[dach]

I think driving hard separates the men from the idiots... mostly.

My sytek has the best balance of gain to noise to good sound at around 6-8 oclock so it's usually there.... when used by itself.... plus they don't have much headroom.

My API's really shine when hit hard - like drums, bass or elec gtr, but that being said, how hard do I need to drive an AC gtr or Shaker or female vox? Plus, the sound changes depending on output termination (600/1.2k). Also some compressors/outboard load things and change the sound... and just how hard do i want to hit the comp, much less peak inside a DAW.

I personally try to balance the chain to (usually) have the least amount of noise and give me the clearest representation (no matter how colored that may be) of what I'm micing. When using older limiters in the chain, it changes because they have a sweet spot as well, where there's the best balance of frequencies to gain to noise, etc... everything has to play nice together.

Like I said before, jut get it recorded but you should really spend some time realling getting to know your gear and how it interfaces with other things in the chain....

About once a year, I'll pull out a bunch of mics and instruments and do my own shootout, maybe 10-15 mics, one at a time, placed as good as I can through several positions, through each pre, and then lightly going through each compressor. I just have one great big session that we take notes on and can always refer back to later. After several times, and of course using them all the time, they sound a little different each time, you begin to really learn some things about mics, placement, pre's, compressors and setting each one up.... now it's pretty easy to get a variety of sounds at will... I won't say it's always bulletproof, because I do a huge variety of music, but I pretty much know what I'm going to end up with before I start.... the other option is to getting different sounds would be to buy more and different gear/instruments...

BTW: I've also done the guitar, with several different picks, vox micing left vs right sides, etc... I've actually tried a bunch of stupid things... same with each instrument over time... when I start a project or cut I'll pick a "pallette" of sounds like I would when scoring to picture. If I'm going to be using mandolin, I'll sometimes hit it 6 ways from sunday before I even start so I don't have to think about it much when I actually do it.... hope this makes sense....