What's Your Mic?

[boltoph]

Oktava...

I have an MK-519...good for vox, mic'ing a guitar or bass amp, or floor toms

AT 3035, warmer, clearer highs, good for vox or stringed instruments, i like it on guitar amps sometimes.

AKG C1000s, ancillary mic for room micing or drum overheads

SM57's, and an AT digi reference hyper-c dynamic mic....good for loud things, close mic'ing only

On the other hand, I know a dude who uses all SM58's and still gets things to sound pretty good.

I've never heard of a computer that comes with a built in mic...must be a newer thing? or a laptop thing? My computer (G4 tower) doesn't even have a line in for a mic. Requires a soundcard. Mia is such a slut. Four holes in, four out. And Midi, too...not as big of a slut as Layla though.

[jeffhenderson]

the mic that's built into my iBook.

That's what I used for WAPIOD.

For Adonai, we used a very nice set of rented/borrowed mics.

[Spud]

I've never heard of a computer that comes with a built in mic

That's why I said "A crappy computer mic" in the poll - to include both crappy built in mics and stuff that isn't built in, but was still bottom of the line webcast style mics made for computer usage. The whole point of this poll is to dispute <a href="http://songfight.net/forums/viewtopic.p ... 7540">this post</a>.

[stateshirt]

I've been saving my pennies over the last few years and have put together a nice collection. Started out with just two SM57s, but I think I'm done buying mics now.

2x Shure SM57 (snare, guitar amp)
2x Rode NT5 (drum overheads)
AKG D112 (kick)
Shure Beta 98 (snare bottom)
2x Sennheiser MD412 II (toms)
Groove Tubes GT66 (vocals, acoustic guitar, lots of stuff)
Shure SM cheapo something-or-other (beatboxing, vocal effects, other crap)

I used to have Oktavas for my drum overheads, but one crapped out on me so I ended up selling the other. Also had another Beta 98 for toms but that didn't really sound very good. Just got the Sennheisers, they sound so nice on the toms! On a lot of the early fights I used the cheapo Shure for vocals... now I mainly use the GT66.

[bwell]

Rode NT1000
Rode NT5 matched pair
AKG C1000S
Shure SM58

I mostly stick to the first two, using the NT1000 for main vocals and the NT5 pair for stereo micing acoustic instruments. Every once in a while I will pull out the others for some variation.

[nyjm]

1 Telex M-540
1 Trust High Sensitive Microphone

... that is to say, 2 crappy computer mics, one for less than $30 and the other for about $10 (7 euros, actually).

do i get decent sound from them? yup. i've even been complemented about the acoustic guitar tone.

could i get better sound from a more expensive mic? undoubtedly. but then i would have to shell out for a new mic and a stand and a converter plug so it would go into my computer. or, really shell out for even more gear and run that into my computer.

meh. what i have is enough for my hobby, and i've yet to have someone on the review boards say "you have such crappy sound. get a new mic." i've just learned how to record well with them via placement and input levels.

[Märk]

1 Shure SM58
1 Shure PE9H
1 MXL2003 large diaphragm condenser
1 MXL603S "Mogami" small diaphragm condenser
5 or 6 other cheap crap mics.

[Reist]

1. Staples Computer Mic
That's all.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

1. Staples Computer Mic
That's all.

Clearly that's pretty much like what everyone else around this site is using. I'm one of those odd few that happens to use:

1) AKG C3000
2) A pair of Shure SM 81's
3) AKG D112
4) Sennheiser MD421
5) Shure 57 & 58
6) A handful of various dynamic mics by EV, Audix and AKG.

I'm extremely surprised no one is using one of these. I can't speak for how they sound but they're dirt cheap and no interface needed. It would almost have to beat the crap out of some cheap ass mic like this

[Plat]

I use a KSM-27 mic most of the time (vocals, acoustic guitar, and rarely mic my cheap mini-amps).

Sometimes my SM-57 feels better for louder acoustic guitar parts.

Then I've got an SM-58, some cheap condensers, and some cheap dynamics; these are okay in a pinch, but I basically only use them where I'm too nervous to use the former (e.g. loaners), or for stereo mic'ing.

Incidentally, has anyone had good experience with the Heil PR-40? I've heard good things, and good demo tracks, but it'd be hard to justify yet another mic with a fancy box.

[fluffy]

MXL990 REPRESENT YO