Morning folks,

My songwriting partner is looking at buying an new microphone, specifically the Brauner Phantom Classic, and she asked me if I thought it was a good one to get.

I know absolutely nothing about microphones, I don't sing and I plug my guitars in direct. But I know someone here will probably have some knowledge of this.

Is this a good choice, or is there something better? Or something as good for a lower price? She doesn't mind spending some money on this.

Thanks!

The mic is only as good as the pre-amp. Any modern mic will record a good vocal, but plugging it into a $200 pre just won't cut it.


As for a mic, you can't go wrong with a Neumann.


(https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TLM103)



Regards,


Bob

I don't personally own one, but have recorded with someone who did. If you buy this, you will not regret it. With the right soundproofing, this will sound the equivalent to professional studio quality. I've used it to record both my voice and a saxophone before. Both came out flawless.

Looks like most of the big U.S. music retailers do not carry that microphone. I did find one though and provided you with a list of user reviews.

Brauner Phantom Classic Reviews at Thomann Music

P.S. - I would go with Bob's recommendation as well in that price range.....

Great info, thanks guys!

I've forwarded it over to her.

The Gearslutz review gave it a really nice review and rating.

It's a $1500 mic apparently. Pretty costly. Unless there's specifically a reason to have such an expensive mic..... if your songwriting buddy has some really nice $1000 mic preamps and a high quality studio in a treated room......

I would suggest getting something like a Rode, or even a GaugeUSA mic. You can stick the rest the the $1000 savings into a preamp or a nice interface and still have money left to do a few other things.

Seriously, unless the rest of the gear and studio is of the same quality or higher, you/she, will not be able to hear the difference between that $1500 mic and one that costs $300. The fact that she's asking someone else tells me that she's not shopping with knowledge of what she's thinking about buying. She's looking at price thinking that this $1500 mic is 5 times as expensive as this $300 mic so it must be 5 times as good and it will really make me sound good...... uhhhhh no.... I mean NO!!!! it doesn't work that way.

People buy those really nice (expensive) mics because they have a certain characteristic sound that the average person in a home studio setting won't be able to use effectively. I've heard some really professional quality vocal work come out of some really cheap mics. One guy was using a mic he bought new for $60. It was a condenser and sounded amazing.

The Gauge mics I mentioned..... I actually had the opportunity to A/B them with mics that were $2000 to $3000 each...side by side.... good quality headphones and the Gauge mics.... in the $99 to $300 price range were indistinguishable in quality to the mics costing 10x as much. Seriously.

Unless your friend is wealthy and has the money to spend on such a mic, I would ask her to visit a few music stores and compare the mics they have. I think she'll be just as satisfied with a nice Rode NT-2A or similar.

Thanks Herb, I'll pass that along.

Yes, I'm sure it's like with many things, once you get past a certain price point you hit an exponential curve where you can spend a lot of money for very little gain in performance.

She has a pretty good music store close to where she lives (in Germany) and is going there this weekend to demo a few of their mics.

She has great ears and will be able to tell which is the right one for her, she just wanted some knowledge before hand so that she would be prepared.

Janice uses either an old Rodes NT1 (that we used to gig with) or a $99 MXL into a “entry” level Focusrite Scarlett 212 interface. Our “studio” is a do it all room with work out equipment and is also our “office.” She sings into a quilt hanging over a file cabinet.

I don’t mind paying more but us for this seems to work. I may be the odd man out but I think great mics can be had nowadays for prices I would call, well, cheap.

Bud, aka the FWIW guy

Well, you can't argue with the quality of Janice's vocal sound, and that's a fact!