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Hey so there's this big empty grain silo out in San Francisco that I want to record some acoustic guitar in. All I have is an sm 57 at the moment, and I'd love to get a mic that can capture the performance and the titanic reverb of the space at the same time. Don't really wanna spend much on mics.

Gonna be making some weird ambient black metalish stuff. I want to record the sound of the room and DI it with a pickup and some distortion at the same time.

Any good cheap options out there that will get the job done?

Yeah, the 57 is probably going to intentionally ignore as much of the ROOM as it can.

I'd reach for an omnidirectional condenser microphone myself, cheaper models might lean toward high frequencies, but if you're already planning on running a side of distortion the risk of losing any buoyant lushness is probably a minor concern.

Love silos, I got to record the inside of an empty water tank once. The onboard electret condensers on my Zoom portable did decent service, I'm betting you don't have to get fancy at all.

record an impulse response while you're in there!

But for real if the tools were available I'd probably close mic the instrument with its back against the wall and a gobo in front of it while setting a Blumlein pair in the center of the silo. Probably would point one of the figure 8 mics at the ceiling/floor and one perpindicularly at the walls.

What you want is a condenser with an omnidirectional polar pattern.

This is the cheapest you're gonna get:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ECM8000

This is a bit better quality:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/P420

Alternately I'd say to experiment with pulling the 57 away from the source a little further than you usually would. The required increase in preamp gain will pull in more of the roominess.

I think I want something like this as well, but I'm not really sure. I'm in the same boat of having a 57 and wanting something real different. I'm doing a cute project with my wife, her on uke and my self on electric with pedals. I want to record the uke so I can get as much resonance as possible (room mic, I assume?) my guitar pretty straight (57) and then our voices probably with the room mic as well.

Do you think the p420 would fit the bill pretty well?

The Monoprice mics have gotten quite a bit of attention, and at the price, they hardly seem like gambles. I haven't gotten around to picking one up yet, but I've been eyeing the LDC. Also look at the SDC pair... 100 bucks? Jesus. Plus additional capsule options. That could cover your omni needs...

http://www.monoprice.com/category/pro-a ... icrophones

You can also just put $100 in a box and set it on fire 3 months later.

GardenoftheDead wrote:You can also just put $100 in a box and set it on fire 3 months later.

Hahahahaha. I'm not usually one to offer cheapie mic options, but I've heard more good things about those than normal. Maybe it's just good judgement obscured by "whoa, so cheap."

EDIT/ADD: FWIW this is what initially sparked my interest about that mic in particular. http://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/96/60080 ... enser-mic/

Not that TapeOp's opinion confirms legitimacy, but it does make me less skeptical.

So, did you make it out to that silo?

Probably a day late and a dollar short, but if I were me I'd use a Zoom H2N. $160 bucks from Amazon. Not the best mic in the world, but it'll give you five channels of sound and the recorder baked in. Relatively idiot proof, which would be a huge plus for me in a field recording situation like this. H2N + a stand is all you need for recording, and you do the heavy lifting back at home when you mix.

I spent no time at all the other day working on song ideas with a friend the other day and I mic'd my acoustic with a Rode NT1a that I got for like $200 and it really sounded great. I just had it a foot or so back and it was big, deep and airy in a carpeted room. Where is this grain silo? I'd love to play around with recording in a place like that.