The Alembic fumes make him giddy.

Mine came with the C01's. They sound nice but like I said they sound like I'm singing through a little high speed fan or something. This Shure C606 is yet again surprising me with it's quality. Best $30 I've ever spent. Still doing my own personal mic shoot out here though so the Samson's are next on the agenda.

offnote

bapu

offnote


bapu, are you high or stoned?

886 ft above sea level.


Does that count?

actually yes since density of air with height decreases hence brain operation slows down 

corollary: the closer I get to Mooch the more I hear in mono 

@Alex... I tried a bunch of the other Samsons in the kit for vocs when I first got it but I found they were lacking. Perhaps they'll respond better to the Focusrite pres. The kick mic might suit what I'm doing right now which is very low frequency vox. I wasn't kidding about the Old Man River style vox. Now that I've played with the Shure for a bit it's not pleasing me as much so the testing continues. This mic comparison has been a long time coming.

Hey Beepster.... I saw Jbow recommended the Gauge mics.  I recommend you have a look at them too. 

They have 3 in your price range. 

A few years back I had the opportunity to test drive them side by side with the mics they reference as costing 10x as much at a songwriter's conference. I was very impressed. However,  I had just spent $400 on a Rode a few weeks earlier so with my limited budget, I was not able to convince my wife of the need for a new mic.  Had I known about them I would certainly own a Gauge and not the Rode. 

NO!

Beepster

I can't even really afford that but I know I need something better than the overhead condensers that came with my Samson drum mic kit. Any suggestions? Cheers.

Hi Beepster,

Here's what I've discovered with condenser mics. Maybe this will help. I haven't read the other posts so forgive me if this has been mentioned already.

Two things I've discovered ...

1. I have an old Peavey Celebrity Series high end condenser mic. It's roughly 30+ years old. I always used my old stage mic because the Peavey ran on Phantom power and at the time I didn't have an audio interface with phantom. So ... when I got my Fast Track Ultra which has Phantom, I started using the Peavey. A friend gave it to me many years ago when he quit the music biz, that's how I got it.

The Peavey sounded like crap. It sounded like I was singing in to a tin can. So I did some research and read a bunch of reviews and decided to get a Blue Bluebird mic. It was an improvement, but I was still getting tin can effect. So then I dug around some more and realized my problem was that I really should be using a mic preamp before going in to my Fast Track Ultra. I picked up a low~mid grade one and it helped a lot.

One night I wanted to try two mics on my acoustic so I hooked up the Peavey. I started messing with the Impedance knob and Voila' ... I was able to dial in the Peavey in 20 seconds so it sounded every bit as good, if not better, than the $300 Bluebird.

One odd thing I noticed was, I can adjust the Impedance for the Bluebird and there is absolutely no effect on the sound, but there is a huge effect on the Peavey. Not sure why ... but I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that the Peavey was a pro grade mic and was designed to be run through a mic pre? I dunno.

The mic pre I got was an ART MPA Pro II Reference Series. It's on sale right now btw at M.F. 15% off. :)

The conclusion I came to is, between the 4 condenser mic's I've used ranging from $75 ~ $500 .... they all pretty much sound the same when you run them through a mic pre that has an Impedance adjustment. Not all mic pre's have it btw.

2. The other thing is ... I've never been able to get a vocal recording that has even come close to sounding as good as recordings I made when using analog equipment ... even cheap analog cassette based recordings. I get almost no sibilance, and just a better general overall sound.

Personally, I think there is very little difference between condenser mic's when paired with even a low to mid range mic pre with an Impedance adjustment. Yeah, if you get a $15 dollar condenser mic from Radio Shack, it's going to suck ... but I don't see there being a lot of difference between your choices at Musician's Friend or Sweetwater. Honestly, I think you should check in to a decent mic pre, preferably tube based, first.

And another thing ... I'm not totally convinced the wide frequency range they always tout on new mic's is necessarily a good thing. There's almost nothing that even comes close to being in the total hearing range ... and you wouldn't want that kind of range for a single instrument or vocal anyway in a mix/master.

Good luck! It's always fun picking and choosing new gear. :)

Getting settled in and all is going good. Thanks for asking in the thread upstairs. :)

I look at it this way if I spend anywhere between £30 and £3000 on a mic and I sing through it, it's going to sound rubbish.
 
If I spend between £30 and £3000 on a mic and get a voice like Etta James singing into it, it's going to sound great, whatever.
 
Having said that the difference between a dynamic and a condenser is night and day, they work completely differently to each other and it will depend on the vocal style which one you feel more comfortable with hence the one you go for.
 
