what microphone should I buy?

[destron]

hey all,

i am thinking about becoming a sound designer (for fun/hobby, mostly) and was wondering what kind of microphone is the best? as i am not a pro or anything I have no idea of what to look for or how much I should spend.
any suggestions/ideas would be great.

--destron

[bignobody]

I think it depends how serious you are going to be about this hobby. I've done all my sound capture with a $20 microphone plugged into my laptop (it doesn't seem to get the humming in the track like I get when plugging in to my desktop) and it's been fine for my needs. I think it would be fine to start. If you find yourself really getting into the hobby, buy a real kit at that point.

Have fun!

[Applewood]

I was going to ask this a while ago.

What I really want is basically a digital dictaphone that can be plugged into a USB port and downloaded from. Thing is, dictaphones will have a piss-poor mic that's limited to low frequency, low bit-rate speech input, so I need something similar but with higher/better fidelity.

What annoyed when I investigated these things is that I can get a really good digital camera for 50-75 quid, but a fairly basic digidic costs double that just for voice! (Spot the business-user-only mark up)

[Sharpfish]

Get a dynamic mic (one that doesn't need phantom power from a pre-mic to keep it portable), a cheap compressor (with a noise gate) and a way to record it digtially (and compactly) maybe an all in one (cheap) digi-portastudio thing.

Having said that, "what mic should I get" is a very broad question, it depends on what you are intending to record and what gear/software/outboard you already have. This will also vary depending on if it's to capture voice, music or the environment (sampling).

If you are using mainly sound synthesis then you may not even need a microphone (again, more details are needed).

[destron]

thanks for all your input guys.
but basically i want a basic but good-quality mic for making sound effects. I'd probably be using it with my desktop, which may be a bad idea according to bignobody. i mostly need to know what kind of things i should look for and how much it would probably cost.

[Anthony Flack]

This may be beyond what you're looking for, but I have one of these:

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--RODNT4

Pain-free stereo recording; comes with both XLR and mini-jack plugs so you can record onto minidisk or whatever, and it will run from either phantom power or a 9 volt battery.

[ChilledOut]

I'd suggest a Shure SM-58. It's a very good all purpose mic which is (relatively) cheap (about $100), it can take a beating and you'll be able to resell it if you find you're not interested.

It's primarily for vocals, but it'll also work fine for instruments or sounds. You can use it inside, outside, recording or live performances, etc. Of course with the versatility, comes the trade off that you won't get the absolute best sound or most detailed sound in all situations. But if you're going to buy just 1 mic to get started, this is your best bet.

Once you get a little more advanced you might want to look into adding an inexpensive condenser mic as well. With the combination of the 2, you can get a great sound from almost anything. You can use the SM-58 to capture a more raw, live sound and use the condenser to capture the nuance.

[PoV]

What I really want is basically a digital dictaphone that can be plugged into a USB port and downloaded from. Thing is, dictaphones will have a piss-poor mic that's limited to low frequency, low bit-rate speech input, so I need something similar but with higher/better fidelity.
I know what you mean. :D

I have an RCA voice recorder which I've used for note taking in the past. Unfortunately, it uses it's own compressed audio format which requires tools to convert to stardard wave files, it uses AAA batteries (which die after about a month), and the audio quality is hardly worth bragging about.

However, toying with MP3 players as of late, I've found a number of them actually have decent Mic and recording capabilities. Previously, I had a Creative Zen player which did WAV, but it was nothing special. A friend of mine had some generic RCA flash player that did a better quality WAV file. Currently, I have an iAudio X5 player, and it actually does a pretty respectful voice recording. It encodes to MP3 directly, and lets you use 128bps 44khz Mono. Sure, it's not pro "on the go" recording gear, but it's a huge step up over the voice recorder. Not to mention, multi-functional! :D

A sample:

http://junk.sykhronics.com/audio/iAudioX5_Voice_128.MP3

[Fabio]

hey all,

i am thinking about becoming a sound designer (for fun/hobby, mostly) and was wondering what kind of microphone is the best? as i am not a pro or anything I have no idea of what to look for or how much I should spend.
any suggestions/ideas would be great.

--destron I simply love my Shure SM-58, I don't think you can find a better comprimise without spending a real fortune. If you don't spit "P"s then the SM-57 may be a good choice as well.

[Sharpfish]

I too have a shure sm58 (had it for over a decade and still like new!) it's a great workhorse (mainly for *live* vocals) for studio stuff a large cap/con mike Rhode, Newman, AKG etc would be good for vocals or voice.

Though for a general microphone to see how you get on, go with the sm58, millions of others have. ;)

[AnthemAudio]

I suppose I should say something here.

SM 57/58's are great...for a dynamic mic. If you're thinking voice-overs, go condenser. If you're thinking Sound FX, a condenser preferable with an acute pick up pattern should be what you are going for.

A condenser mic, basically is going to make your audio sound a little bigger and fuller than it really is. Problem is, you'll need external (phantom) power to light these guys up.

What I would suggest is a compromise. There have been some great improvements in USB mics recently. Actually, Samson makes a USB condenser mic that is really cheap.

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1810

Runs new for $109. There's a multi-pattern version coming out next month for another $20, that might be interesting.

It's a huge upgrade from any headset mic or anything from Best Buy (unless they start selling these there too). My friend has a nice USB mic called the Snowball made by a mic company called Blue. Blue makes some awesome ultra-expensive mics (and a few midrange ones) and they most recently started a line of USB condenser mics(also multi-pattern).

http://www.bluemic.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Products&file=index&prod_id=18

They're really marketing these to podcasters and whatnot, but I've used the snowball and it's pretty nice. The best thing is you can carry it around with your laptop and record sound fx wherever you go, at a moments notice.

FUN!

Tony