[NA] Any semi local musicians up for lending me a condensor mic?

[SixPapaCharlie]

I have a project that is many years in the making and I need to record the last bit but my SM57 just isn't giving me the clarity I want and prices on condenser mics are out of my budget. I have enough in my music budget to send this off to mix and master and those funds are off limits. I considered buying and returning after a couple weeks but that felt a little dishonest.

I need a mic for 2-3 weeks to wrap up some vocal work. If anyone has an idea of where I could get one temporarily or possible able to lend me in exchange for good karma I'd appreciate the input. I don't really need to own one at this point I just want to get this project done as it has been lengthy and I want it off my plate.

 

[jsstevens]

I have a project that is many years in the making and I need to record the last bit but my SM57 just isn't giving me the clarity I want and prices on condenser mics are out of my budget. I have enough in my music budget to send this off to mix and master and those funds are off limits. I considered buying and returning after a couple weeks but that felt a little dishonest.

I need a mic for 2-3 weeks to wrap up some vocal work. If anyone has an idea of where I could get one temporarily or possible able to lend me in exchange for good karma I'd appreciate the input. I don't really need to own one at this point I just want to get this project done as it has been lengthy and I want it off my plate.

I'd loan you my AT 2020 but I'm in Florida.

John

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

I'd loan you my AT 2020 but I'm in Florida.

John

What is your opinion of that mic? It looks very inexpensive.
The ones I have been eyeballing are around a grand.

The SM57 sounds like everything is underwater. Drives me crazy.
I have AT ST90s but they are about the same.

 

[Kelvin]

If you were cooler, I'd send you my C-12VR.

What are you recording?

 

[Kelvin]

What is your opinion of that mic? It looks very inexpensive.
The ones I have been eyeballing are around a grand.

The SM57 sounds like everything is underwater. Drives me crazy.
I have AT ST90s but they are about the same.

Your SM57 may need work. Send it to Shure...ask for flat rate repair.

800-434-3350 or 800-516-2525

If you have two mics that sound bad...you might want to look elsewhere...it may not be the mic...

 

[wsuffa]

What is your opinion of that mic? It looks very inexpensive.
The ones I have been eyeballing are around a grand.

The SM57 sounds like everything is underwater. Drives me crazy.
I have AT ST90s but they are about the same.

Interesting. My experience with the SM57 wasn't bad, certainly better than the ST90. I used to like the RE11 and EV 635s, especially for voice work.

What are you using to record with? Did you try the mic on another mixer/recording box?

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

If you were cooler, I'd send you my C-12VR.

What are you recording?

"metal"

So many classifications of music that are always changing I never know what to label it.

More yelly versus screamy or growly to put it technically.
Godsmackish

I wrote all the drum parts and some I generated in session drummer and some I recorded with a live drummer and outsourced the construction. meaning I send the recording to someone to build the track in session drummer.

I recorded the bass and guitars using a modeling amp interface (Line 6 UX2)

And now I am toying with the vocals and there is a lack of brightness which I would rather get from the mic rather than processing after.

It may be that I just record it and send it off to mix / master and tell them what I am after but that can be dangerous. I gave someone free reign to play with a recording one time and when I got the master back I wondered why the song was clearly recorded in a sewer tunnel

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

Interesting. My experience with the SM57 wasn't bad, certainly better than the ST90. I used to like the RE11 and EV 635s, especially for voice work.

What are you using to record with? Did you try the mic on another mixer/recording box?

I have a poor man's setup. I am way more virtual then reality at this point.
It is not ideal but I have models of all the gear in the world for a couple hundred bucks.

 

[wsuffa]

I have a poor man's setup. I am way more virtual then reality at this point.
It is not ideal but I have models of all the gear in the world for a couple hundred bucks.

If there's an impedance mismatch to the mic, it can cause it to sound muddy.

Likewise some sound cards (don't get me stared on that, I *love* my old M-Audio 2496 pro card, a lot of the stuff that comes in computers today is pure and simple junk). The distortion on my current desktop's built-in card is horrid.

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

If there's an impedance mismatch to the mic, it can cause it to sound muddy.

