What's the best mic under $3.50?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Treeline
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Yo' G-Tree, across the street from my office building is 1 of those "99Cents" discount store that sells any & everything cheap from nose-hair removers to porn dvd's to no-name, 3rdWorld country man'fctrd, 5.0 multi-channel audio systems. A month 1/2 ago, I went in to buy some batteries and while perusing the shelves loaded with cheap crap, I came across a wire-less mic system. It came with 2 wireless mics and a dual channel reciever for $12.99!!
"WHOT A BARGAIN!" I said and bought it! The rec'vr is made of plastic with chanl's A & B which connect to vis 1/4" jack to your mixer. The mics are cosmetically awesome looking yet constructed of lo-grade plastic and 2nd-hand aluminum. To achieve any half-@ss results, gain & trim must be maxed to the highest. Signal noise, hum and a poor perfmnc' is evident but you know what........these cheeep-@ss mics sure come in handy during the wif-ee and her sisters & friends bi-weekly "FRIDAY KARAOKE NIGHT". Rather than have 'em using my Rodes, AKG's, Shures etc. & risking the chance that they might break them, they now have their own fancy-looking, wireless mics and can now pretend they're Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crowe, Donna Summers Or Ella Fitzgerald!

I got's me some peace of mind for only $12.99! :p
 
Shit, man - you have a wife that does karaoke - stop complaining about your job!! I can't even say the word "banjo" without doing damage control around here. But I still love her. :D (Besides, she has good judgment. You haven't heard me play the banjo). :D :D
 
Shazaam! An anonymous red chicklet!

Boy -

Someone told me off! A red chicklet and the silent treatment! For this very thread! What an inspiring display of courage!

I sure live to be impressed by the exquisite taste, honor and self respect demonstrated by the kind of high end artist who leaves little anonymous splashes of bird dattle everywhere.

What class! It's such a privilege to be part of it all. I feel ... touched by greatness.

Goodness...I do believe I'm feeling faint. :cool:
 
My Brother to the rescue...

Thanks, Bro. You know who are... :D

Now I can sleep soundly tonight. :cool:
 
Brutha' Glennnnnnnn, I just "injected" you with some "MY FEET HURTS" rep-luv!


In re to your prev statement reg'ding your wife & banjo etc.; My wif-ee detests any and ALL of my crappy-@ss jammies! Unless I do covers of "old-skooool" disco or club/dance songs, my mooosik get's no luv from her!!!
Matter o' fact, I can count on 1 hand how many times this year she has ventured down to my basement stoo-dee-o just to watch me create, perform and rec'd a song. 1 Sunday a few weeks back, she returned from a Sunday church service and informed me about the church band's gospel perf and how
good the bass player was!!! :mad: I cut her off mid-sentence and told her she's got some nerve telling me that when she's actually NEVER,EVER seen me play the b@ss!! :mad:
But like you, I also love my lady...even when she poo-poo's my non-disco moo-sik! :o

Peace,
Q.rM
 
Well, I'm thinking about leaving this forum. I got neg rep point! A RED CHICKLET!!! ME!!! A RED CHICKLET???!!! Oh the humanity!
 
Track Rat said:
Well, I'm thinking about leaving this forum. I got neg rep point! A RED CHICKLET!!! ME!!! A RED CHICKLET???!!! Oh the humanity!
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Hey, Bro - Take it from me. It's lonely at the top. You'll just have to deal with it as the price of fame. :cool:
 
I bought 6 plastic dynamic mics with included XLR-to-1/4" cables for 99 cents each at my local Buck or Two store. No joke. Yes, they sound absolutely horrible.. but who can go wrong at that price? At the very very least, I could stick one inside a bass drum and use Drumagog to replace the sounds. Plus they actually look pretty damn cool, so they make decent conversation pieces.
 
omtayslick said:
It also says that it will help overcome shyness. Save on your therapy bills! This package has it all!
Click to expand...

