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One more vote for the mighty SM57. To me it is one of the greatest pieces of recording / Sound reinforcement gear ever made. Extremely durable and flexible and almost always works good to great. I find many instances where, in critical studio shoot outs, that it will beat out mics costing over 20 times a much, even on lead vocals, acoustic guitars, violins.... I was using one on upright bass last week. > Actually, this leads me to another question. Which mic in the > $100-200 price range has the flattest frequency response? Is that > what we are after for a general purpose mic that can be used for > voice, instruments, close mic, overhead, ambient, etc? What is the > swiss army knive of mics? > I know this is probably a loaded question, because flat frequency > response is sometimes the first thing to be sacrificed in cheaper > gear, but I'm curious...all based on published specs (not frequency > ranges, but real frequency responses with +/- figures). It > irritates me when the low end manufactures publish a frequency > range and call it a frequency response. It's misleading. There are not a lot situations where flat frequency response is an end goal in microphones. The venerated Neuman U47, or AKG C12 are very far from flat. As a matter of fact most of the mics I (and most other engineers) use in the studio are far from flat. Most people prefer "musical" or "flattering" over flat. Also keep in mind that some of the "flattest" mics tend to be omni-directional, making them a bit of a nightmare for a live situation. There are tons of mics I own and love, but the two affordable "swiss army knife" mics are both by Shure. The SM57 and the KSM32. Both stunning mics even if they were ten times the price. I could easily record entire albums with just those two mics. Be careful about jumping into ultra low cost condensers. There are very few of them I have found to be usable, especially when you need to EQ them or layer them up (the MXL V67 and V69 are the only super low cost condenser, I have found to be of high enough quality to get used on my productions) Ronan Chris Murphy www.venetowest.com (Production & mixing: King Crimson, Chucho Valdes, Steve Morse, Terry Bozzio, Nels Cline, CGT...) www.homerecordingbootcamp.com (Workshops around the world teaching the art and craft of recording ) www.livesofthesaints.net (The hottest ambient noise duo since Sonny & Cher) > > Any suggestions? > > Kris > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "RICK WALKER" <looppool@cruzio.com> > To: "LOOPERS DELIGHT (posting)" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> > Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 5:27 AM > Subject: microphone: a professional percussionist replies > > >> The Shure SM-57 is a very good and dependable microphone. >> >> That being said and done (and all respect to Kris Hartung), it >> has a very uneven >> frequency reponse and has quite a pronounced 'proximity' effect >> (high roll on of bass frequencies) >> and a boost in the midranges that make it particularly >> advantageous for micing two really specific >> instruments: a very loud electric guitar cabinet and a snare >> drum. All of this is because it really >> can handle high SPLs (sound pressure levels) without feeding back >> under normal live monitoring cirumstances. >> >> >> A great microphone. >> >> Compared to a high quality condenser microhone or even the vastly >> improved Shure Beta SM 57, however and >> it is a fairly mediocre microphone for things like some human >> voice and percussion (or found sound). >> >> The trouble with condenser microphones is that they have a fairly >> omni directional pickup pattern which makes them >> highly susceptibale (sp?) to feedback under normal monitoring >> situations. >> >> One condenser microphone in particular, the AKG C1000S, has a >> special plastic 'focuser' that, when placed over the >> microphones element, narrows the pickup pattern to a very, very >> narrow cartoid pattern. >> >> This incredible focus of directionality of the microphone >> (something that makes the SM57 really good and the BETA SM57 >> fantastic) >> means that there is a lot less feedback potential in live situations. >> >> I used my brother's borrowed BETA SM57s a lot until I did a gig at >> the legendary Freight and Salvage Company performance venue in >> Berkeley, California with legendary finger styled/altered tuning >> guitarist Martin Simpson. >> >> I had a very difficult 'found sound' percussion instrument that I >> helped to innovate, called the Liquid Glass Ghatam. >> Fashioned out of a large four sided, clear glass flower vase >> filled with water (for pitch manipulation) it was a very difficult >> instrument to mic, let alone to loop live. >> >> It sounded like god in at this venue...................so much so >> that I sprung for two AKG C1000S in the next couple of months as I >> could afford them. >> >> >> >> This microphone is still problamatic when it comes to high SPLs >> with typical front monitoring live solutions so I eventually went >> to a rather cheap >> but elegant solution of using a Radio Shack Wirless Headpone >> system (run, directly off of my live mixing board). >> >> It really helps if you have multiple tracks to loop on, so that >> there is no grave danger of monitor leakage when you are recording >> new and multiple tracks. With the wireless headphones, this >> becomes a very high quality listening experience that I highly >> recommend (and trust me, I tried EVERY >> micing solution to make my frame drums and unusual percussion >> instruments sound really good , live). >> >> If you have typical monitoring solutions (normal stage monitors in >> front and underneath you), then I highly recommend that you use >> a BETA 57 (which I think is highly superior to the wonderful >> normal SM 57). >> >> One thing you can do to make it sound a little more pristine is to >> boost your treble or upper midranges by +3db on the returns of >> whatever looping >> solution you use. Even hard to mic Indian tablas sound good >> with this approach. >> >> Best of luck. Email me off list if you have any other solutions >> for micing or sound reinforcement ideas for your looping. > > >