Mike, if you know that you like some recordings that have been made with a particular type of microphone, I think your next step might be to find out how those recordings were made if you can. It's possible that the people running those mikes were using an approach that differs from what you are used to. If you can try an approach like theirs with your (best) present equipment, you might find that you already have more possibilities than you had realized previously.
On the other hand, I must admit that I've sometimes had just the opposite experience. When I was just starting out I used to bug a more experienced engineer in my hometown to let me come with him to concerts that he was recording. Then I would try to use the same equipment and the same techniques--but my results never quite sounded like his, because everyone listens a little differently. But I still learned a lot by doing that.
Anyway my main point is that some mikes may be better than others, but the best mike is the one that's in the right place at the right time. And you may well be able to place the ones that you know best, while with "better" microphones (yes, of course some microphones are objectively better than others) that you don't know well, you might very well be unable to estimate the effect of placing them a certain way.
I mean, as a musician, I know that there are better instruments than the ones I own--but if you give me a better instrument five minutes before a big performance, I'm not going to play very well because the unfamiliarity of the instrument would be such an obstacle that I wouldn't be able to get around to its advantages; that takes practice.
Does that make sense?
--best regards
Topic: looking for opinions on mics??? (Read 4765 times)