Less Expensive alternative to Sennheiser MD421-II

[glpg80]

I mean I do like the audix i5 for cheap mics but it’s something I’d add to an SM57 and then a condenser mic of some sort and not in lieu of.

 

[Greazygeo]

im not a fan either, plenty of guys get them to sound great though on a lot of things. i need to watch a 421 tutorial or something lol

I tried one for about six months. Even sent it back to Sennheiser cause I thought it must be broken. They replaced the capsule or whatever and the buzz was fixed but it still sounded terrible to me. No matter where or how it was placed...sold it and moved on.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I've been doing all my research the past week or so. I came across a really good comparison of a bunch of different mics with a bass amp/cab that was really helpful. I'll post that here & piggyback on @RaceU4her mic comparison thread to post it over there too.

I decided to go a slightly different path and get a large diaphragm condenser mic. I settled on a Sennheiser MK4 to pair with the SM57. It sounded pretty good with bass on the comparison clip mentioned above. I had an extremely hard time finding any examples with a guitar cab, most everything was acoustic or vocals. All reviews of it are positive so I think it just flies under the radar. I did fin one clip of it with metalish guitar where it sounded decent. I'll give it a shot and see how it works out. If isn't not good for electric I should at least be able to use it for good recordings of my acoustic instruments.

Sennheiser MK4


Mic comparison on bass amp

 

[BeZo]

I put an sE Electronics VR1 on everything to blend with the main mic. On guitar, it's a 57. On bass, I have really been digging the Audio-Technica ATM250DE dual element mic. It's a condenser and a dynamic in phase in one housing. I line those up with a dust cap and put the ribbon just on the edge of the dust cap so it's only a little coil and mostly paper. That the most transparent bass tone I've tracked to date. Plus, if you get the ribbon perfectly in phase alignment with the two sources from the ATM250DE, the three make for massive low end. You just need to make sure you shield the back of the ribbon to keep it from picking up the room reflections.

 

[panhead]

In general always had good luck with Audix

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I thought a lot of those sounded good and were very usable. Audix D6 I liked the scooped and precision of for bass though. Nicely eq'd and cuts. But as with all things nowadays, we almost have too many options and it can be overwhelming. It really kills creativity. I wasted hours last night EQ'ing toms between plugins and my board's eq to see which I liked better. Buzz kill obsession. I think the biggest challenge will not be the mic, but actually sitting your ass down from start to finish to create something.

 

[skoora]

I thought a lot of those sounded good and were very usable. Audix D6 I liked the scooped and precision of for bass though. Nicely eq'd and cuts. But as with all things nowadays, we almost have too many options and it can be overwhelming. It really kills creativity. I wasted hours last night EQ'ing toms between plugins and my board's eq to see which I liked better. Buzz kill obsession. I think the biggest challenge will not be the mic, but actually sitting your ass down from start to finish to create something.

Ive been on a kick lately of giving myself 5 minutes to get a sound. I've been recording long enough where I know what will work reasonably quick. But I just wanted to remove that overload of choices. I do just record farely basic rock/hard rock without a lot of frills though. Most of the time I spend is finding the right speaker for the amp and guitar I'm using and then the EQ is 90% done before I've clicked on the track insert. I've got a 4x12 with a different ceramic speaker in each slot and a 2x12 with different Alnico's. Lately been really digging my Fane F70 I got from Avatar for Marshall's and Boogies. Tames the top end fizz and gets a nice throaty midrange.

 

[fearhk213]

Fair enough… grab a BD 201, thank me later. Nothing sounds like a 421 at all. If you don’t wanna drop the cash on it, grab a 201. It’s far and away one of my favorite mics to blend with a 57. Put it about -16db under the 57, and watch at how much fatness and thick low midrange it adds to your tone. great great mic.

I’ve heard the 201 described as sounding not too dissimilar from a 57/421 blend. Have you found that to be the case?

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I thought a lot of those sounded good and were very usable. Audix D6 I liked the scooped and precision of for bass though. Nicely eq'd and cuts. But as with all things nowadays, we almost have too many options and it can be overwhelming. It really kills creativity. I wasted hours last night EQ'ing toms between plugins and my board's eq to see which I liked better. Buzz kill obsession. I think the biggest challenge will not be the mic, but actually sitting your ass down from start to finish to create something.

It's great to have choices, but yeah we're past the point of being overwhelmed with too much. That's 99.99% of the reason I stay away from modelers. You start thinking of the things you can do.... If I tweak this and this I can get that. By the time you finished turning knobs and dials, pairing this amp with that cab, mic placement, playing arouns with sims & IRs, etc., etc. you realize you've just wasted 10 hours fiddling around and accomplished absolutely nothing.

I know I have to watch myself and be mindful of going down the rabbit hole. I have to step back and tell myself to quit fiddling with all this shit and play the goddamn guitar.

 

[donalddemon]

57/421 is a classic combo for a reason. 57/441 is even better. Save your pennies and get the real deal.

 

[Spaceboy]

I’m a big fan of the Heil PR30 on guitar but doesn’t seem to get a lot of talk. I’ve never been big on a 421. But honestly like 90% I’ve done shootouts on mics, a single 57 just scratches the itch for me.