Choosing a mic - PG Music Forums

PG Music Home

Hi,

I was given excellent advice on this forum recently about adding vocals and naturally enough it included using a mic. The only mic I had in the house was an old Victor one that came with a now-retired cassette recorder. This one achieved only one green light on the scale so I went to a store and perused the mics. One (AudioTechnica, I think, or Sony) promisingly announced itself as a "digital" mic for DAT (which sounds impressive and computer-related) but I noticed that the packet said in small letters "not for PC use". I then called over the assistant and asked him which would be useful for my purpose and he shrugged and advised me to buy a headset with mic attached. Wasn't sure this was good advice so chose to stay micless rather than buy something unsuitable. So folks... what sort of mic is best?

Chris

check out zzounds.com
lots of under 100 buk mics.
but youll need a mic pre also assuming you dont have one.
before giving lots of recommendations...whats your budget. ??
also..do you have a sound device with a mic pre already built in or a mixer ??
list your gear that you have if any. are you laptop ?? desktop ??
if no gear .heres one decent option of thousands..
mxlv67g mic into a rane ms1b mic pre. proly around 300 buks.
for ultra el cheapo.. used shure 57 mic into 60 buk behringer xenyx mixer.
total prolly 120 buks.
tell us more bout your gear you have.
cant recommend a sound device until its known whther desktop or lappie.

I have a Shure 57 and 2 knockoff look exactly like 57's from Fender.

I recently bought an Audix om5 and I love that mic to death.

I have a bose L1 Model 2 behind me and I get no feedback, and the only thing I'm struggling with is the letter S. I'm putting lots of work into the S and hope I can get my mouth to adapt to the dentures enough to thort it out. That's a mic that when setup right, only picks up stuff from about 2 inches to 3 inches away unless you are shouting. Of course I have the Bose toneport pre-amp AND the TC helicon voicelive preamp in the line, I don't have the latter very much in play.

Quote:

Hi,

I was given excellent advice on this forum recently about adding vocals and naturally enough it included using a mic. The only mic I had in the house was an old Victor one that came with a now-retired cassette recorder. This one achieved only one green light on the scale so I went to a store and perused the mics.

Hi Chris,

That mic should be able to drive any proper Mic Preamp.

But it sounds like you may have been plugging the mic directly into a soundcard's Line Input. That would only light one green light with *any* mic.

What you probably need, and need to know, is that you need a proper *Microphone Preamp* to go between the mic and the soundcard's Line Input. Use of the computer's Mic Input is not recommended for recording music as they are noisy and are also designed for those little headset mics and stick mics like the store showed you, which aren't great for singing music either.

You can find a Mic Preamp or you can find a small recording mixer that has built in mic preamps these days for a small cash outlay due to the proliferation of music making supplies for the PC.

Your problem right now sounds like one of gain and not the mic itself, although you can certainly find better mics at the store and should, the mic designed for a cassette recorder is a dynamic mic that can typically turn in a better job than its plastic housing or the like depicts. --If it has the right electronics between it and your soundcard. The mic level cannot drive Line Level, as you have found out.

**Note: It might also be the case that the cassette mic is High Impedance, in which case it wouldn't be a proper mic for home recording to PC anyway. If it is Low Impedance, and most are, it should work okay with a proper mic preamp or mixer, though.

--Mac

Like all gear ... and GAS* (Gear Acquisition Syndrome*) ... microphones and their accoutrement are a universe unto themselves.

In addition to the good above advice ... make sure you understand the difference between mic types. You'll probably want to use a dynamic mic, like the excellent Shure 57's Mac mentions, as this type is better at rejection of sound further from the microphone.

Also look into the USB microphone solutions such as the Samson units. This is a way to avoid having to get a preamp if you don't already have an audio interface wth mic pres.

Finally, go to tweakheadz.com and look at the excellent tutorials there on all things home studio ... including microphones.

Prado

Personally i hate the USB mikes. They act as oneway sound cards and this seems to add another clock into the mix and causes timing issues.

I used a Shure clone and a Behringer mixer for years and it worked great later i added a better mixer and a condensor mike (add E instead of O for those who care) for getting a crisper recording sound. But still the old dynamic mikes do work well. I bought three behringer mikes XM8500 $19 each, when i bought the condend(Insert vowel of choice)r mike and i love them three mikes for $60 US. Great in a live situation.

The little Behringer mixer especially the Xenyx version have decent pres and sound pretty good.

Yes, USB standalone mics can be problematic, the clock timing will differ from that of your soundcard, also some of them make monitoring yourself through the headphones darn near impossible to do. Not recommended.

--Mac

OK. Lots to digest there. I'll give it careful attention. Thanks all. I hope one day to graduate to the point where I can advise with equal assurance!

Hmmm.. I never thought about disabling my USB mike when doing BIAB. I had been getting all kinds of sporadic timing issues since I moved to Windows 7. Let me give that a shot. I am thinking of gettign another good old Analog mixer again. I had been using my TEAC portasound (even though the cassette mechanism died when the first Bush was president. Time to treat myself. I've seen 5 port Behringers for less than $100.