Hey everyone! I am FINALLY DONE with all the work I've been doing for the past couple of weeks and it's time to get back on Steemit! I'll try to check out at least some of the stuff I've missed during my absent weeks and, hopefully, I won't take any more of these long breaks between posting. Anyway, a lot of work was done -work with singer-songwriter Miriam just entered the mixing stage, my band Moskau released an official live album of our White Light/White Heat renditions (https://moskau.bandcamp.com/album/white-light-white-heat) and we are now preparing a big solo show in Zagreb on Thursday. Also, a lot of new Moskau material is being written right now and I'm very excited with the direction in which everything is going. After a long time of planning, calculating, considering and re-considering, I've decided to go all in and against all odds so the BIG NEWS IS - I'M OPENING MY OWN STUDIO!
I still haven't decided on what the visuals for the studio will be, but since it's going to be called SIMPLE SOLUTION (because I'm really into simplicity which mostly means duct tape), I was thinking about something like this:
It's simple, it looks good, it's got duct tape, I like blue, it's a solution and it tells you everything is OK before you even enter the place - that's enough for me and for the time being, I'm going with this design! I'm still not sure which place (out of a few I found) will I rent for all of this to happen, but I'm in the process of checking the places out and I already have a few favorites. All of the potential places are really close to where I live (20 minutes via public transportation, give or take based on the traffic), they are already soundproofed because bands used to practice there, they have working bathrooms, electricity and heating and all of them have multiple rooms so I can make a control room, a session room and a lounge area. Since I already have a preamp, studio speakers and a Soundcraft mixer, all I really need to buy to make my humble start is a few good microphones. When you add things up, if you have a decent session area, a computer and a few decent mics, you can start working and build your studio from there. For the past few years I've been working with my old, trusty M-AUDIO condenser mic and anSM58(actually all you need for home recording) and I would rent a better mic here and there if the need occured, but now it's time to pay some cash and buy some new mics. All of that got me thinking about WHAT ARE THE BEST LOW BUDGET MICS FOR A BEGINNER'S STUDIO and I decided to share with you what I opted for. So, here we go with LOW BUDGET MICS STARTER PACK:
Let's start with DRUMS
AKG D-112 MKII
Recording drums can be optional in terms of choosing mics, but certain things simply require mics designed for the job. One of those things is a kick drum. If you want to record a decent kick drum, you need a kick drum mic. The most obvious solution for this was the AKG D-112 MKII. It's a dynamic mic made to make a kick drum sound good. It's a common mic to use and most studios have it in their stock. It gives you a full, well-rounded kick drum sound with the addition of the kick, depending on the placement of the mic. It's an all-around good mic for recording different kinds of kick drums, and since different musicians will use different drums sets and I'm on a fairly low budget, I needed something to do the job every time. Based on my own experience with this AKG, I think it's by far the best price to quality ratio choice I can make at this point. AKG D-112 MKII is 120e on Thomann (https://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_d_112_mkii.htm?ref=search_prv_13)
SUPERLUX S502
The other thing one has to cover are the overheads. Now, you can use all kinds of mics as your overheads (dynamic AKGs, various condensers and you can even use your ZOOM recorded for this) but it's always good to have something made to be an overhead mic and, instead of buying a pair of mics, you can buy something already made to make a stereo overhead recording, such as the Superlux S502. The Superlux has it's setbacks - it's wind sensitive and it makes a fair amount of noise with higher input levels but it does record a clear and present sound of the drums and you can move the left and the right part of the mic independantly to get the stereo picture you want. You can get it for 125e (https://www.thomann.de/gb/superlux_s502.htm)
BASS GUITAR
SENNHEISER E 602 II
Here's where things get tricky: recording the bass guitar. The common way of doing that is to record a clean direct input signal and to mic a bass amp in order to get the full sound of the bass and to be able to manipulate it more later in the mix. The problem is, the bass has a lot of low freqs and a lot of sub and it's all more or less a lot of air being pushed from the amp speaker into the microphone. That means a bass guitar mic has to be a dynamic mic because condenser mics don't handle high volume levels well because of the nature of their membrane and they also don't handle a lot of pushing air. Another thing is, some mics simply cannot capture the frequencies that you should capture in order to record a bass guitar. The Sennheiser E 602 II is made to handle all of those problems. It's equiped to capture low frequencies and to handle the pushing air and it also works great when paired with another type of mic that will give you a more clear, high frequency sound. That way you can avoid recording a DI signal and just use the Sennheiser and another mic directly on the bass amp. You can get it on for 155e (https://www.thomann.de/gb/sennheiser_e_602_ii.htm?ref=search_prv_7)
MULTIPURPOSE
STUDIO PROJECTS B3
The last thing to have in your studio mic stock is a decent multipurpose mic. Something to record all kinds of stuff with a good result. Something you can easily use for vocals, guitars, percussion or something else when a quick and simple solution is needed or when you don't have a better mic to choose from. Multipurpose mics are really not something you should use all the time or exclusively, but they do come in handy and there are also situations where they end up being better than other more expensive specialized mics. One of them is STUDIO PROJECTS B. It's a omnidirectional cardoid mic with the option of switching polarity patterns (which is cool) and it works great on just about anything. When I say great I mean - you'll get something you can make better in the mix afterwards. But, you'll get Something out of anything so for the price of about 150e, it's a good choice (https://www.thomann.de/gb/studio_projects_b3.htm?ref=search_prv_6)
BLUE SPARK SL
The last mic I want to talk about is the BLUE SPARK SL. It's similar to the previous mic in terms of multipurpose use but it has a nice LOW CUT features which enables you to eliminate unwanted low frequencies in vocals or the guitar as you record so you don't have to manipulate it later. It also has a -20dB cut for recording high volume sounds and for a slightly larger price of about 195e, it's a great choice for an all-around mic and even better choice for VOCALS or GUITARS. And it looks vintage.
And that brings us to the end of this little microphone starter pack post. If you're looking to buy some low budget mics but you're not sure what you need, this might come in handy. Also, if you happen to own one of these mics, please tell me your experience with them and also feel free to post or link actual audio files recorded with one of these mics, I would love to hear them. That's it. Talk to you soon!