i say get the NT6 and you have some economic actives, actives are all the rage on TS
FWIW Terry Manning likes rode mics too.
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/mv/msg/7346/0/32/17411/"Let me elucidate further for the purposes of clarification. I am tiring of posts regarding Rode microphones, and of being associated with being a "mouthpiece" for them. But it is important that my words explain the enormity of the awakening I had regarding the brand.
Before December of 2004, I hated Rode mics (not having ever used one of course). I had no idea at all where they were made, what the people involved were like, or what their goals were. I had publicly derided Rode in the same breath as several other "non-standard" microphone brands.
I was virtually forced against my will and better judgement to use MANY of their mics on a project while tracking in Australia, and I was completely taken by surprise when they worked just fine at a professional level. That actually made me feel bad about how I had previously felt, and what I had previously said. That is why I made the post on the Compass Point Studios website.
While on that same Australian four month trip, and after successfully using the microphones and commenting about them to the studio owner and manager, Rode invited me to visit their factory. I had not even known that the mics were made there...that's how oblivious I was to the brand. I made that factory trip, and met the people involved. I was very impressed. This was not a company outsourcing products from China or other places, just marketing someone else's product under their brand name. This was a dedicated group of music loving (and playing, in many cases) people who genuinely cared about music and their product's quality. Vintage Neumann and AKG mics were sitting in their test room for comparison. They wanted to know exactly what I thought about their mics, both good and bad, in the hopes of continually improving them. The factory was state of the art, and had cost well over $25 million to build. They made their own capsules (I saw it), made their own bodies, electronics, grilles, everything. Their goal was to make the very best product at any price, but to also make it in quantities which made the cost of the final product as affordable as possible. This is a new business model borne of the computer revolution's opening up of the marketplace into the home and garage. This attempt at pricing structure was never possible before. But the goal was, and is, to make the best product they possibly could to serve the music. And of course, at the end of the day, to make money with a successful business. Why else would they invest so much to begin with?"
