Which mic for general demo recording?

[Shadowcross123]

I plan on recording at home. I was deciding on a general mic (mainly vocals), and the 2 that came i've been looking at were the av-jefe st100 and the sm beta 58a as well as the at2020. The st100 seemed slightly more worth it, but i have nvr heard of it before, whereas the other 2 have more credibility. Anyone have any experience with the st100?

 

[PRR]

Hmm, Taiwanese microphone maker, interesting, haven't tried any of them. The other Taiwanese brand is JTS. I think in terms of audio engineering and music-related products, Taiwanese do it pretty well. Worth a shot if the price is right!

 

[blueprintstudios]

doesn't JTS copy Shure mics? like ProDJ etc.

 

[PRR]

I'm not sure about the engineering but they don't really look the same as the Shure microphones. I suppose though, that the influence and even sharing of knowledge to a certain extent are always there.

 

[kongwee]

I have one av-jefe st 100 but never use in project. Of cos, I do very little recording on my own. For the price, just buy lah. The quality is a lot better than SM 58. It has warm character so it is good for vocal.

 

[blueprintstudios]

PRR : ah I was referring to the live stage drum microphones the BETA series.
http://www.jts.com.tw/_english/02_products/02_list.php?MainID=3&SID=19
http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/beta/index.htm

and when I first started 9 years back I got them from luther's site which described them to be copies of Shure

Shadowcross123 : http://box.net/blueprintstudios
I have the AT2020, and they were used for 2010 - Ingride and 2010 - Town In Fear 's vocal recording on an M-Audio fast track by their diy recording. borrowed the mic from me. in general it's very subjective, there's only mic that's for budget purposes, or mic for bangforbuck ratio, or "safe mics that has worked for other ppl" , the rest is up to you to guinea piggit.

a good example is no one knew Shure SM57 was a good mic until it started to "work safely" for everyone, and no one agreed Audix i5 was an "Shure SM57 killer" until more people who swore by the sm57 switched over to the i5. but i own both and they're both killersweet for guitars/drums etc.

anyway shure sm58 beta is a dynamic mic, you may wanna stick to AT2020 (condenser) if you wanna record vocals/acoustic guitars etc.

 

[PRR]

Oh the drum mikes definitely look alike. Do they have similar/same sound characteristics?

 

[blueprintstudios]

Hehe no idea I was only 18 and very broke.I moved on to Audix snarekick mics though.and sennheiser e604s toms

 

[ankursamtaney]

I've seen and used some of the JTS wireless mics.. the ones where you get 2 mics with a single receiver and the mics have a yellow tail (battery cover). They're absolutely crap. Many sound providers / mobile DJs in Singapore use them simply because they're wireless and presumably super-cheap, but in terms of quality they don't even come remotely close to any Shure mics.

That said, maybe I've tried only the cheap ones and JTS make better mics too. No experience with wired JTS mics but I recollect some shop in Excelsior (or maybe swee lee or ranking.. not sure) selling an SM57-lookalike by JTS.

 

[yongsheng11]

If you are willing to go for a USB mic, which is a lot cheaper and more straight foward. The Samson G-track is a good option and im selling it in the ads under Sound Gear. Another option would be blue snowball or Yeti.

However if you prefer having an audio interface + Mic, i think the AT2020 is a GREAT choice. Its common and cliche but it's probably as good as it gets for that price range. M-Audio fast track would be a good option to go with the AT2020

 

[blueprintstudios]

my vote for a PORTABLE + USB mic is the Zoom H2! check www.gigvideos.com I use it for all my live gig recordings.