# lets talk about microphones, Preamps, speakers etc....

Category: Broadcaster's Lounge

## Post 1 by Siriusly Severus (The ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w7 The Taskmaste) on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2017 11:28:23

I've been looking through this board. This board seems to lack the talk of audio
equipment and audio engineering or sound engineering. Is anyone else really
more about setting up the equipment, and having it rather than mainly
broadcasting on it. I occasionally do recordings, more so on the mobile side of
things, but I have both professional desktop and mobile audio solutions.. What
do you prefer, and why? Do you use xlr cabling or usb? What is your mic of
choice? your interface of choice? Are you particular about speakers? Do you like
condensers or dynamics for microphones? Do you prefer lots of rejection? Do
you work with a audio interface with only a couple of channels or a number of
channels? Do you care about IOS professional recording equipment? What do
you look for in that?

## Post 2 by BigDogDaddy (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2017 12:01:04

Just wrapped up recording a country albam this past weekend.
We were using an Apollo 16 with two racks of outboard gear.
Our first rack is a standard rack with a few trident, demeeter, flickenger, and UAD pre's.
Our next two racks were all 500 series gear. We had several Neave Preamps, and I think 6 different compressers.
Our favorite Eq's were the API 550a and a 1073 eq.
As for microphones, we used a combination of SM57, ev RE20 and an old 60's 421 microphone for elctrics.
For acoustics we used a TLM 103 and a avantone cv28.
DAW of choice is Pro Tools on a MacBook pro late 2012.

## Post 3 by Pasco (my ISP would be out of business if it wasn't for this haven I live at) on Thursday, 14-Dec-2017 3:49:48

I was originally trained on Ampex 350 and 440 reel to reel recording gear, so I have seen a lot of technology come and go. My personal opinion is a lot of the very expensive audio gear is no longer really necessary. Not that it hurts as long as one really knows how to use it, but there are inexpensive solutions now. Still, knowledge of what makes a good recording is as important as ever.
I have a very simple studio set up myself. I use AKG 111 dynamic cartioid microphones. I know the Shur sm57 is a standard live microphone, but I do not care for them myself. I prefer a super-cartioid dynamic microphone for the reason I have not spent the money to create a fully sound treated audio environment. I think high end condenser microphones are the best if you have a fully contrrolled environment. A cartioid mic though is effective in masking a studio's weaknesses, at least if you know how to properly use them. Microphones are commonly used improperly.
Since I am only recording myself playing many instruments, I use a Mackey 8 channel mixer with a USB interface. I record on an Acer i7-5000 series ultra lite with wireless keyboard so I can control everything from anywhere in the room easily.
I use MultiQuence multi track software for the raw recordings. Once I have everything captured, I mix it down and then export the mix into Goldwave to finish and package the mp3 file.
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## Post 4 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Thursday, 14-Dec-2017 14:11:16

I just baught myself a Rode NT1 (my rodent), which is a very reasonably priced and capable XLR connected cardioid condenser. Also came with its own shock mount and pop filter which was an added bonus. I understand dynamic mics are better for untreated environments, but condensers generally have a better sound. I just go into my closet when I want to record. Clothes and a blanket do wonders for treatment. Also have a Voxguard portable recording booth for added padding. I hook the mic into a Zoom H4N field recorder which connects via USB to my PC which is running Reaper. I use that as an audio input and output which allows me to record without really any latency. I do both audio theatre and music, but I use the microphone for recording dialogue/vocals and sound effects. All instruments are played using high quality virtual instruments from Eastwest, Native Instruments and Sonivox, so no need to worry about my recording environment for instruments. Unfortunately one thing I do lack is a good set of studio moniters and a decent environment to use them in. Luckily this is more like a serious hobby than a professional job. Still, mixing on headphones is a huge no-no according to pretty much every source I've come across. I've always been curious what advantage hardware compression has over software compression through a DAW. Compression is still one of those things I'm trying to get a good handle on, even though I understand the fundimentals.

## Post 5 by Pasco (my ISP would be out of business if it wasn't for this haven I live at) on Friday, 15-Dec-2017 3:10:53

Just my opinion, but compression is the most over used effect in the toolbox. You are correct mixing based solely on headphones does not work well unless, that is the listening environment you are wanting people to use.

## Post 6 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Friday, 15-Dec-2017 12:27:04

Yes, compression is overused, especially in the music industry. I especially hate it when it's used as ducking for that negative beat pumping effect in so much music these days. it's okay to have a beat, but stop cutting everything else out to accentuate it. Compression does have its place though. It helps keep a consistant volume for something like narration, and I find it likewise works well for making certain sound effects stand out above the din of whatever else may be happening.

## Post 7 by Siriusly Severus (The ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w7 The Taskmaste) on Saturday, 16-Dec-2017 12:56:27

I am not musical, so mostly use it for podcasting/broadcasting.
I tend to like dynamics. I think it works better for that. What do you think of
focus rites? I like the Heil PR35 I've thought about getting the mic that CDB has
since that company was the one that made his, the PR 30 bw I think? I have an
odd one for broadcasting because this one is typically an instrument
microphone.
Interesting about the cloths, Remy.
and yeah, bill, I am no fan of the Shures either. I know a friend who likes them I
think he has a few.

## Post 8 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Saturday, 16-Dec-2017 19:51:43

I'm hanging on to winamp for as long as I can because there are lots of compression plug ins for it out there. Comes in handy when you're listening to an audio stream that doesn't employ any normalization to keep the levels consistent.

## Post 9 by Remy (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Monday, 18-Dec-2017 12:26:43

Doesn't hurt that it's still one of the better audio playing programs out there in terms of accessibility. That and VLC are my go-tos.