Fav Pro Mics for the DIYer: Part 1

Our next series goes over some favorite microphones that I’ve found quite useful while working in the DIY home music studio.

Though affordable, they’re not the absolute cheapest options. If you’re really going for cheap at all costs, just grab a $50 used SM57 off of OfferUp, and you’ll get what you pay for. It will be serviceable and work, maybe just fine for demos, but won’t really help your music stand out. You can totally go cheaper to save more money, but no guarantees on sound quality.

But, these mics all also have fantastic bang for your buck, meaning you get higher quality for every dollar that you spend! This means that your home recordings will sound much closer to a professional sound, while still aiming for an affordable amount of money. These are all affordable choices for the serious hobbyist or aspiring professional musician, and most of these are also used as daily drivers in a professional studio recording setting.

Favorite dynamic microphone for the home music studio: the Electro-Voice RE20!

This is one of my desert island mics. It’s dead simple to use, built like a tank, and sounds great on a ton of things, including vocals but not limited to them. The RE-20 is very much a Swiss army knife: great for vocals, podcasts/audiobooks, kick drum, bass cabs, toms, brass instruments, and acoustic guitar. And just about anything else you’d care to point it at.

Here it is:

Pair one of these with a good quality condenser mic, and you could have a fantastic sounding little two microphone writing/recording setup that could handle a lot of different studio situations.

Dynamic mics are your best friend in the home studio! Here’s why!

Dynamic Microphone Pros and Cons

Pros:

-they don’t pick up as much background noise, as their sensitivity falls off rapidly with distance from the source.

-can be flattering sounding and smooth out some rough edges, even when mic’d close to a source.

-easier to use; much less finicky.

-more rugged and durable, can take a bit of beating or smack by a drum stick.

Cons:

-low output design, so these mics can be hissy sounding if you’re using cheaper audio interfaces with low quality mic preamps. The lower the output of the mic, the better quality preamp you need to use with it to avoid sound quality and noise issues.

-dynamic mics are not as sensitive or detailed as other mic designs. For something like intimate guitar fingerpicking, a condenser mic might pick up more nuance and detail.

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