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Posts Tagged ‘Shure’

The simple truth is that your music is only good as the signal chain you used to make that music and there is no more important element in your signal chain than the mic that you use. Here you will learn about a condenser microphone that will definitely not be the weak link in your chain and which is not all that expensive (but it is not cheap either.)

The KSM44 is the condenser mic that I’m writing about. I have plenty of personal experience with this mic as it has been the main mic in my home music studio for about eight years and I’ve used it to record a wide variety of sources.

The KSM 44 is a “multi-pattern” mic. What’s that mean? There are 3 directional patterns that mics can record in (what makes the KSM44 “multi-pattern” is that it can be switched between all three.) The directional patterns are cardioid, figure-8, and omnidirectional.

Cardioid means that the mic only picks up what is coming from the front of the mic while rejecting all of the sound coming from the back and most of the sound coming from the sides. A figure-8 pattern picks up sound from the front and the back while rejecting the sound from the sides. An omnidirectional pattern records everything from all around. All of these patterns can be useful in different recording situations which is why it’s such a good thing that this microphone can be used with any of these patterns.

Quite a few mics boost certain frequencies when recording in order to “color” the sound in some way. While this “color” can be great in some situations, having a microphone that has a more neutral response can allow quite a lot more versatility. The Shure KSM44 Condenser Mic is well known for it’s flat response and this is one of the big reasons why it is such a flexible mic. It can be used to record just about any sound source effectively.

Like every other condenser, this mic needs a mic preamp in order to function. The quality of the preamp can significantly change the quality of the sound you get so in a high quality preamp should probably be your next move after purchasing a quality 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.