The Importance of Microphones
edited by Dan Frankowski
Liar's Club
this is taken from Dan's 4-Track FAQ
You can't fix a bad sound in the mix. Start with a good source (a
good mic) and you're halfway there.
Adapted from tstrohma@theodolite.ae.calpoly.edu (Trevor Strohman):
It happens all too often. A group is looking for great sound on a
limited budget. They go to the music store and see all the glitzy
4-tracks and other recorders. Maybe they have deeper pockets and go
straight for an ADAT. Then they need a microphone. Microphones, not
having the sizzle factor of the recorders, are last on the list, and
there's only $50 left. They leave with a digital recording studio and
a Radio Shack tie-clip microphone.
They get home and plug it in. The features work just like they did in
the store, but the sound isn't quite right. So they go back with more
money. They still skip the mics, and go for compressors, equalizers,
reverbs. They have a little money left over. This time they buy a
Shure SM57.
They go back and try it out. Neat sounds! Not quite like the CDs,
but it sounds pretty good. They want more. They go back to the
store... the cycle continues.
Of course, there will always be this cycle with musicians looking for
the perfect sound, but you can get to the perfect sound a lot faster
if you invest in microphones first. As they say in computing, garbage
in, garbage out. No effects can compensate for a terrible microphone.
When you're at the store looking at boxes, think about it. Do you
really need to spring an extra $300 for a half-octave equalizer, or
could you spend the same $300 on a very good home mic and not need the
EQ at all? This works for speakers too. My church runs the most
horrible sounding monitor speakers (12" woofers in little boxes) and
uses a very expensive equalizer to try to clean up the sound. The
sound that comes out still sounds terrible (not as bad, though), but
if they'd just taken the money and invested in new speakers, they
could have much better sound.
Of course, you need to do what's right for you, but I would say to at
the very least spend 50% of what you do on the 4-track on microphones.
I would try for 100%. Check the DAT-Heads microphone FAQ before
buying.
Dan Frankowski works at Net Perceptions (http://www.netperceptions.com), improving algorithms for our collaborative filtering software,
GroupLens. work phone# (612) 903-1291, email: dfrankow@netperceptions.com.
Dan also plays in Liars Club, a "chamber ensemble of the 21st century." Hard-edged, original compositions.
