Home Studio Mic Recommendations

[Yeah]

Hey, so I have an Audio Technica AT 2020 and I am looking for something new, better for recordting.

Looked at the rode NT1 5th generation, but don t know if I will feel the difference in quality.

Just looking for a mic a tad better for recording voice and acoustic guitar.
Maybe even a handheld mic, or multitrack, or just a better quality condenser.

Any recommendations???

[dnf777]

IMO, you can much better spend your money on room treatment, or other aspects of recording, than trying to upgrade a mic within a given price point. Even jumping up in price/quality will (again, IMO) yield relatively small gains compared to other uses of your dollars and creativity. My best Telefunken condenser and SM58 yield barely noticeable differences when in my same studio set up/guitars, fx, etc...

Having said that, if you're really jonesing for a new mic, the Blue Ember punches well above its weight of $100, and is a good, basic SDC for recording.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Yeah

Hey, so I have an Audio Technica AT 2020 and I am looking for something new, better for recordting.

Looked at the rode NT1 5th generation, but don t know if I will feel the difference in quality.

Just looking for a mic a tad better for recording voice and acoustic guitar.
Maybe even a handheld mic, or multitrack, or just a better quality condenser.

Any recommendations???

Yes first, in order to get more targeted suggestions, try change your way of thinking and posting . Try to analyze in a bit more specific terms what about the sound are you trying to improve over 2020 . For example think in terms of:: more detail, more presence, more highs or mids or lows As opposed to terms like 'better " which is fairly vague and subjective

And definitely try to give a realistic upper Budget range
Because in general there tends some improvement in the overall quality of the mic response as you move up in price BUT often there is not much noticeable improvement with only a slight price increase


Also not clear what you mean by "handheld" given pretty hard to play a guitar and hold a mic

Also "multitrack" is recording technique and not related to any kind of mic.

And last I agree with dnf777 you may want to consider room treatment first before investing more in a new mic.

[Yeah]

Originally Posted by dnf777

IMO, you can much better spend your money on room treatment, or other aspects of recording, than trying to upgrade a mic within a given price point. Even jumping up in price/quality will (again, IMO) yield relatively small gains compared to other uses of your dollars and creativity. My best Telefunken condenser and SM58 yield barely noticeable differences when in my same studio set up/guitars, fx, etc...

Having said that, if you're really jonesing for a new mic, the Blue Ember punches well above its weight of $100, and is a good, basic SDC for recording.

Hey, thanks a lot. Yes, I have been thinking about some room treatment. What I do sometimes is put the mic in a small almost walk in closet I have in my studio room. The clothes hanging seem to help a lot in dampening noise.

What I wanted was a Mic with maybe some other tools to help supress boominess, or give me more flexibility. I liked the 32bit float capability of the rode, to be able to record at higher gian levels, for easier post production. But maybe a better mic with high pass filter or a db supressor would also help for that.

[Doug Young]

Your biggest bang for the buck will probably come from whatever is the weakest link in your chain. For most home studios, that is room acoustics. But if it's indeed the mic, you'll probably need to move up the food chain a bit to make any noticeable difference. While I like the Blue Ember (I reviewed it for Acoustic Guitar - there should be a video of that somewhere), I doubt that moving from one $100 to another will support any significant improvement.

You might consider moving up the AT line, a 4033 is around $399 new, and is a somewhat better mic that shows up in pro studios. The biggest difference may be a bit less self noise. To get a "wow, what a difference", you probably have to spend a bit more than that, tho. There are lots of mics to choose from, rather that repeating what everyone has here, check the sticky at the top of the forum, where you can get a big list of the mics, with prices, that many here are using. So you can pick your budget and see what other members are recommending/using in that price range.

Another option, if you just have the one mic is to get a 2nd, which will support stereo recording, which can be a big improvement, depending on what and how you're recording.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Yeah

Hey, thanks a lot. Yes, I have been thinking about some room treatment. What I do sometimes is put the mic in a small almost walk in closet I have in my studio room. The clothes hanging seem to help a lot in dampening noise.

What I wanted was a Mic with maybe some other tools to help supress boominess, or give me more flexibility. I liked the 32bit float capability of the rode, to be able to record at higher gian levels, for easier post production. But maybe a better mic with high pass filter or a db supressor would also help for that.

Passed in the mail... If you're recording in a closet, or the closet sounds better than your room, room treatment will almost certainly help. The issue of "boominess" may be due to room acoustics, or it may be due to mic placement. A "better" mic is unlikely to solve that. If anything, the AT2020 seems to me to have a bit less of a full sound, less bass, than many others. Its not a boomy mic.

A high pass filter is fine, tho you can do exactly the same thing when you mix your recording. Just use EQ to cut the bass.

32 bits doesn't really let you record at higher gain levels. It gives you more dynamic range, but 0 db is still the max volume in digital, no matter how you record. I'm not sure what a db supressor is? a compressor? Compression during recording is usually not needed, or desireable, since you can't undo it. The likely effect would be to increase the noise you hear. If you want to use compression in your recording, again, it's really easy to do during mixing, and there you can hear the impact and decide if you like it or not.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Yeah

What I wanted was a Mic with maybe some other tools to help supress boominess...

Right there tells me your problem isn't the mic, it's your room. Small rooms suffer from a build up of low frequencies. Chasing microphones isn't going to eliminate the problem of boominess. You need room treatment for that.

