Good Quality Budget Music Gear
Music Gear that Offers the Biggest Bang for the Fewest Dollars
Every once in a while I discover some equipment that I think provides a lot of bang for the buck. The following list contains a few things that I believe represent a hidden gems for both the home recording artist and the professional studio owner. Check back often becauseI’m always adding new stuff as I find it.
The RNC (Or Really Nice Compressor
The FMR Audio RNC-1773. Called the “really nice compressor”, this unit blows the competition away. This is well-suited for front-end use while laying down tracks or as a mix-bus compressor. It has a “super-nice” mode that will allow you to do some pretty heavy compressing and limiting without any audible artifacts, but if you desire some “pump and breathe” it can deliver that too. FMR Audio includes sample settings that get you going without messing up your tracks. The best thing about this compressor is it’s price: two hundred dollars. I don’t think you can find another compressor that offers such great sound for under a couple thousand dollars.
Some Awesome Mics:
You can’t go wrong with the Shure SM-57. Street price: about $80. It’s not glamourous but it’s my number #1 mic. However, that you require a a good preamplifier. This can easily offset any cost savings over some other more expensive mics, but I believe everyone should own at least one.If you’re looking for a condenser microphone here are some that The Shure SM-57 is a good deal and you can find one for about $75 if you look reasonably hard. It does need a good preamp if you want to get the maximum oomph out of it, so overall it’s not exactly a bargain deal. But every semi-serious musician should have at least one.
Other Super Microphones
One of my favorites is the Rode NTK. This is a large diaphragm tube (valve) condenser mic. Any sound source you pick, it will sound great. On many tracks, such as a male baritone vocal, hand drums (and I record a lot of them), and percussion instruments (I record a lot of them too), this microphone sounds absolutely awesome. At about $500 for the microphone and a shock mount it’s a great deal.The Rode NTK gets more use than some mics that cost more than a thousand dollars.Sometimes it’s a little bright for some applications, however overall this microphone delivers.
Studio projects has two excellent condenser mics, the C1 and C3 models. The C1 has a cardioid pattern only while the C3 has cardioid, figure 8 and omni. Both microphones have good sound – low noise and clear, pleasing tones. They are not as good as the NTK nevertheless considering their prices (about $229 for the C1 and $349 for the C3) they are great deal for amateur. You won’t be disappointed with the sounds you get from these mics.The T3 condenser microphone by Studio project is supposed to be awesome.
Preamplifiers
If you’re looking for a top quality tube preamp at a good price I like the Peavey VMP-2 (yeah, that Peavey, but it does sound good). But chew on this. Can you find another tube preamp anywhere for under a thousand? It’s a tiny bit noisier (very little) than most of the more expensive vacuum tube preamplifier, but at less than half the cost you won’t be let down. Tip: to get the most out of this preamp don’t record all your tracks through it. Use it on percussion, bass, or vocals and use a transistor preamp for the remainder of the tracks. Don’t use it on each and every track or you add mud to your mix.
Thinking about making do with a transistor amplifier? Four hundred dollars gets you a 1202 VLZ that has four channels- that’s $100 a channel, plus you get a mixer to boot. Critics think that they make the tones brittle.But as long you don’t crank them too much, the tones has always been nice and clean for me.
If you can afford a few more bucks on a preamp and you don’t need a many channels try the Grace 101. It’s one channel with no extras, but it’s 500 dollars and it’s a clean and open preamp. The Gracehas a very musical sound and I love it on percussion (shakers and stuff) and instruments like acoustic guitar. One thing however: If you looking for “warm” this preamp isn’t the best out there for that. The Grace preamp will reproduce your sound source exactly like you hear it live. You must position your mics properly. Once you get the hang of placing your mics and getting a good source sound,
If you gotta have that Neve sound and can’t afford the 3 grand plus for an original, just try the Vintech 1272. $1,400 gives you two channels, and this preamplfier delivers the Neve sound without Okay, so you want the classic Neve sound but don’t want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars? Look hard in the classifieds and Ebay for a Vintech 1272, two channels for little over a grand and you got your Neve sound.
