$100-$200 condenser mic for guitar (room/ambient mic)??

[Brian Huether]

I recently asked about a good vocal mic but am now more interested in
guitar. Ideally, I want a good condenser mic that can be used for vocals
(nothing serious - my wife just wants to mess around and see what kind of
voice she has, which I suspect is good!), acoustic guitar and as a mic to
sit 3 or 4 feet in front of a guitar cab (already have sm 57 for closeup
mic).

Can someone recommend a good mic that can handle all that? I am not looking
for perfection. Mainly looking for something that I can expect excellent
results from for the price.

Also, under what circumstances do I want large vs small diaphram condenser?

So far, I have my eye on the Studio Projects C1, but am open to other
suggestions.

thanks in advance,

brian
www.guitar-dreams.com

[Garthrr]

In article >, "Brian
Huether" > writes:

>Can someone recommend a good mic that can handle all that? I am not looking
>for perfection. Mainly looking for something that I can expect excellent
>results from for the price.

For acoustic gtr the Oktava MC012 is pretty hard to beat for the money. Its a
very viable mic assuming you get one thats up to spec. You can buy from Gtr
Center ($99) but you risk getting a bad one as Russian QC sucks. The Sound Room
hand picks them so youre likely to get a good one there. I have used mine on
countless sessions for both steel and nylon string and have gotten nothing but
rave reviews without exception. I have also heard that the Marshall 603 is good
but I havent used it.


>Also, under what circumstances do I want large vs small diaphram condenser?

No hard and fast rules--but generally acoustic gtr, piano and other things
which produce lots of high frequencies can be recorded well with small diaphram
mics. The small diaphram is better at picking up sound from the sides without
coloring it but has a higher noise floor. Large dia mics have lower self noise
but dont do as well for room miking. They have the advantage/disadvantage of
changing tone as you move to the side of the mic. This allows them to be turned
in order to deliberately change the sound of a source. For instance, if a vocal
is too bright with the mic on axis (pointed directly at the singer) it can be
turned a bit off axis to reduce the highs and mellow out the sound.

Garth~



"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney

[John Washburn]

Brian Huether wrote:

> I recently asked about a good vocal mic but am now more interested in
> guitar. Ideally, I want a good condenser mic that can be used for vocals
> (nothing serious - my wife just wants to mess around and see what kind of
> voice she has, which I suspect is good!),

<snip happens>

Um... not to be contentious, but why do you need a microphone to find out
what kind of voice your wife has? Wouldn't it be simpler to get her to just
open her mouth and start singing? Then if that seems like fun to her and
something she wants to document you could explore how you might go about
micing her voice.

-jw

[me]

Because I want to capture her voice in a song and play it for her to see the
"wow" look on her face. Sometimes you need to put stuff in context for
people to realize their abilities. I already know she has a good voice,
hence the need for mics.

-brian

"John Washburn" > wrote in message
...
> Brian Huether wrote:
>
> > I recently asked about a good vocal mic but am now more interested in
> > guitar. Ideally, I want a good condenser mic that can be used for vocals
> > (nothing serious - my wife just wants to mess around and see what kind
of
> > voice she has, which I suspect is good!),
>
> <snip happens>
>
> Um... not to be contentious, but why do you need a microphone to find out
> what kind of voice your wife has? Wouldn't it be simpler to get her to
just
> open her mouth and start singing? Then if that seems like fun to her and
> something she wants to document you could explore how you might go about
> micing her voice.
>
> -jw
>
>

[James]

"Brian Huether" > wrote in message >...
> I recently asked about a good vocal mic but am now more interested in
> guitar. Ideally, I want a good condenser mic that can be used for vocals
> (nothing serious - my wife just wants to mess around and see what kind of
> voice she has, which I suspect is good!), acoustic guitar and as a mic to
> sit 3 or 4 feet in front of a guitar cab (already have sm 57 for closeup
> mic).
>
> Can someone recommend a good mic that can handle all that? I am not looking
> for perfection. Mainly looking for something that I can expect excellent
> results from for the price.

CAD E-100 seems to handle everything. You can even use it without a
power source since it has built in rechargeables. Hot, quiet mic with
bass rolloff switch, 20db pad, rated at 148db with the pad on. Equitek
stopped making them but they're available on ebay, I got mine for
$125+s/h.

I also get good results on vocals from a Marshall MXL 1006, around
$69-$79. Seems to work great as is, Scott Dorsey wrote an article
about how to supe up these kind of mics. I got the pieces and board
from Scott, but haven't yet taken the plunge to try to put it
together. Had to send it in once for warranty repair but it has a 3
year warranty which of course is voided if you tweak it.

[John Washburn]

"me" wrote:
> Because I want to capture her voice in a song and play it for her to see
the
> "wow" look on her face. Sometimes you need to put stuff in context for
> people to realize their abilities. I already know she has a good voice,
> hence the need for mics.

Okay. In the $100-200 range, mic that that'll give her a "wow"... Gosh.

MXL makes a couple condensor mics in that price range V57, V67, etc. that
might sound tolerable. Shoot, with nothing to compare them to, might sound
"wow". People (who know better) have been saying good things about the
Studio Projects stuff B1, C1, etc.

A guy I know (who ought to know better) had been using superlatives such as
"phenomenal" about the MXL 2001 until we went to AES today and he got to
hear some actually phenomenal microphones.

Speaking of interesting mics (and veering head over heals off topic), I
think the new Lawson switchable capsule tube and FET 47 and 251 are really
neat. I don't know if they sound all that authentic (listening on a
tradeshow floor with random headphones is a suboptimal environment), but
it's a pretty neat twist on the rash of U47/48 and 251 copies that have been
cropping up. I'd love to hear them in a more controlled situation.

-jw

>
> "John Washburn" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Brian Huether wrote:
> >
> > > I recently asked about a good vocal mic but am now more interested in
> > > guitar. Ideally, I want a good condenser mic that can be used for
vocals
> > > (nothing serious - my wife just wants to mess around and see what kind
> of
> > > voice she has, which I suspect is good!),
> >
> > <snip happens>
> >
> > Um... not to be contentious, but why do you need a microphone to find
out
> > what kind of voice your wife has? Wouldn't it be simpler to get her to
> just
> > open her mouth and start singing? Then if that seems like fun to her and
> > something she wants to document you could explore how you might go about
> > micing her voice.
> >
> > -jw
> >
> >
>
>