Mics for under $100 - that just may work for you.

The lowest price mic you should ever buy is a 57, 50-60$ is cost, you pay 100$ ,you can hate the sound, but you know the sound. A lot of 800hz and 400Hz nice octave peaks that you can nullify with eq. Don't forget to boost 2.5Khz to make it a beta57...
 
arcaxis said:
AKG C2000B on sale currently at Sweetwater for $99......
AKG C 2000 B | Sweetwater.com

A couple of well known members on this forum seem to think this is a pretty decent mic. I've got one ordered to give a try.
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I hate that mic, its far too big for the small voice print it makes. Alot of EQ needed to make it viable. AT is not a brand I shoot for. Their condensors may be on par with oktava or shure, but That 40xx series has never been consistent. I've mixed a bunch of them and wish I had a 86 instead. AT to me is one of the Peaveys of mics... Too hit or miss, a 57 is always a 57 and 421 is always a 421, you have to work at an AT.
Not hard to figure WHY its on sale. No one wants it...
 
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Many Podcast helpers out there, like Ray Ortega (thepodcastersstudio.com), Dave Jackson (schoolofpodcasting.com), Cliff Ravenscraft- (podcastanswerman.com), and Daniel J Lewis (theaudacitytopodcast.com),, heap praise on the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone. I have one and it is fantastic for spoken word. And when you figure the price is under $40 it is a no brainer.

This mic is both XLR and USB, either or, and has a built in headphone jack right on the mike with volume control, I am not yet allowed to post links here, less than 10 post, but add the h t t p : / / in font of this --> amzn.to/1djyYM9 and you will see the best price on Amazon.

John Hames soundcommentary.org
 
johnmhames said:
Many Podcast helpers out there ... praise on the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone. I have one and it is fantastic for spoken word. And when you figure the price is under $40 it is a no brainer.

This mic is both XLR and USB, either or, and has a built in headphone jack right on the mike with volume control
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I wonder how is this microphone for singing?

Has anyone used it in such applications?
 
I recently found an MXL2001 at a local pawn shop for 99.00 Would that be worth my money? Im currently on a borrowed Shure ksm27 and my best is akg perc120. It might be a year or more before I can afford my own better condenser so im thinking I might wanna jump on that mxl. What do you think?
 
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zanzibarrecords said:
I recently found an MXL2001 at a local pawn shop for 99.00 Would that be worth my money? Im currently on a borrowed Shure ksm27 and my best is akg perc120. It might be a year or more before I can afford my own better condenser so im thinking I might wanna jump on that mxl. What do you think?
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I would say you won't know until you try it on what you are recording and how well it works for you. Even a $1000 mic may not be what is right for whatever you are throwing at it.

I am not going to draw this out too much, but just as important as the mic choice is the performance, the sound of the room it is used in, and the signal chain that delivers sound to the recording device.

It is not really possible for anyone to say that that mic is worthy. It is for you to decide.

I haven't heard myself anything about the mic, but that does not mean it will not work for your situation.

Oh, and how much money? $50 I would say give it a go. $100? I would save your money and try out others and make an educated decision. That's me tho. :)
 
The Shure SM57 is probably the most versatile mic you will ever buy for under $$100...does a good job on vocals and great on amps as well....that is all I have used for about 20 yrs,,, yes the same indestructable mic !!!....
 
Harvey Gerst said:
Just used the stock preamp in the Soundtracs Topaz board. I used the same channel over and over for all the tracks and simply moved the output to each new track through the patch bay. I did turn phantom power on or off as needed, and adjusted the input level trim knob to keep the levels about the same while recording.
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This is the exact same setup I have. Soundtracs Topaz and patch it where it needs to go. ;D I have to say Topaz is one motherlover of a desk! Got it for 1000€ about 7 years ago.
 
I picked up a pair of Realistic 33-1070 and they are very cool mics. For those who are not familiar it is a clone of the EV635. I have yet to experiment too much with it but it sounds cool as a room mic, on vocals, and i've heard it sounds pretty neat on the underside of a snare. Its omni so it gets a lot of the batter side of the kick.
 
Great post. Those are all solid choices. If you are doing live shows and need a few for backup vocals and even drums, the mxl lsm 3's arent bad for the money. Not up to par with the others, but always pretty cheap on Amazon.
 
Kirbstone said:
The Shure SM57 is probably the most versatile mic you will ever buy for under $$100...
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Except that it's not really under $100, at least nowhere I've seen...unless you buy it someplace that doesn't charge tax as it runs $99 at best (and you don't have to pay shipping by buying online). And really, when people are looking for "under $100 mics," I don't think $99 is what they have in mind. :) But again maybe I missed a better deal somewhere-?

Anyway, I recently read that the MXL 990 (about $60) is solid......FWIW
 
Harvey Gerst said:
A friend asked my advice about cheap mics (under $100) for recording guitar and/or vocals, so I did a little shootout for him, using four mics that anyone can find for under $100 each - often, way under. Some of the old timers here have heard me say that "a mic doesn't know, or care, what it's recording." Maybe this shootout will illustrate that point a little better. The four mics used were:

1. Behringer ECM-8000 (Very Small Diaphragm Omni Condenser Mic - $40 to $50).
2. Shure SM57 (Cardioid Dynamic Mic - $50 to $60).
3. MXL 603 (Small Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Mic - $60 to $70).
4. MXL V67g (Large Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Mic - $80 to $90).

and a Neumann TLM103 was used to record a "scratch" vocal/guitar track - (Large Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Mic, around $700 used).

All the "guitar" tracks were recorded by aiming the mics at the lower bout of his Martin D41 - from about 6" away. The exception was the ECM-8000 which was positioned at the sound hole at about the same distance. That mic has no proximity effect.

All the "vocal" tracks were recorded about 6" away, using foam pop filters and a metal wind screen. The "scratch" track was recorded from about 3 feet away and the TLM-103's height was adjusted for a nice balance between the guitar and his voice.

There are nine tracks in the "rar" file; all are 44.1/16 bit "wav" files (that should load easily into any multi-track program you might have). Each file is about a minute and a half long. The "rar" file is about 32Meg in size.

Other than trying to make all the levels consistent, there is no other processing of any kind on any of the tracks (no eq, reverb, compression, etc.). I hate the "guess which mic this is" shit, so each track is clearly labeled as to what it is.

All times start at "0:00:00", so you can simply solo any guitar track and any vocal track at the same time. If you think one mic doesn't have enough (or too much) bottom or top end, try playing with your eq and see if you can get an acceptable sound.

These are just quick and dirty tests of four mics that most people here wouldn't normally think about using for recording both vocals and guitars. But if you're new to recording, perhaps one or two of these mics might be good enough to get you started. Here's the zipped file:

http://itrstudio.com/MicTest.rar

Note: You might hafta right click and save the file, then open it with your archiving program.
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Tell me this isn't the Harvey Gerst from Indian Trail Studios....Is that you in that box?
 
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