Ableton Forum

i am looking to get a condenser microphone for under $200 for home recording using LIVE and recording male vocals/guitar.

Can anyone give me some help or advice on a good mic. here are the ones i am looking at:

Behringer B2
Rode NT1-A
M-Audio Luna
AKG C2000B
Audio-Technica AT3035

any help is greatly appreciated!

Look into the studio projects mics. I have a B1 for $80 that sounds great on voice and guitar. The B3 is a but above your budget, but is an amazing deal. Read around on various forums (www.harmony-central.com, rec.audio.pro google group) and see what others say. Thats where I found out about the studio projects, and I'm very happy.

Ryan

Would love to know about this too

save money and get great sound (best for guitars, not so good for vocals) with oktava mk12 mkII . Guitar center sells em cheap, their built like tanks, and they come with 3 different attachements: bicardoid, hypercardoid, and some other one I never use.

Agreed, Oktavas are awesome! I use 3 of these for the over heads when micing drums. You can't go wrong with this one. If you give some specifics on what you want to do with your mic, I could give more input to what I have been using.

It depends on the vocalist style really so that's hard to answer...I have 30+ mics to choose from and sometimes it's surprising what works best.

Also, what type of guitar, acoustic or electric?

If electric, I suggest the Studio Projects B1 ($80) for all around nice vocal and instrument mic, and a Shure SM57 ($80) for the electric guitar cabinet. The SM57 is also great male rock/rap vocal mic as well and works on most instruments most of the time. You'll be at like $160 all together.

If acoustic, I'd probably lean toward two B1's so you could record the acoustic in stereo, have them for room mic's (drum kits, choirs, etc). I'm not a huge fan of small diaphram condensers like the octavas on vocals, however TWO octava's on an acoustic guitar is a different story

Both mic's are the low-end chinese (studio projects) and russian (octava) but for their price, they are a good buy and these particular ones are among the top of the low end in sound quality

PS: If I only had one mic it would be an SM57. It works "good" on everything.

Jeff

I recently got a groove tube GT-55 for about £130 UKPounds (maybe about $200) and it's really nice - great for vocals

theres a quite cheap joe-meek condenser mic thats
very much recommended

dont have it here...cant remember the model-nr...
but its good!
just look for theyr cheapest mic...


heino

I've got the Samson C03.

I didn't go overboard in my bargain hunting but this was the cheapest one
I saw which had good specs and a full set of features.

Includes:

Pattern Switch; Super-Cardioid, Omni, Figure 8.
10dB PAD Switch
Hi-Pass Switch; 12dB low-cut per octave under 100Hz

-Ben

I use an Octava (forgot the model) and I like it quite a bit. I agree that it is also a great for miking overhead for drum recordings... It works great for vox and mid -> hi instrument miking... I generally find that I like to record my vox for my band with different mic's, depending on the song (or part of the song). I really don't like to screw around with the vocal too much once its recorded (unless I'm treating it like a synth layer or want it to sound really screwed up...), and I generally only use analogue EQs when it comes to vox... I use the Octava if I want the vocal track to be as clean and present as possible (usually duruing a section of the song where the vocal clarity needs to be bumped up a notch for emphasis), but I generally don't like it for the usual vocal rock take... (screaming into a condenser mic sounds horrible). I usually rely on a Shure SM58 (or 57 if it needs to be a little dirtier), and if I want a really thin/harsh vocal I use an old Beyer Dictation mic from the 60's.... Which i think sounds great when you scream into it... IMO, vocals are all about approapriate Mic choice for the song part... Keeping super cheap/beat-up mics is just as important as getting a really good/hi-end one. The nature of the vocal should be (IMO) established by the mic sound, not by computer fx etc. Perhaps I'm blabbing tangentially, oh well.

Studio Electronics SE2200

Cheap and good (needs phantom power though)

mosca

Great post, Jinsai. Points taken on board.

Anybody have opinions on the Audix OM range of dynamics?

-Paws

Another opinion to add to the pile...

I bought some Rode NT3s @ US$99 each (new on ebay), and I find them to be great all-rounders, certainly would be fine for guitar if that's what you're after.

They're similar to AKG C1000S but cheaper (AND nicer, IMO), but hypercardioid response, whereas the C1000s can be cardioid or hyper thanks to its converter.

Nice thing about either of these mics is that they run perfectly well on 9v which is great for mobile recording or if you haven't got phantom power.