Recommendations for good mic for hobby use

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noobrecorder

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Hi everyone,

I'm new here. I've been singing recently and I like to record myself to hear how I sound. For a while now I've just been using the built-in mic of my laptop but obviously it's not a very good mic. It's better than nothing but I want to buy a real microphone. I want to record myself to hear myself but also to share with family/friends etc. I also want to start making a youtube channel of my singing.

As you can see I'm not trying to record music as a professional or anything. I just want a mic that will make me sound better/more accurate than what the laptop mic is doing. I bought a mic from radioshack that was 40 bucks and it got great reviews ( Super-Cardioid Dynamic Microphone Model: 33-128| Catalog #: 33-128 ) but the recorded vocals didn't do that much for me. So I think I might return it if I figure out what else I should get.

I'd be willing to invest in a good budget microphone like a shure sm58 or sennheiser e835 but I don't really want to deal with a mixer (which is another 100 bucks?!)/amp/whatnot. If there is a way to use those mics without buying a whole get-up then that would be fine.

So any suggestions? I saw good things about those 2 I just mentioned and the yeti or snowball mics. I'm sure I could find more that get good reviews for around the same price range but I thought I'd make this post first. Thanks for any help!!
 
Hey man, welcome to the boards.

The situation you're in isn't uncommon at all, but in terms of what you buy to start with usually requires some sort of forward thinking to some extent.

The first thing to say is that an SM58 or the sennhieser e835 are both great mics so either would work absolutely fine. The issue is that both need some sort of preamp to make them work properly. To cut a very long story short, the signal coming directly from the mic is very, very, very quiet. To boost the volume of the signal to usable levels, you need to amplify the signal before it carries on it's destination (in this case, the computer). Then, for the computer to be able to read the information coming from the mic it needs to convert it into computer language using an Analogue to Digital convert (A/D converter). Now, most computers have some sort of "mic input" built into them which has a simple, dirt cheap preamp and A/D converter in. However, these are meant for plugging in headsets for gaming or skype calls. Can you plug a sm58/e835 straight into it? well, yes, but you'll need a couple of cable adaptors and it will sound..... well...... fairly bad.

The solution is one of two things. Either buy a separate audio interface (AI) with mic preamps built in or, as you said at the end of your post, look at USB mics. The first route of getting a separate AI and a mic may seem expensive but it has a couple of clear advantages. First off the quality of the preamp and converters are much, much higher than that found in the "mic in" on a standard computer (this is exactly the job they're built for) and if you really enjoy recording and want to upgrade your mic in the future it's very simple; you just have to buy a new mic and that's it.
USB mics are a normal mic with all the functions of an AI built into it. The problem; well, in an attempt to put all these things in the same box at a reasonable price the quality of the components suffer (usually quite heavily). Also, if in time you really enjoy recording and want to upgrade, you have to buy both another mic and an AI or completely new usb mic again. The other issue is monitoring/hearing yourself. Most AI's have a headphone and speaker outputs and offer the ability to hear yourself and whatever music your recording along to in real time whilst you're recording, whereas many USB mics lack one or both of these functions.

So, as i said at the start, it does kinda depend on how far you see yourself going with recording.

The cheapest option as an AI would be something like the Blue Icicle , but bare in mind it doesn't have a headphone socket so you'd need to monitor everything from your computer headphone output which may cause latency problems (latency in short is the amount of physical time it takes for the signal to get from the mic, into the computer, and back out to your headphones/speaker. if that time is too long, the signal coming back sounds like it's delayed and can be fairly off putting whilst trying to record). Otherwise something like the Maudio Fasttrack or Alesis IO2 are fairly cheap and fully functional.

If you go down the USB mic route, the Blue Yeti and Blue Yeti Pro seem to get the best reviews.

I hope that helps :)
 
Thanks for the thorough reply! I guess what I'm wondering is if I get a not-so-expensive AI like the ones you mentioned, and then I upgrade to a better mic later on, will the crummier AI end up holding me back, so I'd have to upgrade that too anyway? Or are those cheaper AI's good enough for the potential future too?

I wonder if the reason the radio shack mic sounds bad is because the A/D converter in my laptop sucks!
 
Like recommended above I'd try to get a used USB mic first (try used on ebay maybe so if you don't like it you can resell and not lose much) and see how that does for you. Otherwise you're going to need to get some type of mic preamp in addition to the mic (like a little mixer of some sort). Given that you're on a laptop having all that equipment and cords will not help your portability - so that's why I'm saying try a USB solution first. I've got cables all over the place with dynamic and condenser mics, and wish it was simpler, but audio can just get messy. Note - there are some really cheap small used mixers (like the Behringers w/1 or 2 mic inputs for example) - don't spend a ton of money at first if it's just for you recording your voice. If you go w/ a mixer and want a good but cheap mic the Shure SM57 or 58. Both are good and cheap. For a really cheap but good ball mic like the SM58 the GLS Audio ES-58 is really good mic from speakerrepair.com (or used on ebay). We used them in our practice room w/ a band and the singers really liked them when I brought them in. But again - for ease of use and compactness I'd go w/ something like a USB mic first to see if it worked for you first.
 
So I think I've decided to get the Blue Yeti USB microphone. I kept going back and forth between the AI and mic route and a USB mic and I decided that the USB mic makes sense for me since: 1) At 90 bucks on amazon I feel like you can't go wrong given the amazing reviews it gets (even at the MSRP of 150!); 2) I feel like the whole AI stuff would get too complicated and I don't have the time to devote to learning how to use all the features (/how to even use it at all); 3) I understand the AI + mic route is the way to go for most people because you can change things around later on, but I honestly can't imagine what else I would use the mic for besides singing and piano... I'm not planning on making any intense recordings any time soon, and 2+ years down the line (or even sooner!) if I decide that I want to change things up, I can always sell the Yeti and start over.

Anyway, I thought I'd just let people know what I decided to do in case anyone is in a similar situation. Thanks for the help everyone!
 
Hey Justsomeguy,

I have recently been experiencing the same problem that you answer here but hope maybe you can advise me on my slightly different situation. I have a Shure58 & 57 that I run into a ZoomR24 recorder/interface that I use as my interface, then into my iMac. My recorded signal by time it gets to my DAW (garageband) is very low. Does my interface not have a built in preamp? Should I buy a preamp and run that into my interface before going to my Mac??? or/and should I be purchasing a condenser mic???

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
 
The Zoom has preamps.
They aren't too bad either.
Make sure you plug into an input that has the preamp (channels 3 to 8 I think as the 1st couple are HiZ for instrument input) and adjust the fader to increase signal as you speak into the mic & then adjust in the DAW.
The preamps aren't super powerful but you don't need to go into the red. Shure mics do require a LOT of boost. If you can borrow a condensor mic & compare & contrast (the R24 does have phantom power) both the signal strength and quality.
 
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