Folks,

My background comes out of the audio recording side of the house, and I personally have:

Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1

Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6

M-Audio - Xponent

M-Audio Delta 66 with an Omni Studio (PCI card and is my favorite, alas my new computer doesn't have a PCI slot)

Presonus Studio Live 16.4.2

Presonus FirePod

I like them all.

I am a big fan of M-Audio gear, and have used many of their USB interfaces.

The basic deal between USB anf Firewire is bandwidth. When you tart hitting on 8 channels in and out, you need to move to Firewire. If all you need is a single Mic or two, and a means to monitor, then USB should more than fine.

I need to have my studio quiet, and have not run into any noise problems with cables as described. But I do tend to have Ferrites on all of my cables.

In my humble opinion, while there are tons of mics out there, my bottom line for a dynamic (Shure SM58 or Beta 58) is that $100 range. However, for a vocal condenser, while some might have some luck with a similar price, I really think $300 is the threshhold there. Cheaper mics tend to have a lot more self noise, and need to have their gain boosted so much the noise does come through. Yeah, you can gate it and chuck a NR bandpass on it, but I think the money is better spent on a better mic. I've gotten rid of any of the cheap condensers I have ever bought.

For a vocal booth, I'd say bare minimums Shure PG27 , AT2050, Blue Spark, Shure PG42, M-Audio Solaris

I have Shure SM27's and love them, also Rode NT1000 or a Blue Bably Bottle.

What you really want is an EV RE-20, and they came out with a cheaper model the RE27.

At least that my opinionated self speaking.

Peace.

Michael

Oh, people talking about mics - count me in!

I like my AKG c-3000 not that cheap but sounds really nice and has settings for roll-off and attenuation, love it in the studio. Use with a pop screen.

Also, have to agree with Michael, EV RE-20, wonderful voice studio mic. Seen a lot in broadcast stations.

Paul

There's no one mic to rule them all.
The audio professionals have cupboards full of mics and of every type and vintage known to man. They choose a mic to suit the voice. You can grade mics on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is "soft" and 10 is "hard". Generally you use a mic that compliments the voice. Mic location is also critical.

For a general purpose flat, low noise, microphone and if you're only going to be able to afford one then the Rode NT-1A is very hard to beat. Equivalent noise is 5dBA. Being a LDC a popper stopper is mandatory. It "looks the part" and is reasonably priced. Being pretty flat you can use it for anything. As it's got a high output you don't need a lot of gain with it so it's well suited to those who cannot afford the best preamps money can buy. There's also plenty of other budget priced LDC that are also quite good but the NT-1A seems to be a bit above the rest of the pack.

I've seen a lot of Senny 416 shotguns used is professional voice for vision studios but they're used in acoustically treated spaces. Lacking that luxury I've used the Sanken CSS-10 for ADR work and it worked brilliantly but that is a very expensive mic. The CS-3e is under half the price and would probably be more than adequate.

In reality anything will work and working with whatever you've got will give better results than working against whatever you've got.

Bob.

The RE 20 is an absolutely great mic for radio, narration and some singing voices. Bonnie Raitt has used mainly that mic for years.

Bob,

Of course no one mic is right for everything

I've got a case of mics. Always want more mics. Can never have enough.

Peace

Michael

Grazie, that presonus video you posted, whats he singing... "when the lavie breaks" ?

Paul. :))

>Of course no one mic is right for everything

There are five in the Zoom H2N.

Here is my favorite guitarist as recorded in a studio with a bunc of great mics and who knows what studio gear:



Now here he is again with a single $250 USB mic :



Get my point?

"Get my point? "

We know, YouTube's audio is horrid.

Personally I'm a bit worried, I thought as I got older I'd become less of an audio pain thanks to failing hearing. Unfortunately the opposite is happening and I think I'm in danger of becoming a grumpy old audio f**t.


Certainly agree about Tommy, last time I heard him live it was a free gig put on by Fender. I'll never forget him and about 10 other guitarists playing All Along The Watchtower.

Bob.

Laurence, I didn't get your point.

about Tommy:
- he is skilled enough to make a $2 plywood guitar sound great.
- he says what he is paid to say.

about the mics:
- you don't need 4 or 5 mics to record a guitar.
- the Apogee sounds awful compared to a good mic, and only works on a MAC.

The point is that the better USB mics sound really good these days, even when you listen to them back to back with much more expensive mics, preamps and audio interfaces. Just my opinion of course. Your ears may be better than mine.

This thread sounds really good..... great infos, thanks!

Speaking of usb mics, I was really impressed with the blue yeti but unfortunately beeing only usb I won't be able to plug it on my camera. They do have a Blue Yeti Pro with XLR and USB but with shockmount, it ads up to the cost.

