Value Priced Mic...but is it trustworthy?

I

ItzCashew

New member
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MSEDRK

Being a school student its hard to get money and save at the same time, let alone buying equipment. But so far i've been using a headset mic and i need to step up. A friend of mine helped browsed and found that Marshall Electronics MXLDRK Desktop Recording Microphone Kit for a lil over $100.

We read it over and saw that it doesnt need a preamp and doesn't need Phanthom power. All for that low of a price. Now i've never bought a "real" mic before so i need some input on this. Originally i was going for a USB from Samson, but being a 16 bit and latency issue i decided not to.
I just want to know if i'm getting a good deal and a good started mic. Or am i getting misleaded and blinded by the pricing. I would appreciate a good review and suggestion before i jump overboard. I thank you for your time.
 
What do you plan to record using this mic? I've not used this mic, but I'm not sure I would want it for recording music. It seems more geared to the podcasting thing. One problem that has been noted with the USB mics is trouble monitoring pre-recorded tracks while adding new tracks. I'm not sure if this mic addresses that or not. Also, if you ever decide to upgrade and get a real preamp, etc, this mic is useless. IMO, you'd be better off getting a separate preamp and mic that accepts an XLR cable, as that will work with things other than usb. If your budget won't allow that, buy a USB mic and let us know what you think of it.
 
I believe the MXL desktop mic was introduced before the Samson usb mic and the Blue Snowball usb mic. MXL is coming out with their own usb mic as well in the very near future. I've seen the Snowball for around $125 new, but if you really want to get all the pieces for around $100 (that budget is just too low to expect great results), I might do something like:
Behringer UCA202 (2 i/o usb interface w/ headphone jack) $34 shipped from www.samedaymusic.com
either an ART MP for $40 new from vendor of your choice or a 1 preamp behringer mixer (xenyx 502 for around $45 or the ub series equivalent, which is even cheaper)
and then a cheap condenser of your choice for vox-- perhaps a MSH-1C from MS hilarious off this board (around $25 shipped), or an MXL 990 for around $70.
If you got those all the behringer stuff from one retailer, like musicians friend, or same day music (my favorite of the bigger retailers for cheaper stuff personally and got free shipping, it would be around $145, which is well over your budget (this is before cabling). You could get the first two from SameDayMusic and get free shipping plus an MSH-1C for about $100 or the first two plus an MSH-4 (tube sd) for a little more.
That's all just conjecture based on your budget incidentally, please don't take what I'm saying as any sort of testimonial for any of that stuff (though you can hear soundclips for the MSH mics from links on this board).
If there's any way you can save up for some better stuff, I think you'll be well served by it.
 
kojdogg said:
You could get the first two from SameDayMusic and get free shipping plus an MSH-1C for about $100 or the first two plus an MSH-4 (tube sd) for a little more.
Click to expand...

I can't recommend the MSH-4 as a beginner's mic. It is rather specialized, and importantly, it will not work at all with less than full +48V, 10mA phantom power. That would rule out the Audiobuddy and possibly other USB/mobile type pres.
 
The MXL mic's in that package have hyped high ends if that's what you're looking for. I don't think you mentioned what you're recording.

Something like the MSH-O with a DMP3 preamp would get you a pretty high quality sound. Cheap mic's often bring out brittle qualities in sources and rooms. The MSH-O is pretty smooth sounding.

Tim
 
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