Mic's?

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Oyster

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What do you suggest for a mid to high $$ Mic? I want 2 one for each cab.
I am new to recording at home so any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks guys!
 
I don't know what you'd consider mid to high end, but it's kinda hard to go wrong with Shure SM57's. they're pretty much the standard, and sound really good. Your mic pre's & interface are gonna be bigger factors in quality IMO, especially when you get around to vocals...
 
Shire Sm-57's are basically the industry standard. I recently made the switch to the Sennheiser e609's. Wow. Great, great mic designed specifically with cab recording in mind. It has a side address so you can dangle it right over the cab. Pretty dang rad. There is the e906, which is easily twice the price, but after a little research by my local gear dude, it's practically the same mic, same EQ response, except it has a low-end gate feature added. So there's three viable options for ya.
The mic pre's and interface (which usually house basic mic pre's) are factors you shouldn't overlook. For guitars or vocals. Right now I'm running the e609 into a Line 6 UX2 (dry signal into Cubase) or sometimes my Tascam US-1800 which we got to record proper drum tracks. Both have considerably good (and definitely adequate) mic pre's built in. My next investment is going to be a PreSonus tube mic pre... Just to place right in between the mic and interface. More dynamics, warmer 3d capture of the tone to tape. And the one channel version is only like 130 bucks. Money well spent if home recording on a budget is your next move. It's as addictive and GAS inducing as MTS, I'll tell ya that.
All the best, bro! And Happy Holidays!
 
For a high end Mic, I suggest Mic Jagger. It comes with swagger and decades of rock solid performance.

If brootalz are your thing, I'd suggest Mic Foley. Its hardcore to the extreme.

If you want the Chicago sound and award winning performance Mike Jordan would be another suggestion.
 
He powerbombs mahfukkaz into thumbtacks! Hahahaha

The Mic Mars is a pretty solid option. It's ancient, and looks like it's on the verge of falling apart, but it's performance is very clean.

Then there's the Mic Donald. Do not buy this. It's warm, it's big, with a salty grind for days, but it'll leave your mix bloated like a hefty chick stuffed in a beached manatee inside a bouncy house on Tuesday.
 
I agree with the comments about your preamp/interface and the rest of the chain being a large part of a great tone. If using two mics, I like to combine the Sennheiser e906 and a 421, but the SM57/421 combo sounds great as well....it's a pretty classic pairing. On the higher end of things, I've always been partial to the AKG 414. I haven't decided what route I want to go as I build (another) home studio, I've always been a fan of micing cabs, but all this Torpedo talk has got me rethinking my approach. Other mics I've heard and liked over the years....the EV RE20, Shure SM7B, and pretty much any Royer ribbon.
 
JayDA said:
I agree with the comments about your preamp/interface and the rest of the chain being a large part of a great tone. If using two mics, I like to combine the Sennheiser e906 and a 421, but the SM57/421 combo sounds great as well....it's a pretty classic pairing. On the higher end of things, I've always been partial to the AKG 414. I haven't decided what route I want to go as I build (another) home studio, I've always been a fan of micing cabs, but all this Torpedo talk has got me rethinking my approach. Other mics I've heard and liked over the years....the EV RE20, Shure SM7B, and pretty much any Royer ribbon.

If the Shure SM7B works well for micing cabs, then I'd say grab one of those, because they also make for a top notch studio vocal mic as well. The same can not be said about the others as far as i know. They aren't cheap (~$350), but if you can kill two birds with one stone...
 
If you want a really high-end mike, try Mike Bloomberg. It's the east coast sound and has been all over NYC. It might be hard to find as it has a reputation that it can't be bought.
 
The Rossness said:
If you want a really high-end mike, try Mike Bloomberg. It's the east coast sound and has been all over NYC. It might be hard to find as it has a reputation that it can't be bought.

I had one of those mikes before - seemed that the signal was always corrupted & it seemed to be designed only to allow only very limited use in very specific situations - almost like it thought it knew better than me how it was to be used, but the end result was always garbage. And, curiously, it always cut me off right when I was getting to the good part. Rather odd, lol.
 
I'll add another vote for the side-address Sennheiser e609. They are affordable, sound great, and are easy to work with - just dangle them over the top of your speaker cab(s). What you have to decide is whether to place them dead center with your speakers for lots of bass or off-axis for more overtones.

If you're going to be recording a full band, the real challenge will be getting a good mix on the drums. When we record, our engineer spends at least 90 minutes getting the drum mics placed and EQ'd. There are several good articles available on the web about mic selection and placement for drums.
 
I pretty much stick with ribbon mics on guitar cabinets these days. The inexpensive chinese ones can work wonders with a V30:

http://www.cascademicrophones.com/cascade_FAT_HEAD_BE.html

I'll agree you can make a bigger improvement by upgrading the mic preamp than spending more on fancier mics when it comes to recording distorted guitar. These chineve pres destroy stock interface preamps for heavy guitar tones:

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-GOA-PRE573-LIST

Throw it in a six slot lunchbox and you'll long for the day all you craved were MTS modules for filling up slots:

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-LIA-506POWER-LIST
 
I'll second getting a ribbon mic. Which one? Don't be afraid of the under $200 club, but they really do sound great with loud distorted Gtr. You should store then upright to minimize the ribbon getting bowed after being horizontal for too long.

