The best preamp is good mic technique and the appropriate mic. When you upgrade your converters and all the OTHER biz you're going into- THEN worry about preamps. Not to say good pres can't be great. But youd probably be better served with better mics, and they'll let you get flexibility that a 57 won't.
At the moment I only have a C3000B, and a SM58 copy. I'll be getting a kick mic and SM57 soon, and want some stereo pair with that to use as overheads, and for other stuff. (stereo recording of classi. 61 Responses to “Drum overhead microphone technique comparison” bill s. July 16th, 2013 at 6:55 am. I have a snare mic and bass drum mic as well as an sm57 and a perception 420 condenser mic. Would there be problems if use the condenser mic and the sm57 dynamic as overheads in these techniques? Matthew mcglynn. July 16th, 2013 at 11:44 am.
I clearly don't subscribe to the point of view that 'if you can't do it with a 57, you can't do it.' Theres WAY better mics to be had than a 57.Fully agree, but there's nothing wrong with adding a good mic pre to learn the technique with. And IMO, an SM57 NEEDS a good mic preamp to sound good. What are some of them, iyo?depends entirely on the application- but you've got legions of people who love the sennheiser 421 or 609, audix i5, royer 121, RCA bk5, coles 4038, the heil pr40, beyer m500's or 201, akg 414's but there's SO many applications. And so many mindbending ways to seat mics in the mix. People have used pretty much everything under the sun too- it's kinda like painting- you just use mics like colors on the pallet.i've used stuff like a d112, a 609, and a c1000 in concert close mic'd and panned in stereo. I've mixed 57's and rode nt1's, i've used a beyer m300 vocal mic solo on a cab, i've used crappy mxl's and a ribbon together and 3 feet apart.
I've used an LDC set to omni in the middle of a room. It all depends on what you wanna do and how much space you want to capture. I think yer right- but in the bang for the buck department- i think it's the LAST thing on the list unless your interface is just poop- in which case, that's the first thing to address.
Not disagreeing- just saying- the OP was saying 'what pre AND A 57' will give you THA BRrooOTZXZzorzx?' You're not wrong at all, but I still maintain a good mic pre not only ends up with better results, but can also make your mic-placement practise a whole lot easier! When I added the Twintrak to my setup, it was a night and day difference; so much so that I immediately scrubbed all my guitar tracks from the album I was doing and re-recorded the lot! The best tones usually have a good mic pre in there somewhere and I can't see how spending a few hundred on a good preamp that will have many many applications is a misappropriated spend! You're not wrong at all, but I still maintain a good mic pre not only ends up with better results, but can also make your mic-placement practise a whole lot easier! When I added the Twintrak to my setup, it was a night and day difference; so much so that I immediately scrubbed all my guitar tracks from the album I was doing and re-recorded the lot!
The best tones usually have a good mic pre in there somewhere and I can't see how spending a few hundred on a good preamp that will have many many applications is a misappropriated spend!As someone that has and still owns pres that are $1000+ per channel I will say while I do prefer the sound of high end pres they will not do anything to help bad mic positioning etc.