How do you shop for a mic you've never used before?

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by AcousticDreams

...There is a norm that works for a majority of people, but that doesn't mean that everybody else's norm will work for you. This is something I have had to come to grips with. Sometimes the mic you are interested in isn't a stock mic at any of sellers or pro studios. There is no other alternative than to do your research, listen over and over to the sound bytes, and then take a gamble.

This has happened to me more than once. The only way I was going to hear a Violet Flamingo was to buy one. It sounded great, so worth the gamble, but it could easily gone in the other direction.

And many times my norm surely goes against the grain of others, and I only figured that out by trying a lot of mics.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by TBman

What are critical specs?

I usually make note of the "self noise" spec and try to keep that in mind (the lower the better I think).

I also assume that the more it costs, the better it must be.

Pretty close to "oh look, something shiny and new"

What is the real deal?

What in your opinion are the best sounding mikes you already have? I have heard what I consider a fine recorded sound that used a
number of various mikes in prior recordings posted on this forum. Usually that did require a good mike placement and good acoustic space

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

What in your opinion are the best sounding mikes you already have?

I'm not a "stereo miking a solo acoustic guitar" guy. I write songs and arrange them and make recordings of them, which is different. That said, the mics that I own and love are an AKG 414EBP48/Teflon capsule, (2) EV 666's, (2) Shure SM58's, fairly old (maybe not great, but I know them very well). I'm lucky to be in LA and able to rent mics I could never afford, and those include a couple of Neumann u67's, a Neumann KM86 and a Sennheiser 441. The mics that I plan to buy if we have a good streak with the day job include a Neumann KM86, Beyerdynamic m88 and m160, and Sennheiser 441 and 421-N. If my 414 ever went away, the Neumann U89 sounds very similar.

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by Feste

The thing about different brands is that just because others like them, doesn’t mean you will. For years I read about how incredible the Schoeps CMC 641 MK series mics were. I heard good things online and eventually bought one used. Amazingly I just didn’t hear what others were hearing.

Very curious to know what microphone you found that worked best for your acoustic guitar recordings? And further, what made this mic right for you? Was it Your playing style? or was it that the hypercardiod pattern was only picking up part of the guitar and Not the entire body? And thus you felt the sound did not represent your guitar sound.

It is such an odd thing how one microphone will work for one person and not another. The Same with a guitar. A few years ago a friend came over and I used a single Sm-81 on his guitar while we were jaming. He choose to put that mic over the soundhole. I told him that this was not the best place to place it. Yet, he did and it sounded great. He has a very soft style of playing...and amazingly it worked for him. For me, there is no way.

[sdelsolray]

The best way I found to evaluate mics for recording solo acoustic finger style and classical guitar is to run them through their paces here in my own recording space, using my own tracking recording chain and monitoring chain, using my own guitars and performances and taking the time to do some experiments (e.g., testing pair A to pair B at the same time (4 inputs) with the same performance; testing them with different mic placements, etc.). As Riply once said, "It's the only way to be sure".

I purchased or auditioned many mics over the years. Dozens and dozens. Then I stopped. The mic pairs I ended up keeping (and still have) are:

Microtech Gefell M295 (medium diaphragm)
Schoeps CMC64 (with additional fig 8 capsule) (small diaphragm)
Telefunken USA M260 full set (three capsule pairs) (small diaphragm)

Although not quite in the same league as the above mics, I also kept the following mics because I simply like them alot:

AEA R84
3 Zigma CHI 4 x 10 set (2 different pairs of mic amp bodies, 3 pairs of SD capsules (O, C and H) and 2 pairs of LD capsules (67 and 49 emulations))

[alohachris]

PM'ed You, Barry.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by TBman

What are critical specs?

I usually make note of the "self noise" spec and try to keep that in mind (the lower the better I think).

I also assume that the more it costs, the better it must be.

Pretty close to "oh look, something shiny and new"

What is the real deal?

The 3 specs I look at are: Sensitivity, Signal to Noise ratio & self noise. Sensitivity will give me a good hint at what preamp is best for the mic, while the other 2 specs shed light on what the mic is good at capturing.

That said, I rarely buy a mic that I don't have experience with, simply because I buy mics I know I can use on something.

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

Sensitivity will give me a good hint at what preamp is best for the mic,

Please tell us more about how you use the Sensitivity spec to determine which preamp will work best. That sounds very interesting. What sonic characteristics does this produce?

John Hardy has an option to replace the pad button for a lower omhs option button. Which is what I chose in order to match the lower (50 ohm) impedance of Schoeps. In the out position it is higher to match most other mics.