Chrome Snare Drum

My love for dynamic microphones

Years ago when I first attempted to make recordings, I like a lot of people saw the ubiquitous Large Diaphragm Condenser microphone as the studio mic.  Who can blame me, A LDC mic is just sexy. Not to mention it is also the mic that appears in countless studio depicted footage on music videos and band/artist documentaries. That shiny capsule peeking through the metal mesh.  Often a nice shiny chrome or gold color, but always gorgeous.  It just looks like a serious piece of gear. I thought that if I got one great mic that it would be the only one I needed for everything. It should record all vocalists, percussion, strings acoustic or electric perfectly.

Well thanks to helpful mentors and cold hard experience, I now know better. Not only can one mic not be expected to record everything perfectly, but the perfect mic for a given source might not even be sexy.  Our studio now has a mic collection the dwarfs that one mic philosophy I was trying to embrace. And the bulk of that mic collection consists of the humble dynamic microphone.

Dynamic mics are not as sexy as LDCs but it is often the perfect mic for the source surprisingly often.  I did start with the standard shur dynamic mics and knew enough to try them on snare and electric guitar. Once I came upon a site talking about the virtues of the Electro-Voice RE series mics. At the time used ones could be had for around $50. (the good old days) I scored a EV RE-11. It was all beat up and I had to replace the foam. Around this same time I was struggling to record my buddy a singer/songwriter who sings and plays guitar at the same time. I had varied success using my beloved  LDCs and Small Diaphragm Condensers to record him. I finally put the EV RE-11 to take advantage of its high rejection out of desperation. I thought that settling for anything other than a condenser mic for recording was a compromise.  Well needless to say, when we played back that recording we were blown away. My buddys  voice sounded better that ever before, not a compromise at all but the perfect mic for the source.

Our mic collection I am proud to say has a plethora of dynamic mics (mostly vintage) These kinds of  mics have been used for vox, drum overheads, room ambience  on countless hits. If you want that vintage R&B or rock sound Mid and Large diaphragm mics get you there.

 

About the Author

Engineer for Mojosonic Studio.  http://mojosonicstudio.com

Chrome Snare Drum

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