Audio-Technica ATM450

The ATM 450 has a Cardioid pattern and condensor mic that will cost you around 250 if purchased brand new. Though it is a good mic I feel like the price should be a little cheaper, more around the range of 199 or so. Just because there are some similar mics from Beyer Dynamic that cost a little less than the ATM 450 and still work great and sound very similar to the Audio Technica ATM 450. I feel its just a little over priced but there is no doubt, it is a great mic and it is worth the buy by any means.


OVERALL OPINION


This mic sounds really good, especially with some acoustic guitars and piano’s. Many people also use the ATM 450 by Audio Technica for some drums and hi hats. I just don’t feel like the mic performs well with drums, drums have a lot of punch with them and I don’t think this mic responds that well. Even though it does have the -10db cut off switch which is used for punchy instruments I just don’t think its as good as some other mics that I have used. I prefer to use another mic for drums and brass. But for acoustic piano , use this as your main mic and for guitars also as your main mic and you will be very happy with the out come of the sound it will capture. It will capture a very natural sound of the instruments and when playing back it will sound super natural like you are really there. Its just a little overpriced. But im sure you can purchased a used ATM 450 from eBay or find one at a local store somewhere and you wont have to worry about paying the full price of the Audio Technica ATM 450. But if you find a used one, you better grab it up.

The Audio-Technica ATM450 is a low budget large diaphragm condenser microphone designed for use in the recording studio. I wouldn't recommend using it at all outside of the studio, as it simply isn't designed for any other sort of use. The mic has a cardioid polar pick up pattern, and will pick up frequencies between 40 Hz and 20 kHz. It has a -10 db pad and a high pass filter at 80 Hz.

OVERALL OPINION

For home studio owners, the Audio-Technica ATM450 provides a decent option for a large diaphragm condenser mic at a great price. It has a pretty nice look and sturdy build, but certainly isn't the most well designed or made microphone around. I've used the ATM450 a few times for recording a few different applications including acoustic piano and acoustic guitar. I definitely got a pretty full sound for recording both of these, but I liked the sound I got with the piano more as the tone wasn't crisp enough on the acoustic guitar for my taste. Of course the final sound that you get depends on a number of different things, not just the mic, but I've used a number of microphones in the same chain with the same guitar, so I did have something to compare it to. It worked well for recording the piano, as I was looking for a boomier sort of piano sound, while with the guitar I was aiming for something a bit more brilliant and cutting. As always, it really just depends on the type of sound that you're after. Of course what will really drive people to the Audio-Technica ATM450 is the price. It is just about as cheap as possible for a microphone like this, which isn't to say that this is the best mic in this price range, but it should definitely be considered. I'm not a huge fan of the mics made by Audio-Technica in general, but I do think that the ATM450 is a great deal.

Micro small enough cardio with capsule mounted side (quite rare, it can not find this kind of editing as in Schoeps, Sennheiser and Josephson and high prices)
very easy to implement, it is far from being versatile, although some sources are not all accurately transcribed!
piano, is fairly consistent despite a lack of serious percussion, the sensitivity is at once more appropriate rendering overheads, hi-hat, gong, xylophone, etc. and excellent. on classical soloists (soprano, tenor, violin solo) the result is less coherent than Shure KSM 137 for example or a 3000 AE Brand



OVERALL OPINION

Micro discreet, very friendly sources generating a response curve between 150 and 20 000 Hz, or for any source requiring close proximity, to avoid both the sources too aggressive, I prefer the AE3000 at any point, not so much larger, which for me is a real success