To the Recorders/Musicians/Engineers

[SickAgain]

I need to buy a mic to record my jam sessions. I need something that has a wide frequency range and that can connect to a computer either by USB or mic line. I wanna spend around $20-$80. I am not doing this for professional cuts, but just to record my jams for fun but with quality too. Does anyone know of a mic that can fulfill this?

 

[ready123]

I'd go with a Shure SM57 if you need a cheap dynamic mic

are you going directly into the sound card or do you have an audio interface? also, what instruments are you recording?

 

[SickAgain]

I just have a laptop, so it has a mic in jack and a usb port. i'll be recording electric guitar and some drums, mainly guitar though.

 

[SickAgain]

k, i just ordered one online for $70 shipped. lets hope it does the trick.

 

[WhitePimp]

You have a laptop with an XLR jack?

 

[SickAgain]

nope, i'll need a converter. now all i got worry about is mic placement. any suggestions?

 

[WhitePimp]

Are you recording a full band, or just your own ideas by yourself? And if it is just you, is it acoustic or electric?


With a dynamic mic, you need to pretty much have the mic placed facing the source of sound and be relatively close, unless you're in a very loud band in which case backing it off is necessary to get instrument separation and clarity. But to just have something to remember ideas by, your best bet is just set it up facing the instruments and monitor the levels until it sounds good recorded.

 

[SickAgain]

I'd say 90% of the time its just gonna be myself playing electric guitar. The amp i use is a Fender Hotrod, its about 40W if you're not familiar. What is consider relatively close? 1 foot? 2 feet?

 

[WhitePimp]

You could probably get away with just placing it a few feet away if you're blasting a 40W amp. SM57's are great for close micing of the speaker but that pertains mostly to recording professionally, etc. To just get your stuff clear and sounding good, just place the mic in the room relatively close and adjust until it sounds good to you. Micing an amp properly is really difficult but an SM57 is a great mic for it.

 

[DarthJuan]

You could probably get away with just placing it a few feet away if you're blasting a 40W amp. SM57's are great for close micing of the speaker but that pertains mostly to recording professionally, etc. To just get your stuff clear and sounding good, just place the mic in the room relatively close and adjust until it sounds good to you. Micing an amp properly is really difficult but an SM57 is a great mic for it.

I use a SM58 for vocals.
When I record my amp, I just take the top off.
If I'm not mistaken, a SM57 is basically a SM58 without the top.

 

[DarthJuan]

I'd say 90% of the time its just gonna be myself playing electric guitar. The amp i use is a Fender Hotrod, its about 40W if you're not familiar. What is consider relatively close? 1 foot? 2 feet?

I place my mic right up next to the grille.
Try different placement for different sounds.

 

[Mandiblard]

I put my mic so close to my amp that it's touching. It's a crappy $5 mic and even still the sound it records that way is quite good, definitely listenable. Just experiment.