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----- Original Message ----- From: "RICK WALKER" <looppool@cruzio.com> To: "LOOPERS DELIGHT (posting)" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 3:21 AM Subject: mic recommendations; champagne recording on a beer budget > I've always had to attempt champagne living on a beer budget > throughout my musical career as a professional > producer/drummer/percussionist/band leader. > I might disagree with some of Rick's equipment choices, but I have to agree with his methodology. Take the time to listen to sources through different mics and preamps, and listen without believing the hype of the name on the grill. The right mic for a source is not necessarily the most expensive. I'm a big fan of the AT 4033/4050, and, unlike Rick, I do use the multiple pattterns on the 4050, I'll use it in figure-8 as the side mic in a mid-side setup. I recorded a solo piano session with a U67 as the center mic and the 4050 as the side mic, sounded amazing. *footnote* Mid-Side is a super cool technique that I've been using a bunch lately. Take a good cardiod mic, and aim it at the source of whatever you're recording. Take a figure-8 mic, place it so that the diaphragm is as close to the cardiod as you can get, but with the diaphragm facing 90 degrees away from the first mic. Split the output of the figure-8 mic and flip the phase on one side. Pan the cardiod mic to the center, and the 2 channels of the figure-8 to hard L&R, and you get a really nice stereo image that collapses to mono nicely. My absolute favorite vocal mic is the Shure SM-7, about $325 new. It's a large diaphragm dynamic, kind of a big brother to the SM-57. It has a way of focusing the voice to the exclusion of everything else in the space. It's a great trumpet mic as well. Rick mentions the cheap ART tube preamps, while they are a pretty OK sounding preamp, there's a new Electro-Harmonix mic pre for under $200 that is a "true" tube mic pre, and I like it a lot better than the ART.