The lower price sennheiser mentioned above is easy to use, and Jace's recommendation of the dual capsule EV is solid as well.

I enjoy trying a handful depending on what's coming out of the cab. You need an SM57 if you don't have one, and an SM58 can be subbed for a hint more high end as well.

Recording with multiple mics can give really cool tones, but you need to be careful to not place them in a manner that causes drop outs (phase is an issue). Bottom line is experiment smartly and you'll be glad you spent the time.
 
Oregon said:
I'll second getting a ribbon mic. Which one? Don't be afraid of the under $200 club, but they really do sound great with loud distorted Gtr. You should store then upright to minimize the ribbon getting bowed after being horizontal for too long.

The lower price sennheiser mentioned above is easy to use, and Jace's recommendation of the dual capsule EV is solid as well.

I enjoy trying a handful depending on what's coming out of the cab. You need an SM57 if you don't have one, and an SM58 can be subbed for a hint more high end as well.

Recording with multiple mics can give really cool tones, but you need to be careful to not place them in a manner that causes drop outs (phase is an issue). Bottom line is experiment smartly and you'll be glad you spent the time.

Make sure you record the raw guitar signal into your daw before routing to your amp/cab(s). This way, you can 're-amp' whatever it is you record, trying various amp settings, mic types & placements, etc without having to re record the actual track. This makes it easy to experiment.
 
There was s hoot out online for ribbons and they threw in an SM-57 just for grins. It was almost laughable hearing the57. even the cheap Chinese mics kicked it's ***.
these are really nice and can go up against the Royers:

http://www.cascademicrophones.com/cascade_FAT%20HEAD.html
 
I've owned and tried nearly every microphone in existence on guitar cabinets. Here's my two cents. 8)

First off, I would highly recommend recording only one speaker cabinet, especially if you're new to recording. Not only do I think it's completely unnecessary, there are phasing issues that could/can pose serious headaches in recording your amp. There are some producers who prefer two microphones on a single speaker (the Royer R121/57, 441/57 and old AKG 414/57 are some of the most popular combinations), and having tried everyone of those, still prefer the sound of the Mojave FET 201.

Personally, I avoid an SM57 at all costs. I find them to be strident and nasally and don't care for the sound. The best singular, readily available cardoid mic I've recorded is the Sennheiser E906. The old Sennheiser 409 is a bitchin' mic but they're usually in excess of $500 used and may need maintenance. Many have Tuchel connectors as well. Jace has gotten excellent results from the RE320, so that's a mic that definitely garners an audition (it was released after I became satisfied with the Mojave and have never tried it)).

I've used Audix i5's and Heil PR20's and both can be nice when used in combination with a ribbon but on their own, they're both too "small" sounding for me. But if you were to go with the Cascade Ribbon, you'd definitely want to use a 57, i5 or PR20, phase aligned of course, because the Cascade is rather dark and has serious proximity effect. Also, ribbon mics tend to feel "slow" and "squishy" when tracking and I prefer the "fast" feel of a phantom powered condenser. The AEA R92 is a pretty cool mic for guitars, doesn't suffer from proximity effect, doesn't need a dynamic, nor is it slow, but it has a mid-presence that I didn't care for in my recordings. The R88 is definitely way too bassy for guitar and very unnatural, unless you're using it as a room mic at a distance of at least 12 foot (again, in my experience).

I've had reasonable success in the past with Audio Technica 4033, 4040 and the 4050 (the 4050 being the best) but I've needed to use a LPF at 8k to reduce the "fizzy" top end. I'd avoid all of the sub-$500 AKG, Rode, MXL, etc. mics, as they're way too fizzy for guitar, IMO.

I'd recommend borrowing mics from friends before throwing down any hard earned cash, only to find out it doesn't "work" and you have to sell for a loss (Believe me, been there, done that!). Or if all else fails, get a Radial J48 active direct box, record into your DAW and dial up a guitar tone from Guitar Rig 5. You might be surprised at how little difference (and how much easier!) it is to dial it in and forget it. :twisted:

Good luck!
 
Also, maybe give the Ownhammer or RedWirez speaker/cab IR's a shot? These sound great to my ears, are very affordable, and give you tons of options. You need a VST host and/or Convolution Reverb to use them though. I got a RedWirez demo set (free), a freeware Convolution plugin (Paulin LeCab) and a freeware VST host (just called VST Host I think), and really like the results - even just coming from the amp sims in my VOX Tonelab to the IR's, it sounds pretty **** good. All you'd need to get full tone from your mods/heads is a hotplate/attenuator with a direct out (to get power tube saturation/clipping), run it to your interface, and through either your DAW to the VST/Convolution Reverb, or to the VST Host re-wired to your DAW (like I have to do with Reason 7 for recording).

Or, you could go the hardware route with a Two Notes Torpedo unit or Palmer unit. I find these unnecessary for my recording purposes though as I can do it all via software.

If this does it for you, you won't need any mic's at all! It's worth a look, as I was skeptical at first, but they really do sound very good.
 
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