Welcome to Pro Tools on da cheap - I’m in no way an expert, and what follows is just “what works for me”. Have I missed something, made a glaring error, or flown in the face of common wisdom? By all means, post a (hopefully polite and cheery) comment and join the discussion.

The last ten years or so have seen a flood of decent “affordable” microphones hit the states as the “home recording” market explodes.

If up to now you’ve been using a dynamic mic (such as the venerable Sure sm57 and 58 series), you’re in for a world of sonic wonder, especially if you’ve upgraded your preamp.

 But first, let’s not knock those Sure 57s - they’re legendary microphones - good enough for John Lennon to sing “Imagine” (or so the story goes) and for Bono to belt out “In the Name of Love” (handheld, no less!) The 57 is a go-to microphone for guitar cabinets and snare drums, and sounds just-right on lots of things. I know once vocalist whose pipes seem to have been born for the 57. And you can drop ‘em, hit them with drumsticks, get them soaking wet and they still perform for decades. For about a hundred bucks, it’s pretty much “everyones first mic”, and deservedly so. You should own one.

So, what kind of mics are out there, especially in the $100 - $300 range?

Well, all the major players of the mic family.

The most popular (and necessary) “first good mic” is usually the large-diaphragm condenser. 

What’s the difference between a condenser and a dynamic mic? Google it if you want to get technical, but to be very general (and put things into our home-recording perspective), dynamics tend to be “punchier” mics, they can put out a lot of volume (and usually handle a lot - see the “guitar cabinets and snare drums” statement above). Condensers tend to excel at catching more detail and more dynamic range.

Most all condensers require a power source to amplify the signal up to the level your preamp can deal with, and the source of that power for modern condensers is called “phantom power”. It’s a 48 volt current than uses the microphone wiring for transmission, and powers the electronics in the microphone case. Most Pro Tools interfaces have a “phantom” switch, most preamps do as well, and many mixing boards offer it too. It uses no special wiring and passes through the standard XLR cable.

The “large diaphragm” condenser gets its name from its large diaphragm  - the diaphragm is the papery-thin sort of “bubble” you can see inside most any microphone. It vibrates when moving air hits it, and the mic’s circuitry translates that vibration to electric current. 

Frank Sinatra with a Nuemann U47 - King of the Big Condenser Mics

A large diaphragm condenser is usually the first choice for a vocal mic, since they capture a lot of nuance, breath, and “air” (”Air” being the hard-to-nail-down quality that seems to come from capturing some very high, almost inaudible frequency information). They make a big difference in things like acoustic guitars, strings, and capturing room sounds. They can have a very “big” sound, and some engineers even like using them on guitar amps and toms (though they use models that are made to handle those levels - you can kill a condenser with a loud & transient source).

One problem with some of the big condensers is that the size of the diaphragm makes it hard for sound to “move” it quickly; there’s a trade off in that you can get amazing detail and warmth, with the loss of some subtle “urgency”. The human voice doesn’t have a lot of this information, but strumming or picking an acoustic guitar energetically contains a lot. That’s why one of the most common ways to record acoustic guitar is with a big condenser a foot or so away from the sound hole, and a small diaphragm condenser pointed in the neighborhood of the twelfth fret. When mixed together, you get the best of both wrlds, and panning them in stereo can yield a huge sound. (But read on for notes about phase problems).

Small diaphragm condensers are real workhorses, and they can be awesome for things like tambourines, shakers, cymbals, and also for any instrument that requires a lot of detail, but not a lot of low-end to muddy up a busy mix. They rock on acoustic pianos, they can be useful on guitar amps, and delicate sounds like mandolins.

So, we’ve talked about large & small condenser mics and dynamic mics. There are all sorts of mic designs out there, with toms of info online and printed. But there’s one other mic design that may interest you - the ribbon mic.

RIBBON MICS

Re-release of the 1930's RCA 44 Ribbon Mic.

Ribbon mics are unique in that they don’t use the diaphragm design that’s ubiquitous in most microphone designs. Instead, they use a thin (and I mean THIN), corrugated ribbon of metal. This makes them very delicate, and it’s easy to ruin one just by singing with too many popping “P’s”.

Newer ribbon designs have addressed the fragility issue, and some makers even feature ribbons that are becoming the go-to mic for huge Marshall-stack types of sounds. Good ribbons are still damn pricey, but the importers are introducing more affordable models. Is a ribbon right for you?

I can’t speak for the pricey Royer ribbons, but overall, most ribbons are very, very warm. They have a lot of bass, and pronounced lower-mids. They also record from both sides of the microphone face, so if you’re not in a dead rom, or a great-sounding room, you may not like the results.

But, this both-sides feature can be a boon to big-stack-sound electric guitarists. The trick is, feed your big, loud head into two cabinets. But, reverse the polarity of one speaker cable (just swap the wires). In this case, one cabinet will be “pushing” when you hit a chord, and the other will be “pulling”. Now, normally the reverse-polarity cab will sound pretty weak - you won’t feel that big-stack “thump”. But with a ribbon mic, face the cabs towards each other, with a couple feet between, and place the mic in the middle with the open screens facing the cabs. It’s a trick that a lot of engineers have used to get a big, big sound.

I own an entry-level ribbon, and it has an impressive sound, the sonic equivalent of wrapping yourself in a quilt that just came out of the dryer on a winter’s day. I’ve yet to find it a useful sound, but I’m still trying!

