James... « Can't beat it for the price »
Published on 08/05/11 at 20:46Nothing special. Just a cardioid condenser. Probably best kept in the studio. AT says it's an all purpose condenser. Obviously it's a budget mic.
OVERALL OPINION
I was in a Sam Ash last year browsing around. I know a few of the staff there pretty well and they take care of me. I started talking to a guy about condensers and said I was in the market for a good cardioid. I needed something to pair with an sm57 for micing electric in my studio. He recommended I do a shootout right in the store. We ended up trying about 12 different mics. Some up to $1500. I got a PRS CE22, played it through a Mesa electrodyne and miced up the speaker with an SM57. We went through the heard pairing condensers with it. Eventually we narrowed it down to 2. The 2020 and a U87. Now obviously the U87 is massively more expensive. I won't lie, I think it sounded a little better than the 2020. But can you guess which one I bought? Yeah.
Since then I've used the 2020 extensively for cab micing. What I like to do is put 1 or 2 57's close to the cone area, and then put a 2020 about a foot or 2 back for ambience. It works great this way. I found the 2020 is good for acoustic guitar if you pair it with something like an sm81, oddly enough. It has a full sound that never gets bassy. For the price I think it's a pretty sweet mic. To me, it doesn't sound great with a lot of things. On vocals it's meh. Can't be used on drums. But when paired with another really good mic it can shine. Check it out. It's not a lot of money so it's not a total loss if you don't care for it. But I promise you will find SOME use for it. It just takes the right situation.
OVERALL OPINION
I was in a Sam Ash last year browsing around. I know a few of the staff there pretty well and they take care of me. I started talking to a guy about condensers and said I was in the market for a good cardioid. I needed something to pair with an sm57 for micing electric in my studio. He recommended I do a shootout right in the store. We ended up trying about 12 different mics. Some up to $1500. I got a PRS CE22, played it through a Mesa electrodyne and miced up the speaker with an SM57. We went through the heard pairing condensers with it. Eventually we narrowed it down to 2. The 2020 and a U87. Now obviously the U87 is massively more expensive. I won't lie, I think it sounded a little better than the 2020. But can you guess which one I bought? Yeah.
Since then I've used the 2020 extensively for cab micing. What I like to do is put 1 or 2 57's close to the cone area, and then put a 2020 about a foot or 2 back for ambience. It works great this way. I found the 2020 is good for acoustic guitar if you pair it with something like an sm81, oddly enough. It has a full sound that never gets bassy. For the price I think it's a pretty sweet mic. To me, it doesn't sound great with a lot of things. On vocals it's meh. Can't be used on drums. But when paired with another really good mic it can shine. Check it out. It's not a lot of money so it's not a total loss if you don't care for it. But I promise you will find SOME use for it. It just takes the right situation.