Audio SP1's. I've been burned by cheap mics before and didn't want to go thru that again. I shopped many different brands of pencil mics at many different price points, Universal Audio has a stellar reputation in many of their products, and chose them because of that and the quality of the demo's I heard. At $399 a pair including a space bar, they were about mid-price of the ones I looked at, but still had a high quality sound to them. After spending some time with the SP-1's, I found that they are very hot mics and very easy to work with. They put out a very strong signal, without a terribly hot high frequency response like some mics. They seem to be fairly flat with no colorization or little self noise. Great for mixing.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Yamaha Man

Actually your sample of the C2's sounds pretty good, but I'll stick with the Universal Audio SP1's. I've been burned by cheap mics before and didn't want to go thru that again. I shopped many different brands of pencil mics at many different price points, Universal Audio has a stellar reputation in many of their products, and chose them because of that and the quality of the demo's I heard. At $399 a pair including a space bar, they were about mid-price of the ones I looked at, but still had a high quality sound to them. After spending some time with the SP-1's, I found that they are very hot mics and very easy to work with. They put out a very strong signal, without a terribly hot high frequency response like some mics. They seem to be fairly flat with no colorization or little self noise. Great for mixing.

There's a whole bunch of great choices out there. (My C-2 post should have included the obligatory ...)

My thought is that there's really a point of diminishing returns for we "home recordists".

[Yamaha Man]

https://waynekraft.bandcamp.com/trac...-hero-sample-3