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Your favourite Mic and why....


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I love pencil condensers. I have neumann km84 and km184, akg bluelines and a bunch of Oktavas. With pads they are great on drumkits for snares, toms and overheads. Great for acoustic guitars. Not as common on electric guitar, but I like them a lot. Anything you want to record with some room sound, like violin, extra percussion, background vocals, etc..

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SM57 is like the McDonald's of mics.

 

I try to tune my sounds to the response of an SM57 because every venue I play at as 'em; any studio on the planet does as well. That saves me a lot of time and saves my nerves too, because I suck at making tones on the fly.

 

Plus I find it a good sounding mic overall.

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CAD M149 is probably the best budget condensor. Multiple patterns, comes with a great shckmount and hard case, and has a pretty impressive sound. Open and detailed, but never harsh or grainy.

 

Audix i5 slays on guitar cabs. Period.

 

SM7b is great on male rock vox, if you feed it enough gain.

 

I'm confident that any half decent engineer can record anything with those mics, and not look back.

 

Next on my list?

 

- Audix D6

- AEA R84 (x2)

- Mojave MA200 (x2)

 

That should do it for mics! Though if were going to be recording full time, I'd want some 201's M160's, KM84's, Elux 251, and a U47 clone(Lawson?). After that I want an Aurora GTQ2, and maybe a nice tube pre (the Hamptone kit maybe).

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I have a pair of Rode M3 condensor mics. They work really well, great sound. Although I am considering on getting some dynamic microphones to use as close-mic'ing, with the Rode mics set a little back from the cab/s for some room ambience.

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I'm a big sm57 fan because it's a great all-rounder. Yes, 9/10 there is a better mic for an application but an sm57 will sound good for the job most of the time.

 

I love the C414 B-ULS for vocals because it seems to have that LDC openness without emphasizing the sibilance. It's a real dry and direct sounding mic too so it's great for vocals in a dense rock mix

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this baby


u67-1.jpg

my uncle owns the ultimate though
;)

u47front.jpg

 

That's two of the "Big Five" condensers.

 

The other three would be the AKG C-12, the Telefunken ELA M251, and the Neumann M49. Those five mikes are probably responsible for more hit vocal recordings than all other mikes combined. The only other mic that belongs in that category (in terms of successful vocal recordings) would be the RCA 44, but that's a ribbon, not a condenser.

 

My "favorite" microphone is really hard to pin down to just one model. That's kind of like asking Kayzer what his favorite pedal is. It really depends on the sound we're going for, and the sound of the source vocalist or instrument / amp, and even the sound of the room. For vocals though, I tend to prefer the sound of the Telefunken ELA M251 and its variants / descendants. The best of those is probably the Soundelux (now "Bock Audio") ELUX 251.

 

elux251.gif

 

Great mikes, and they work on singers much more often than not, but no single mic is right for everyone, or in every application.

 

For guitar amps, I'm a HUGE fan of the Beyer M160 ribbon. It eats SM57's and craps out e609's. :p:D

 

M160-large.jpg

 

I'm also a big fan of Audix mikes - especially the D series and the i5. AKG C 414's can work great on not only acoustic guitars, but guitar amps.... but not all 414's are created equal - there have been several "versions" of them over the years...

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CAD M149 is probably the best budget condensor. Multiple patterns, comes with a great shckmount and hard case, and has a pretty impressive sound. Open and detailed, but never harsh or grainy.


Audix i5 slays on guitar cabs. Period.


SM7b is great on male rock vox, if you feed it enough gain.


I'm confident that any half decent engineer can record anything with those mics, and not look back.


Next on my list?


- Audix D6

- AEA R84 (x2)

- Mojave MA200 (x2)


That should do it for mics! Though if were going to be recording full time, I'd want some 201's M160's, KM84's, Elux 251, and a U47 clone(Lawson?). After that I want an Aurora GTQ2, and maybe a nice tube pre (the Hamptone kit maybe).

 

 

Very respectable list Ben - but I think you mean the CAD M179 - the 149 is a Neumann.

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