Get a dynamic mic first

"OK. The sound room sounds kinda crappy and isn't really treated and there isn't any reduction of outside noise sources, but dammit, I can't be a pro unless I have a U47", says the idiot.

After a year of foraging for food in the forest, filming bridge troll porn and renting your excavatory orifice out to proctology students you finally save enough money for the mic of your dreams. You can finally feel like a pro. With trembling fingers you connect the mic.

The phantom power slowly rises on the mighty U47 and you hear.....EVERYTHING!!!!

You hear the guitar rubbing against your shirt, your stomach grumbling, a computer fan, a random squeak from somewhere, a hard drive's motor spooling up, cars driving by, jet engines, people talking outside, frogs, crickets, mosquitoes having sex, the butt cheeks of joggers rubbing together and a singing amoeba. You realize in horror that you should have bought a used car instead. What just happened?

U47s are Large Diaphragm Condenser (LDC) microphones. They are capable - due to the very low mass of their diaphragms - of responding to signals we can't detect unaided. If the outside world was perfectly quiet in the example above you would now hear your crappy untreated room and guitar/playing faults.

LDC mics are not forgiving. Small Diaphragm Condenser mics aren't forgiving either. You may get better usable results with a lowly (and 1/40th the price of a U47) SM57. It has a fairly tight pickup pattern and isn't very sensitive. I don't think there's a professional studio in the world that doesn't have at least one SM57. It's still the goto mic for guitar amps and snare drum tops. Even though the room of your annoyed scribe is treated a great deal of care has to be used before a beastly 47 comes out of hibernation. Ribbons and dynamics are generally used for instruments that are not the focal point of the song. Another alternative is the venerable SM7b. It is an excellent vocal mic.

We are not pictured below

#soundcheck #guitar #band