Might go for the AT2020 or Rode NT1a mic and the M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB Interface with Pro Tools SE Software.

Any thoughts on the Tascam US-122MKII - USB 2.0 or Tascam US-144MKII - USB 2.0 which I came across while searching, seems great for the price?

Rob

With the Blue Yeti (great choice by the way) you can plug the headphone output into the camera with an attenuation cable (1/8" mic in on the camera).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=attenuation+cable&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

The problem is you will have to power the mic. That kind of thing is what is so cool about the Zoom H2N. It has batteries (that last amazingly long) and if you are recording to camera, you can use an attenuation cable and go right into the camera, but you can also record the takes to the SD card where the quality will be better.

The H2N is sort of an everything mic. You can record to SD card, you can record to camera, you can record to both camera and SD card simultaneously, you can record to PC. You can do mono, stereo, surround, surround into stereo in any of these situations.

If the H2n had XLR inputs, I would of probably considered it but I am basically a one-man operation, so there is just so much I can have and operate on a shoot.

So I am leaning more on a studio setup but then if I had to do remote work with these condenser mics (Yeti Pro, Nt1a...) would they be powered from my Sony EX1? Unless I am missing something here, I would plug the mic straight into the camera?

I might also go for the Tascam as well but haven't found much info about havin it working with Vegas.

Rob

I use the Alesis Multimix8 USB FX at work and absolutely love it. I just plugged it in - no drivers to install - and began using it.

It is a mixer and mic preamp, and also functions as my sound card. As long as its USB cable is connected it maintains a connection to your PC, so I can turn it off when I leave and when I power it back on the next morning it's instantly ready to go.

It offers features and flexibility that you won't find in a plain audio interface and in terms of audio quality, the mic preamps are cleaner than the Yamaha analog mixer it replaced and the D/A converter is also very decent. Price is ~$150 in the US: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/alesis-multimix-8-usb-fx-regular

Guy

Guy, that looks pretty amazing and the price is to good to be true.

Any drawbacks compared to an M-Audio or Tascam unit?

I will definitely look into it.

Rob

"So I am leaning more on a studio setup but then if I had to do remote work with these condenser mics (Yeti Pro, Nt1a...) would they be powered from my Sony EX1? Unless I am missing something here, I would plug the mic straight into the camera?"

Assuming your camera has phantom power then sure you can plug an NT1 into it.
I've certainly plugged my NT4 into my camera. Really all this stuff should just work. Just be aware that ANY of the LDCs are VERY sensitive to wind, heck even the light breeze from the air conditioning can spin out my NT1 without a foam thing on it.

For what it's worth this below was recorded with a Rode NT4 under very difficult condtions:



No room for even a mic stand, a Superclamp and a short pole off the railing to the rescue. This is only a rough cut with no CC'ing for client approval and damn him, got to go back and redo some of his organ playing. Kicking myself for not having another mike for the flautist, at the very end of the performance she plays a picolo and it just gets lost in the sound of the pipe organ.

Bob.

" she plays a picolo and it just gets lost in the sound of the pipe organ."

Would it be feasible to record her again with headphone sync of the original performance?

"Would it be feasible to record her again with headphone sync of the original performance?"

For sure but apart from the organist they're all professional musicians. So if I start trying to do anything too professional they want money.
They all complained about my Z96 lights, the violinist complained about the lever on the Superclamp hitting his back when he leaned back in his chair.

Bob.

Assuming your camera has phantom power then sure you can plug an NT1 into it.

Thanks Bob (and sharing your video)


Still few things to sort out regarding the Alesis Multimix 8 USB and I should be able to place my order

Rob

<<Guy, that looks pretty amazing and the price is to good to be true.

Any drawbacks compared to an M-Audio or Tascam unit?>>

I can't think of a single drawback. I had an open mind and had been looking at a number of interface-only solutions, but the Alesis seemed to get consistently high reviews and there was a noticeable lack of issues with respect to its USB interface and/or drivers relative to other units.

What sealed the deal for me was when a co-worker purchased one on Amazon for $116. I asked if I could try it for a few days and was simply blown away.

The nearest thing to a "drawback" is a function of its flexibility. It has three buttons that control what you send to/receive from the computer and what you hear through the speakers/headphones: Main To Monitor, 2 Trcks/USB To Monitor, and 2 Trcks/USB To Main. I had to play with these for a minute or so to get the combination correct, but then again I never bothered to RTFM.

This is the last VO I recorded with the Alesis and an Oktava MC012 mic:

Guy

Thanks a lot Guy, still scratching my head on what I should go for but slowly getting there..

Rob