To prompt you to choose a dynamic mic because you can't run to a mid-range condenser is a bad idea.  You may well get a better result from a cheap condenser over a more expensive dynamic mic.
 
It will depend far more on your technique with either type, more than the price.  I know some vocalists that wouldn't use anything but an SM-58 when they have the option of a drawer full of boutique mics and similarly some will prefer a condenser everytime for the sole reason that their particular technique largely relies on one or the other.

It would be worth your time to check out the M-Audio Nova.  I love mine...........Ron

Bub


I read an article one time by a very famous audio engineer and for the life of me I can't recall his name. I remember in the picture he was wearing jeans and a baseball cap ... in case it rings any bells.

He basically said it's nice to have high end gear, but he could make an album with anything.

I think I know the guy you mean. Did you have eyebrows and a nose too? 

I use akg perception and rode nt1 mikes and I like them both. With condensers you have to know how to sing to them.

Audio Technica make some nice mics in the lower end of the price spectrum.

We have an AT-4033A which has been our go-to vocal mic for over a decade.

 The thing about mics is that no matter where you try and research them online there are good comments and bad comments on the same mics.

 I remember one day spending a few hours online and reading comment after positive comment on just about any mike I decided to look at. Looking at freq. responses can be helpful if you know where your particular voice has an edge. "gold sputtered 1" diaphram" seems pretty common and something I would look for.Noise circuitry is so negligable as to not be noticed in a mix usually.The "low noise" they talk about isn't discernable in many cases. The Neuman actually added tube noise. My first condenser years ago was an AKG C3000B. I still have that mic. People love to hate it but it fits with certain material. I think it has a mylar diaphram,almost indestructable for a condenser.  I started singing with an SM57,  a close cousin to the 58. I am a tenor and the 58 is a great mic for that. I sing though one of those every week and it really does work well for my vocs.Lots of albums were made singing on a 58.

 My staple dynamic now is the EV ND767 taylored for male vocal.I highly recommend this mic both live and for recording. I picked up an MXL 990 at a GC grand opening for 49.00,actually used a pair of them for a concert recording. A nice recording mic with a silky smooth characteristic. Nothing seems  pronounced,only a 3/4" dianphram I think. In a pinch I use it. I am thinking about a higher end MXL,or Rode NT1 . I am only a hobbiest weekend player, I might reconsider if I were recording someone else.

 The Rode Nt1 is one of those mics that I regularly read about in magazines. It is usually one of these, " We used a Rode NT1,AKG,Neuman,AT" and usually includes a really decent mic pre in there somewhere. I seldom read of anyone using something like an MXL. If they did they don't want that getting out.

Most of those low end condenser mics are made in China now no matter whos name is on it in that price range with a few exceptions....that's not a bad thing but  like a very vanilla feeling I get looking at all of it. One is so similar to another that I start to ask what the difference really is.

 Bub hit the nail on the head here on mic pres, a decent pre can certainly help the sound. I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, The really high end mics are probably overkill and some of the mid MXL or similar mics  sound much better than the high end guys want you to know.

bitflipper


I had an AKG Perception (the now-obsolete 100) and dumped it after about a year. Definitely falls into the "adequate" category. Acceptable for male rock vocals, but I wouldn't call it an "all-around" mic and I wouldn't recommend it for acoustic guitar.

I've cycled through a bunch of cheap microphones over the years, irrationally hoping to find a diamond in the coal pile. Of them, only the Rode NT1-A ($240) was good enough to hang onto long-term, even if it only gets occasional use nowadays.

If I were looking for an inexpensive LDC today, a good place to start would be either the Shure KSM-27 or the Audio-Technica AT-4040. However, given that those are around $300, neither satisfies the OP's original parameters. 

This is just my semi-informed opinion, but it seems the price threshold for a versatile condenser is around $300-$400. A truly do-everything all-around condenser will run you about a grand.

Just to clarify:  the KSM-27 is no longer available from retail locations.  you can find some used ones on ebay.
 
the replacement for that mic is the SM-27.  It's mostly the same mic, but not exactly. 
 
I have a KSM-27 and it is my "goto" mic.  It's the one I use on all vocals.  However you also need to understand that I don't have a lot of mics to choose from.  I've not bought any more mics since I bought the KSM-27 several years ago.

I've been messing around with other stuff most of the day but this thread has been beautiful. I not only have a plethora of microphones to research I have far more knowledge on general microphone concepts and technologies than I did before posting this thread. Thank you so much guys and by all means if you think of anything else lay it on me. Cheers!