Serious bang for the buck

As usual, Audio Technica continues to put out quality equipment. This mic looks, feels, and sounds great. I recently put it side by side with an Audix i5. When comparing about 1/2 dozen amp sounds, I felt that the i5 only had a marginal improvement in one situation. The others all were either too close to call, or clearly in favor of the Audio Technica. On my birch shell yamaha snare, it absolutely decimated the i5. It was more clear and crisp, with good body, and minimal ringing. While I would love to have dozens of high end mics in my collection, and I have used many of these world class mics over the years - my own mic collection is about 75% Audio Technica, because they simply deliver good quality at a great price time and time again...

Modern sound, durable mic

This mic does not suffer from boominess, muddiness, nor is it scooped or boxy. The ultimate test for any mic is distorted guitars due to the rich harmonics involved. So I tested the ATM650, A/B a hundred times against the good old "fifty-seven" under various positions and amp sounds. Comparison? It has more mids and upper mids, a more direct and forward modern sound. One downside: it has a presence peak around 5kHz that really stands out in a bad way, whereas the other mic sounded smoother and more scooped. But with an EQ dip at 5kHz, it sounded better in a mix than the other mic, due to having more body and a flatter frequency response across the mids. So this mic works well for me provided I add that EQ. On clean guitars or voice, the presence peak is no issue and brings out more openness and clarity, although overall you will find that, compared to the other mic, it has less low-end and therefore sounds more middy or upper-middy in comparison. On distorted guitars, both mics work best when paired with a condenser straight-on a few feet away. Bottom line: if you need a brighter sounding mic that is less boxy and muffled, the ATM650 works well.

A surprisingly great mic that is one of my first choices

Once again I am extremely pleased with the quality of Audio Technica. I chose this because I had read that this is similar to the SM57 but with better off axis rejection, and I came upon a deal on these I couldn't refuse. So I thought, "why not just get a couple of extra mics?" You can never have too many, right?

Once during a recording session I didn't have my 57 handy, so I grabbed this instead. This is now my first choice snare mic. It has the best of what I expect from a 57, but has a little extra something that the 57 doesn't. It seems to have better detail, especially on the top end, and really captures the character of the snare. My typical choice is to mic the batter side of the snare drum, though I've tried both top and bottom as well. This is one of those mics that will definitely be one of my first choices. Works GREAT for live vocals, has a great presence. Sounds fine on guitar amps, although I have to say that I still prefer the old 57 or a 421 for that job.

I've been pleasantly surprised on a number of occasions when I've gone with something outside of the typical mics that are always mentioned for guitars and drums (although I do have some of those, and they're worthy of their reputations). AT is shaping up to be one of my favorite companies. Their mics are always much better than the price would indicate. It won't replace your 57 completely, but you may find yourself grabbing it an awful lot! I highly recommend this one!!!!!!