Just as a note: The ECM MS907 is powered: has a AA battery inside and needs to be switched on. I get good gain without a preamp on my Mac.
A good mike with a mini recorder is nice to keep in your whistle bag. When you find a professional or just a good musicina playing a tune you like and they are nice enough to lay down a tune for you. It makes a big difference when you get home and record it to your hard drive so you can use transcribe or slow downer to learn the tune.
I have tried to use cool edit to remove the hiss from recording but it does strange things to the music so I am looking for a better inital recording.
Oh, santa, hurry up! I may just have to use Santa Mastercard TODAY at etronics.
ya never know when they might stop shipping containers for a strike!!!
New plan: Okay, so I buy the mic but Santa brings me a recorder so I can be like Wizzer and catch tunes here and there…
Thanks, Bloomfield. Nice to be had. Now I’m gonna hafta get a nickname, profile and quote.
BrassBlower: Why not go out of the headphone jack instead of the speakers? Much easier. Remember that the volume and tone controls are still active.
Wizzer: The 907 will work fine with a microcassette, but remember that the mic is stereo. Is your recorder? Sounds like overkill, unless you plan to get a better recorder some day. You would do fine with a Radio Shack electret for $25-30. Electrets have much clearer sound on cheap recorders, especially at this price range. Stay away from those $9.99 dynamic “cassette recorder” mics. Repeat after me: ELECTRET.
Sturob: Am I right about the battery?
A good mic is one that does the job at a price you can afford and matches the situation. For stereo recording on-the-fly you want a reasonably small mic with a mini-plug. Radio Shack $30, SONY 907 $70, Audio-Technica $225, RODE $450. (The $100 Soundprofessionals that MandoPaul mentioned is good, too, so I’m told. No personal experience.) More money gets you better sound and more durability. Any of them will do fine if you are recording an old button-box player to learn tunes. Use a foam windscreen on any mic you’re using to record whistle players, brass or otherwise! If you adapt a regular (non-stereo, XLR or phone-plug) mic to a small recorder, do NOT put a lot of weight on the plug that goes into the machine! Use adapter CABLES, not plugs. And try to go into the recorder with a right-angle plug, so you don’t have this thing hanging off the machine waiting to be broken off.
By the way, in a pinch you can use dynamic headphones for a mic! (I once had to do this for an interview with the mayor of Urbana when my regular mic cable crapped out.)
On 2002-11-27 13:05, ELLIOTT wrote:
BrassBlower: Why not go out of the headphone jack instead of the speakers? Much easier. Remember that the volume and tone controls are still active.
Actually, on my Peavey combo amp, the preamp output and the headphone jack both serve pretty much the same function, but for some reason, the preamp output seems to provide a better output for recording. It’s just that I do have to unhook the speaker.
To Wizzer, my fellow Cool-Edit-Head and Mary C. fan, thanks for the tip. I will definitely add a mini recorder to my Christmas wish list!
While this thread is mostly about mics to use with recorders (not the type that cannot be referred to on this board), I’ve got a stage mic question: in looking at the Lunasa stage specs, I noticed that the three melody instruments use SM58’s, not SM57’s, as I would have expected. Any thoughts on why?
Micah
On 2002-11-27 12:35, The Weekenders wrote:
New plan: Okay, so I buy the mic but Santa brings me a recorder so I can be like Wizzer and catch tunes here and there…
My plan percisely. I have cast my eyes on one of those Sony N707 jobs, complete with car adapter. $180 at etronics.com …
I’m a material boy. 
Micah: SM58’s have both an equalization curve and an enhanced proximity effect that favor vocal sources over instrumental sources, so say the experts. Overall, the SM57 is a subjectively flatter-sounding mic. Perhaps Lunasa likes the punch that the 58’s give to the instrumental sound, over the 57’s. IMHO, the Beta 57 gives the best of both worlds. For live sound whistle reinforcement, we use them, exclusively. For recording, we use any number of vacuum-tube based microphones.
Best to you.
Byll
I still haven’t bought another mike, but let me thank everyone for responding . . . great discussion of microphones!
Stuart
Bloo and Enders -
The ECM-907 has two recording modes, for different levels of stereo splitting. 90 degrees and 120. 90 is more directional. I mostly record on 120 and it seperates the left and right quite nicely. When I record a session I pay attention to where I place the mic, the position it points, and who is sitting where. It’s really cool to put on headphones later and hear the woodwinds on your left, the strings on your right, or something like that. Also when people talk while crossing the room you can hear them shift from one side to the other. It’s really cool. You can close your eyes, picture the room, and feel like you are back at the session.
