posted
I'll check my usual tech sites for reviews but as there seem to be a good number of musically inclined and tech savy individuals here, I thought I'd ask:
What's a good microphone for recording live music?
The music teacher in the school I work at wants to start recording onto her laptop. She's currently using a Sony F-VX300 mic plugged into her PC and editting her work with Audacity. We're both unimpressed with the sound; the mic seems to pick up a lot of ambient room noise.
From web research, the Sony seems to be an old, cheap ($15) mic. Money's not really a concern when it comes replacing this, she's got a good size budget for her department.
Any musicians have any suggestions ? Thanks a bunch.
Posts: 349 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Do you mean live music like surruptiously recording concerts? Or do you mean like in a recording studio type setting?
Different mics are good for different things. Vocals need a certain pattern and response from a mic, and guitars, drums, horns, and strings all need different things.
The buttlicking cow pirate's suggestion is a pretty good all around mic, though. It's better for live performance than recording IMO.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Okay, well, the SM-58 is a good, all-around microphone. What type of recording is she doing? Vocal? Per-instrument? An entire band? If it's an entire band, you get into all kinds of problems.
The SM-58 is a good vocal mic, but it's not very isolated. She should be looking into condenser mics if she wants to isolate the sound a little bit.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I have a KSM-27 (Shure) that I use for vocals. It's a large diaphram condensing mic, and it sounds amazing. It has much better depth and response than my SM-58 (which is still what I use live for vocals).
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I think it means they're prone to off-axis feedback.
For recording, Rode NT-5 condensers are excellent for the price. MXL (by Marshall) large diagphragm condensers are also excellent price/quality ratio.
Posts: 121 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Well, you've heard the term "omnidirectional microphone," right? Well, an omnidirectional microphone is equally sensitive to sound coming from all directions. This, bascially, means that it'll pick up any odd noise in a room. Therefore, the mic's pickup range is not very isolated
A condenser mic is typically uni-directional, meaning it will pick up sounds most clearly wherever it's pointed. If you were to stand in front of a unidirectional mic and sort of rock back and forth on your feet and say "Ahhhhhh!" at a constant volume, you'd get much louder when you were right in front of the mic and you'd be nearly silent (at least, in the mic) when away from it. Therefore, a unidirectional mic is significantly more isolated.
The Shure SM58 has sort of a conical area in front of it that picks up sound. It tends to pick up lots of other noises as well as vocals, but the performer's head usually acts as an insulator. It's really good for close-up micing on stage for this reason. A condenser mic should be used for distance micing.
The SM58 is most known for it's consistent performance and reliability. You can pick up a 20-year-old SM58 and know it's going to sound good. You can also drop them repeatedly with little damage.
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posted
I'm even more confused. I thought that condenser mics are good at picking everything up, not just stuff in one direction.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Different mic types have different patterns, based partly, but not totally, on the type of coil it uses.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I had been looking at the Shure's; having model #'s to look for is great, thx Primal.
JT - superb link. I could spend the rest of the afternoon browsing through it.
The basic setup of the music room - it's an old ballroom, 50' x 20' with high ceilings and a wooden floor. Decent sound, maybe a little echo-y.
Her piano is in one corner, other instrument 'stations' within 15' of it - bongos, xylophones, voice chorus, etc. She'd like to be able to move from group to group with a mic and have it feed back to her laptop. So...a general all-round mic would probably be best. They do more vocal stuff than instrumental but flexibility is preferred.
Posts: 349 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I didn't read everyone's recommendations to make sure this hasn't already been said....BUT....
I STRONGLY recommend getting yourself a good pre-amp for your recording that then feeds into the computer or whatever recording medium you happen to be using.
If money is no issue, I'd recommend a Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro, which is actually a mixing board that includes a pre-amp. This lets you adjust the levels right when you're recording, and then pumps the sound output through multiple possible sources, either a monitor (speaker designed to let the musicians hear themselves), a headphone, or into the recording device itself.
In my band room, I have a pair of CARDIOD style microphones (see El JT Sprang's link above), which I believe are something of a compromise between omni and bi directional mics. These are faced at an angle of 113 degrees from each other, mimicking the position of the human ear, so as to best reproduce the live stereophonic sound. These mics then run into my mixing board, which then pumps into a mini-disc recorder.
I DO NOT like the mini-disc recorder for professional recording, as it automatically compresses the recording, causing the quality to degrade. However, it is VERY convenient for in class use, as writing, re-writing, and erasing tracks happens very quickly. When I want to make a "real" recording, I have the mixer play into my CD Recorder, which compresses the sound as well, but to a lesser degree than does the MD recorder.
posted
Dude, that's a mixing board. She's trying to walk around the room with a microphone. Unless she gets a wireless mic and leaves her laptop behind somewhere, that's rediculously unweildy.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
Sure thing. Leave the mixing board in the corner with the computer, get a long XLR cable to connect to the mic. Excellent sound quality, but you still only have to move the mic around.
I missed the 2nd post regarding the room's setup. But in terms of recording, the pre-amp mixer will help get the best results.
Posts: 1099 | Registered: Apr 2005
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