[LAU] OT: Which crappy mic should I use?

Ken Restivo ken at restivo.org
Thu Mar 18 21:56:57 EDT 2010


On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 05:38:38PM -0700, Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
> 
> On 18 March 2010 at 17:24, Ken Restivo <ken at restivo.org> wrote:
> 
> > So I am recording the band's vocals tomorrow for this record,
> > and, due to acute poverty and our practice-room-mates
> > absconding with all the mics, the only mics we have available
> > to us now are:
> >
> > 1) Shure PG-58 (with on-off switch! woo-hoo!)
> > and
> > 2) Zoom H2
> > 
> > Which of these not-very-good choices would you recoomend would
> > be slightly less crappy for recording vocals?
> >
> > The Zoom has condenser mics, which to my ears are quite good,
> > but are designed for ambient recordings and might not handle
> > sound pressure levels of close-range vocal use. Also, it has
> > that 188ms delay in it too, and no way to turn off hardware
> > monitoring. How bad is the PG-58 though?
> 
> I haven't heard a PG-58.  But, I can say that I pretty much
> don't like many of Shure's offerings.  I'm more of a fan of AKG
> and Audix and Beyer Dynamics.  But, that's probably just my own
> tastes.
> 
> That said, I've used the H2 and found the internal mics to be
> pretty good.  I'd use it over a pair of SM58 or SM57.  Would
> you be recording in stereo?  Which pair in the H2, the 90deg or
> 120deg?  Would you be recording in omni, i.e. all 4 mics on?
> 
> It wouldn't be all that hard, and maybe only 10-20 minutes, for
> you to do a compare before the real recording.
> 

Thanks, yeah, I can do a quick compare tomorrow before we go to do the actual recording. I don't want to waste a lot of everyone's time geeking out on stuff (i.e. plugging stuff in, unplugging stuff, trying different options), I just need to jump in and do it. Also, I can't run both at the same time, they'd have to be two different takes.

The Zoom H2 comes with its own windscreen which I guess could do as a pop guard; it's not that much more or less than what's in a PG58.

After thinking about it a bit more, the big problem with the Zoom is that it's an omni mic. I'm recording vocals, I don't want the room, just the voice. Even in 90 degree mode, it's still an omni pattern. So, in that case, the 58 might be necessary the better call.

Thanks again to everyone for the replies.

-ken


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