Studio Microphones | Styles Recording Studio

Running a recording studio makes you wear many hats and one of those is researching and purchasing new or used recording equipment which for me is actually a wonderful pastime, spending hours looking at reviews and reading blogs in my small amounts of spare time. I learnt really quickly back in the early 90’s ,when I ran a small studio from a converted garage, that buying a newly released piece of recording gear off the back of one great review in a magazine was a bad idea most of the time.

Now I find the best way forward when buying recording equipment with my well earnt savings is to do as much research as possible and buy tried and tested gear that you know will do the job well and also keep it’s value to a point. There’s nothing worse than seeing something you paid £1000 for two years down the line on Ebay for a few hundred pounds and even worse there’s ten of them for sale.

My microphone collection started with a AKG c3000 condenser mic. I think it was just over £100 back in the 90’s and I did some good recordings with it but soon realised one mic was not enough and so the collection begins. The c3000 actually packed up years ago but here is a list of my current mics used at the studio. 

Neumann U87 Ai,   Neumann TLM103,   S.E. Z5600 valve mic,   Neumann Km 184  (matched pair),   Shure SM7b,  SE Ribbon Mic,  S.E. 4400s x 2,   Rode NT5  x 2,   Rode NT2 x 2,  Sennheiser E604 x 4,   Sennheiser E602,    AKG D112,   Audix D6,    Solomon SubKick mic, Sontronics STC1,   Shure Sm58s x 5,  Shure Sm57s x 4.

It took some years to get my head around spending over £2000 on the Neumann U87 microphone. I think what tipped the balance and made me spend the money on this go to mic for vocals and a whole load of other uses, was when a singer came in with her own U87. I was so impressed by the top end clarity and fullness of the singers vocals and that was the point I started saving.

Another time when I was fortunate enough to be working with Marcus Mumford on a Tom Morello album and Marcus came along with his Shure SM7b, a mic I hadn’t actually used before. Off the back of that session I went ahead and bought one. It is an excellent all-round dynamic mic for £350 and would make a great first purchase for anyone starting out or just add one to your mic collection. The Shure SM7b has many uses as well as vocals. It’s great as a first or second mic on guitar amps and drums to name a few uses.

If I was starting out again I would go for a few Shure SM57s, a ShureSM7b, a pair of good condensers like SE electronics 4400a and a pair of Oktava mk 012. You could add to this list, and everybody has their own favourites but these mics for me would be a great starting point and give some great professional recordings.

Good luck with your recording journey.