Advice please on decent microphone

I would appreciate some advice please on the purchase of a decent microphone for home recording only in the £50 - £100 range.

It would be nice if it could er 'enhance / disguise' my vocals as I don't consider myself much of a chanter.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

You can't go wrong with an SM57, in my view. You'll need a balanced lo-z input on e.g. a mixer, though.

Very handy for recording guitar amps, too.

Don't bother trying to record vocal with a cheap (or otherwise) condenser mike - will make it sound worse, not better

Hi

I have a couple of microphones that I use, both at the cheap and cheerful end of the market. At least as far as microphones go...

The Shure SM58 is probably the most widely used vocal microphone in the world. It is dead simple, built like a brick one and very suitable for stage use. You do not need phantom power to use this mic. If you sing close to it, there is a significant proximity effect which is kind of a bass boost. Street price is around £80. There are several other dynamic mics around at this price. AKG seem to be fine, as are Sennheiser. You really do need to go to a shop and try them, as they all sound a bit different; what suits my voice probably won't suit yours. I only use it live, and for quickly getting an idea down when I can't be bothered to set up a stand and headphone up; being unidirectional, it is wonderful for avoiding feedback. Not sure if unidirectional is strictly the correct term. I'm sure someone will tell me ;D

My other mic is a Rode NT1. Very cheap for a condenser mic at around £150. Much more transparant than the Shure, much more suitable for home recording IMO. But you will need a preamp / mixer etc that supplies it with phantom power. If your budget will stretch and you already have a unit that will give phantom power, it really is worth the extra IMO. Not overly suitable for stage use. Unless you want to star in 'Feedback - the movie'

Gary

Doh - I mean the SM58. <smacks forehead>

Try an Audiotechnica atm31a. Wonderful condenser and it beats the pants of £500+ mics. I've used it for male and female vocals (live and recorded) and for recording guitar and bass. Very flattering especially if you need more vocal depth while staying sweetly clean. cb

Industry standard microphones = Shure SM58 for vocals, SM57 for guitar & other instruments. The main difference (apart from the pop shield) is that the SM57 has a more even response and the SM58 is tailored to give a useful frequency boost for vocals.

If you want to dabble with active condensers the Rode NT1 is very good (I have 2) or you could always try the AKG C1000s. Personally I prefer the Rode, but the advantage of the AKG is that it contains its own battery so you can use it without phantom power. It also seems a bit more rugged if you want to use it live and you should be able to get one for under £120.

As long as it is a decent quality microphone don't be afraid to experiment. Before buying the Rode NT1's I achieved some nice results recording vocals on an AKG kick drum mic. The large diaphragm (ooh missus!) gave a nice warm sound you see.

Cheers

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snip

I've not heard the NT2, and I think it's about £100 more expensive than the NT1. For the money, the NT1 is really rather good, though.

I'm sure that the NT1 sounds pretty poor compared to the higher end stuff out there. But, like a lot of music gear nowadays, you really can get good results out of cheap gear. It certainly needs careful EQ to avoid it sounding harsh, but I feel it captures a lot more than the Shure.

Mics?

Well, for gigs Rick uses a Shure SM57Beta (a bit expensive - around twice the price of a regular SM57 or 58) but a great mic.

James and I both use Sennheiser's goodies. I'm not sure about James' but I think mine's an E845 model. It's a fab bit of kit at a street price of about £70 to £80.

Not sure what Barnsey uses but suspect it's an SM58 - I've never bothered to look and I never rig his vocal mic and stand for him.

Mine is an E835 certainly and I thought yours was the same, but I try not to get to close to it ...

I have no complaints about mine.

yup his is an SM58 - although he is quite loud enough without a mic

Cheers

Thanks for all the input - very much appreciated

You could try the Marshall (no relation) MXL V67G. It's one of those 797 audio/Shanghai jobs, but it did get some good notices on rec.audio.pro and alt.music.4-track. Do a google search using MXL V67G as the keywords and Harvey Gerst in the 'where author is...' box for a comprehensive review of the MXL line. Also, you might want to consider PMI Audio's Studio Projects C1 and the Oktava MK319. Both Marshall and PMI have a good reputation and at least design their stuff before having it assembled in the PROC. And Oktava have always suprised people by (often) producing mics that don't live down to expectations. Though they did have some problems but, hopefully that's all sorted. Regards Mark.