Likewise some sound cards (don't get me stared on that, I *love* my old M-Audio 2496 pro card, a lot of the stuff that comes in computers today is pure and simple junk). The distortion on my current desktop's built-in card is horrid.

my onboard soundcard is crap.
This is external. Inputs go to this box and outputs go out to the speakers.

The pc just controls the settings on the external box and there is a bus in the recording software that gets an input from the device.
It is by no means fancy but I have gone through a lot of PC sound boards and for the price, this is not a bad little deal.

For the home studio on a budget I like it.

 

[iRyan]

what interface are you using?

 

[jsstevens]

What is your opinion of that mic? It looks very inexpensive.
The ones I have been eyeballing are around a grand.

The SM57 sounds like everything is underwater. Drives me crazy.
I have AT ST90s but they are about the same.

I like it a lot for vocals. It does require phantom power but your interface should have that. The response curves on it are why I bought it in the first place. I do not do any scream type vocals in it thought so I don't know how that would work out.

John

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

what interface are you using?

UX2 w/ POD Farm
Sonar producer for DAW

 

[TMetzinger]

Shirley (Surely) you can find a place to rent you a decent condenser?

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

Shirley (Surely) you can find a place to rent you a decent condenser?

I haven't even checked that.
Do places like guitar center rent equipment?

 

[JOhnH]

UX2 w/ POD Farm
Sonar producer for DAW

Boy am I lost in this thread. I'm glad you are getting responses that appear to be knowledgeable, but I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[jsstevens]

I haven't even checked that.
Do places like guitar center rent equipment?

I don't know about now, but most "professional" music stores used to. But they typically charged ~10% of the price per day.

It's worth asking.

John


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[dell30rb]

It may be that I just record it and send it off to mix / master and tell them what I am after but that can be dangerous.

My brother lives in Nashville and does recording/mixing and mastering basically full time. I know he has done some metal stuff because they did a project for an MMA fighter. Theme songs

I think he charges around $20/hr for small projects. Has all the hardware/software. PM me if interested

 

[iRyan]

have you checked out homerecoding.com ? someone there should be able to help.

 

[Skyscraper]

I recorded with my metal band in a fully legit, expensive studio in Oakland (Sharkbite) with a fulltime engineer and flew out a producer from L.A. to work on it, I thought for sure we would use some of the crazy expensive mics on hand, but when it came time for distorted singing or screaming it was all done right into an SM57. Also, for the record, the SM58 is the exact same microphone with a different windscreen, electronics are identical.

 

[Henning]

I haven't even checked that.
Do places like guitar center rent equipment?

I don't know about GC in particular, but yes, pro equipment is usually available for rent. HOWEVER, it is an expensive way to go about it for a personal project that takes several days. The rental rates on stuff like this are typically pretty high. They try to pay for the equipment in 10 days rental, then sell it at 40% off. It's actually a good business model, the camera stores used it as well. Most of the pro equipment is too expensive for the advanced amateur to buy new. The pro doesn't need to own the equipment, and for some it's better not to. I can take the rental cost and add 10&10 P&O and make money off renting the equipment without tying up my capital while billing my client for it.

Without this function the product market is limited to pros who have a constant use for the item, and rich amateurs. By adding rental you add occasional need pros and budgeted amateurs.

The person that isn't served in this model well is the single need amateur. If you keep the mic a week, you payed for 70% of it with no residual value and no way to bill the expense.

If you want to buy a used mic at a discount price, they may be a good source.

 

[dell30rb]

, but when it came time for distorted singing or screaming it was all done right into an SM57.

That sounds about right. My bro has several nice condenser mics but the SM57 still comes out regularly

 

[Kelvin]

Let me remind you to look again at post 5.

Renting a mic will most likely not fix this issue.

If I thought it would, I would send you one...I have AKG C12VR, a few AT4050s, a pair of AKG414's. a dozen or more KMS32, KSM9 a few KSM41s. one super nice Manley RefGold Tube Mic and assorted sundry units...

The underwater sound you are describing should not be caused by the mic alone. Put another mic in its place and see what you come up with.

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

My brother lives in Nashville and does recording/mixing and mastering basically full time. I know he has done some metal stuff because they did a project for an MMA fighter. Theme songs

I think he charges around $20/hr for small projects. Has all the hardware/software. PM me if interested

That seems like a good deal. I will give you a holler shortly.
I am paying flat rates based on the number of tracks in each song and the price increases once the song passes the 6 minute mark. It is a little pricey but the quality beats the hell out of anything I could do with my limited equipment, skills, and sihtty ears.

