!44: Shure KSM44 Condenser Microphone For Recording Vocals and Acoustic Guitars

Monday, November 21, 2011

Shure KSM44 Condenser Microphone For Recording Vocals and Acoustic Guitars

!±8± Shure KSM44 Condenser Microphone For Recording Vocals and Acoustic Guitars

Sometimes I feel a little bit like the "pied piper" of the Shure KSM44 condenser microphone because I'm always telling everyone how great it is. Of course I'm not the only one. Jeff Strong recommended it in Home Recording For Musicians.

Strong made note of it's "neutral sound" which along with it's multipattern feature allows it to effectively capture any sort of sound source.

I can say from personal experience that I have found this to be the case. I have recorded many different things with this mic although I most commonly record vocals and acoustic guitars. I do not have a drum set but Strong says that it works well as a drum overheads mic. I have used to record tambourine and I found it to work very well for that task.

What does "neutral sound" mean? Well many mics boost certain frequencies when recording in order to make whatever is recorded with them sound "better" and in certain instancies that can be nice. But it's also a good thing to have a microphone around that captures the sound as it is without any embellishments.

What does it mean for a mic to be "multipattern"? Well in this case it means the microphone can be switched from three directional patterns: cardioid, figure-8, and omnidirectional. Cardioid means that the mic is picking up sound from the front but not from the back. Figure-8 means that the mic is picking up sound from both the front and the back but not from the sides. Omnidirectional means that the mic is picking up sound from all around.

In different circumstances different patterns can be more effective. The fact that you can switch from pattern to pattern with this mic is part of what makes it so versatile.

The Shure KSM44 condenser mic is not a cheap microphone. It costs about 0 new. But quality microphones are an important investment for any recording studio so it's certainly something to consider for anyone who has to money to spend on it and who wants to make professional sounding recordings at their home studio.