Pair of Condenser mics costing around 100 for both

T

thinfinn

New member
Hey everyone,
I'm searching for my first pair of condenser mics for overhead and acoustic guitar that sort of thing.
Not to ask anyone to do loads of research on my behalf, but has anyone heard of a pair of mics that do the best job for this kind of price ?
Cheers
 
It depends on what the 100 are. ££s ? $$s ? Yen ? Brugles ? It also depends on whether or not you are fussy or whether, as a hobbyist, you're happy with "by no means anywhere near top of the range" mics that will be satisfying to you but which might get you laughed out of town.
 
Pounds, but right, I suppose i'd ought to save up a little bit more.
I have seen some on thomann for example, I just wondered if it was worth getting some mics like that or not.
 
thinfinn said:
Pounds, but right, I suppose i'd ought to save up a little bit more.
I have seen some on thomann for example, I just wondered if it was worth getting some mics like that or not.
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Well, I'd say yes. When I first started reading up on mics, I noticed that almost everyone that spoke about drum recording spoke of using condensers as overhead mics. At the time I was using a couple of dynamics {Shure Prologues} as "cymbal" mikes {:facepalm: I was young.....} and I became increasingly curious as to the difference condensers might make. If they were standard fare for overheads, I figured it was worth investigating, even though I was happy with the dynamics. So I bought a pair of Stereoset EM700s on Thomann. I think they cost £35 for the pair. My philosophy as a pauper and cheapskate was that if they were rubbish, £35 would be the price of an education. I use them regularly for drums, acoustic guitars and mandolins, vocals, clarinets, saxophones and various percussion. Possibly to a well tuned and expert ear, they're probably a mongrel dog as opposed to a thoroughbred Crufts champion, but I don't care. They're sensitive, they work, I like the quality of the recordings and what more can I say ?
 
Interesting guitaristic. I'd swear the CAD mics are identical to the Alesis I have. I wonder if Alesis buys them from CAD and private labels them.
 
If not having the mics keeps you from recording then by all means grab a cheap pair...

Because this is a learn by doing hobby.

If your already recording though, IMO it's worth shelling for a decent pair.
 
Thanks for replies guys ! :)
Well that's the thing i don't really have any means of recording the things I could record with some condensers..
I have an sm57 dynamic, a bass drum mic, and two dynamic voice mics.. So to grab a cheap pair and see what I can do with them is what I thought I might do. Would add a little bit of width to my possibilities even though it might sound like a mongrel dog ;)
Cheers again
 
thinfinn said:
Thanks for replies guys ! :)
Well that's the thing i don't really have any means of recording the things I could record with some condensers..
I have an sm57 dynamic, a bass drum mic, and two dynamic voice mics.. So to grab a cheap pair and see what I can do with them is what I thought I might do. Would add a little bit of width to my possibilities even though it might sound like a mongrel dog ;)
Cheers again
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In that case I would definitely go with the CAD ones or the Alesis ones Washburn suggested! It'll help you learn a lot about things like placement and basically condensers in general :)
 
I had a pair of Samson Co2 pencil mics when i started out.
I did upgrade and sell them in the end but they weren't too bad at all, especially for the price.
 
Steenamaroo said:
I had a pair of Samson Co2 pencil mics when i started out.
I did upgrade and sell them in the end but they weren't too bad at all, especially for the price.
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Yes, I had been wondering about the C02 mics, I've heard they were good value for money too.

Thanks for suggestions guitaristic. :)
 
thinfinn said:
Pair of Condenser mics costing around 100 for both
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Way too much, try these as overheads and on guitar. Read the sound on sound review here.

OK they are no Neumann but at the price you can get very good results until you can buy something better. In fact I just recorded a CD for a band and we used them as drum overheads to try them out, no complaints and got a great cymbal sound.

Alan.
 
Cheers Alan, I see these are omni, all the other ones i've been looking at seem to be cardioid, is there alot of difference between the two results say on recording drums ?
 
thinfinn said:
Cheers Alan, I see these are omni, all the other ones i've been looking at seem to be cardioid, is there alot of difference between the two results say on recording drums ?
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As a rule I would say don't use omni's on drums unless the room is very good. However even though they say these are omni they don't seem completely omni (I know that does not make sense) and seem to have some rear rejection. What I found when using them as overheads was that I had to place them a bit closer to the kit than I would usually, however in the case of the recording I used them on it worked. I also found that I seem to get a bit less kit and a bit more cymbal than usual but again in this case it worked for this recording. Here is a link to my web site showing a photo from the Suntones session, the mics were close to the cymbals but were in fact equally spaced from the snare.

For the price it would be worth buying a pair just to have around as another option. The only thing a bit difficult about these mics is that they are hard to unplug as they are smaller than the XLY connector that plugs into them.

Alan.
 
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