Recording - April 2018 - 18

That One Mic...
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Peluso Microphone Lab P-87
$994; pelusomicrophonelab.com; reviewed July 2016

The P-87 is a professional large-diaphragm condenser mic that will
deliver superior sound quality. Great on any source, it delivers big
intimate vocals, and brings out incredible depth, detail, and clarity
from your instruments. Record loud amps, horns or percussion sources
with the option of a 10 dB pad or the low-end roll-off engaged. With
the three polar patterns available, you'll be able to isolate your vocal or instrument to get mixable tracks. Alternately, find just the right
placement and pattern to capture the distinct character of a vocal
and accompaniment together in a single take. The standard XLR connector, included shockmount, hard mount, and foam windscreen will
facilitate quick setups. No matter how you configure it within your
room and playing style, with the P-87 you will discover and share the
unique sound of your music.-Chris Newitt, Peluso Microphone Lab

RØDE NT1
$269; rode.com; reviewed May 2014

The RØDE NT1 is a superb 1-inch cardioid condenser mic,
used by both studio pros and bedroom warriors for all the right
reasons. It's extremely transparent with little colouration of your
source and has very low self-noise (4.5 dB), which means you
can apply gain without pesky hiss. It's incredibly versatile, recording
acoustic instruments, guitar cabs, drums and vocals with clear
highs, mids and lows. Finally, it's an unbeatable value-priced
well below anything else in its class-and comes with a mount,
pop-shield and 10-year warranty.-Daniel Murphy, RØDE
Microphones / The Freedman Electronics Group

Roswell Pro Audio Mini K47
$299; roswellproaudio.com; reviewed September 2015

The Roswell Mini K47 was designed specifically as a singer/
songwriter microphone. It solves several problems that home
recording artists face: the mic is versatile, affordable (under
$300), and it works well with any preamp, including inexpensive
USB audio interfaces. It intentionally adds a bit of character
to its midrange, which helps put focus on the vocals in a
mix. Most critically, the mic is completely free of exaggerated
high-frequency "hype," so it needs no corrective EQ after
tracking.-Matthew McGlynn, Roswell Pro Audio

Royer Labs R-122 MKll
$1850; royerlabs.com; reviewed September 2015

My choice of best Royer mic for a singer/songwriter is our
R-122 MKll; it's a phantom-powered ribbon microphone and
is Royer's most versatile mic. It produces warm, full-bodied,
extremely natural-sounding recordings of vocals, acoustic and
electric guitars, percussion, piano, strings, drum overheads,
brass, woodwinds. It can handle the high SPL of loud electric
guitars, but its high output lets you record even the quietest
instruments with virtually any mic pre or recording system. The
R-122 MKll's -15dB pad and bass rolloff switches let you
optimize the mic for any instrument.-John Jennings, Royer Labs

Sennheiser MK 4

$299.95 (Standard) or
$399.95 (Digital);
sennheiser.com; reviewed June 2012
The single microphone from the Sennheiser range we would recommend is the
MK 4 large-diaphragm condenser microphone. Depending on the singer/songwriter's recording gear, the microphone is
also available as MK 4 digital with Apogee

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RECORDING April 2018

http://www.roswellproaudio.com http://www.pelusomicrophonelab.com http://www.royerlabs.com http://www.rode.com http://www.sennheiser.com

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