GZsound

You can buy a brand new CAD M179 LD mic within your budget. I believe it is a mic that sounds great on just about everything you put in front of it and will be useful in the future as you grow. They are selling for under $200. The AT 2020 also gets good reviews and is a sub $100 LD mic.

Yeah.. there are some really great deals on gear floating around out there right now.. I just bought myself a Soundcraft 328 digital mixer in pristine condition for under a grand and picked up a Mackie Big Knob for $100 in the meantime. Guys are struggling and getting rid of their gear, which is very cool for those of us lusting for gear.. It's like real estate.. If you are a qualified buyer times couldn't be better right now. And I filled up my van today for UNDER $30!!! $1.85 a gallon.. Christmas is here early..

I use 24/48 just because I was used to doing it that way with my ADAT machine transfers to the computer.. I have always stayed at 48K. The very last thing I do to a file is convert the sample rate to 44.1/16.

I would say that's not really true or at least not totally accurate. Omni mics can be placed much closer to the source than directional mics and if you get in close then the room of course matters much less, so don't discount using omni mics just because your room isn't great. Marketing and live sound reinforcement have pushed directional mics heavily and scared many people away from omni mics. When recording at a distance like when recording classical music directional mics can sometimes be a better choice in a not so great room but for something like close up recording of an acoustic guitar don't fear the omni pattern as it can often be a wonderful tool. I was more referring to any other instruments in the room at the same time.. but I was not clear. I was thinking if the recording was done in a group environment, an omni can pick up too much bleed.. Plus..air conditioning hum, etc..in a less than desirable room. But you are correct. Those little Niant omni mics sound great on acoustic instruments. I have mounted mine to an acoustic bass, tried it on violin and mandolin and had great results. Amazing for under forty bucks.

If you want to try something neat and inexpensive, try a Naint X-Q omni condenser for $39. I tried mine on a Martin dreadnaught just for giggles and was quite surprised at how natural the mic sounded. Of course, being an omni you need a good room.. But it sounded better than my Oktava MK-012, Shure SM81, CAD CM17's or the lone MXL 991 I can't understand why I haven't thrown away yet...

Actually an SM 57 would be a good mic for you. You might also want to check out Global Audio GLS 57 mics, which are very inexpensive clones of the 57..they sell for $30 each and make good instrument and vocal mics. I bought a couple on a whim and they work pretty darn well. A 57 can make a decent vocal mic too.. I would suggest buying a CAD M177 LD mic ($80) and a GLS 57 ($30) and you can record just about anything you do for under $115.

I just picked up a pair of Naiant small condenser mics for a client. Unbelievable.. And they cost $22 each. I tried them out in the studio as overheads, on acoustic guitar, both a Martin and a Taylor and was really impressed. They sounded better than my Octava MC-012 and Shure SM81's.. Did I mention they are $22 each? They are omni's and way cool.

I think Terry is correct. And in my mind the fact the public is used to the volume of the music is more and more of a problem, and has spilled over to live music. Live music systems have gotten progressively bigger and louder in order to recreate the music with the same volume and punch folks are used to hearing on the radio and in their headphones. After a while everything just sounds.....loud. Detail and dynamics are going away fast.

Does anyone notice that modern music has the staying power of a manure gnat today? I listen to modern rock and roll and even though I sound like my dad, it all sounds the same. And checking the wave forms of some of the tunes explains why... 2 X 4 music.

The only problem I can see is with the weight of the mic and the boom extended tipping the truck over. I would think it wouldn't require a lot of effort to take off all the body work and glue on some lead counter weights to get the center of gravity lower. But my first and most urgent thought was....Hmmmm...what an interesting thought process..who'd a thunk it.

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately I don't know how to pan the left or right in mono. The best I could do is record a track in mono, then bounce it to stereo, then bring up the left or right volume (while turning the other down), and then bouncing that back to mono. That's all I really know how to do. I just started recording, so this is new to me. I am now starting to record vocals- which is probably going to get even harder. Thanks for your help You should have a "pan" control in just about any recording program or recorder. What are you using? As has been said, most sources such as guitar, vocals, bass, etc. are mono sources and should be recorded in mono and panned for effect. I record keyboards as two mono sources since when I record a stereo track, I can't pan either side, only the track. But, you should not be turning your speakers up and down to achieve stereo balance, it should be done in your recording program or mixer or stand alone unit. First thing would be to read how to use your equipment instead of asking how to work around something that is normally basic recording functions.

That's always looke like an interesting mic to me, too, though I've never used one. I have one of CAD's older (and then-considerably more expensive) mics, an Equitek II -- also a dual diaphragm multi-pattern and, indeed, it is a very flat, accurate seeming mic. I used to use it on everything from classical guitar to voiceovers. (I had a radio journalist client who loved it.) I have and use AT 40407/4050 and Rode NT2 mics. I have also compared my M179 to AKG C3000B and Shure KSM 32's at live events. The CAD holds it's own against all of them. I think for the money it is an incredible mic. Currently I am recording all my band rehearsals with the M179 set on wide cardioid in a corner of the room and we sound like the old early Ray Charles sessions. Pretty cool mic..again, for the bucks.

