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I am planning a trip to India soon, and am curious which one or two specific mic models you all would recommend I take to record ambient sounds and musicians/vocalists i encounter along the way. Thanks!
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Re: Which microphone to take to India?
Thu, August 31, 2006 - 3:46 AMHey Sean,
Of all odd things, Sony makes a stereo condenser microphone (the ECM MS907) that although very inexpensive ($80 online)
has perfectly flat specs from 20 to 20,000 hz.
I just found it at a company called Etronics online , delivered to your door for $68. That's stupid cheap.
www.amazon.com/gp/offer-l...823-7688806
Go down lower on the page to find the Etronics option.
That's exceptional. It's also a very compact microphone so it travels well. It's called a consumer microphone
but it is incredible for the reasons I list below.
Now, the world's greatest microphones have what they call color, or a boost or dip in certain frequency ranges
so a perfectly flat microphone is not always advantageous.
However, now due to the advent of incredible acoustic modelling programs (like the one Antares sells for microphones)
a perfectly flat microphone is perfect because then you can run these programs and make it sound like any microphone
on the market (including rare $7, 000 RCA tube mics, B&K matching $3,000 mic, pricey tube condenser mics like Neumanns,
et. al.)
Antares Mic Modeller software:
www.antarestech.com/products/amm.shtml
It's fairly pricey at $249 but nothing compared to the price of a decent tube condesnser microphone and check out the list
of microphones you can model.
This combination yields world class mic results for a total investment of around $320...................not bad and the mic itself sounds great
without the software.
Best of luck. Enjoy India................what an amazing place!!! -
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Re: Which microphone to take to India?
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 11:58 PMI recommend the shure sm57
most studios, pro and home alike always have several of these on hand. they are basically do-it-all mics that really specialize in drums and other non vocal tracks. But they certainly produce very nice vocals as well. Its 50-100 bucks and definitely something everyone should have in their studio.
what gear are you going to be recording with? dont bring a condenser mic unless you have a preamp with phantom power -
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Re: Which microphone to take to India?
Sat, December 30, 2006 - 5:39 AMerrrr, as someone who has produced and recorded albums for 30 years I have to beg to disagree with this advice.
please forgive me, but to record ambient sounds in India,
the shure sm57 (though admittedly, not needing phantom power and a preamp)
is NOT a good microphone choice.
It is a uni directional microphone with a cartoid pattern dynamic microphone with limited bandwidth
that is designed to record or amplify signals that are immediately in front of it.
It is not suited for ambient recordings and field recordings where you need a wide field of recording (re: omnidirectional)
Inexpensive as it is, the aforementioned Sony condenser microphone works very well with batteries
and doesn't require phantom power or a preamp. You can put it straight into a video camera (some of which have surprisingly
good recording specs.........I just bought a very small , portable Canon Z500 for $250 dollars that takes wonderful mini DV movies
and records extremely well. There are certainly other options that could work too but your advice about larger condensers is
very accurate: they do need power supplies and preamplifiers.
This microphone has a much larger and more accurate (re: flat) response over the whole spectral range compared to the
SM 57.
I feel bad contradicting your advice but if you go to the audio engineers tribe and make this same posting you will get the same feedback about the SM57 which is a brilliant microphone for vocals, guitar, snare drums, etc.. just not omnidirectional ambient source micing.
with respect, Rick -
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Re: Which microphone to take to India?
Sat, December 30, 2006 - 6:00 AMDefinitely the SM57 would be a bad choice, especialy for ambient sounds. The sensitivity of any dynamic capsule would be especially bad at what you may effectively be trying to get, "transient" sounds. While the 57 is an all around industry workhorse (along with the 58), I'd stray away from a dynamic in this situation.
For recording ambient noises, and for all around use, I'd probably suggest the AKG 414. It's switchable polar-patterns is great for different applications you may need them for, and the response seems pretty flat. The one I've been using came with a shockmount and windscreen, but I'm not sure if they still sell it with the mic now or not. There are a couple of versions of this mic, and I've been using the B-XLS. Your downside of this of course is you will need phantom and a preamp to power this mic, but depending on how you plan on recording these sounds, that might not be too much of an issue.
Another mic that I might suggest is the Rode NT4, which is a stereo mic that has already been set in an X-Y pattern. While i haven't personally used the mic, I have heard pretty good things about it. I already own two other Rodes and have been very happy with them, but for your application, you might not find them too flat.
Overall, whichever mic that you may be looking for, an excellent resource I've used for purchasing decisions has been microphone-data.com. They have dozens of mics listed in their database (all the way from old carbon mics to "laser mics") giving you breakdowns of all the information on the mic, a frequency curve charts and polar curve charts. Quite useful. -
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Re: Which microphone to take to India?
Sat, December 30, 2006 - 11:59 AMWhatever you get I would make sure that it has a windscreen. I tried to record some ambient sounds not too long ago without one & what I recorded was pretty much worthless. -
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Re: Which microphone to take to India?
Sat, December 30, 2006 - 1:17 PMthat is an excellent recommendation by Don (the windscreen one) and I heartily second it.
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