"Greg M Silverman" wrote in message

Am looking into buying microphones to record the following:

-- solo guitar (mostly nylon string)

-- guitar and recorder

-- guitar, winds, tuba and voice

-- 2-guitars, recorder and voice

and possibly other ensemble mixes.

I've been told to get Oktava 012's by several people (small diaphragm,
with interchangeable capsule for different situations), but have also
been told that CAD 300s (or equivalent) would better suit my needs for
good sound.

I wouldn't recommend the same pair of mics for all of these applications.

The obvious stand-out is voice. There's a lot of charm to using a mic that
was specifically designed for vocal work when you record a vocalist. A
well-designed vocalist's mic will have good pop suppression, good internal
shock mounting, and handle high SPLs, but has only modest needs for
sensitivity and low noise. I've just switched a half-dozen vocalists from
SM57s with foam pop filters to CAD 95s with external foam pop filters over
and above the internal filters. Why CAD 95s? The room has a bad case of cold
sound, and the slight broad lower midrange rise of the older CAD 95s warms
things up just a tad. Losing the slightly harsh presence peak of the 57s
allows me use the highly limited eq on the Mackie console to deal with
personal issues, since I no longer have to use it to fight with my mics. The
current model of the now-discontinued CAD 95 is the CAD 195 which lacks the
slight added warmth in the midrange.

OTOH, I've been getting very pleasing results on instruments like acoustical
guitars, winds and brass with another classic cheap but good mic - the MXL
603. I've used 603s as vocal mics, but they are easy to pop even with an
added pop filter over the included one, and have minimal resistance to
handling noise. Used as acoustic instrument mics, their warm, smooth
response and broad directivity make it a "natural".

So now we're got a pair of tight cardiod vocal mics, a pair of broad cardiod
MI mics, and a some of of that $500 is still in the kitty. Give me a budget
and I tend to spend it all.

Just for something different, but clearly something that can be very useful,
let me suggest getting a pair of another classic cheap but good mic - the
ultra-small diameter omnidirectional Behringer ECM8000. I use pairs of these
to record room ambience, pipe organ, choirs and mid-sized vocal groups.
I've also used them on a piano. Ultrasmall omnis are even more
omnidirectional than 1" omnis, with a reduced on-axis crispness peak. Their
noise performance can be an areas of weakness, so you mostly want to use
them where SPLs are relatively high. Because they are so non-directional,
it's feasible to use them very close to sound sources which partially
compensates for the mediocre noise performance.