which mic should I get for under $70?

T

TheAlphaSenzei

New member
Hello guys, I want to start recording some quality tracks. But I'm on a budget. I want to know what's the best condenser mic under $70 or $70. I already have a phantom power in mind so that's set. I'm just wondering if I could record with just my mic and my phantom power. I'm doing this as of now because I have a buddy that's mixes my tracks so I just send him the vocals to add to the beat and mix. So let me know if that's a good idea and what a good mic is for my budget.
Thank you.
 
I don't know your location so I don't know what street prices you can get, but if I only had $70 I would forget the condenser and by a shure sm58.

Alan.
 
Well I found the CAD GXL2200 on sale for $56.65 and from the reviews I see a lot of love and respect for the mic, so I'll mostly go with this one. I'll have enough money for a phantom power supply and a female XLR and usb 2.0 cable. The question now is will this setup work and be good for my music vocals?
Thank you
 
You're going at this all wrong. - spending money on a 'phantom power supply and 'usb cable'. What you want to use is a USB Audio Interface with phantom power. Otherwise your sound quality is going to be limited by that USB converter cable (let me guess - Behringer?)
 
mjbphotos said:
You're going at this all wrong. - spending money on a 'phantom power supply and 'usb cable'. What you want to use is a USB Audio Interface with phantom power. Otherwise your sound quality is going to be limited by that USB converter cable (let me guess - Behringer?)
Click to expand...

Most of us would agree with this statement. OP if you want to start this out correctly, you may want to revisit your approach. A budget USB interface, with Phantom Power is probably your best bet. Presonus AudioBox for example is going for about $100 bucks. There are others, but you should rethink what you want.
 
i have the Sterling ST51. I do all my vocals with it. Samples in my signature, if interested. It is now about $79.99
 
^ that's the exact model i have. no problems with it, but i'm not sure if some are better than others... works for me anyway
 
Hey thank you Guys for all the help I really appreciate it. I was researching on usb interfaces, and I found this lil guy the Behringer U-Phoria UM2. It has good reviews and it's fairly cheap. It comes in with phantom power so that's good. Let me know what u guys think about my choice. Thank you
 
Like someone said above, you can get a decent quality audio interface box for not much money. It'll do more and take you farther than that cable. You're not really saving money if you buy gear you'll want to replace as soon as you start to get a little more into it.
 
TheAlphaSenzei said:
Hey thank you Guys for all the help I really appreciate it. I was researching on usb interfaces, and I found this lil guy the Behringer U-Phoria UM2. It has good reviews and it's fairly cheap. It comes in with phantom power so that's good. Let me know what u guys think about my choice. Thank you
Click to expand...

The Behringer Uphoria AIs are fairly new to the market, so there are no long term reviews or history for them, although many people will tell you that Behringer's low-end equipment is poor quality (or at least unreliable). Most people here would recommend an interface in the $150 (or higher range) for the better quality, and better mic preamps.
 
Behringer's equipment has improved in the last few years - for a very tight budget it should be do the job just fine. If you have more budget then it's worth the step up though.

Their bad rep was made with a series of very low cost/quality equipment ranges/rip-offs, but afaik their newer stuff is just as good/bad as other budget brands in the same price range. If you get serious about recording then you will need to upgrade from a 2 channel interface anyway most likely and there are far more options when you move slightly upmarket.
 
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I have read a report from a guy who has a the 4 input version of the Behrry and he reckons it is pretty good.

That UM2 is VERY basic however! Only one XLR mic amp and RCA outputs. I would suggest the Alesis iO2 is a better bet although it averages some £20 dearer than the UM2 but that is STILL very cheap for an AI!

So, think long and hard as to what you might want to do in the future. If the Behringer satisfies all your requirements now, and for the foreseeable, go for it. I am sure it will work quite well.

Dave.
 
i would get an sm57 or sm58 , a condenser is absolutely not very good in a low price range like this , i many times prefer an sm57 on vocals and i also got sm58, sm7b, Rode nt2000 , Miktek C5 and miktek Cv4
your room have to sound good to when using condensers ,
with a dynamic it wont pick up so mush of your room sound, that's a blessing if your room is not good sounding, dynamics are very underrated :)
also a dynamic on vocals tends to sit very easy in a mix and can take a lot of eq without sounding bad
 
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