Old 07-17-2018, 01:15 PM   #1
mykrobinson
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Default Microphone Inquiry

I have a few mics at home...

An SM57, an AT2020, and an e609.

I can use pretty much use any of these for a lot of purposes, but I am curious about recommendations for certain scenarios.

For electric guitar/amp micing, the SM57 is the industry standard workhorse. What would you recommend as a "decent" and budget minded mic to pair with it to better capture the low end for darker, low tuned guitars?

The AT2020 does a great job for vocals, but at the same time, it does not do a good job of rejecting background noise/reflections. What would be a reasonably priced vocal mic upgrade? Vocal tracking ranges from "pretty" to death metal gutturals.

The e609, i borrowed from church this sunday but haven't tested it yet. I want to try tracking my guitar amp this week and see what kind of response I get from it.

Thanks
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Old 07-17-2018, 11:49 PM   #2
ivansc
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Cheap fix for the AT would be to do what I and many others do. Clothes horse covered with duvets behind the singer and the cheapest reflection filter you can find in front.

Mine cost me 25 GB pounds!
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Old 07-18-2018, 10:21 AM   #3
Greedy
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You'll need to do something like Ivan is suggesting for any condenser to reduce reflections, but if you are looking to upgrade from the 2020 (which is not a bad mic), you might consider a multi-pattern condenser. CAD m179, Studio Projects CS5, AT4050, AKG 414 are a few possibilities depending on your budget. Having figure eight and omni patterns available gives you a lot more options.

Might try a ribbon for the darker guitars - Cascade Fathead and avantone cr-14 are a couple of well regarded budget-ish ribbons.

Have you tried vocals through the 57? It'll reject the surrounding noise/reflections better than a condenser. Also could look at an SM7b or RE-20.

Depending on your preamps you may want to get something like a Cloudlifter or external preamp for a ribbon or the SM7, they need a bit of gain. I have a Focusrite 18i20, and while I am able to get usable gain out of it, I got much better results when using an external preamp.

I own the CS5, fathead, and SM7, and have used the 414, 4050, and re-20. The m179 and cr-14 get generally good reviews for the price point. No doubt there are dozens of other mics equally as capable. Happy hunting!
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Old 07-26-2018, 03:14 PM   #4
jerome_oneil
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mykrobinson View Post
The AT2020 does a great job for vocals, but at the same time, it does not do a good job of rejecting background noise/reflections. What would be a reasonably priced vocal mic upgrade? Vocal tracking ranges from "pretty" to death metal gutturals.

Fix your room. All a better mic will give you is a high fidelity recording of a shitty room.
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