Can anyone recommend a good value but decent microphone for doing speech samples with?
Cheers,
Jason.
Cheers,
Jason.
Decent Cheap Microphone
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Decent Cheap Microphone A Shure SM58 is a cheap standard in live sound and they have pretty decent sound quality. What kind of price range are you looking at? If you are willing to spend a couple hundred dollars and go for a mic preamp, you could get a pretty decent condenser mic. Of course, that's a fairly large expenditure if you just plan on using it for a casual project.
You'd be better off with a portable minidisc recorder or something, that way you aren't restricted to being sat near your PC, because background noise will really show up.
Shure SM58 is a decent mic but possibly a little 'tinny' for this kind of thing. You really should stretch to a condenser if you can. A Behringer C1 condenser will only set you back around £50.
[edit]
£41 including shipping from eBay.
Shure SM58 is a decent mic but possibly a little 'tinny' for this kind of thing. You really should stretch to a condenser if you can. A Behringer C1 condenser will only set you back around £50.
[edit]
£41 including shipping from eBay.
A studio condenser mic will surely give you better results, but note they usualy need a mic preamp, aka 48V Phantom power thingie.
This condenser mic is really cheap and it seems to be pretty good:
nady studio condenser mic
Compared to AKG or Neumann, that may cost easily a few thousand dollars, where for a Neumann you surely pay most only for the name.
GfK is right about mobility - if you already got a miniDV camera - they usually have pretty good microphones built in, or offer a mic input for a dynamic mic. So you'll record in 2*16Bit at 44.1 kHz, CD quality.
There are many cheap dynamic mics (stage mics) that don't need the 48V phantom power, but can be plugged right into your computer or cameras mic-in.,eg. from Sennheiser, Shure, Siemens etc.
For a price overview:[a http://www.calibex.com/serv/calibex2/buyer/OutPDir.jsp?nxtg=27f40a1c0535-5BD64BBFCD48AE0F&search=dynamic+microphones&OVKWID=95750843511&OVADID=13100528511]
dynamic mics at calibex.com[/a]
Just make sure the tech details are good (low noise, high spectrum etc.) and it isn't made of plastic. If it's lightweigt then forget it. These are the mics with lots of noise when you move it in your hand.
For example this one is looking pretty good, for the price of a pizza or 2:
Nady SP3 for 18$
This condenser mic is really cheap and it seems to be pretty good:
nady studio condenser mic
Compared to AKG or Neumann, that may cost easily a few thousand dollars, where for a Neumann you surely pay most only for the name.
GfK is right about mobility - if you already got a miniDV camera - they usually have pretty good microphones built in, or offer a mic input for a dynamic mic. So you'll record in 2*16Bit at 44.1 kHz, CD quality.
There are many cheap dynamic mics (stage mics) that don't need the 48V phantom power, but can be plugged right into your computer or cameras mic-in.,eg. from Sennheiser, Shure, Siemens etc.
For a price overview:[a http://www.calibex.com/serv/calibex2/buyer/OutPDir.jsp?nxtg=27f40a1c0535-5BD64BBFCD48AE0F&search=dynamic+microphones&OVKWID=95750843511&OVADID=13100528511]
dynamic mics at calibex.com[/a]
Just make sure the tech details are good (low noise, high spectrum etc.) and it isn't made of plastic. If it's lightweigt then forget it. These are the mics with lots of noise when you move it in your hand.
For example this one is looking pretty good, for the price of a pizza or 2:
Nady SP3 for 18$
Thanks for the help. I forgot that I`d already asked the very same question about a year ago, must have got side tracked.
I`m going to look into some of those mentioned above, thanks again everyone.
Jason.
I`m going to look into some of those mentioned above, thanks again everyone.
Jason.
This has had excellent reviews
http://www.musiconmypc.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/216?osCsid=eb68b734c16effa9565cb2d8123dcac0
It's only portable if you have a lappy though, however, it's a USB powered condenser mic so you don't even need a sound card for it to work... although... might be tricky hearing the results without one!
http://www.musiconmypc.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/216?osCsid=eb68b734c16effa9565cb2d8123dcac0
It's only portable if you have a lappy though, however, it's a USB powered condenser mic so you don't even need a sound card for it to work... although... might be tricky hearing the results without one!