Microphone reccomendations please

Hi

As you may or may not know, me and a friend have started our own little animation studio, and we need to invest in a good microphone!

We need somethign quite versitile... primarily this will be for foley effects and dialogue... the dialogue recording ESPECIALLY has to sound good. But I will also be using it to ecord sounds for music. I don't want to spend more than $300-500 NZ ($500NZ = $356US, or £181, or 266 Euros). But if you can think of something that will be pretty much essential and costs more then by all means please tell me about that too.

Also if anyone knows of any good portable recorders that are cheap that'd be cool too.

Any advice and stuf would be great thanks!

Get a Studio Projects B1 microphone and VTB1 mic preamp.

The B1 is a condenser mic, which is the only option for recording sounds that are naturally quiet, like foley sounds, speech and acoustic instruments.

Oceania are the NZ distributors. I've bought stuff off them before and they are suprisingly friendly to the small fries given that their main business if supplying PAs to things like the Big Day Out.

Also, see the other 50 threads on mic recommendations in this subforum :stuart:

go for a condenser with a reasonably wide diaphragm.

  loganfive said:

go for a condenser with a reasonably wide diaphragm.

Agreed. Neumanns are pretty nice. I can't help with specific models, though.

  Braintree said:

  loganfive said:

go for a condenser with a reasonably wide diaphragm.

 

Agreed. Neumanns are pretty nice. I can't help with specific models, though.

The one I suggested is an affordable Neumann clone. Real Neumanns cost 4 figures for a modern one, 5 figures for a vintage one. They can buy a Neumann after they sell their first show to Cartoon Network :laughing:

Yeah thanks for the tips so far guys.... Neumanns are insanely expensive. I've been asking my brother who was sound engineering/tutoring at uni... and a friend who did a class in music recording or something... they both reccomended a Shure SM58 for a mic, which is pretty affordable, and sounds pretty good. That VTB1 mic preamp seems good... big bwother gave me the name of a good store as well so I'll ask them too...

  Springymajig said:

Yeah thanks for the tips so far guys.... Neumanns are insanely expensive. I've been asking my brother who was sound engineering/tutoring at uni... and a friend who did a class in music recording or something... they both reccomended a Shure SM58 for a mic, which is pretty affordable, and sounds pretty good. That VTB1 mic preamp seems good... big bwother gave me the name of a good store as well so I'll ask them too...

No disrespect to your brother and friend, but DO NOT GET a Shure SM58 for the application you have in mind!

The SM58 is a dynamic microphone, that means it relies on a naturally loud sound source (amplified guitar, drums, rock vocal) to get it up and running. If you try to record quiet sounds with it (like rustling paper, and other foley type things), you will just get a wall of hiss from having to turn everything up to 10.

I like my Rode NT1, it's was about 2 bills USD & it's sounds good to me. I use it to sample acoustic guitar & household objects.

lol@sm58, people always recommend this mic. an sm58 is a shitty live sound passive/dynamic micraphone, it pushes mid's, is VERY colored, very muddy, and is meant for loud PA systems or possibly like mic'ing snare drums or very loud guitar cabinets. not for recording voice.

for $350-ish USD you are a begger, you cannot be a chooser. you want production-quality sound with a below hobbiest-level budget. your needs, expections, or budget need to change.

studio projects is your best bet at that budget level, but again, you get like a studio projects c1 mic for $200-ish, what are you going to use for a micraphone pre amp? can't get any pre for $150 or less that's going to do justice to any micraphone, let alone achieve voiceover-type quality.

in any case, good luck.

Thanks for the advice everyone once again...

aeser: ok, forgetting the budget constrains, what would you reccomend? What would be ideal? I've found this article: http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_recording_dialog_digital/

which mentions Neumann and AKG mics that are around $1000... which is a hell of alot of money but if I have to spend it then I will...

Also, I've only found one slightly negative review for the Studio Projects B1 mic, which said that for recording spoken word and voiceover it's not really suitable, saying it sounds a little bit distorted or something... but was otherwise great....

Ok, go up a model to the C1 then.

A lot of people will tell you to get a Rode, but I have heard bad things.

A lot of people will tell you to get an AKG C1000, but I have found these to be harsh and nasal sounding on voice.

  aeser said:

lol@sm58, people always recommend this mic. an sm58 is a shitty live sound passive/dynamic micraphone, it pushes mid's, is VERY colored, very muddy, and is meant for loud PA systems or possibly like mic'ing snare drums or very loud guitar cabinets. not for recording voice.

Couldn't have said it any better.

Oh, yeah 58s are great for your 4 piece rock band. But that isn't quite what Springy said he wanted a mic for.

  ieafs said:

  Braintree said:

  aeser said:

lol@sm58, people always recommend this mic. an sm58 is a shitty live sound passive/dynamic micraphone, it pushes mid's, is VERY colored, very muddy, and is meant for loud PA systems or possibly like mic'ing snare drums or very loud guitar cabinets. not for recording voice.

 

Couldn't have said it any better.

well the people who recommend them are probably assuming you're going to use them as a mic for drums or a guitar amp or something.

 

they're a pretty standard mic to have more traditional uses like these.

Well, if you want a cheap mic for drums or guitar, you'll want so use an SM57. A 58 is a cheap live vocal mic.

  Springymajig said:

Thanks for the advice everyone once again...

 

aeser: ok, forgetting the budget constrains, what would you reccomend? What would be ideal? I've found this article: http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_recording_dialog_digital/

 

which mentions Neumann and AKG mics that are around $1000... which is a hell of alot of money but if I have to spend it then I will...

 

Also, I've only found one slightly negative review for the Studio Projects B1 mic, which said that for recording spoken word and voiceover it's not really suitable, saying it sounds a little bit distorted or something... but was otherwise great....

i'd go for a studio projects C1, and then save up another $600 at least for a decent mic pre.

C1

pre

what would be ideal would be WAY out of your price range and probably wouldn't be just one mic and one pre, the thing about recording is you want different mic's and pre's for different voices and or sounds and such, and literally the sky is the limit. as far as for vocals, i used this one horch that pretty much floored me, but it's $4500 USD horch

pre's are always a good investment, most good pre's are at least $2000 USD for 2 channels, like this one i'm currently covetting mp2nv

Thanks a bunch once again analogue wings and aeser.

As analogue wings said... once we actually land a really big deal for something we'll be able to afford a better set up. I suppose I didn't make my expecations clear... while I do want it to sound good, I do realise that something strictly proffesional is probably not within our reach right now.

Getting a C1 and a pre-amp like that doesn't seem unreasonable to me... but I'm not in too big a hurry so I'm gonna keep researching...