Rode NT-1 microphone

yesterday i did some VO recording with a Rode NT-1 cardiod mic
sounded pretty good to me. (especially for the price)
good enough to consider buying my own

anyone used this mic,
and have an opinion on it?

thanks,
nick

ive been using NT2's for like 8 years now and for the money, ALL the rode products are unbeatable.

the only thing better than an NT1 is an NT2, and the only thing better than an NT2 is a neumann TLM 103 and its like 300-400 dollars more...

worth it? maybe, but not a night and day difference

keep in mind, when i say "the only" i mean that from a vaule perspective only, you can spend $4000 or more on a mic and some people will hear a difference (in a proper studio, if given an A/B test), but will your end user? DOUBTFUL!

Hi,

I've got the NT1-A and am very pleased, particularly as a VO and vocal mic.
It's a great value.

What Wayne says, but additionally, there are different mic's for different things for very good reasons, as I'm sure you know.

I wouldn't try to use the Rode NT1 for ADR that's intended to blend seamlessly with production audio recorded with a 416 if I had a more appropriate choice- though it might be possible to do.

Each design and model is a solution to a different problem.

That said, Mike, go for the Rode with confidence that it's a good product.

tc

man, we could go on for pages about "horses for courses" mic wise. if one wanted to one could line up two dozen $2000+ mics and each one would sound a bit different.

a lot of it comes down to what you as an audio engineer likes and what you are trying to capture. personally, ive only gone as esoteric as the neumann u87 (or u - whatever that classic $3000 model is) and from what ive heard beyond that, its just a matter of - "i heard that mouse fart, NO, i heard that other mouse fart and there was an extra .0002db at 12k" or some wacky crap like that...

as ive said before, once you get beyond about $700 in a VO mic, its all taste ( or application specific) beyond that

Asking which mic is best is like asking a musician which guitar is best. The choice depends on personal taste, the voice of the talent, the "style" of the production and performance, the recording acoustic environment, and the playback situation. I've heard great things about the Rhode mics, they are always compared to the legendary Neuman U87. Is the U87 the best mic?

Several years ago I had the opportunity to record on the Neumann TLM-103. Until then I thought I sounded better on the U87 than anything else - but not $4000.00 better than my $350.00 Audio Technica 3035. The TLM-103 sounded, to my ear, darned close to the U87. One week later, I bought one. To my ear, the both the TLM-103 and the U87 posess what I would call a "transparency" - I don't hear the mic, just the sound. Yet I wouldn't say they don't "color" the sound, they do, but in a positive way. The one time I recorded on a Rhode, it sounded good, but I still heard the microphone - I don't know how to describe it - it's like I can hear the metal body surrounding the microphone's transducer. Somehow the Neumanns get around creating that sound.

In a "live" or noisy acoustic environment, I would be inclined to use a "shotgun" mic. If I was a Disc Jockey, or in a "busy" work environment where I would have trouble keeping my position with the microphone, I would use something like the Electro-Voice RE-27 ND, which can tolerate changes of distance to the mic without being able to hear it. And in the right situation, a lavelier would be appropriate.

If I was recording something to be played only on AM radio, I would probably go with a Beyer ribbon Mic to get around the dullness of AM.

I like the Neumanns partly because they work for me. My paticular sound tends to be "warm", "reassuring" and "sophisticated" - which is complimented by the Neumann. If I were more of an "edgy" or "youthful" announcer, I'd probably prefer some of the shotguns.


But that's all just my "taste". Other audio people will have totally different views.



Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

thanks for the responses.

i didnt want to start another round of "best mic",

at AU$400 i know it wont be the "best"
and i also know that chasing the "best" in audio can be a descent into the world of the weird and super rich:
every now and them i flip thru some of those "superior hi-fi" mags or whatever they're called.
Man! US$5,000 for a 4 way power board! (no kidding)

i;ve got a Sennheiser 416, and some fairly cheap Sennheiser radio mics,
but i don't really have a mic that i could record decent VO on.

we originally rented a Neumann to do our first few lots of VO on.
i wish i know the model, but when i asked how much it cost, i was told around AU$2,000
we were also going thru some sort of pre-amp (it was all set up be a local audio guy)
subsequently we recorded a few lines while doing our first mix, on another studio mic.
they sounded a lot brighter, i;d even say "thinner"

anyway, we've needed to do some more, and the Neumann and pre-amp weren't available anymore,
so we used the Rode, plugged straight into the camera and into FCP
we were all pretty much knocked out by the quality (especially compared to our initial scratch VO using the camera shotgun: also a Rode)

it works so much better with the Neumann than the other studio mic, whatever that was.

anyway,
thanks again for the feedback,
nick

The Rode is superb at the price. I use one here. Neumann's are wonderful for inspiring confidence in talent, but you pay a hefty price that. Could be worth it though if you can inspire a better performance from that talent.

Graeme



[www.nattress.com] - Plugins for FCP-X

Smack the mic. I don't mean haul off and belt it one, I mean turn it off and gently tap it with a pencil.

Does it sound like anything? If it sounds like a thin metal windscreen bolted to a metal body, then that's the sound that is going to be added to the show along with the desired sound. Sound waves are percussive.

If the body sounds dead and tight (closing a car door, anyone?) then it won't sound like anything when used.

After that, the body of the instrument gets into it again with suppression of the internal echoes. This is where directional mic magic comes in--and I don't mean a figure-of-8 pattern which is normal for a lot of these mics.

Near the end is the design of the capsule--usually 25mm (1 inch-ish). Books have been written about the tension placed on the plates of the elements. Also remember, it's a capacitor and if the two plates ever touch because of extreme sound or wind, some very nasty things can happen.

Then there's some serious magic right after the element. The signal from the element is very tiny and has no horsepower. The U87 used a vacuum tube and various transformers to goose the signal enough for the trip to the power supply unit. All transformers sound like something. The ones Neumann used happen to sound pretty good.

This is the magic place where modern technology came to the rescue with FETs, BiPolar Transistors, etc. and pretty much eliminated a lot of the condenser mic sound. Which the next wave of manufacturers tried to put back in. Which is about where we are now.

Someone pointed out that any one of the "flat" "sterile" mics can be punched up with a trip through the "Neumann Filter" in an audio program. They're right. All it takes is time.

And we all have unlimited amounts of that, right?

Koz