Which Microphone...

[sanjari]

Hey Everyone,

I dont post much on here, but read basically every day. I record a eastern european instrument which is similar to a mandolin or banjo (some of these also compare to a acoustic guitar). The family of instruments I play are actually called the Tamburica (not the ones you will find being played in India or Pakistan, different instrument). I am looking for a good microphone for this.

My current setup is a Rode NT1A into a Avalon AD2022 Pre, into a Delta 1010 (soon to be BLA modified) into cubase (flirting with the idea of trying Reaper on my next project). I can probably reasonably justify spending up to about $1,500 on a good mic. I was toying with the idea of a Tube mic, but the Soundelux U195 has gotten me interested.

Any idea's ?? Most of the people in my genre of music have alot of success with the Rode tube mic's

Steve

[Zarathustra]

When recording mandolin, banjo, violin, and various other high-pitched strings, nothing sounds better to me than a good ribbon mic with a precious few dB of high shelf added. Condensers can be too harsh with these types of instruments, IMO.

Consider:

Coles 4038
Royer R121
Beyer M160

There are many others popping up every day.

Z

[bcgood]

I would take a look at the Sputnik, AT 4050 or a matched pair of Earthwork QTC30's. If you have the dough I would seriously consider the Earthwork pair, (You can get them new for around 1,500 us dollars). I have a friend that is an engineer at Skywalker sound and he just showed me a recording of a grand piano and some acoustic guitars as well as mandolins with these mics running through the Earthwork 1022 dual channel preamp to a UA 2192 and it literally changed my perception of what is possible capturing audio digitally.

Here's a couple of links. I have absolutely no affilation with Earthworks and don't sell gear but I like to spread the sonic gospel as I hear it, "Amen brothas and sistas, can I get a witness?"

http://www.earthworksaudio.com/8.html

http://www.earthworksaudio.com/37.html

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/QTC30MP/

http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/2192/index.html

bcgood

[sanjari]

Thanks for the input guys. One question, how delicate is a ribbon mic compared to a regular condensor ?