Mics for studio use

Ant1981 · #1 01-01-2006, 10:15 PM

Hi, I'm after some adivce about mics. What I want to do is record some practice of my band by putting two mics in the room, one left and one right. What mic or type of mic would do this?

I was looking at the Shure SM57, which is good for micing up amps, but i'm not sure if it will pick up the whole room.

Ferrous Lepidoptera · #2 01-01-2006, 10:24 PM

Caveat: I'm not any sort of expert, strictly amateur.

I would say an SM57 wouldn't be a very good choice for that sort of mic'ing. They are somewhat directional, (cardiod, iirc) for starters. Many people use Oktava MC012's (or similar Marshall 603s) as drum overheads, perhaps they'd work as room mics for a similar price as the SM57, and being condenser mics would likely be more sensitive, and pick up the high end a bit better. (Both need 48V phantom power, iirc.)

Another cheap option might be radio shack or Crown PZM mics, typically $100 apiece or so, and good at recording some tough to record things, (e.g. piano.)

Eh, them's my thoughts. Take with a lot of salt, because I might be talking out my (oh yeah, this site censors, doesn't it.)

JESTER700 · #3 01-01-2006, 10:57 PM

Amateur or not, that's good advice. Stereo array (X-Y or ORTF; google those terms) with cardioid (directional) small diaphragm condensors is probably the best bet. And later if you get into fancier recording, you can use them as overheads. I'm not familiar with the cheaper chinese small mics (though I've had Shure Sm81s and Audio Technica AT4053s), but my Marshall large diaphragm is good, so I'd guess the 603 would be decent. I'm sure there are many choices...

Ant1981 · #4 01-02-2006, 06:24 PM

Ah yea the condensors, I've seen some on the cieling of rehursal studios before, the ones that are almost triangle in shape, taper at the top of the mic, are those the sort you're refering to?

Ferrous Lepidoptera · #5 01-03-2006, 03:23 PM

They look like:
Marshall MXL 603s
oktava mc012. (links go to google image search). They look like a metal cylinder about 6 inches long, and a little less than an inch in diameter.

The PZM's (Pressure Zone Mics) are a bit weird looking, like a flat, square metal plate.
Crown PZM Radioshack used to resell the Crown PZMs, I think, or got Crown to make them some mics or something. They look almost the same, but with radioshack branding.

bonehead189 · #6 01-03-2006, 07:39 PM

If a condenser or SM57 mic dosen't work, just add a little room or hall reverb to the mic or whatever is being miked. That should help out a 'bit for the feeling of the whole room.

Ant1981 · #7 01-03-2006, 09:10 PM

hopefully a condenser will work, that should do so that i can record band practices

rty13ibz98 · #8 01-04-2006, 04:28 PM

i actually use an akg c2000 and c3000 for my condensors. i don't like live singular sourced mic'ing. for my band we use a behringer mx3282a board to bus everyone down to 8 tracks into an m-audio delta 1010lt card into sonar 4. that way, we are all on seperate tracks going in. it helps that i use an electronic drumset and all of us DI into the board. we only use condensors to track vocals with after the fact. for live vocals we use sennheiser e835 mics. i have some sm-57 and 58s laying around if i need them, but the e835's kill them.
for you tho, i would totally recommend a similar setup...on a budget. decent digital 4 tracks are really affordable now(i recommend 8 tracks), as are small mixers. if you end up sub mixing the drums with a small 6-8 channel mixer to stereo you will free up alot of track space. if you are really strapped for inputs, pan all the drums to one side and the instruments and/or background vocals to the other side. then keep your lead vocals fed straight into the recorder. typically your going to want to keep your drums so you can cut a demo to them and not have as much bleed over from the other instruments...bleed over is an inerent evil in live mic'ing, but this will suppress it some. the other panned track becomes scratch tracks for cueing purposes. vocals fed DI into the recorder are more flexible than the ones grouped with instruments.
the mic's that i would recommend are the akg's and i have used those cheap mxl 990's. those are incredibly good mics for the money. really warm midrange, but are way cheap. you could get 2 for less than $150. just remember your phantom power.

rich

JESTER700 · #9 01-04-2006, 07:17 PM

rty has a point, but that's a LOT more gear to buy. May or may not be worth it, depending on needs. And other bills...

Ant1981 · #10 01-04-2006, 10:03 PM

Money isn't an issue, I've even looked at the Boss BR-1600CD that can record 8 tracks at once, but I need something practicle just for recording the practises, so a few condensers was an idea, as micing everything up would take time, and i'm guessing i'll lose some tone and feel if i di amps into the recorder.

Those akg's, are they good for recording the live stuff in a rehursal room?

For a demo cd, we would mic everything up, but at a more practically allocated time slot, rehursals are 2 or 3 hours, not enough time to set up mic's for everyone and get the levels set.

JESTER700 · #11 01-04-2006, 11:43 PM

The C3000 & C2000 are large diaphragm mics - not generally used for stero miking, but possible. The C1000 is more along the traditional lines, but I'm no fan of it, though I like many AKG mics (I liked C460s for stereo pickup and my main vocal mic is a C414BULS). For practices, a stereo array (or even a mono mic) will give you an idea of your live sound in that room, but not much more. I'd try it & see if it gives you what you need. If not, you can expand the rig for multitrack work with nothing lost.

Gresh · #12 01-06-2006, 03:14 PM

Rode offers a lower cost set of matched pencil condensors meant for stereo mic'ing applications...sort of along the same lines as the NT1A large dia. condensor as far as pricing goes. THe NT1A is a great bang for the buck mic, so if the smaller dia. condensors are of the same caliber then they might be something to check out for your application. Above replies are right though, typically larger dia. condensors are seldom used for stereo mic'ing, but the cool thing is that there are no rules so whatever works!!!

Drew · #13 01-09-2006, 12:25 PM

FWIW, two C1000s's sound absolutely heavenly in an X array on an acoustic... I've never tried mine as stereo room mics, but they're fairly balanced sounding, so if your room's any good, they might work.

desertdweller · #14 01-09-2006, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drew

FWIW, two C1000s's sound absolutely heavenly in an X array on an acoustic... I've never tried mine as stereo room mics, but they're fairly balanced sounding, so if your room's any good, they might work.

Some engineer snobs will disagree with me, but I love the C1000s mics for vocals and drum overheads as well. That's what we're using on our album. I love the sound they produce, it's very close to what my ears hear, if not a little warmer.