What to look for if I want a cheap sounding mic?

T

ThePrettyRyan

New member
I know it's a weird thing to do, but I plan on setting up two mics for me to use live. The first will be my main mic (Usually a good ol' SM58), and for the second, I want a mic that sounds really fuzzy and cheap that I can pop some verb on to get a cool vocal effect. I don't plan on spending much money on it. I've been looking on ebay at some cheap plastic mics for under $10, but I'm afraid they won't do what I want.

If you skip to just before 3:00 in this video: watch?v=oQZEROqontM (added to the end of youtube, I can't post links yet...), that's what I'm looking for.

Thanks for reading!
 
Do you want a cheap mic, or do you want a raunchy sound?

It's the easiest thing in the world to buy a cheap mic.

If you want raunchy you're going into the realm of harmonica microphones, Shure has the Green Bullet, which is not cheap at all.

A cheap solution is to use the capsule from an old telephone, you'll need the capsule that's used as the speaker, not the one you talk into. The easiest thing is to saw the telephone horn down the middle, glue a jack input in there and fill the remaining hole with car filler. A bit of solder and a guitar cable, et voila.

IMG_3124.jpg
 
i'm not quite sure his is appropriate but as the man said get a old fashioned (harmonica ) crystal type mic for that thin sound. easy and reasonably priced second hand on sites and ebay.
 
i figured out how to watch the video now and yep +1 on the cheap dynamic karaoke mic (probably with jack plug connection ) through a guitar pedal overdriving the preamp input
 
By the way chrisghost love the phone mic. How does it sound can you post a clip please?
 
chrisghost said:
Do you want a cheap mic, or do you want a raunchy sound?

It's the easiest thing in the world to buy a cheap mic.

If you want raunchy you're going into the realm of harmonica microphones, Shure has the Green Bullet, which is not cheap at all.

A cheap solution is to use the capsule from an old telephone, you'll need the capsule that's used as the speaker, not the one you talk into. The easiest thing is to saw the telephone horn down the middle, glue a jack input in there and fill the remaining hole with car filler. A bit of solder and a guitar cable, et voila.

View attachment 69414
Click to expand...

kip4 said:
By the way chrisghost love the phone mic. How does it sound can you post a clip please?
Click to expand...




Look up on youtube Ramstien live in Berlin one of the songs he uses a phone as a microphone as an effect --- really cool concert to watch. They would never be able to do all of that pyro over here in the states!
 
is this (cb radio mic) what greenday use in the middle 8 of the song holiday. to sound a little like a loud hailer
cant remember how far in it is on the video (probably about 3/4 of way in)

green day - holiday - lyrics - YouTube
bit off topic i know but its got the better of me.
i've tried eq notching in a daw to get this effect with a modicume of success.
 
They could have used a mic or done it as an effect. In the studio I have run a HPF at about 300Hz and a LPF at about 3kHz sometimes with a mid boost, followed by a distortion, followed by another LPF. I would imagine you could do all that live and turn it on and off with a foot switch, but a mic with the right sound might be easier.
 
Thanks for all the replies, folks! I'll give the telephone and the pedals a go right away (since they're free). I'll definitely post some sound clips when I get it working.
 
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