Topic: recorder/mic question-newbie

[tyler1234]

i have a sony m1 dat recorder and was wondering what mic would work best with this,used to have coresound mics but was very unpleased with these mics. i will be taping hard rock shows for the most part in clubs and arenas and did not want to spend over 200 dollars. a few people have recvcomended giant squid and church audio mics, all comments will be appreciated

[Belexes]

We don't care too much for the squid mics here. I fluff Church Audio a lot and the C-11's may get the job done for you paired with a 9100 pre. 

Move to solid state recording when you can. 24 bit and no more hunting for blank DATS.

[acidjack]

^^^ What he said.  The slightly larger AT U853 (aka the "SP-CMC-4" from Sound Professionals) will also fit the bill, as will Church's larger CA-14.  I believe SP also makes newer models (SP-CMC-22?) that are hypercardiod, which may be worth considering if you are going to be more in arenas than clubs. I personally do not like the sound of very small size hypers personally, but I never tape in arenas, either. 

If you buy from Sound Professionals or someone other than Church, make sure you get the "low sensitivity" modification. 

[Belexes]

Discounts:

From Soundpros, use "taperssection" in the coupon area and get a discount
From Church Audio, stay off his EBAY sales and buy here direct for loss. (PM or e-mail him)

[sunjan]

I fluff Church Audio a lot and the C-11's may get the job done for you paired with a 9100 pre. 

QFT, although it would be a bit over the OP's budget (at least brand new, maybe you can get lucky in the YS).
Perhaps you can haggle with Chris, or ask him to set up a combo offer:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=130844.0

[ilduclo]

I ran Coresounds for a couple of years, I found them to be decent budget mics, when the wiring was ok, but they were too poorly built to stand up.

What is it that you don't like about them? If they aren't getting you decent results, but are not giving you one channel drop outs (bad wiring), then there could be ways that we could reccomend to you to work them better.

Are these the standard CSB's with the battery box? If so, these are omni mics that need to have a decent signal. as they will pick up any surrounding noise/audience talk, etc. I used to "stack tape" in those situations, getting as close as I could to the stack of amplifiers, which would cut way down on the audience noise. They are not good mics for being in a big auditorium.

If you are getting distortion in your recordings, it could be that the mic set needs a new battery. or that you have your deck set wrong. I ran "line in" to my DAT with the cs mics, and changed the battery every 6 months and eliminated that issue. You also need to unplug the mics from the battery box when not in use, as it will otherwise drain the battery even when not recording.

I'd try a number of settings on the deck and mics, record some friends bands, or just go to some shows you don't care about whether the recording sounds good or not (country, hip hop or bluegrass would be my suggestions here ) and try to see if you can get this to work for you before buying more gear.

Let us know what your dislikes are and maybe put up an mp3 sample of what you don't like, and some folks here will be glad to help.

and, welcome to the board and to the taping community.