Neumann TLM103

[Zed Peace]

thoughts on it? any better ones on that price range.

[Kris Cain]

mojave ma200 is another good mic in that range.

[WareProductions]

have you treated your recording environment yet?

[Opie M.]

I have a Bock u195. I like it a lot.

[Paze]

I have a Bock u195. I like it a lot.

Ive heard of that... never seen it though. Seems to be uncommon

Id say the Neumann is probably the best for $1000 and its probably the most common. I know someone trying to sell a Blue Cactus for only £700 (2nd hand but in perfect condition) if youre interested?

[Opie M.]

I purposely picked an uncommon mic. Mine is actually Soundelux but they changed names to Bock. Great mics. I got mine used from Gear Orphanage for $800.

[Kris Cain]

Id say the Neumann is probably the best for $1000 and its probably the most common.

common isnt always the best...

for instance... nuemann is a common brand name... brauner isnt.

yet... brauner mics are crazy

http://www.mercenary.com/braunervma.html

so dont get caught up in the name game.

just like avalon is a common preamp name... dw fearn isnt...
and apogee is a common convertor name, antelope isnt... and neither is prism sound... yet there both better than apogee.

[Opie M.]

word. i agree with everything except the converter deal. I've read so much about high end converters and not a single person can legitimately explain how one is better than the other. When people do tests on these converters they're always on some "this converter just has a certain sound" like some unexplainable crap. I'm saying fuck that. If a person can't compare the difference between the same audio captured head to head thru multiple units, using descriptions that make sense like "the highs were attenuated by such and such amount" then the differences are in their head as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I just haven't found a good article about the subject, but I've read threads on gearslutz that are pages long of bickering back and forth about the most miniscule nonsense. and these arguments are from people like Bob Katz. If Bob Katz can't explain this to me then no one can lmao.

We DID do our own test i one of the studios at school. They run Apogee 16x converters in and out of Logic. We opened a wav, sent it out of the apogee and patched it right back in. Listened back... no one claimed to tell the difference other than the signal being slightly lower. But analog signals always decrease when converted to digital. We did a phase flip on the new recording and nudged it's gain just a hair and the playback of the session was completely silent, which means the 2 tracks were identical.

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but my next purchase will be pro converters. I've been doing tons of research, and the topic is pissin me off. I'm probably goig with Apogee only because of features. There's no other company doin like apogee when it comes to DAW integration (as far as I can tell). Maybe Kris can school me on some shit that I don't know about yet.

*looks at the Masterlink and Soundelux mic*

[Kris Cain]

word. i agree with everything except the converter deal. I've read so much about high end converters and not a single person can legitimately explain how one is better than the other. When people do tests on these converters they're always on some "this converter just has a certain sound" like some unexplainable crap. I'm saying fuck that. If a person can't compare the difference between the same audio captured head to head thru multiple units, using descriptions that make sense like "the highs were attenuated by such and such amount" then the differences are in their head as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I just haven't found a good article about the subject, but I've read threads on gearslutz that are pages long of bickering back and forth about the most miniscule nonsense. and these arguments are from people like Bob Katz. If Bob Katz can't explain this to me then no one can lmao.

We DID do our own test i one of the studios at school. They run Apogee 16x converters in and out of Logic. We opened a wav, sent it out of the apogee and patched it right back in. Listened back... no one claimed to tell the difference other than the signal being slightly lower. But analog signals always decrease when converted to digital. We did a phase flip on the new recording and nudged it's gain just a hair and the playback of the session was completely silent, which means the 2 tracks were identical.

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but my next purchase will be pro converters. I've been doing tons of research, and the topic is pissin me off. I'm probably goig with Apogee only because of features. There's no other company doin like apogee when it comes to DAW integration (as far as I can tell). Maybe Kris can school me on some shit that I don't know about yet.

*looks at the Masterlink and Soundelux mic*

im not well versed in the convertor wars...

but...
i am able to tell the difference in one converotr box versus another... the differences are only subtle sometimes...
convertor boxes are novelty items imo.

they're not absolutely required in order to make a great recording, but if you have the money to spend on esoteric conversion.. then do so.

Because in the music industry there is a such thing as "good enough"... like when you start getting up in the PTHD realm of convertors/interfaces... and the Apogee stuff.

Because once you go past that, your pretty much in the mastering realm. Were you may pay upwards of 6000 dollars to get a "high end that's slightly more open"... lol.

I think once you get up into that argument... it becomes counter productive, because your forgetting about the music.

[Opie M.]

word man. that's my take. Only reason I'm even in the market for converters is because I want to do away with my interface in the studio. I just want to be able to interface all my equipment thru the converters and go directly in and out of the DAW from there. I've grown out of having an interface that has everything built in. With the converters I can just buy what I NEED and add more later without sacrificing quality for built in pre's that I'm not going to use etc.

The funny thing is, I've read blind tests that people have done and they could tell the difference from one to another but couldn't tell which one was the "better" unit. But most can tell the difference between actually having a dedicated converter and just having like an HD interface.

Have you seen the latest Apogee setups now tho? Firewire or HD connectivity, stackable up to 96 ins/outs lol. and they're all finally PC compatible. This is almost definitely the route I'm goin.

[Kris Cain]

yea, that apogee setup would be dope

i would be good with just 8 I/O for what i do... firewire based
and a good A-Designs stereo preamp...

cuz i want to get a fantom g, a motif xs, and a korg m3...
of course all this after i get a quad core comp (2nd generation quad core)...

[Opie M.]

yea I'll probably start with a Rosetta 800. 8 ins and 8 outs is good enough for me at this point. I'd really like to have an x16 A/D tho because I want to be able to hook up an 8 channel pre alog with all my other gear. But by the time I have the mics and stuff I can just add another rosetta lol

[Zed Peace]

sidetracked a bit there. anyways, what would be a good add on to a mic within this price range that have their own phantom power. A signal processor of some sort?

[Kris Cain]

sidetracked a bit there. anyways, what would be a good add on to a mic within this price range that have their own phantom power. A signal processor of some sort?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ME1NV/