Also, the battery power - I have a tendency to forget to turn off the mic. I don’t know how far that runs down the battery because there is no power level indicator. I typically play it safe and swap out the AA if I’ve left it on overnight or something. If you pull off the foam wind shield thing, when you turn on the mic, a red light will flash (you can’t see it if the foam is on.) Just a bit of info for you.
Also some tips for recording sessions. Place the mic away from the pipes, and close to the bodhran if it’s a deep one like a Halpin. Don’t record on LP4 if you have whistles near the mic because on the higher notes there will be a bit of distortion. Doesn’t seem to happen on LP2 though. It picks up voices really well, so if you are messing with the recorder remember not to say anything, lol. And it’s worth it to keep the recorder near you so you can make track marks without renewing attention to the fact that you’re recording.
I love it when you instruct me, Ava.
Hey! Don’t forget the Sharp MDMT-2001 minidisc recorder! Same price as the Sony, quieter motor, easier to use, aand you can adjust recording level while you’re recording. Based on past experience, sounds better, too. And the headphone / line output is 10 mV on the Sharp versus 5 on the Sony. Check it out, bro!
Minidisco has 'em, last I looked.
IMHO, don’t record anything important on LP4. It is good for recording overnight radio or all of Weekend Morning Edition when you’re sleeping off the night before.
Great info on the 907. Thanks!
Anyone know if those no-moving-parts recorders are any good?
Let me throw a curve ball here. I’m very happy with the Microvox flute mic. I think I paid less that $150 for the setup. It’s an electret and you can position it wherever you can strap the velcro. It wouldn’t be good for picking up a session (omnidirectional electret) but it is good for a single instrument. I can actually put a guitar and whistle through the same power supply at the same time (using two mics into the power supply).
Anyway, wanted to give another thought. I’m looking at a studio mic as well, but the Microvox has been working fine for my ‘studio’ work.
Here’s a recording (since it’s Thanksgiving, I figure that we’re a go for Christmas music): http://www.tullberg.com/Silent.mp3
And here’s the mic: http://www.microvox.demon.co.uk/flutepage.htm
[ This Message was edited by: ErikT on 2002-11-28 02:43 ]
Is this Mic worth looking at for recording on Mini-Discs. If not, why not?
ErikT,
check out the Earthworks omni´s for studioworks. They are AMAZING for studio and live recordings. These mics can be compared favourably to most/any mics out there.
QTC1 is wonderful but there are cheaper alternatives as well.
I´ll try to post a link soon to some simple recordings on whistle and guitar done in real acoustics as well as studio.
They sound SOOOO GOOOOD , sitting in a church or similar, whistling a simple melody or just strumming a simple chord, after recording this I can sit for hours and listen over and over again with my HD600 or big hi-end rig, and just be amazed by the magic of music and sound.
/Peter
On 2002-11-28 15:04, WhistlingGypsy wrote:
Is this Mic worth looking at for recording on Mini-Discs. If not, why not?
Problem with mics that plug in directly to your md recorder and sit right there on the casing is that you are likely to pick up engine noise from the recorder. This is definitely a problem on the Sonys, less so on the Sharp md’s, I hear. You can always fix it with a 1/8" extension cable, but then you might get an mic with a cable in the first place.
I don’t know that specific mic you posted.
Mini disks;
Are they a passing fad. What happens if you drop your recoder or your dog throws it around, or your cat decides to knock it to the floor.
What is a good combination of Recoder and Mic at an affordable price. Let make a buget of $150.00 US and see what we come up with.
a Radio Shack electret for $25-30. Electrets mic with a PANASONIC QR400 DIG MIC REC 400MIN I found this one for $125.00 but out of stock.
Pro and cons of different set ups would be a nice learning tool for the rest of us.
Surely, surely, Dini Miscs are a fassing pad.
Hi Folks,
IMHO, although I’ve only just got an MD Recorder and mic set-up I think they’re a bit of a one trick pony. Unless Sony makes them more PC friendly they’ll be overtaken by MP3/WAV player/recorders. If I had been in a position to wait I would have. I think that the main problem as far as most of the members on this board are concerned is that MD Recorders have too many features that are’nt of any value if you simply want to record a session or lessons. The result of this is that you end up scrolling through a multitude of options to set it up the way you want. On a more positive note, the quality of recordings whether using a mic or transferring from a CD player is excellent, even on LP4 and battery life is also very good. I should add that I’ve got a Sony MZ-R909 AND ECM-MS907 mic.
Cheers, Mac
The mike I use on my Sony mini disc player is a cheap computer mike from Maplins. under £10.00 it sticks to the top of the minidisc. It is a bit like a mini shaped mouse. I find it is great from recording our teaching sessions and the odd time when you need to record music.