POLAR PATTERNS

I’m not gonna dive too deep into this, but when someone talks about a mic’s pattern, they’re not talking abut the style of the wire mesh screen. Think of a mic as a camera that’s photographing sound. Does that camera have a fisheye lens, a normal lens, a zoom, or a crazy-sport-shooter mega lens? You can think of mics in that way.

Most of the mics you’ll be looking at are “cardioid”, meaning they pickup most of their sound from the front, with some coming in from the sides. A “hyper-cardioid” is very focused to the front. Ribbon mics are “figure 8’s”, in that they record equally from the front AND the back. Cardioids are really the most common and most-used studio mics.

PHASE

The minute you start recording more than one mic on the same source, you run the risk of phase problems.

Remember a few posts back when we talked about sound waves moving around and canceling each other out? To be incredibly (but hopefully usefully) simple, that’s what happens. You’ll be mixing a song and think “who stuck a chorus on this part?” You might hear a swishing sound, or you might be unable to get a good, solid, full tone. 

Phase problems come up when similar sound waves interact with each other and cancel out chunks of the sound wave. Again, google it for more info, but here’s some practical advice:

Record in mono, or at least spend time checking things in mono before you hit “record”. The easiest way to do this is keep things panned center - even stereo tracks. If you’ve got a drum mix down and you’re overdubbing, leave the drums stereo, but if you’re doubling a guitar or vocal, or using two mics, listen in mono - phase problems are most apparent in mono, sometimes to the point of actually eliminating most of your volume.

Some people advocate the “3:1 Rule”, which states that two mics should be placed apart from each other at least three times their distance from the sound source.  So, if you have two mics pointed at your acoustic and they’re 12″ away, they should be three feet apart. I just don’t know if that’s practical. I say, screw the rules, listen in mono and play with mic position until it sounds good.

yOU Are BOrING ME aND I WaNT TO bUY SoME SEXXXY MIcS!  WHERE DO I START??

Wow, sorry. But man - there are a LOT of mics out there. Surf, read the reviews, talk to engineers. I’ll list a few from my experience, and I’ll go out on a major limb and suggest one manufacturer to seriously consider. Keep in mind that the most expensive mic I own, and AKG 451, retailed for about $600 (and was given to me by someone who felt I’d gotten screwed in a business deal). I have a couple mics in the $400 range as well; I’ve never owned a monster mic. But I’ve owned a ton of “decent” mics. 

Your first good mic: a large diaphragm condenser.

The ADK Area 51

My favorite: The ADK Area 1. You can find ‘em new for a hundred bucks on eBay. Amazing, warm, detailed.  Mine was a hundred bucks, brand new . Not just my favorite large condenser - my favorite mic, for months now. Luscious.

Don’t take my word for it, get it over to adk website and read some reviews.

Supposedly the Studio projects C1 is a great mic in this price range, I’ve never tried it. Even the big guys are making (or importing) cheap condensers now, so shop around, or look at the range of ADK mics.

Your next good mic: a small diaphragm condenser.

the ADK SC-1

Man, my AKG is a sweet mic. But you know which mic always sounds better, sweeter, and smoother to me? My ADK SC-1. $69 or so. And no, I don’t have a deal with ADK (but when I emailed them for questions, the freaking owner replied with a friendly, chatty email). 

eBay often has a package with the A51 and the SC1, with two shockmounts, for under $200 - unbeatable. 

Another sweet deal is the Russian-made Oktava MK-012; in fact, many of their mics are considered pro quality. The MK mics have swappable mic elements, so you can go from hyper-cardioid to omni in a flash, too. ONE WARNING: but them only from an approved dealer, as there are chinese crap knockoffs out there!

The MK-012 with the hyper cap is the independent filmmaker location sound mic, by the way, and a major magazine shootout loved the cardioid as a general purpose instrument mic. Around $200 though.

RIBBONS:

You’re on your own here - I really wouldn’t recommend the ribbon I have; and it’s a newer and fast growing product segment. Research away, or just spring for one of these babies and go to bed happy.

I’M NOT BORED ANY MORE… IN FACT I AM STRANGELY AROUSED! WHAT ELSE SHOULD I BUY?

For vocals you’ll need a pop screen, widely available and cheap. Yeah, you can string pantyhose over coat hangers, but pantyhose looks barely acceptable on a shapely butt, and really bad on a coat hanger. The clamp & gooseneck deal is handy as hell, too. 

Many nice mics come with a shock mount, which keeps vibrations from the floor from being recorded. If you track on hard floors, they’re unbeatable, and hey - they have that wicked studio look. If you have an older shock mount with saggy strings, the bigger manufacturers sell rebuild kits on their parts & service web pages (Audio Technica sent me two with no charge).

A music stand is handy for singers, too. And if you have a singer who insists on doing hand-held vocals (hey, whatever it takes - it’s the performance that counts) get some cheap foam-ball windscreens for your Sure 58… hand-holding a condenser mic is going to be pretty noisy!

And, it’s mildly controversial, but we can talk mic cables. Basically, if you have one that you need to wiggle to make it work, you need a new one. But many people swear there’s a sonic difference between an off-the-Guitar-Center shelf cable and one made with Mogami wire and Nuetrik connectors. There are guys on eBay and on line soldering & selling these affordably (by buying huge lots of cable and ends I guess). It can’t hurt, you can order cables of different colors which can be handy, and I can really vouch for Mogami-Nuetrik guitar cables.

FEATURED PRODUCTS: ADK MICS

What more can I say? Hit their website, read some reviews, and google up some independent reviews. Tastes vary, but these are hard to beat.