Microphone suggesestions?

[pfk]

Hola!

I have a few acoustic "instuments" at home, and I'd like to record myself playing them and mix the result with arrangements from my Korg N5 synth, to add a "live" element to my music. Unfortunately I haven't got a clue about digital sound or studio stuff - but I hope some of you music super heroes out there do

So if oyu can, please comment on some of these questions or at least let me know if they're relevant or not:

Can I get a microphone that produces decent audio just by positioning it next to my drum set, guitar or mouth and hitting the "record" button? What kind should I get, and what should it cost? Can I get software to filter out ambient noise, etc? Do I need any other hardware?


On a slightly related topic - I've decided I love remixes with actual instruments or vocals. Someone playing or singing really adds alot to a remix! So I'm pretty pleased that more and more of the RKO tunes seem to feature some kind of live performance Keep it up!


- pfk

[Romeo Knight]

Oh, that's a lot of questions, so here's a lot of answers:

Of course, there is no microphone that serves everything perfectly.
Drums, guitar and vocals are completly different things and therefore want to be treated very different concerning microphones.
In all cases you'll need additional equipment: a small mixer, a channelstrip or any other kind of preamplifier that acts as an "interface" between the mic and the computer.

Vocals: Try to get a cheap condenser microphone (with big membrane, about 200 Eur).
You'll get a lot better results with them compared with dynamic microphones due to the better frequency response. Attention: Your preamp needs to have phantom voltage to work with condenser mics.
Another advantage: Condenser mics are first choice for every other acoustic intrument (like acoustic guitars, flutes and whatever).

Electric guitar: Get a good dynamic mic. They're a lot cheaper and robuster than condenser mics but also not so sensitive. Standard reference mics are Shure SM 57 and SM 58, for example. There are masses of good dynamic mics made by Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, AKG etc. Forget about those "Walmart"-mics with stereo jack already attached, all better dynamic mics have XLR-jacks.

Drums: Oh my god.
Recording drums is a science by itself. Usually you combine a whole bunch of different mics (8 - 16 or even more, depending on the drumset and the sound you wanna get). So there is no drum recording without somekind of a studio. With only 1 mic you're only able to record a good drumsound if you wanna do
a) jazz,
b) have a good sounding room,
c) a decent sounding and good tuned drumset,
d) a very good drummer
e) the right mic
f) and 10 years of recording expert knowledge.

Hope this helped you somehow, I'll stay tuned for further questions!