RODE NT1A

[x2k]

 

The first thing I should say here is I'm a complete microphobe, put a mic live mic infront of me and I crawl down my own throat. I do however like recording vocalist and various instrument and house hold objects. Up until the point I brought the Rode the only mic I owned was a £20 Peavey mic which was great to have for when friends came round and wanted to spit over some tunes while I had a mix but sadly not much else. So what I'm getting at here I that I decided I needed a new mic.

 

Why I Chose The NT1A

I did quite a bit of research in what to get, I didn't want to spend alot but I wanted to get the best I could find for my money. When choosing mic what you want to use them for makes what a difference to the mic you want to get, I wanted something that could be used different purposes but primerily for vocals.

 

After reading lots of info and reviews I decided the NT1A was the one I wanted, this decision was made for some of the following reason:

 

* The NT1A is apparently very quiet, what I mean by this is that you get very little noise (hum, buzz, hiss, etc) in your recordings. Not only is it quite but apparently its one of the quietest mics available.

 

* The NT1A was doing much better in reviews than many more expensive mics, infact it seemed as though is was seen as being better than mics cost £500 by quite a few people.

 

* The price, I don't remember exactly what I paid for mine but they go for about £110.

 

Appearence & Build

When you buy an NT1A you get the mic, a case (like a black zip up pencil case), a cradel to hold it on the stand and an extra set of bands for the cradel to make it stiffer if required. The mic itself looked and felt fantastic, when you hold it and look at it you feel you have a quality item in your hand.

 

First Test

Like I already I'm no mic expert but ones I got the mic I had to give it a test and see what it sounded like. I plugged it into my mixing desk and stuck a pair of headphones on. I turned up the level and started muttering into the mic. At this point I instantly started to panick, I expected to hear my voice in that strange "I don't really sound like that do I?" what you get when you talk into mics but nothing so I started to think the mic was broken. I then looked at the lights on the mixer and suddenly realised that it was working just fine and what I was I was actually hearing was the sound from the mic through the headphones and it sounded as clear as with normal.

 

I then got my brother to spit some lyrics and I recorded them they sounded as clear as I could possible hope for. I'm not going to try and talk about "characteristics of the sounds" or anything because that stuff means fuck all to me and I've not really tried enough mics to compare it to anything else, all I know is that this mic records exactly the way I had hoped it would.

 

Things to Remember

I've got 3 things to mention here, the first is that this is a condensor mic and as a result needs a power source, if you do not have mixing desk or preamp with phantom power or a phantom power supply it won't work!

 

Secondly this mic is sensitive, if you record in a room with thin walls or near windows then expect passing cars and tweeting birds in the back ground of your recording.

 

Lastly, being that this is a sensitive condensor mic you will need a stand for it, trying to record while holding it will result in a noisy record.

 

Final Thoughts

When I brought this mic I brought a whole load of other studio equipment. I think I spent about £3.000 or £4.000 and the mic was pretty much the cheapest thing yet when I had it all layed out in front of me for some reason I felt happiest and proudest of my new mic.

 

So my recommendation is if you want a fantastic mic and don't want to break the bank this is definiately for you. To be honest I'd imagine that you'd probably be hard pushed to find anything better unless you spent 3 times the price these cost (of course I could be wrong).

 

I hope someone finds this useful

[djdiggla]

My buddy is a superstar recording engineer and I asked him about mics and he SWEARS by the Sure sm7... It's a little more expensive, but still nowhere near the +$500 range... might be fun to compare the two

[x2k]

My buddy is a superstar recording engineer and I asked him about mics and he SWEARS by the Sure sm7... It's a little more expensive, but still nowhere near the +$500 range... might be fun to compare the two

 

Interesting, I don't know the SM7 but since it a dynamic mic I'd imagine there are some significant differences between the 2 and what they are suitable for?

[djdiggla]

I guess so, I don't really know much about mics :$

[Paul_Caruso]

The SM7/SM7a/SM7b is a classic hip hop vocal mic. It's warm and round but the output is on the low side so you'll need a preamp with a lot of clean quiet gain to stop things getting too noisy - I wouldn't really worry about it too much though. You can get a 2nd hand one from eBay USA for about £150.