Microphones

[M57]

I just purchased MT DAW today for my iPad, and I have to say I'm impressed. I was just using it with the supplied mic, then with mic/earbud combo.
Based on what I've read and what I'm hearing on my recordings, the onboard mic can't handle the transients of recording a piano, even at pretty low recording levels. I realize I need to get a better mic. I'll be using it for vocals, piano, guitar in a number of different settings, so I was looking at the Yeti, but I'm open to suggestions and I'm looking for a high quality mic and I don't mind paying $ for it. What I'm not looking for is a mic/pre-amp/converter/yadayada set up. I want this to be turn-key. My understanding is that whatever I get I'll need to get the ipad/pod "camera" adapter?

Thanks -M

[jkevinwolfe]

If you have a USB audio interface and the correct boxes and cables you can use any mic. A friend of mic is a mic freak (or is that "freq"?) and has a nice array. In comparison to some nice Shure's and Rode's and some serious equipment to make them work, I still think the Yeti sounds as good or better.

Where the Yeti really shows its stuff is in signal to noise. The yeti is 100 db down, which means there is no discernible hiss or hum to the signal. Its truly dead quiet. After running his more expensive mics through cables, connector boxes, power supplies and an expensive preamp, hiss was obvious until a gate was added. And then the gating was noticeable on quiet vocal passages. Eventually he added a downward expander to the chain and was able to reduce the noise to inaudible. But his setup cost about $2,000 and the Yeti sells for $150 and is pretty much hassle free. Unless you need very specific mics to mic specific things, the four patterns of the Yeti can handle most everyday micing needs and the camera connector is all you need to make it work.

I have also used the G-Track from Samson. This works with the Camera Connector kit as well and is the same price as the Yeti. It's a mono mic that also has a line input which is useful, since you won't need an extra USB audio interface. But the G-Track has no life to the sound and is very noisy.

[pwnified]

You may want to check out the m-audio mobilepre, its got a lot of features and has low noise. The instrument inputs also sound good. The s/n level is 91db, but we're at 16 bit anyway so 5db below max is not a huge deal.

[M57]

Just did a quick recording and overdub with the Yeti on my baby grand and I'm pretty thrilled! Clean, clear. Nice stereo image. I think I had the gain almost all the way down at the mic to avoid distortion. I'll have to do some more experimenting with proximity as it seemed to be quite sensitive. I'm redoing my studio which is in the basement and the piano must remain upstairs so this looks to be a fantastic solution for me. Just transfer a mix to the iPad, use the Yeti to record a piano part, then dump it down(stairs) to pro-tools or what-ever it is I'll be using..(I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with a Pro-tools set-up). No need to set up pre-amps and converters like the mobile-pre, which I think is the only other alternative.

[jkevinwolfe]

The only fault I've found yet in the Yeti is that it's sensitive. I have the knob turned all the way down for most everything and have to physically back off a little as well.

[pwnified]

Yeah the Yeti is sensitive. Has me worried about the new blue mikey because it uses the same (great sounding but highly sensitive) capsules.

[jkevinwolfe]

FYI: It appears the Yeti has some level processing built in. I haven't read about this anywhere, but I've noticed that the levels are fairly consistent when I work the mic a few inches away or a couple feet back. It doesn't sound like a compressor, so I'm assuming it's a limiter. And any distortion produced is consistent with how limiters handle it.

[kana]

Hi,

Some are saying every mic should work, mine don't, so I'd like to find out why. I can imagine this:
- I overlooked a setting in MT DAW to choose ext or in, maybe there is none as it's being switched to external automatically?
- I have a non-original connection kit (both slots in one piece, and a switch), maybe that's not compatible
- or maybe it's my mics, I tried both the one for the PS3 Rockband and the stereo connector of PS3 Singstar (both are working flawlessly on my Mac, the former is recognized as Logitec USB mic).

Any idea what the reason could be?

Regards, Kana

[pwnified]

Hi Kana,

I'm not sure what connection kit your using, the one supported by MultiTrack is the original iPad Camera Connection Kit made by apple. Do you use a different one?

The Rockstar mics are known to not work with multitTrack. MultiTrack requires a 44.1kHz sample rate for professional recording and those mics have been known to not deliver that. I'm not sure about the singstar mics, but it could be a similar situation with the wrong samplerate.

Hope this helps.

[kana]

Hi pwnified,

Yes, as I said, I do not have the original Apple connection kit, I have a 3rd party one.

An unsupported sampling rate would explain the issue. I need to check when I'm back home what Audacity reports for the mic properties.
Your statement about the sample rate puzzles me though: "MultiTrack requires a 44.1kHz sample rate". When I look at the Yeti specifications (which is on my list of mics to consider) @
http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/#/specs/
It says "Sample Rate: 48 kHz", so this mic shouldn't work either, but apparently it does, so what is true?

Thanks for your answer,
Kana