Recording - October 2017 - 28

MAKE THE

MOST

OF YOUR

M CS
Some practical guidelines
for maximizing your
mic locker's potential
BY MIKE METLAY

ost of us don't have a ton of money to throw
at our mic lockers, at least not when we're just
starting out. A recording setup usually starts
modestly, with just enough gear to get started... and that
includes microphones. So what do you buy first? And for
that matter, what do you buy second?
We review dozens of new mics every year, and more are
coming every day. Let's take a moment to discuss how to read
about a mic and say to yourself, "Ah... this mic will fit my needs."

Get schooled

The first thing you need to know when buying microphones is
how much you don't know yet. Recording is an ongoing learning
process, and even the best engineers had to start somewhere,
just like you; they put up a mic, tried it, and either smiled or
shook their heads, depending on what they heard. If you aren't
working as a runner in a high-ticket studio in New York or LA or
Nashville, you'll have to get your chops elsewhere.
One reliable source, if you live in the right place, is your local
studio. Volunteer to help out, set up sessions, do grunt work, or
if you must, book a little time just to track the instruments you
normally track, so you can try out a bunch of mics. Any good
28

RECORDING October 2017

engineer won't have a problem with helping you learn, either
as an intern or on the clock.
One unreliable source, no matter where you live, is the Internet.
There are a few extremely reputable microphone database
sites, like Matt McGlynn's recordinghacks.com, but the signalto-noise ratio on most audio forums is truly horrific. Opinions
are free and voices are loud, fads come and go, and people
like to show off how much they (say they) know... getting
through the noise can be nearly impossible. That's why books
and magazines are such good sources for ideas and technical
foundation; there's more signal and less noise.
Still, there is no substitute for getting your hands and ears on
mics, whether your own or someone else's. Over the years, I've
seen people dream up multi-page business plans for the studios
they'll build when they win the lottery, without ever doing much
recording in the process. They'd have been much better served
by getting one mic and learning what it did. Start small, but start.

Know your music

Imagine someone who runs a handyman service and needs
to transport lumber or plumbing parts. He's in the market for a
vehicle, and on a used car lot he sees a vintage sports car. If
he has his head screwed on straight, he's not going to buy it to
haul his tools around, no matter how sexy it is!
This analogy holds for mic purchases as well. Get a mic that's
well-suited for the kind of instruments and music you plan to
record; don't get a mic that everyone else talks about and uses,
if everyone else is doing heavy metal and you play bluegrass.
While there are no hard and fast rules, certain types of mics
do work better in some applications than others, and you'd do
well to know that ahead of time. Fortunately, this is one place
where mic manufacturers' websites come in handy.
Some folks instinctively avoid company sites because they believe they're going to be full of hype rather than helpful advice. It's
true that mic makers want you to buy their products, but one place
where you can trust them is in their recommendations on what you
should buy their products for. Nobody benefits if a buyer is steered
toward an unsuitable mic, so manufacturers try to recommend
applications that work. It's safe to listen to their suggestions-honest!

The basics

Knowing a little bit about how mics work (as Paul Stamler
taught in our May-July 2017 issues) can be handy for some people,
so they have a basic understanding of why one mic sounds good
on one source and less good on another. Other folks just want to
learn some basic rules of thumb and leave it at that. Since Paul
went one way a few months ago, I'll go the other way now.
Large-diaphragm condensers were pretty much only found in pro
studios a few decades ago; now they're easily affordable and are
the centerpiece mics for many recording rigs. All other things being
equal, an LDC will have a distinctive flavor that it lends to what it
records. This can be influenced by the type of electronics it has,
whether tube or solid-state, transformer-balanced or transformerless.
You'll usually see LDCs in use on the staple instruments of
the singer/songwriter: the voice and the acoustic guitar. Look
for a mic whose off-axis behavior is relatively smooth; some

http://www.recordinghacks.com

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