AKG C3000 vs. Audio Technica 4040

See the thing is, I do not really get into topology, or the routing of the equipment. So I plead ignorance. I really do not have to deal with that. There are engineers that handle all of that for me. I am always trying to learn. I am simply paid to construct the music behind the vocals. Most of the time I track the vocals and level everything off. (meaning the up and downs in volume) Then i am done. I sometimes sit in on mixing sessions to put my two cents in. I know music and have an ear for it. I have been told this multiple times by major players in the game...I get paid well for what I do and normally I just get my money and go on about my way. Its all good though.
 
Mayh3mDaGlaD8R said:
Tube stuff always sounded a bit more "gritty" to me.....and "warm" like everyone says.....
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That shouldn't be the case unless you overdrive the tube and that's not what that gear was made for. I mean, you can hit on it a little but if it's getting gritty it's overdriving too hard and prob clipping. Not good.

When pro's say that it sounds warm, they have an ear that's noticing the smallest change in sound. It's not a big difference. If you want your music to sound "warm" the best way is with eq, not tube gear. Tube adds harmonics in the eq range that's considered to be "warm". The reason many solid state pieces do this the same, or even more, is analog anomalies and the circuit designed so. That's why I consider solidstate gear to have a more gritty, live and warm sound and tube gear to have a subtle warm clarity to it.
 
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I'd like here samples of 414's on vocals if anyone has em. Anytime I see em used they put on pianos and bongos or percussion instruments like that. Maybe even room mics for drums, even guitars but I never seen em on vocals.
 
GoodMoney said:
Ain't the 414 used for instruments more so than vocals? Like piano miking.
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Actually not at all. It's known to handle high spl levels that comes in handy when miking instruments but it's most known as a vocal mic. Although I've heard of it being used even on kick drums. Not on piano though. I'm sure it's been done, I've just never heard of that being a prime choice.

It gained a lot of hype in the hip-hop world due to it's high spl handling and the fact it sounds great on deep male vox. I just feel in love with it the first time I heard my own voice through it. To me that's how you know what a mic really sounds like.
 
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You can see that the 414's here (especially in the 1st pic) are used to create the stereo image for the piano. The two U87's are for the middle and back of the piano. Not in the pics is a U47 underneath which i suppose captures the reverb pedal but i don't know lol all i know is the recording came out dope as hell.

So just to show u guys one of the many uses for this microphone lol. Try the technique one day on ur own and see how sounds for ur recordings ya dig!!!


And sorry for the blurry pics, sidekicks i tell ya
 
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I have little to no experience at recording acoustic instruments aside from my guitar. That's valuable knowledge. That's the kind of stuff that get's you selected and paid over other people.
 
I don't know if that was a shot at me or not but I am a recording engineer. I live in ATL so 90% of the work I do is hip-hop and almost all of the people I record already have the instrumental so I track vocals. I get paid to record professionally in big studios for a living.
 
GoodMoney said:
Not in the pics is a U47 underneath which i suppose captures the reverb pedal but i don't know lol all i know is the recording came out dope as hell.
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Just to let you know...

A piano does not have a "reverb pedal"...

But what a piano's "sustain pedal" does is allow the piano notes to ring out longer (i.e., sustain) by taking the damper off of the strings.

...and the sound does not come from the pedal itself... It comes from the same place as all the sound from a piano comes from.

It does not come from the pedal any more than the the sound of the notes would come from mic'ing the keys of the piano.
 
Das y I said "I don't know" as in I'm not sure of the purpose of placing a mic under the piano. And the sustain pedal sound like reverb to me so for lack of a better word (i.e. sustain pedal), I called it reverb pedal. U focused on the wrong part of that post. We tlkn bout 414 usage and mic placement not the name of the pedals on the piano. And the U47 could be capturing the room noise under the piano which is a form of natural reverb so I was wrong and right at the same time lol. But anyway peace up! Hope the pics helped.
 
GoodMoney said:
Das y I said "I don't know" as in I'm not sure of the purpose of placing a mic under the piano. And the sustain pedal sound like reverb to me so for lack of a better word (i.e. sustain pedal), I called it reverb pedal. U focused on the wrong part of that post. We tlkn bout 414 usage and mic placement not the name of the pedals on the piano. And the U47 could be capturing the room noise under the piano which is a form of natural reverb so I was wrong and right at the same time lol. But anyway peace up! Hope the pics helped.
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I was just letting you know so you wouldn't go into a studio one day and tell them to "put a mic on the reverb pedal"...

I was giving you some rather useful information... I would think you would be happy to know this information.

Typically, when someone says they don't know something in a field they are working in and curious about and trying to become better in... They want to learn that thing they don't know. It does not usually mean "I don't know, so please do not tell me! I love not knowing things!"
 
i can dig it, but i already knew. just used the wrong word to describe it due to "lack of a better word" but u knew what i meant as well so with that logic i would think u would have known what i meant and not said anything since everyone else made the same assumption i did. But! i do appreciate the heads up, just took me off guard a lil bit that u wold point that out instead of maybe offering up some knowledge on the mic's specified in the thread. i get the feelin that im startin to bicker tho so i digress. lets try to keep this one of the more peaceful threads on fp lol 1!
 
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BigBrotherMotown said:
when I first started researching I tested the AKG 3000 and The at4040 side by side.....I went home with the AT4040.....

It is the TRUTH as far as I am concerned and it sounded MUCH better than the AKG on my voice.

Since then I have had the opportunity to record SEVERAL rappers and they ALL compliment me on my vocals....

Want an example....

Check out "SummerTime Girl" on my myspace link



PEACE
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What preamp do you use for that track? i've got a AT4040 with a Mbox 2 Pro and stuck on what Preamp to get. I've also looked up the P-Solo what you think?
 
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