Rode NTK vs Shure SM7B

[darkinners]

Originally Posted by josh385

What would you rather use?
I was also thinking a second hand AKG 414.

I will be using it for vocals (male and female), but wouldn't mind an all rounder mic anyway!

Cheers

I have all three (sold NTK some years ago )


if you want all rounder mic for only vocal, I'd say NTK.

AKG 414B is kinda hit or miss thing on male vocal in my experience. on the other hand it's a great female vocal mic and it's multi pattern.

SM7B first you will need a really good pre with higher gain for it. secondly, it might sound good for RAP, Metal and Rock but I doubt it sound good on Jazz/Soul/Popish vocal. it's an upgraded , brighter version of SM57.

NTK sound quality wise, it has some relatively harsh high mid resonance that commonly found in Rode's Mic but nothing really noticeable in a full mix and in my experience it performed quite well in varies type of vocals in varies music genres.


if you want NTK and wouldn't mind pay a little bit more.
get a Rode K2 instead, basically an upgraded version of NTK with multi pattern, the rest are the same and only around $120-130 more expensive than NTK.

[Retinal]

SM7 is def one of the most used mic around here too,
the only thing you need to watch with it is the pre, meaning,
the mic needs a lot of gain and few pres when ran hot can
actually bring a lil too much of that "edge" that the SM7 has.

[Yetti]

Originally Posted by josh385

What would you rather use?
I was also thinking a second hand AKG 414.

I will be using it for vocals (male and female), but wouldn't mind an all rounder mic anyway!

Cheers

I have both, and a K2,
For an allrounder, good on acoustics, room mic, amps, and vocals, the NTK and K2 are really good.
The SM7b occasionally gets vocal use, but I normally use it for bass and guitar amps, and snare.
I find the SM7b to be a very vanilla mic, not much air...contolled focus mids.
The NTK has the tube flavor, mid forward presense..."rounded" type of mids, and smooth lower mids.
Maybe post your location, and GS brotha local to you will have you over, or stop by for a demo / shootout?

Good luck!

[highriser]

It is so weird that you guys are saying that there are so many differences in these two microphones because I just used them on my voice and I could hardly notice the difference. Can you guys tell the difference?

conmicmix by Adam Mishan on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
SM7b bassrolloff by Adam Mishan on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[Yetti]

Originally Posted by highriser

It is so weird that you guys are saying that there are so many differences in these two microphones because I just used them on my voice and I could hardly notice the difference. Can you guys tell the difference?

conmicmix by Adam Mishan on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
SM7b bassrolloff by Adam Mishan on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Some vocalists sound very sibilant with a K2 or NTK, some don't at all.
Sometimes there can be no discenable difference between the Sm7B and the K2 (or NTK), sometimes they seem quite different, depending upon all the variables...
Distance from the mic, and how loud the singer is, style, all that...
In general, both mics do pretty well in a balanced focused mid range, but a sibilant singer may sound really sibilant with the NTK, where the SM7b is not a crispy sibilant mic.....situations like that will reveal big differences between the mics, but again on some vocalists, not so much.
In general the SM7 is more of a neutral, vanilla flavor....a bit veiled on the top end, and the K2 (NTK) is a bit "rounder" in the mids, with a more defined, sometimes sibilant top end

[NoPro]

Originally Posted by Yetti

Some vocalists sound very sibilant with a K2 or NTK, some don't at all.
Sometimes there can be no discenable difference between the Sm7B and the K2 (or NTK), sometimes they seem quite different, depending upon all the variables...
Distance from the mic, and how loud the singer is, style, all that...
In general, both mics do pretty well in a balanced focused mid range, but a sibilant singer may sound really sibilant with the NTK, where the SM7b is not a crispy sibilant mic.....situations like that will reveal big differences between the mics, but again on some vocalists, not so much.
In general the SM7 is more of a neutral, vanilla flavor....a bit veiled on the top end, and the K2 (NTK) is a bit "rounder" in the mids, with a more defined, sometimes sibilant top end

Yes ntk silibiant and can be too "crispy" on the highs. Sm7b very good for loud sources and somwhat boxy like. Depends in musical style.

Acoustic guitar ntk
Electric sm7b
Snare sm7b

More experimentation needed on vocals with sm7b but from the get go it requires a particular vocal style , staying put when singing and or musical genre.

[rocksure]

I have both an NTK and an sm7b. They are both good, and worth having. I use the NTK on sung vocals more often than the sm7. On spoken word I would use the sm7 more. On acoustic guitar paired with an SDC the NTK works well. A pair also makes for good drum overhead mics. The sm7 is nice on guitar or bass cabinets and various other instruments. In short.....I wouldn't want to part with either of them from my mic collection.