SAMSON C01 STUDIO CONDENSER

I have a pair of these that I have had since about the year 2000. I bought them as vocal Mics for my home studio and actually used them as such for several years, albums and demos.

The Mics are pretty decent sounding. They are large diaphragms and give a decent enough sound for the price but they tend to distort fairly easily under load. So I would not recommend using them in a Kick drum or on a powerful male or female voice. You will get some distortion even with a pad on your pre-amp.

They require 48-volt phantom power as do all studio condensers and you will find, as I did, that they sound a little thinner than your average large diaphragm condenser Mic.

All that being said, these can be gotten at almost any music store for around fifty dollars US and when you look at them in that context. They are a great Mic.

If you have an average voice without a bunch of power and use some distance between you and the Pop Filter, you will get good useable results.

I have a low baritone voice and I need to stand about 3 feet away to not distort it. My wife, on the other hand with her higher female voice, uses this Mic and sounds great on it. So if you look over the response curve and try it on some real world situation tests, you should get a lot of good out of these.

The unit comes in a cheap plastic case; one of mine is still in great shape the other has pulverized. Invest in the shock mount, you will need it to save you from stand, floor noise.

I have since moved to a better Mic but keep the Samson C01s for drum overheads and they really ROCK there.

SHURE BETA 87C CONDENSOR

I went for years perfectly satisfied with my old Shure SM-58 Mic. It went where I went and it fairy faithfully reproduced my vocals, such as they are. That’s all you really need a Mic to do right?

Enter the Shure Beta 87C.

I ran across one of these at a local music store and was looking for a condenser Mic for acoustic guitar and so I picked it up.

I was quite happy with the job it did on the acoustics and that was as far as I was planning on it going. Then one day I got a call to come and help a band out on an emergency situation where the bass player was deathly sick and they needed a fill in on bass and backing vocals. The problem here was my trusty old 58 was in the band trailer about a hundred miles away. So I winged it and grabbed the Beta 87 and headed to the gig.

I was absolutely floored by the difference it made in even my vocals. There was plenty of air and headroom and my vocals cut right through the cruddy mix at the dank little club.

I have been using the Beat ever since that day in all my live shows on my vocals. Let me also add here I have a LOW voice and I can usually distort the heck out of a Mic. As of yet, I have not had that problem with this Mic.

The only issues I have are that the shaft is smaller than a regular Mic and so you need the special stand holder for it and the casing is partially made of some form of plastic and has developed some cracks which are going to necessitate my sending it back to Shure to have the case re-done.

But given the sound and service it has given me, I think it is worth the added cost of that and maybe even adding a second one as a back-up.

MACKIE 1604-VLZ MIXER

While a lot of people use this board as merely a live sound mixer, there is so much more that this board can do that people often over look it’s ability as a studio board.

It is a full four buss mixer so you have sub-mix capabilities of sending to four discreet locations which is plenty for a modest home studio. Bur wait, there are also up to six aux outs which can act as sub outputs as well for a total of ten discreet outs.

If you have a larger system, you have access to direct outs for channels on through eight (this makes a great direct hook up for live recording, such as to Pro Tools by Digidesign which has eight ins).

The coolest way to hook this up is to run the eight sub outs into an analog to digital converter, such as the Behringer ADA-8000, which will give you eight digital outs via ADAT light pipe and then use four assignable subs and four aux sends to feed the analog input of the Digidesign interface (Digi 001, Digi 002 or Digi 003) which gives you an unbelievable 16 inputs and still leaves you two aux sends for effects and the main stereo buss out for control room monitors. This is ALMOST a dream system for a decent studio, and what is really neat about this is that you can have EQ and effects on ALL sixteen channels.

There are a couple extra outputs like a mono out that can be used to feed a fold back system for the vocalist.

The one minor drawback is that the faders are only sixty millimeters instead of the industry standard one hundred millimeters. But for the several thousand dollars in savings over a “pro” board, I think you can live with the shorter throw faders.

MACKIE MS-1202 MIXER

One thing that today’s studios cannot get enough of is mixers. You need a way to get everything into your system and with all that gear you can either buy one LARGE mixer if the budget is good or get a lot of smaller mixers to sub mix everything.

Granted, a larger mixer is more convenient and makes life easier if you have the cash, but the smaller units can get the job done and give you more money for other gear.

Enter the older Mackie Micro Series Mixer. The Swiss army knife of audio mixing. I bought mine in 1989 and still use it every day and have had ZERO problems and even less complaints on it.

