The fact is that your recordings are only as good as the signal chain you use to make those recordings and there is no more important element in your signal chain when recording an acoustic source such as an acoustic guitar or vocals than your microphone. This article is about one condenser microphone that will certainly not be the weak link in your chain and which is not particularly expensive (although it’s not cheap.)
The Shure KSM44 condenser microphone is the excellent mic I’m writing about. I have plenty of personal experience with this mic as it’s been the principle mic in my home studio for about eight years and I have used it (and continue to use it) to record a wide variety of sources.
The Shure KSM44 is a large diaphragm condenser microphone and it is a “multipattern” mic. What does multipattern mean? There are 3 directional patterns that mics can record in (what makes the KSM44 “multipattern” is that it can be switched between all three.) The directional patterns are omnidirectional, figure-8, and cardioid.
Cardioid means that it only records what is coming from the front while rejecting sound coming from the back and the sides. A figure-8 pattern records sound from the front and the back while rejecting everything coming in the sides of the mic. An omnidirectional pattern picks up everything from all around. Each of these recording patterns can be useful in different situations which is why it is so cool that this mic can be used with any of these patterns.
Quite a few microphones boost particular frequencies in order to “color” the recording. While this “color” can be great in some situations, having a mic that has a more neutral (or “flat”) frequency response can allow you a lot more versatility. The Shure KSM44 is known for it’s neutral frequency response and this is one of the biggest reasons why it is such a flexible mic.
Just like all other condensers, this mic needs a mic preamp in order to function. The quality of your preamp will significantly effect the quality of the sound you get so in a high quality preamp should be your next purchase after obtaining a great condenser microphone. While it is true that almost every audio interface has a mic preamp built in these days you will get higher quality by using a higher quality preamp, of course.