So ditch the mic and keep the package. :D
 
DonGraham said:
LOL...I wonder if there is any mods that would make it sound like a U47.....maybe a tube with an LED to light it?? :D
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actually, studies have shown that adding electrics to soup cans does not improve the overall performance of the microphone. for an nice can mic, your best bet is to rap it in electric tape to reduce the overall THD. Also, studies shown that the soup can method is most beneficial to "screamo" and such music. The singer simply screams as hard as they can and the vibrations from the ridges in the can act as a catalyst to the exposed audio cables. New forms include the necessity of a new type of phantom power called "AC Line Imput Modular Processession" aka ALIMP. This is achieved by two ways:
1) using a pair of solid copper wires, solder one end to the bottem ridge of the can and another wire to the top rigde. Proceed in sticking the other ends into a 120v outlet.
2)perform as described, except use a 240v line where availible. The clarity and "punch" is terrific, it'll give you a shiver you've never experienced.
 
Deteriorating?

I agree, this discussion IS deteriorating. Maybe we should just let this thread die a peaceful death, now. Especially the soup can discussion. Because, let's face it, once word gets out about the use of classic Cambell's soup cans as microphones, the price of used Cambell's cans on the collectors market is going to blast through the roof. Soon, young people won't be able to afford these classic Cambell's cans from the "vintage era." And THEN, people on web sites (such as HomeRecording.com) will start debating the merits of various soup cans, and soon, people will start arguing why it is perfectly reasonable - a bargain in fact! - to pay three of four hundred dollars for a particularly collectible soup can.

Heck, I can even predict what the arguments will be, having heard these same (equally absurd) arguments used to justify outlandish prices for other types of audio equipment. In reverse order (a la Letterman's "Top Ten"), the arguments will go like this:

10. Old gear has been broken in and has had time to "mellow," so it always sounds better than modern gear.
9. All my favorite recording artists use classic Cambell's soup cans, therefore I should own one.
8. Those vintage Cambell's soup cans are the most collectible, therefore they will will only go up in value. Hell, it's an investment, man!
7. When you buy a Cambell's soup can, you're paying for the priviledge of owning an American institution.
6. In fact, some dude named Warhol once merely painted a picture of a Cambell's soup cans, and sold it for a small fortune. If a mere picture of a Cambell's soup can is worth that much, how much can the "real McCoy" be worth?
5. If you buy American-made cans, you're helping American workers keep their jobs, which will allow them to continue to earn a "fair wage." If you buy cheaper, foreign-made cans, you are supporting the oppression of wage slaves in foreign countries.
4. We must especially avoid buying Chinese-made cans, as these purchases end up supporting the Red Army.
3. All my buddies will think I'm cool if I have a vintage Cambell's soup can mic in my collection. (Actually, this type of reasoning is never spoken out loud, but it's really what drives many of the purchases that people make.)
2. There's something that my vintage, American-brand soup cans have that all those modern, Asian-manufactured cans will never have - CHARACTER!

And the number ONE argument why one should pay just about any price for a classic, name brand soup can:





1. "Dude, it's a '59! They don't MAKE those anymore!"




Now, we don't REALLY want to see that happen, do we?


;) :D ;) :D ;) :D ;) :D ;) :D ;) :D ;) :D ;) ;) :D ;) ;) :D ;) ;) :D ;)

Brad
 
Ahhhh.....

NOW I can see why people said Andy Warhol was ahaid of his time....
 
Hey guys.. You aren't thinking creatively.

This thread has a natural development in segueing into a discussion about U.S. Postage Service approved mail boxes. The vintage ones (claiming ownership by the U.S. Postal Service notwithstanding that you bought it at ACE Hardware) are heavier gauge steel and offer the best overall dynamics for large scale communications. Of course, they must be connected with Monster or Canare brand four core vinyl coated laundry dryer line and not the cheapo cotton polyester clothesline that is sometimes used in connecting to a hook bolted into the center of the back - the diaphragm. So to speak. And, of course, there is always the "balanced v. unbalanced" argument. I tend to be in the "unbalanced" camp on this issue, but you may have come to that conclusion independently by now.But I'm open minded about it.

So let's have the analysis continue - who knows, we may get either shut down or hired by the NSA given our extensive knowledge. :cool:





Tut tut .. yet another anonymous gray chicklet appeared on this thread. Looks like someone needs a double Kapoectate with a chaser of insane hot sauce. That'll keep him occupied for a couple of days. :D
 
Yup- FREE ones are even better than the $3.50 ones....and outperform Schlitz shotguns by a long SHOT....Sorry- couldn't help it....
 
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