[runamuck]

I hope you don't spend as much time as I did thinking the equipment was the problem.

Knowing where to position mics to get the sound you're after and treating your room acoustics will make positive and noticeable differences in your recordings. Another mic almost certainly won't.

To put it another way, a very expensive mic heralded by the pros will do little if you don't know how to use it and/or record in a poor sounding room.

Recording in your closet will not give you quality recordings.

[kurth]

I'm no expert, and my opinions are based only on my personal experience, but I just spent alot of time looking at cheap mics for my next mic purchase. By that I mean under $400. What I arrived at is for voice you want the biggest condenser ie. 34mm, and you want a transformer inside. I listened to hundreds of samples to arrive at that pov. I think for around $360, the Lauten LA-220 is great. They sell B-stock for $290 approx onsite. Alittle lower is the SE Electronics SE2200. It's got a smaller 1 inch diaphragm but sounds pretty nice and warm. It goes for about $250. But I think I'm whistlin'dixie cause the $150 mic I have is so sweet. It's the King Bee mkii. Transformer and 34mm diaphragm. I do alot of lowkey almost whisper-like lyrics and the King Bee is so sensitive. It's got very low self-noise which probably helps it. On the other side are the transformerless mics like Warm 47 Jr, and the Lewitt 440 Pure. Both are around $300, but they don't have the 'warmth' I'm after. The at2020 has a 16mm diaphragm. It's probably similar to my mxl990. The King Bee dances circles around the mxl. Have fun looking.

[Glennwillow]

My son has a couple of Audio Technica AT2020 mics and he also has an AT4033. The difference in sound between these mics is huge: the AT4033 is a huge improvement at a cost of $400. I think the AT4033 is a very good value for a vocal mic.

- Glenn

[Joseph Hanna]

I think many here, myself included, get a tad reluctant to mention room treatment only because the suggestions start to feel redundant. The topic and issuing discussions get brought up pretty darn often here. Still, and without a doubt, it can't be discussed enough for those just discovering the concept of mic'ing an instrument. Further, there always seems to be that period in which it takes some time to convince someone new just how fundamentally important it is in using a microphone.

From my perspective, you have two choices. Either fix the room (to the best of your budget) or tailor the microphone choice to address a problematic room more efficiently. I find my old SM7B a viable alternative to mitigate room problems. It certainly is not my best mic, but, on the other hand, my best mic in a lousy room is going to sound like my best mic in a lousy room. Another mic that is much more expensive and a great-sounding alternative is the DPA 4099. I don't use it traditionally; it's attached to a mic stand. It allows me to pull the mic back a bit while eliminating some of the problems of a difficult room.

Indeed, addressing the room provides a far greater spectrum of sonic options and solutions than picking a particular mic that'll perform in a bad room. There are boundless articles here and online to help you on your way to home treatment ideas. Further, as I always do, I'd submit that an AT 2020 in a great room is abundantly capable of a superior recording of an acoustic instrument. Conversely, a U-87 in an inadequate space will always sound like a U-87 in an inadequate room.

[ACOUSTICDEWD]

Having tried countless new/vintage mics for decades, I can say that the Line Audio CM4 ($150) is my current fave. Handmade in Sweden and won many shootouts online, beating mics costing $1K+ (Schoeps, etc). The ruler flat frequency response makes it a natural choice over all the harsh mics out there.

I use the CM4 at the 12th fret alongside an EV RE-20 at the lower bout for warmth. The latter being a technique borrowed from Pat Methenys acoustic recording chain.

One contender to the CM4 would be the Shure KSM-141(or the cardiod-only KSM-137), an SDC known for its SM57-like warmth, but with an accurate top end to catch transients.

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[doctone]

When a $ 150 mic beats a Schoeps, it is the operator's fault.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Right there tells me your problem isn't the mic, it's your room. Small rooms suffer from a build up of low frequencies. Chasing microphones isn't going to eliminate the problem of boominess. You need room treatment for that.

Was thinking the exact same thing…

Theres a lot of talk about room treatment, mic placement, etc…and its all true, but at least for me, difficult to grasp until I got a hands-on approach. And I largely credit my tascam DR-40 and headphones for the best lesson here. I walked around my space with headphones plugged into the recorder set in record mode. Quiet room first, to find naturally noisy and quiet spots, then with some Gordo lightfoot playing on a bose puck that I could move around.

You can (in real time) hear boominess, reverb, and nice damped tones all changing with only mic placement. Its a cheap and easy way to quickly learn YOUR space. You could use your mice plugged into the dr40 also, but I found the built-in condensors more than adequate for this use.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

My son has a couple of Audio Technica AT2020 mics and he also has an AT4033. The difference in sound between these mics is huge: the AT4033 is a huge improvement at a cost of $400. I think the AT4033 is a very good value for a vocal mic.

I haven't been to an audio show in quite a while now, but AT at least used to have a pretty cool sound-proofed booth with all their mics set up in a row, from the 2020 to the top of the line. You could put on a set of headphones and just walk down the row, listening to each one. It was a pretty impressive demo, and you could clearly here what you got for more money, assuming they weren't cheating :-) That's one thing I like about AT, you can sort of pick your price point, and they have something, anywhere from the $100 2020 to the $3K 5040.