Shure KSM44 Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone Review
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed
The fact is that your music is only good as the signal chain you used to make that music and there is no element more important in your signal chain when recording an acoustic source such as an acoustic guitar or vocals than the microphone that you use. This article is about one condenser microphone that will certainly not be the weak link in your chain and which is not too expensive (although it is not cheap by most people’s standards.)
The Shure KSM44 is the condenser mic that I’m talking about. I write about this condenser microphone from my own personal experience with it as it’s been the “go to” mic in my home studio for 7 years and I have used it to record a wide variety of sources.
The KSM44 Mic is a large diaphragm condenser mic and it’s also a “multi-pattern” mic. What does that mean? Well there are three patterns that microphones can record in (and the KSM44 can be switched between all three.) Those patterns are cardioid, figure-8, and omnidirectional.
Cardioid means that the mic only picks up the sound coming from the front while rejecting sound coming from the back and the sides. A figure-8 pattern picks up sound from the front and the back while rejecting the sound from the sides of the mic. An omni pattern picks up everything from all around the mic. Each of the patterns can be useful in different recording situations and this is why it is such a good thing that this microphone can record in any of the patterns.
Many mics boost particular frequencies when recording in order to “color” the sound in some way. While this frequency favoring may be perfect in certain situations, having a microphone that has a more neutral response will allow quite a lot more versatility. The KSM44 is well known for it’s neutral frequency response and this is one of the big reasons why it is such a versatile mic. It can be used to record just about any sound source effectively.
Like all other condensers, this mic needs a mic preamp. The quality of the preamp can greatly effect the quality of the your sound and investing in a high quality preamp should be your next move after getting a great mic. Yes, most audio interfaces do have built in mic preamps but you’ll get better results from an external preamp.
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