Thread about Mics and micing

All things concerning Mics as in piezo mics…microphones…other types of mics…
And micing stuff…

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As much as I love miking stuff and making field recordings, I don’t really have a whole lot of gear lust. I picked up an AT2020 last year (not the USB model, a mistake I’ve made in the past) to add to my cheapo collection and honestly I couldn’t be happier with that and a Tascam DR05 (very low-end shit, but it’s all I’ll ever need).

Honestly, sometimes it’s the awful mics that give you surprising results, so I keep a bunch of those on hand too.

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I’ve recently bought a beat to shit SM57 for $45 and a similarly beat up old made-in-Japan condenser from the 90s that shall remain nameless (for now) lest they start catching on with hipster millennial and/or YouTubers and the prices shoot up :joy: (I got it cheap and want 1-2 more, and they are already rare…), and it’s been a lot of fun talking into them, singing into the condenser, recording all the things… cajon! I want to use my Zoom H6 a lot more, too.

I still want a large diaphragm condenser and maybe a kick drum mic (for the cajon’s air port). I thought I was getting a Slate Digital emulator mic eventually, but tbh I’m having a lot more fun finding old beat up underdog mics.

For the cajon I have been putting the condenser in front and the SM57 out back, it captures it pretty decently, but like I said, I do still want to try a kick mic back there. I’ve seen people using spendy Shure kick mics like a beta 52 or something; naw. I’m not a dedicated cajon player lol… I’ll have to see what I can find…

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Tangent

the mics used for asmr though must have a steep price but holy cow the sound quality of those asmr vids…makes me wonder about their sound setup and the mics they use…

It makes me wonder using those asmr mics for certain field recordings.

The only mic i have is the one on my phone…and i transfer the recordings from my phone to comp via dropbox and convert files via audacity.

I wouldn’t necessarily say their mics are super out there, though, either. You’d be surprised at what some of the mics in the $100-$300 range can do. Even some sub-$100 sleepers.

And for anyone, really, Musician’s Friend is having a mic sale this month:
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/mic-month

I may grab a Heil PR 35 or 37 in a few weeks :eyes:

Audio interfaces, accessories, etc, are also on sale.

Edit Aaaaaand Musician’s Friend sent me a 15% off coupon this morning :sweat_smile:

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I was given a Rode VideoMic Go the other day so I could get some decent audio going on for my Rebel T7, but sure enough the fucking input jack is smaller than the usual 3.5mm and Canon really fucked up with that one.

So I basically ended up repurposing it for the DR-05, it works just fine if the mic power is switched on and I even had a leftover lightweight stand from the Cad u3 to use for it. Needless to say, it sounds so much better than the internal mics, but it’s cool to be able to switch from really good mono back to internal stereo mics if I need it.

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I was going to start a new thread but I figured I should just necro this one instead

I got a shitty contact mic from Alixepress that seems to actually work, so I’m looking for weird ideas. I’ve seen / heard everything from freezing them in plastic bags to record the thawing sounds, putting them in a condom or balloon and submerging them in water or (gag) dangling them down your own throat (Aaron Dilloway-style), but I’m kind of thinking of something less dangerous / gross :smiley:

The biggest downside is that it has a stupid clip (it wasn’t my first pick, just some deal they were running) so doesn’t really fully wrap around my kalimbas, djembes, or pretty much anything else. Should I just rip it off and bust out the duct tape?

Also, I’m definitely sharing the pack here as usual, whenever it’s ready. Something will come of it!

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Necroing threads is old hat around here. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with continuing a discussion that is just as valid today as it was two years ago.

When my brother was in his early 20s, (about 20 years ago) he wired a pair of old shitty Earbuds into the microphone input of a zoom recorder, and proceeded to boil them in a saucepan.

Pretty sure he did the freezing trick as well.

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Damn, I didn’t even think about the shitty earbuds trick. I might have a few lying around that I wouldn’t mind doing really dangerous stuff (that will probably kill them) with, like that.

I’m going to be kind of pissed if they turn out to be better than the contact mic, but that’s what you get when you gamble :smiley:

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So I bought a slew of mics to mic up my drum set and yooooooo… I am super pumped!

5 Shure SM57’s for Toms and Snare
1 Shure Beta 52 for Kick
1 Shure PGA58 for hats
2 Audio Technica AT2021’s for Overheads
Running through a ProCo 16 channel 100’ snake going to my PC rig.

Mannnnnnn mixing drums is hard but hella fun! Im putting gates on the snare and all toms and eq’ing/filtering them to their respective frequencies. Popping compressors on the overheads and filtering out low end. Checking phase on each channel as well. Its a lot!

I wonder if I can find a gate with exponential envelopes?

Time to kick out the jams and surf some audio buttholes!

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Remember that mic positioning is half the mix. On/off axis, close or far will make a big difference to how much of a pain it will be to mix in post.

On axis will be very bright
Off axis is essentially a high pass filter
Close = more low end
Far is essentially a low pass filter.

Also overspill. Sonible has a good AI gate plugin for that. (There are many others too).

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Hell yeah thanks for the tips!

Good call on Sonible - its been on my radar.

Been recording some crust punk with my buddy and its been a great adventure learning how to mic a kit properly.

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Sonible currently have a sale on. 40% off

Use this code for another $20 off SummerSavings20