First vocal mic you would have bought if....

[Bob Olhsson]

Lots of mikes will beat an 87 on one source. Change sources and it requires a different mike to beat it. Drop it into a mix, apply some eq and you'll hear why it's been our go-to vocal mike since the late '60s. Nobody has ever been happy about the cost. Also a lot of them have been ruined by "modifications."

[groundcontrol]

Agreed. The UMT70 is very close to the 87. Just a micro tad darker, which can be good with some voices/when someone's belting.

Both are great tom/floor mics.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Nobody has ever been happy about the cost.

Learn me something Bob - how much did these used to cost? What year ?

U87 can't be 1987 right?

[Shifted Music]

I would also say look for a OLD U87.

Im sure there's plenty of folks but Bill Bradley was my dealer for a while...

http://www.micshop.com

get in touch and tell him what your looking for and he will keep you in mind when he runs across one.

[shtik]

Good recommendations here..

My point of view is a little different here: Since you're starting out, you can get overwhelmed by everyone's opinions, even before you know how these mics even sounds like..

I would not jump now and spend $1500 on a mic. There are good mics in a lower price range. I have good experience with MXL mics, and can get a good recording out of them, great value mics overall.

In what room are you going to record your vocals? In a bad room, even a good classic U47 or M49 can pick up some nasty resonances and make your vocals sound cheap. So if your room is not treated well acoustically, I would spend a good portion of the money on treatment.

You will have to go and test mics for yourself before spending so much money on a mic that you could end up blaming for not having the quality of recording that you're after.

I would start with a decent mic for a third of your budget, treat your room acoustically to eliminate bad resonances, and learn how to record your vocals properly.

[YYR123]

Great point - where I'm at there is a business that rent music equipment

All kinda of cool stuff - API, portico high quality stuff and yes even some Austrian companies that do mic's - check into a monthly rate it's usually pretty affordable

[mesaone]

If I were to do it over again, I would buy a Michael Joly mic (or two).

For $350, you can get what is essentially a U87 clone. http://www.oktavamodshop.com/product...roducts_id=209

And I do love the U87 on vocals. Check out this graph showing how the Joly mic has a frequency response exactly like a U87, up to 3.9 kHz... And tracking it very closely above that point.

[Bob Olhsson]

They were $350 in 1967 which beat $500 for s 67. You could also buy a new car then for less than $2000. Of course it was also about getting your boss to buy one.

[webstersp]

thanks all for your help!

I've got a room build for my home studio and acoustic treatment is excellent.
I got no vocal booth but I think that this room can get the job done.
I finally bought the apollo quad, bought the rokit 5 g3 a month ago but had a very good price on mint adam a5x yesterday so I also pulled the trigger on them!

There no store around town where I can try different mics, so this is why I was asking for help.
I think that i might end up buying a few cheap different mics and give them a try and see which one fits my voice the best.
Then start from there, and start looking for something better.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by webstersp

...I think that i might end up buying a few cheap different mics and give them a try and see which one fits my voice the best...

Great idea. Find a seller that will sell you 2-3 mic choices, and accept returns on the ones that do not work for you.