Doing a podcast book. Any opinions on the CAD U1 USB Dynamic Recording Microphone?

hithereeveryone

New member
I have no expectation of soundproofing in the near future and the condenser mic I'm using picks up every little squeak. I understand that dynamic mics aren't as sensitive and more tuned to vocals than condensers.

So, any thoughts on this pretty cheap mic? I know you get what you pay for, but I'm not asking for much and don't have much available to pay out. :)

Any help is appreciated.

Patrick.
 
What kind of budget? How much?

I've got a used Audix i5 - $60, a used Mobile Pre - $80, a new mogami 25' cable - $55, a 15' USB2 cable - $30, and it could probably produce good results.

Total - $225.

I suppose I should throw in the $300 laptop, since you can't really use the interface without a computer. As opposed to something like an H4n.

I'd caution against a USB mic, they don't hold their value much and are rarely impressive on their own. But for $30-ish why not, if only to satisfy ones curiousity.
 
What kind of budget? How much?

The budget I'm working with is as close to zero as I can get, to be honest. (Baby formula costs $15 a can and cheep beer costs $6 a six and those are essential! :) ) As a ballpark, I was trying to go around $100.

What intrigues me about your post, shadow, is the way you have things set up. Is it because straight to USB mics suck as a group or is it because you already had the mic with the XLR jack?

Already this feedback is telling me that I have underestimated how much I will need to spend for good equipment. I may just use what I have ($40 logitech USB that is so sensitive that I pick up my house settling) to practice until I can fit $250 or so into the family budget. Better that than produce yet another set of snowy mp3's.

Thanks all.

Patrick.
 
The budget I'm working with is as close to zero as I can get, to be honest. (Baby formula costs $15 a can and cheep beer costs $6 a six and those are essential! :) ) As a ballpark, I was trying to go around $100.

What intrigues me about your post, shadow, is the way you have things set up. Is it because straight to USB mics suck as a group or is it because you already had the mic with the XLR jack?

Already this feedback is telling me that I have underestimated how much I will need to spend for good equipment. I may just use what I have ($40 logitech USB that is so sensitive that I pick up my house settling) to practice until I can fit $250 or so into the family budget. Better that than produce yet another set of snowy mp3's.

Thanks all.

Patrick.

The fact is...even the non USB versions of those USB mics are unuseable...so you take a sucky mic and put a converter on it...you get a sucky mic with a USB converter:rolleyes:
 
What intrigues me about your post, shadow, is the way you have things set up. Is it because straight to USB mics suck as a group or is it because you already had the mic with the XLR jack?

It's because you're buying an interface (soundcard), cable (USB), mic stand(desktop), and eventually a mic for $40. Which means that the mic you're buying is more like a $5 mic (retail, not manufacturing costs). And that $40 is probably paying for shipping too. How could it NOT suck?

USB mics also have virtually no resale value if you decide you hate it. So it's money thrown away. Where I could probably resale my gear at costs. So from a certain POV, my mic was free, since I'm likely to recoup every penny I paid for it, when/if I sale it. Or maybe $20 less a couple of years down the road. Or maybe $20 more.

If you're ultra cheap, you might consider a radio shack special. Or a small electret for $10. Not that you will like those any better than your logitech. You might try putting that mic between two pillows or some foam or whatever and see if that helps isolate it from the weaker background noises. Or use your car as an isolation booth. Or podcast from under a comforter. Or .... other crazy stuff.
 
Yeah, well, it's the crazy stuff that I was contemplating that brought me here in search of a better solution. I found that I could get a decent sound out of putting the whole setup on a Breakfast-in-bed serving tray and reading, propped up with pillows behind my head. The thing is, because of the way I had to sit, I was both crushing my diaphragm so I couldn't project for squat and having my legs out straight in bed like that tended to make me hyper-extend my knees. Plus, I just felt stupid and the sound wasn't really all that much better.

Yeah, I'm just going to save my beans and figure out how to do this the right way. Thanks for the feedback all.

Patrick.
 
Well crazy stuff doesn't have to be that crazy, or expensive. Depending on where you live. The master closet in the master bedroom full of clothes was a dead enough space for me to make any mic sound like a dynamic. A couple of book shelves(3+) positioned to create a quasi vocal booth draped in comforters or whatever you have. Fill with books and/or clothes depending on the target sound. PVC frame plus similar stuff.

Worst case rent an appropriate space. If you know someone who knows someone, you might be able to just borrow the space. There's probably some filters/plugins you can get to remove all sounds below a certain dB level. And other things you could try. It just depends on how much time / trial and error you want to spend on the project. And what you consider to be good enough. It doesn't always have to sound like a million dollar home that you're in, but you can make it sound a little better than a trailer next to an interstate with relatively minimal effort.
 
In my job, I hear a lot of VO auditions recorded from home. Some with good mics and rooms, and some with bad.
I would say that most of the time, auditions that were recorded with a Blue Snowball, and even the smallest attention to surroundings (many are done in closets, I suspect) and levels are quite good, and surprisingly clean.
You can find them new for about $100, and often on CL or other sites for $50-75.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Blue-Snowball-USB-Microphone?sku=279015
You can surely hear the differences between that setup and a pro studio setup, but the sound quality is not the main thing that jumps out at you with the Snowball, in the way that the lesser mics will distract you with noise and distortion. I know that there are lots of other good and bad products out there, so I'm not saying that this is the only, or even best, solution....but just sharing my experiences with similar circumstances.
Good luck with your endeavors!
 
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