 

[wsuffa]

The underwater sound you are describing should not be caused by the mic alone. Put another mic in its place and see what you come up with.

Exactly.

I don't know the box, but impedance mismatch can cause issues - shouldn't be a problem if using the XLR inputs, but possible. If the box provides mic bias (for mics that need it), try turning it off. Not sure how/whether these mics tolerate bias at all, but that too can cause an issue. Bad cables, possible.

If you have access to another mixer, try that.

All else fails, I've got some audio processing gear....

 

[TMetzinger]

This is finally a chance to talk about stuff I went to school for (Berklee's MP&E program in the 1980's)... my further suggestion (following Bill's clues) would be to try mic'ing another instrument with the SM57 to see if you get coloration consistently. If your voice/guitar/drum all sound crappy through the SM57, I'd consider either a damaged/blown diaphragm in the SM57, or a problem with the audio interface (impedance mismatch or phantom power on when it shouldn't be. SM57s don't die if they get 48V though).

FWIW, I find the SM58 has a slightly different sound then the 57 for vocals - it's the same capsule but the different windscreen and the chamber the capsule sits it gives a different tone.

Off-topic... when I was learning this stuff, you needed several hundred thousand dollars worth of analog gear that needed constant tweaking (analog inline mixing console, 2" multitrack tape recorders, loads of effects units) to do a "standard" rock record. Now you can buy "consumer" grade equipment like a Behringer X32 and get full dynamics and EQ on every input channel, turn your laptop into a 48-channel (or more) recorder and mixer with full automation, and spend less than 10 grand. The only stuff that is at similar prices is the analog pieces - good microphones and good speakers and good amplifiers cost the same.

 

[iRyan]

It's pretty amazing what you can get now and at such cheap prices. The amp sims are pretty great, too. I got away from recording for 10 years and got back into it last year; I was blown away by the improvements in technology.

 

[dell30rb]

Off-topic... when I was learning this stuff, you needed several hundred thousand dollars worth of analog gear that needed constant tweaking (analog inline mixing console, 2" multitrack tape recorders, loads of effects units) to do a "standard" rock record. Now you can buy "consumer" grade equipment like a Behringer X32 and get full dynamics and EQ on every input channel, turn your laptop into a 48-channel (or more) recorder and mixer with full automation, and spend less than 10 grand. The only stuff that is at similar prices is the analog pieces - good microphones and good speakers and good amplifiers cost the same.

I really couldn't explain it all but my brother takes a hybrid approach. He has the full digital suite but also uses some analog stuff. Everything gets mixed on pro-tools, then run through analog mixers/summers/compressors/ whatever.

Also I have seen him send music to his studio owner friend and have it run through a very large, old and expensive tape machine

 

[Kelvin]

Off-topic... when I was learning this stuff, you needed several hundred thousand dollars worth of analog gear that needed constant tweaking (analog inline mixing console, 2" multitrack tape recorders, loads of effects units) to do a "standard" rock record. Now you can buy "consumer" grade equipment like a Behringer X32 and get full dynamics and EQ on every input channel, turn your laptop into a 48-channel (or more) recorder and mixer with full automation, and spend less than 10 grand. The only stuff that is at similar prices is the analog pieces - good microphones and good speakers and good amplifiers cost the same.

That's a big no **** right there! My first desk was a 1642 BiAmp analog mixing console. Paid 3999.00 for it. You get get the X32 for 2400.00 street price now.

Unreal.

I have 2" tape machine sealed up in the warehouse that I paid about 15K for...now a MAC Book Pro will record 64 tracks wide over a Dante network.

 

[kenjr]

The Shure SM7B is the de-facto for metal/high SPL vocals. I know Dave Grohl used it almost exclusively on the last albums that the Foo Fighters recorded. I've got one, it sounds great on vocals and takes EQ really well. It's not cheap, but not incredibly expensive and not really great in the studio for much else.

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/sm/sm7b-vocal-microphone

 

[Kelvin]

I really couldn't explain it all but my brother takes a hybrid approach. He has the full digital suite but also uses some analog stuff. Everything gets mixed on pro-tools, then run through analog mixers/summers/compressors/ whatever.