The main use in my studio for this one is as a keyboard and tone module sub mixer. I get two full effects sends and Bass and Treble control for four mono and four stereo sources from a space about the size of a cigar box.

The biggest compliant, if you want to call it that, is that the volume controls are rotary and not faders.

While on the surface this is a drawback, for keyboards and tone modules, and even when using as a drum sub mixer, it can actually be a blessing.

My mixer sits up and the knobs are easy to see and actually allow the mixer to be smaller in size that it would be with a linear fader so it can fit in more places than you might imagine.

The unit is well crafted in solid metal that shields it and makes it quite durable, as I said, I have had mine in DAILY use now for nearly twenty years.

It will make a cost effective addition to your studio gear and at the going rate, you can actually afford several of them for various things and still pocket enough money to get yourself a decent Mic.

Talk about a needed accessory in today’s digital workstation world and you will eventually settle upon the need for something like this.

The Behringer ADA8000 is an eight channel digital to analog converter which serves as an eight channel Mic pre amp that can convert the signal into eight discreet channels of ADAT Light Pipe audio at twenty four bit for insertion into any DAW that accepts ADAT and it keeps everything in the Digital domain so you get pristine audio sound and the best part is, it is affordable.

You have eight XLR inputs and eight quarter inch inputs so it is very versatile as a front end input for your Light Pipe equipped DAW.

The XLR inputs also are Phantom powered so you can save a few bucks on not buying a separate power unit for your Mics.

There is a front mounted gain control on each channel that is used on both inputs so you can control what is going out the other end to your Computer, the ADAT section has both an input and an output making it quite system flexible and the outputs are via eight balanced XLR connectors so if you use it as a Pre Amp or Phantom supply, the eight channels can go right into your main mixer with no worries or effort.

What does all this mean to you? A Lot.

If you have a DAW, the eight channels into Light Pipe will allow you to free up the usual eight channels of analog inputs on your interface for more things so you end up with eight channels of digital in and eight channels of analog in or a full sixteen channels of audio input into your computer, which is more than enough to record an average band on separate tracks on a live session or gig.

This is an item that I highly recommend you get for your studio or live recording set up.

Because this mic boasts multuple patterns it is a versatile powerhouse of ambient recording options.
What I found was a brilliance of sound reflection, and an excellent transient response that is smooth throughout the whole range. It has a fairly detailed top end and warmth in the bass frequencies, but is rather neutral when I began comparing it with some other budget mics in my arsenal, so apparently this mic does not overtly "color" the sound of your signal. Impressive in this range.
I found this mic to be incredibly crisp and clean on acoustic stringed instruments such as guitar and mandolin, and retain an articulate bass response from an electric bass cab when paired with a dynamic mic off center by utilyzing the bass cut.
I found it to be more transparent and ultimately not as "warm" as my mxl v67, but it was more accurate by far. Again, this mic does not color the signal to a noticeable degree in my opinion.
This mic might not be my "go-to" for recording guitars, but it could certainly provide just the right frequncy response for tracking an accurate uncolored vocal, or piano. I would reccomend this to anyone who needs an affordable large diaphram condensor for live purposes, like a bluegrass band who needs a crisp figure-8 mic for jamming out.

So basically, don't let the 100 dollar price tag fool you, this mic is quite capable, accurate, and responsive while being incredibly versatile with its multi-pattern capability. This is a perfect choice for guys just starting out buying their first condensor, or for those who need quality go-to microphones and are on a budget.

- For how long have you been using it?
I had this for a year or two and sold it.
I had an SM58 too for a while, can't remember if it was after or before, though.

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
It looks & sounds better than an SM58, plus it has an on-off switch...plus it's not an SM58, and i don't like having the same stuff as other people, ha!

BUT one day i was doing the sound for a singer-pianist on a boat and when we swapped his SM58 for this, it was feedback heaven. So we quickly switched back to the 58.

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
I own or (have) use(d): AKG C3000, XML 90, Rode NT3, M-Audio Sputnik, AKG D5, Shure SM58, Shure SM57, ATM33.

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
The sound was fine for the price, but i didn't have good experience live (too much feedback...maybe i was doing something wrong, who knows...try it & see) and the sound was no good for studio work. In parallel i used a C3000 for that, so i wasn't going to find much satisfaction in this...

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?...
Well, i sold it...so, no.
Would i go for an SM58? Nope.
So what then? I bought an AKG D5 the other day. The feedback killer they call it...will try it out in a few days...we'll see.