Latest Purchase: Studio Projects C1

In the city today doing odd jobs I caught a glimpse of this mic sitting in the window of a pawn broker on George St. I recalled the RRP of the mic was somewhere in the vicinity for $400 aus, but I phoned Pete who sussed it out on the internet at work for me. All the reviews seemed good so I picked it up for 200. I also bought a tuner pedal for Pete, boss TU-2 for $120.

To say that this microphone imparts a certain sonic character to the sound would be a drastic understatement, but the good news is that the thing responds to heavy handed EQ very well. To me the mic has the top end  of a small diaphragm condenser, but the bottom of something more like a u47. I've heard it described as sounding like a u87, but I can only just hear that element in there, and frankly that probably has more to do with marketing hype than honest magazine reviewers at work.

I found the top end on this mic a bit much, at first, testing it on vocals, guitar amp and acoustic guitar, but I imagine this might be an advantage when slotting the track into a busy mix. To counter the harshness I used an API EQ to dip 6 kHz by 4dB which left the mic sounding a lot smoother. The thing I love about a mic like this (and there are surprisingly few), is that when you apply a bit of EQ like this it's hardly noticeable at all. With some other chinese made condensers I find that pulling out some top end to smooth it out a little only serves to destroy the detail in your recording.

So far, the best application I've found for the mic has been recording acoustic guitars and vocals at the same time. I set the C1 up on a stand about a foot from my guitar, and about halfway between my guitar and my mouth, and adjusted as I listened to find a good balance between the vocal and the guitar. I was very pleased with the results, and the best thing, no phase or bleed issues because it's only one mic. I know you can't then create a different blend of voice to guitar but you know what...man up a bit and commit to a recording.

Overall I'm impressed with this microphone and considering I picked it up for the price equivalent of a big night out, I'm actually quite blown away. Click the following link to hear me singing a shortened version of Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky", recorded with only the Studio Projects C1.

http://www.freakyarm.com/skybluesky.mp3