Also I have seen him send music to his studio owner friend and have it run through a very large, old and expensive tape machine

For tape saturation...

 

[Henning]

Yeah, I haven't worked sound since 2"tape, I am of no technical help with digital. I watch my buddy at his studio in St Louis though, and the capabilities now are just overwhelming, stuff you couldn't even dream of doing analog. As for Capability : Price ratio, forget about it, whole new world again. Much the same happened when the digital revolution hit photography as well. That has been quite an adjustment, but regretfully is one that has taken much of the joy of photography, as well as a revenue stream, away from me. I loved printing in the darkroom. To me it was great fun to read and manipulate light to produce an improved result, especially when you take a crap shot and turn it into a fine image.

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

The Shure SM7B is the de-facto for metal/high SPL vocals. I know Dave Grohl used it almost exclusively on the last albums that the Foo Fighters recorded. I've got one, it sounds great on vocals and takes EQ really well. It's not cheap, but not incredibly expensive and not really great in the studio for much else.

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/sm/sm7b-vocal-microphone

Excellent. Thanks!

I think I may try to locate a used one of these, buy it, use it, and sell it for the same price.

 

[TMetzinger]

That's a big no **** right there! My first desk was a 1642 BiAmp analog mixing console. Paid 3999.00 for it. You get get the X32 for 2400.00 street price now.

Unreal.

I have 2" tape machine sealed up in the warehouse that I paid about 15K for...now a MAC Book Pro will record 64 tracks wide over a Dante network.

I remember calibrating the Studer A800 and the Otari MTR-90 at our studios... took 4 hours, and you had to be careful because you couldn't just do one channel... it affected the neighboring channels too. Playback cals were easy, and then you'd start doing record cals 1 (and 2), 2 (and 1 and 3)... When Sony brought out the DASH tape machines I was astounded. And now it's just unbelievable. Now I am running out to set up for our elementary school variety show, with less than $1500 investment for mixer, amped speakers, monitor speakers, microphones, and snake. And the mics and snake are the only prices I recognize.

I'm getting tempted to dump maybe $8K into gear just to record or SR the various school/amateur productions around here. A lot easier to write a business plan when you can break even in one year instead of ten.

Edit: I need to buy an RE-20. Loved that mic on kick drum, and on any spoken word stuff. Makes any guy sound like the voice of god with the right EQ and compression.

 

[wsuffa]

Off-topic... when I was learning this stuff, you needed several hundred thousand dollars worth of analog gear that needed constant tweaking (analog inline mixing console, 2" multitrack tape recorders, loads of effects units) to do a "standard" rock record. Now you can buy "consumer" grade equipment like a Behringer X32 and get full dynamics and EQ on every input channel, turn your laptop into a 48-channel (or more) recorder and mixer with full automation, and spend less than 10 grand. The only stuff that is at similar prices is the analog pieces - good microphones and good speakers and good amplifiers cost the same.

Ah, yep.

I've still got a couple of Audimax, Volumax, and LA-3/BL-40 units out in the garage. And a low distortion audio generator and THD meter sitting on the floor behind me as I type. And some other gear, too.

Tape is long since gone - it started rolling out of radio stations in the 90's.

 

[Kelvin]

Big grin...

I run a sound reinforcement/lighting company. Things have changed in a big way since 1984 when I started...

I remember calibrating the Studer A800 and the Otari MTR-90 at our studios... took 4 hours, and you had to be careful because you couldn't just do one channel... it affected the neighboring channels too. Playback cals were easy, and then you'd start doing record cals 1 (and 2), 2 (and 1 and 3)... When Sony brought out the DASH tape machines I was astounded. And now it's just unbelievable. Now I am running out to set up for our elementary school variety show, with less than $1500 investment for mixer, amped speakers, monitor speakers, microphones, and snake. And the mics and snake are the only prices I recognize.

I'm getting tempted to dump maybe $8K into gear just to record or SR the various school/amateur productions around here. A lot easier to write a business plan when you can break even in one year instead of ten.

Edit: I need to buy an RE-20. Loved that mic on kick drum, and on any spoken word stuff. Makes any guy sound like the voice of god with the right EQ and compression.