I like the CAD M179 with it's variable pattern. It seems to sound exactly like whatever I put it in front of.

I am amazed at the credibility the members of this forum have given this person. Seems like it would have been easier to ignore the first silly post than try to have a discussion on the merits. Personally, I agree with the premise that this is a high school kid now on summer vacation with very little else to do but create this kind of reaction. We are into four pages of response?

Hmmm... I am wondering, why the rant? I am always suspicious of chest thumpers.

Well... I finally figured out how to master my stuff perfectly and the "experts" WERE all wrong. I went down to Staples and got me an "EASY" button.. Ha...fools.. Now I just push the button. Mastering is easy....

So one of my monitors was hummin when I plugged it in. I turned it on and it really hummed, so I quickly turned everything off. Checked all the wiring, unhooked it plugged it in on it's own and it still does it. I'm figuring something inside it has gone bad. it's no longer under warranty and have no idea what's up with it? Should I try to deal with Event, a tech, or cut my losses and look for a new one? any help is appreciated. It could be something as small as a broken ground wire. You might try having a tech look at it. You might also contact Event and see what they suggest, it might be cheaper than buying a new set of speakers.

As soon as I see a difference in the finished product that shows a definative difference between major audio software programs, I'll consider getting the program that creates the best sound. Until that happens, use what you like, use what you can afford and rest assured there is no difference whatsoever in the finished product..

CAD M179. Rode NT1a. AT 2020, Studio Projects mics, etc. There are a lot of "decent" sub $300 mics that will do a passable job on vocals. I suggest a search and then start looking at reviews.

The end result of all this over production and cut and paste music is that it has no shelf life. In two or three years the songs have disappeared from the sonic landscape. There are a few groups and artists who seem to understand, but overall, it has become about technology and not music any more. They get the "real" drummer to play the tune and then replace all the drum sounds with samples... yuk.

I agree. I started using PC's when Mac decided to make all the pripherals proprietary. If you wanted a new monitor, you had to buy a Mac monitor, same for mouse, printer, etc. and they were nearly double the cost of a PC.. So I started and stayed with PC's since my original 8088 with no hard drive. I ran the original version of Cakewalk midi on a 5 1/4 floppy. Now, I fully believe any difference in the two platforms is simply personal preference. You can still get an extremely powerful PC for much less than a Mac with comparable horsepower that is stable and fast. I recently had a dedicated music computer built for me by a local tech. Under five hundred dollars. NEVER crashed, runs Windows XP Pro and just simply works. I have had up to 45 tracks of audio going with no problems whatsoever. Mac makes a good computer but the issue of which platform does music "better" is pretty much non existant anymore. And any system that crashes all the time has a problem, and it has nothing to do with the name on the box. I say buy what you can afford and keep in mind the cost of upgrades to the system. As a BMW owner, I can attest to the frustration of having to buy the "special BMW Tool No. xxxxx", to work on the damn thing....

Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe Thanks. I did the MP3 conversions, but other than that, I didn't do anything beyond what Bill did. And to be honest, I was pretty happy to hear Bill make a few comments such as "well, I had to do some EQ on this one - a cut at 5k..." And when I asked him how much, he said "about a quarter dB". And on another track, it was "well, I'm sitting here twirling knobs, but it's not sounding any better - it sounds great the way it is". It's always nice when you hear the mastering engineer say stuff like that. The MP3 converter I use is pretty darned cool - dBPowerAmp Music Converter. It uses the LAME (or if you wish, Blade) MP3 encoder, and while I am still not the world's biggest MP3 fan, the LAME encoding seems to have less of the objectionable side effects to my ears. I always do MP3's at at least 192 - anything less and it is just too annoying to me. The other cool thing is that it's free. Download located here. Thanks Phil.. I do believe the rate may be the answer. Most of the MP3's I end up doing are 128 or less. Thanks again for sharing a great effort..

Phil.. another question regarding those tunes. Did you do any seperate mastering after converting them to MP3? I listen to a lot fo music on my computer speakers and those tunes just sound good.. no other real way to describe them. So are you doing anything special after conversion or just converting the files to MP3 and posting them?

I normally have to compensate by using my imagination when listening to MP3's through my crappy computer speakers.. Boy.. those tracks sounded wonderful. Sounds like a very mature band. Excellent production.

So.. what is the recommended step up from say a $500 RNP? There is such a huge number of pre's out there and so many recommendations it gets mighty cluttered mighty fast. Grace? There's a pre that gets mentioned a lot and a 101 is only $565. Vintech, Avalon, that's the next step.. Are they "quality" pre's? And then on up to the big dollar stuff.. Where does the "just O.K." mic pre end and the "expensive pre" start? I read equipment lists of major studio's and the preamp selection is all over the map.