Did I screw up?

[Bananarchy]

Complete newbie here. So on a bit of a whim, I went out and purchased an MXL 770 condenser mic to do so home vocal recording. Unfortunately, I did the absolute minimum in terms of research and it may have left me in a bit of pickle. Essentially, I was expecting to be able to somehow record the audio to my computer, but I am no longer sure if that is possible using the mic I purchased. The microphone requires an XLR cable, but (and forgive the stupidity of this next part) what exactly do I plug the other end into? A mixer? I see that you can buy XLR to usb converters, but it doesn't look like these have the phantom power required to operate the mic. Is anyone aware of a solution, or did I just bone myself out of $80?

 

[Chili]

No, you didn't screw up, you only went halfway. Next you need to purchase an audio interface. It doesn't have to be expensive, but it should supply phantom power as you noticed.

USB interfaces are adequate for most applications. Here's a list.

LIST

I suggest start your search at around the $100 mark.

 

[rob aylestone]

Much better than buying a USB mic - far more useful. The only tricky bit is to make sure it has phantom power - not all do!

 

[JefferySmith]

Blue sells a thing called the "Icicle" that is probably the cheapest interface you can find with phantom power. I'd go with the Shure X2U interface. It's more like $100 than the $50 Icicle. Very quiet.