[Agent 86]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:46:57 +0000, Pops wrote:

Just received the new Swee****er Spring 2007 catalog. Disclaimer; "THIS IS
NOT AN ENDORSEMENT!" However, they do have a page entitled, "Studio
Hardware Packages," where they suggest a "Mic Cabinet" that includes the
following:

--snip--

Total List $12,558.00 USD, they say, under $9,800...even at that price
that's quite a cabinet! Now for those of us on a budget, maybe these are
some good and decent choices, but I guess it all depends where in the
game/chain you are and ($$$) you have? Hmmm? The redundancy on dynamic and
condenser mics, I would venture to think they have enough varying
characteristic's that warrant the inclusions. FWIW!

Well, consider the source. Do you REALLY think Swee****er has ANYTHING in
mind other than separating you from your hard earned cash?

In the REAL WORLD, the whole idea of a mic cabinet/locket/whatever, is
that you've seen enough REAL WORLD situations in which you were presented
with a sound source that no mic you owned did a particularly good job of
capturing it. So you went looking for a new mic which would work better on
THAT SPECIFIC source, BUT if you were smart, you ALWAYS made sure ANY mic
you bought would be at least marginally useful on at least a handful of
other sources. This approach buys you two things. First, you end up with
a handful of mics that are relatively versatile. But more importantly, you
have a pretty good idea of what each mic is good for.

Now, think about a complete novice who only owns an SM58 buying the
Swee****er package. What the hell do you think he's going to do with it?
IME, he'd be better off getting two SM57s and a 635a and using them on
everything until he found a source he
"justcoundn'tgetagoodsoundonnomatterwhathetrie d" Then it's time to add a
new mic to the collection/cabinet/locker. Probably a small cap condenser,
or even a pair of them. The AT4051 is a favorite of mine, but Josephson
makes a very nice one too. Or, there's Neumann 184 if you just have to
have a N-mic and you don't mind an over-bright mic with no bottom end.

You get the picture... if you buy your mics one or two at a time
(especially if you only buy a new mic when nothing in your collection fits
the bill), you end up with a good knowledge of what each mic is good for.
Hell, if you've got decent preamps you could record a whole album with
just a bunch of SM57s. So it makes sense to start with mics like 57s (and
635s)that work really well on a lot of things, instead of spending a
stupid amount of money on some sales weasel's idea of what an "ideal" mic
collection should look like.