Relearning your current mics, preamps, etc

Just a thought that some of you may have run into sometimes with your recording tools. I've owned a AKG414b-uls and Peavey VMP2 for over 15 years. This type of equipment is easy to get good sounds fast. But some times there is more there... 

I begin to read, experiment with different settings and I realized I had missed out with my plug and play until I buy something else approach. 

What's scary is that I was wanting a particular sound and thought I needed to make a purchase or two in order to get that sound. I already started shopping and reading reviews on new equipment. To find out, I already had more varieties of sound right in front of me that I didn't think I had. Anyway, food for thought for the budget minded people like myself.

Good equipment (which you have) is usually capable of getting all kinds of 'tone".  One of the reasons the neve/api stuff is so popular.  It is about as clean as one needs until you drive it - then it gets thicker.

But after 15 years, you might deserve another piece of equipment.  You certainly got your money's worth, and although there is more "sounds" there in them, a new toy (mic) might make it easier to discover new tones.

@

Guitarhacker


Trying to find a certain sound.... yeah, it's real easy to think you need to spend lots of money. 

I heard an "oh so sweet" guitar tone on a CD.... I tried every thing I had in my studio to get that sound.... to no avail. 

Oh well..... I'm thinking I would have needed to, at a minimum, had the same guitar, fx pedals and amp/speakers that the guitarist was using..... probably too much money to get that tone.

The next option for me, forget it, find my own tone and move on.

I agree - what I was fighting was driving the preamp/eq settings too hard and wondering why it was so gritty on the bottom end. It was like a blind spot on my part.  


The sound I was looking for was of the clean and smooth variety. I think I have something close to that now. A lot of experimenting led to bypassing the eq section on the preamp and lowering the gain - much closer to what I was looking for. It still has some grit and color that a lot of folks might be looking for, but I've heard it so many years I'm just looking to switch things up a little. 

I also tried to get that "sound" coming out of a soundcraft board's preamps - way too thin and harsh for my liking. Back to the VMP2 fairly quick after that. Right now I would say I'm satisfied but not there yet.

@AT

Good idea - I have a producer friend in Nashville that cuts vox with a cheap Project Studio C1. He swears by it and his work is heard on the radio by big name acts. Sounds too good to be true, but he is always pushing that mic for me to try.  Of course he is feeding that through a Milienia and FF800 (both out of my price range. I'm still with a delta1010).  So there may the difference... Any thoughts?

Again, from what I've read the C1 is supposed to be good.  A pretty cheap way to maybe get a different vibe (I've never used it).  But a lot depends upon what you are recording.  A good signal chain should be able to capture any sound - some just do better at a specific task.  I know one guy who has sold millions and he says he sets his different channel strips/preamps for specific instruments and never touches them.  I imagine he exaggerates, if not lies, but it gets the point across. 

If you are doing electric guitar work a sm57 would be an even cheaper way to go if you don't have one already.  Double tracking w/ it might allow you to back off the gain on the Newman and get any grit from it. 

But if you are doing acoustic guitar and other stringed stuff - a small condensor can give a different tone.  I have a pair of Oktavas which are very good but have gone up to $300 since then.  I know there are respected Chinese SDC that can be had for less than the C1, which might be the way to go if you are doing stuff other than vox (tho a SDC works really good on female vox) and electric guitar.

If you are mainly recording power stuff the C1 might work best.

That don't help much does?  Just some ideas.

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