Best budget mic for acoustic guitar

[russellnollen]

What is your favorite budget mic for recording acoustic guitar?

[andygabrys]

ok I'll bite.....define budget?

less than $200. the gauge ecm-84 and ecm-87 do fine work. For some tracks in certain styles, the sm57 has't got anything wrong with it either.

[russellnollen]

Thanks, Andy! I should have clarified "budget", but I thought it may be better to allow the more experienced pros to chime in on that definition. I was looking at one for $1,000 and another for $800. I was wondering how much quality (if any) might be compromised by a mic of lesser cost. Have you had music placed featuring acoustic guitars recorded with the aforementioned mics?

[eeoo]

I've never spent more than $500 on a mic, but I tend to buy them used. And yes, there are plenty of people getting lots of placements using inexpensive mics, I would venture to guess that most people on this forum are using mics in the $100 -$600 range.

That said, I'm getting ready to spend $900 on a ribbon mic

[andygabrys]

Thanks, Andy! I should have clarified "budget", but I thought it may be better to allow the more experienced pros to chime in on that definition. I was looking at one for $1,000 and another for $800. I was wondering how much quality (if any) might be compromised by a mic of lesser cost. Have you had music placed featuring acoustic guitars recorded with the aforementioned mics?

all three. I also have an AKG 451 but I rarely break it out. funny huh?

What mics are you actually looking at?

consider that a good preamp often makes budget mics sound great, but an expensive mic through a so-so preamp might not seem to be as much bang for the buck. So if you are running straight into your interface and the interface is so-so, you might want to look around a bit at stand-alone preamps.

I use an Apogee Duet 2 which is a fine sounding interface to me. But honestly, I think the preamps are a little weak. They have a lot of noise - especially noticeable on DI stuff - bass and electric guitar. No such noise on the UA Solo 610 I have when running direct. For mic'd stuff either will do, but its nice to dial a little more heft into things rather than using the Apogee preamps.

Sounds like EO is about to drop on a 121. happy days.

[Len911]

Generally I'd say it is how the mic handles the high end. Passive designs like ribbon or dynamic have a more "natural" rolloff, whereas condenser mics are active and not so much rolloff, but the "active" circuit design or how the high-end is handled is the difference between a cheap and brittle Chinese mic with a U67 inspired capsule, or the original Neumann designed U67 capsule. So basically if you want high-end detail, a condenser mic, the circuit on-board preamp design will either give you a smooth high-end detail or a brittle detail.

I'm sure the same with an "active" ribbon, more gain with the active part, but unlike a passive ribbon, you are again faced with a ckt. design.

I'm going to take a different approach than Andy on the preamp mic theory,lol! From my experience, the mic makes the biggest difference, but of course a good preamp doesn't get in the way of a great mic, good clean gain, but a crappy, brittle mic with the same clean gain would only make the brittle, crappy louder,lol!

Many mics have a presence boost. About 5k. Mainly for vocal, and some have a more natural sounding presence and others sound a little artificial. If you don't have a need for it, a flatter mic is better.

[russellnollen]

Thanks again Andy (and friends)! If I recall correctly, the mics I looked at (one borrowed from a friend's studio) were the Audio Technica (AT series). While rather nice, they're a bit out of my current price range.
I currently use an MBox with my Pro Tools system. Will that suffice or do you recommend a separate mic preamp?

[andygabrys]

Len911 has a good point there. A crappy crispy mic is pretty much a crappy crispy mic.

Russell - do you live In a big city that has some pro audio retailers? If you rent a certain pre-amp it might help you make a decision as to whether it's some thing you would want to invest in.

For mics that have better capsules for less money check Michael Joly Engineering. He mods mics that have good bones but have deficiencies and he has a lot of sound samples on his website of his mods vs various more expensive mics.

Good luck.

[UnityGain]

What is your favorite budget mic for recording acoustic guitar?

Sure SM57 - you can't go wrong placing it at the start of the neck on the edge of the opening.

[russellnollen]

I live in the middle of Iowa, in a town of 50thousand +, no pro audio retailers here. I'm a reasonable distance from Des Moines, though, although only a couple of pro audio dealers, one being Guitar Center...
I have a friend who is willing to loan me a couple of his Gauge mics.
I am in the process of moving from house to house, so it may be a few days (or weeks) before I give these mics a proper test.
I'm looking forward to it!
Thanks guys!