Members Etheron Posted September 1, 2006 Members Share Posted September 1, 2006 Hello. I'm new to this forum, and in the process of building my home recording studio. I've reserved about 300 USD for a good condenser mic to record mostly vocals, but sometimes acoustic guitars as well. I trust only Shure and AKG in condenser microphones ( ye si know there are other good one but I trust Shure and AKG only) and under this price tag , the Shure SM87A, and AKG AT3000B and AT3035 cost about the same, so my question is which one to buy.As far as the reviews and info I've read, all three microphones are advertised for being good for vocals and acoustic instruments, the shure has a handheld form, kinda for being a abit more portable friendly, while the AKG have a rather large diaphragm form. The 3000B has a slighlty larger diaphragm, but the sales clerk insisted on that the 3035 was better all round for vocals and guitars, and shuned the shure as not being on par of the two AKG ones. So any suggestions?, anybody have any experience with these microphones? I tried looking for reviews on the harmony central review site but the microphone review section seem to be down. I live in Japan and here is not common for music store letting customers try the microphones before buying, so I really cannot test them before making a decision. PLEASE HELP!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etheron Posted September 1, 2006 Author Members Share Posted September 1, 2006 Sorry I mistyped the models and the brands. the mics in question are a Shure SM87, AKG 3000B and AUDIO TECHNICA 3035. Its either one of these three, cuz when it comes to mics, i only trust Shure, AKG or Audio Technica, I7ve had problems previously with Neumann and other brands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GZsound Posted September 1, 2006 Members Share Posted September 1, 2006 I am wondering why you are limiting your search to those three microphones? The C3000B and 3035 are what I would call bottom of the barrel mics. You should check out MXL, Rode, CAD M179, C1, etc., all which get better reviews than the C3000 and the 3035. There are a ton of inexpensive mics available right now that apparently will produce a good quality recordings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members littledog Posted September 3, 2006 Members Share Posted September 3, 2006 Unfortunately, saying you trust a particular brand only is not a very smart way to go about choosing gear. That is because these days pretty much every brand has some good gear and some horrible stuff. Let's take one of your favorites: AKG. No question you can find some nice mics made by AKG, especially if you are talking older out-of-production models. But to balance that, they also have made some of the worst microphones on the planet, like the one you are considering (the C3000) and it's little brother, the C1000. I think it would be foolish to get wrapped up in arbitrary brand loyalty, epecially when it's not deserved. By the way, you know those little plastic mic mounting clips that came with the 414b/ULS and 414TLII. You know, the ones that probably cost AKG about $2.00 to have made? Guess how much AKG will charge you to replace one of them: about $250... (No joke, I called and asked a couple of month ago.) By keeping your field so narrow, you are really limiting your options. But in any case, if the stores won't even let you plug in the mics to test them, your only other real option is to buy a few and return the ones you don't want, or rent an hour at a well-equipped studio and have them put up a bunch of mics for you to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted September 3, 2006 Members Share Posted September 3, 2006 Agreed, neither the 3000 or the 3035 would make my list of versatile condensor mics. For less $ the Studio Projects B1 or C1 smokes em both. The Beta87a is designed as a live vocal mic, and for this purpose it sounds good, but is far from a studio mic in versitility. The KSM27 would be a much better choice. AN AT 4033 would be a better, although 30% more choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etheron Posted September 4, 2006 Author Members Share Posted September 4, 2006 Thanks a lot for your recommendations. Yes i have considered the Rode N1 and the Studio Projects C1 ...problems is that i Live in Japana nd for some reason THEY ARE HARD AS HELL TO FIND HERE, so far havent seen any shop that has them. And not only that, If i do find them i wouldnt want a product that has no warranty support in Japan, i think there is no point on getting new stuff to have it without warranty. Thats another of the reason one i have narrowed it down to these mics, they are widely available here, and so far everything seems to pint toward the Audio Technica 3035 ... is it really THAT bad to a apoint of OMFG is ooo bad that you shouldnt even been thinking of buying it?. thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stage7 Posted September 4, 2006 Members Share Posted September 4, 2006 What about the AT4040? Goes for $300 US on musicians friend, not sure if it'd be the same in Japan or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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