Expanding studio on a budget-need some feedback

[82Daion]

Greetings!

I've been tasked to expand the production department at the college radio station I work for. I have a budget of about $2000. Most of this money is going towards mics, since our current mic selection is fairly limited (7 SM57's/58's and an EV RE20). So, for this purpose, I have come up with the following:

A pair of MXL V63M's
A Shure 4-piece dynamic drum mic kit(mostly for ease of setup/teardown)
2 more SM57s
A pair of Rode NT1-A's

I know that this doesn't come out to $2K, but there's some other basic equipment that needs purchased as well, such as a pair of DI boxes and an external hard drive for our computer.

My dilemma is this-should I buy the NT1s, or get a pair of small-diaphragm condensers like the NT5s? I'm not sure if I'll be better served with a pair of decent large-diaphragm condensers and a pair of fairly high-end small-diaphragms, or vice-versa. I'm also not sure if I need the extra 57's, since we're pretty well set in that department.

Our studio does a mix of live-broadcast sessions and in-studio recordings that are streamed from our website later. These mics (and the other equipment we have) will be used by students, so I'm trying to get stuff that will improve the sound of our recordings without being too glamorous.

Thanks for your help-I look forward to posting here more in the future.

[AudioFocus]

I would get some SDCs like the NT5. Pretty good mic, good price and very directional. I would assume all the musicians are playing in the same room when you do a live broadcast. If this is the case then SDCs will work well for acoustics etc while minimizing bleed from other players.

Also a good SDC works well on a lot of sources. Plus I think the NT5 is a way better sounding mic than the NT1-A.

Cheers.

[goldenlotus]

Originally Posted by AudioFocus

I would get some SDCs like the NT5. Pretty good mic, good price and very directional. I would assume all the musicians are playing in the same room when you do a live broadcast. If this is the case then SDCs will work well for acoustics etc while minimizing bleed from other players.

Also a good SDC works well on a lot of sources. Plus I think the NT5 is a way better sounding mic than the NT1-A.

Cheers.

+ 1

The NT5's are great mics!