what's your definition of a modern mic ? some examples ?

[woomanmoomin]

Not sure about some of these. The Pearlman looks enviously at the good old vintage U47 (not exactly lacking low end), the Mojave is based on the equally non-hyped U67, and the Peluso is based on the 251... all of them valve mics, decades old, and therefore not too modern by a lot of people's standards. You could throw the C12 in with those, I guess. It's bright and all, but the design is now an established one... a classic, indeed!!

I'm not sure about the Sputnik, either. I haven't heard it much at all, but to judge from what I have heard, it doesn't seem all that bright to me... just brash if anything. To me, it's almost like a parody of a tube mic. I've heard worse, but it doesn't strike me as subtle at all. I liked it for about one minute or something. IMO it goes for valve distortion gross-out, which does not float my boat. I guess it's useful for getting some valve 'warmth' into digital gear, but it's not the kind of valve tone I would go for.

In your position, I would look at the Røde mics from Australia. Lots of people here have mixed feelings about them, often because they're bright. (A lot of people start out with bright mics and end up preferring more neutral ones.) I guess some of them can be pretty sibilant, but a lot of them also have very low self-noise and decent sensitivity. They're good value IMO. I have a K2 valve mic with a NOS Amperex tube in it and IMO it's a big improvement on the K2 as you buy it in the shops. And the K2 as you buy it is already punching way above its weight. Infinitely variable patterns between omni and figure-8, nice specs generally, versatile mic for 'modern' pop etc. Probably at least as useful as the AT 4050 as I think a lot of people say the highs on that can be brittle. The K2 with a good valve inside is probably much smoother and at least as versatile.

I think a lot of the 'modern' thing is a question of how you use the mics. Ribbon mics are about the only ones that spring to mind for me as not really being at all modern, but nowadays there are even ribbon mics with high output and fairly bright response, such as the Crowley & Tripp Studio Vocalist (and one side of the same company's Naked Eye mic).

[isham]

thumbsup thanks a lot for your expertise and your detailed answer ! really appreciated.

I think a lot of the 'modern' thing is a question of how you use the mics.

I think that's what I wanted to read, the source and the way the mixing is done is far more important I guess (certainly some urban pop songs were recorded with vintage U47 mics...).
From my experience I realized that I like vocal mics on the left top of this chart area around the c800G, peluso 2251, brauner phantom, AT 4050...
Maybe with age I will consider some darker microphone (it's like the first glass of wine at 15 years old, I prefered soda ) will check as well the rode k2 mics.

For your info my currents are :
tlm103
brauner phantom

I used to have an oktava 319 modded
sm7b
apex 460 modded ( I borrow it to a friend)


By the way do you know some spots in London where we can test some mics as I'm going with my girl for 6 days to London (I promised to avoid music shops and concentrate on her but I can fake a relaxing afternoon and jump out )

Thanks a lot for your support,

[woomanmoomin]

Originally Posted by isham

thumbsup thanks a lot for your expertise and your detailed answer ! really appreciated.


I think that's what I wanted to read, the source and the way the mixing is done is far more important I guess (certainly some urban pop songs were recorded with vintage U47 mics...).
From my experience I realized that I like vocal mics on the left top of this chart area around the c800G, peluso 2251, brauner phantom, AT 4050...
Maybe with age I will consider some darker microphone (it's like the first glass of wine at 15 years old, I prefered soda ) will check as well the rode k2 mics.

For your info my currents are :
tlm103
brauner phantom

I used to have an oktava 319 modded
sm7b
apex 460 modded ( I borrow it to a friend)


By the way do you know some spots in London where we can test some mics as I'm going with my girl for 6 days to London (I promised to avoid music shops and concentrate on her but I can fake a relaxing afternoon and jump out )

Thanks a lot for your support,

My expertise?

I have the 22 251 and I'm very happy with it. There's nothing wrong with bright mics, or just mics with presence. I guess there would be room for a C800G in anyone's mic cupboard...

The K2 is a newer edition of the NTK mentioned on the microphone chart you attached, but it maybe sounds a touch sweeter/brighter than the NTK. The specs of the K2 are definitely better.

I think you can try out about 30 mics that are ready to go in an isolation booth at Turnkey on Charing Cross Road. Their customer service is probably not the best in the world, but I have bought one or two things from them in the past.