I have only recorded classical chamber groups in the past, in warm acoustic rooms with a stereo pair of cheap condensor mics: I am wanting to get a set of mics that I will be able to use with a range of acoustic instruments (strings, wind & brass), but firstly to individually mic a string quartet.

Any suggestions at all? Ideally, I would like to keep my budget under £600 (eBay if necessary!!) for 4.

Cheers

John

4 good mics on such a small budget? I can recommend the Oktava MK-012 (export Nickel version). They are sort of like the swiss army knife of microphones. I picked up a pair (at $120 for 2-but that was an in store special price) a few years ago and have used them on strings, acoustic instruments, drum overheads even choir vocals in a pinch and they output a very natural sound. The only thing is, it would be recommended to purchase matched pairs of them-I tried 8 of them when I was buying and each had a slightly different sound, but was able to match up a pair of them. If I had known how usefull they were at that time, I would have bought another 2 pairs! They are sensitive to bursts of air-so I would use pop filters/screens in close micing situations.

Are you getting paid for this job?

If so, save your money and go and rent two nice Neumann TLM193s, two Grace 101 preamps, an Apogee Rosetta 200, and some large mic stands.

Set the Neumanns about 10-feet up, in an X-Y configuration. Plug the 101s into the Rosetta.

Press record. Tell the players to start playing. Enjoy.

Seriously, if you're getting paid for this, then you'll want better results than you can get for your budget. The Neumanns will be sweet, and the Grace 101 is CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN, which is what you want for string quartets. You don't want to track strings through a Neve if you expect a 'proper' classical recording (whatever that means!).

If you want to invest in something, I'd spend your money on one component of this (maybe the preamps or the converters), and rent the mics. Then upgrade your mics later. But you wont get 4 nice mics for that price. You'll get 4 ok mics, or 2 nicer mics. Don't buy just to buy. Save, and buy quality, and you'll thank me in the end.

This post has been edited by edge100: Tue 21 Mar 2006, 20:28

i use rode nt1 also nt5 mached pairs

I can wholeheartedly recommend Rode NT5´s, especially for the price. The bleed sound is not as crisp as, say, KM184 but as you´re going to semi-close mic the quartet it´s not going to be a problem. Get them as matched pairs, you can buy room mics on your budget as well ! You should also check the new models from DPA, the 4090 series, they are very good microphones and while I´m at it the miniature DPAs are also worth trying.