Audio-Technica - AT4050

4050s all the way - vocals, drum overheads, acoustic instruments….

At4050 (condenser) if you like brighter, lot of hip hop people like em. Easily gainable. If you’re going to be getting close to the mic, an re20 (dynamic) combats proximity effect. Either one would work well, though def less gain on the re20. Keep in mind the more you compress, the more room you get. If the room is real bad, use a dynamic.

Yup, came here to say AT4050. Such a versatile mic, works--and works *well* on pretty much everything.

AT4050. It's well regarded enough that "hidden gem" is probably an overstatement, but honestly if you vaporized every single mic in every big name studio and replaced them all with AT4050s, everybody would be just fine. I almost always prefer my AT4050 over my C414. So it's a hidden gem in that I don't think people talk enough about just how excellent and versatile it is.

Choosing a mic is like choosing a wine. There is a price range and that drives what you would look for in a microphone. I'd say used is best use of funds. The $200-500 range on reverb has a lot of interesting choices. $500 - ADK Hamburg (pair - solid state 67 clone ) or pair Singular Audio 48 (u47 fet clone) or Neuman TLM102. sE z330a $400 - Avatone CV12, Warm Audio WA-87, Audio Techinca AT4050 and Weird Audio Little Red ( I own 2 of these myself - nice mic ) Lauten Audio LA-320 $200 - Oktava MK-319, Cad Equitek E100 ( look for American on 90s ) or CAD Conneaut Audio Device Equitek II (Early 90s) You can also look for 'modded mics' in this price range. Those should be upgraded mics with new components. Michael Joly used to do this about 10 years ago, but he stopped modding mics. There are other mic modders out there. Not a bad way to go take a $100 MXL and mod it.

If you’re able to put some heavy moving blankets w/ grommets on wall w/shower curtain or regular curtain rods on 2-3 walls you’d be amazed how much it could help your cause for under $100-$125. If you can eventually treat…..then hold off till you find a used AT 4047 or 4050. I’ve seen both go for under $200….and either are great mics that outperform a lot of more expensive mics. If treatment is not ever going to happen. I really think a dynamic mic is the way to go. Shure 58 is a great vocal mic. For SM7B money I’d rather have an EV RE20 any day of the week. Heil PR40 is another one to look at, but definitely lean dynamic if your room is untreated. Also, if you just want a new mic that is very good and inexpensive….the MXL BCD-1 broadcast mic is like $60 new on Amazon and hits well above that price. It may be a good solution if you want a new mic until you treat room and save up for better mics.

AT4047 is nice, but I think an AT4050 is even better. If you really want a U87 sound, get a Gefell UMT70S.

The vocals on this song were a low end large diaphragm condenser from audio technica and everything else but the drums were rode m5s or sm57. https://youtu.be/P_Vt-Y-U6zo?si=THJt4HiPjkFGmucw From my experience a good performance is what matters the most. The rest of that album was done with high end equipment in the studio but this track doesn’t sound much different even though it was tracked in the bands practice space with the most affordable equipment I could get ahold of. It comes down to good performance, good mic’ing technique and a good mix.

I absolutely love the Audio Technica AT4050. It's a workhorse that can sound good with mostly everything. You can also get one for a few hundred USD used.