Blogging in B Minor

I have tried quite a few condenser mics over the years – ribbons too. I’ve tried some rather expensive mics in pro studios such as Neumanns. As much as the Studio Projects C1 won’t compare to a $1,500 Neumann vocal mic, this mic ranks up there as high as you can go for the cost – a mere $250. I have used this mic exclusively for vocals, however, many have used it for close miking of instruments as well as a spot mic for wind instruments, strings, percussion and guitar amps. To give you some particulars (and if you don’t know technical details about mics, you can just skip the rest of this and go try one out!), the Studio Projects C1 is a large diaphragm, fixed-cardioid condenser microphone employing a 1.06” (27mm) capsule, high quality, low noise amplifier and balanced, transformerless output circuitry. It features switchable -10dB or -20dB pad and 6dB@75Hz or 150Hz high pass filter for added control in various recording applications and a clear, full response expected from a large capsule microphone design.

Another note – as the saying goes, your signal is only as good as your weakest link so make sure you have good mic pres. I’m using the E-MU 1820m which utilizes the same pres as in the ProTools setup. These pres coupled with the C1 create great vocal tracks. One of the chief complaints with the digital environment has always been that the resulting tracks lack the “analog warmth” that you used to be able to get from direct to tape recording. This mic doesn’t leave that type of artifact on your tracks at all. You don’t need to run this through any type of analog simulation plug-ins (and I haven’t found this necessary with other tracks anyway for the most part).

I would highly recommend checking this mic out if you can. Go someplace where you can lay down a track with it. You won’t be sorry.

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