New Mic Suggestions?

[froandjoe]

You don't need to spend a shitload of money to get a really good sound. There are some much more reasonable prices than 180 - 200 dollars. Personally, I would recommend a Samson C01U - it's a USB condenser microphone with good sound reproduction and isn't easy to peak with. It's a really simple microphone that's basically perfect for anything you need.

What you're paying for with a microphone is basically sound quality and lack of peaking, which is where if you talk loudly or yell the sound distorts or just becomes s****y. A good microphone doesn't peak very easily and keeps a pretty normal sound level, meaning if you're talking really quietly, it should sound pretty similar in volume to when you're nearly yelling. Really high-end microphones allow you to basically scream at the top of your voice and not have any peaking at all and some of them come with built-in EQ settings, so you can try to get the best sound without having to do any post-editing.

With the C01U, it performs extremely well for its price, is a USB, and if you're willing to learn a little sound editing (which is really easy to do) you can get a perfect professional/studio quality sound from the microphone. If you don't want to edit at all, it still performs extremely well, but if you edit the sound, it will sound gorgeous. Last thing, make sure you buy a pop filter, they're really cheap and they go a long way to making the sound quality perfect (you need one for basically any microphone).

I've ordered my Samson C01U, and I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival

I'm with you on this one, I've just had mine through in the last hour. Easy to setup, literally plug and play and it sounds great. I did have to up the db's slightly, but that's purely due to my lack of desk space to have it sat right in front of me. Can't fault it, you're going to love it (Assuming it hasn;t already arrived )

 

[TickledBunny09090]

I'm with you on this one, I've just had mine through in the last hour. Easy to setup, literally plug and play and it sounds great. I did have to up the db's slightly, but that's purely due to my lack of desk space to have it sat right in front of me. Can't fault it, you're going to love it (Assuming it hasn;t already arrived )

Been using mine for about a week now - I love this microphone, it sounds great!

 

[froandjoe]

Been using mine for about a week now - I love this microphone, it sounds great!

It really does, the only issue I'm really having with it is the slight hiss. Have you overcome this with anything?

 

[TickledBunny09090]

It really does, the only issue I'm really having with it is the slight hiss. Have you overcome this with anything?

Yeah there was a little hiss in the background, but I eliminated that by turning it down and speaking more directly into the microphone. Now it sounds pretty good

 

[froandjoe]

Yeah there was a little hiss in the background, but I eliminated that by turning it down and speaking more directly into the microphone. Now it sounds pretty good

Haha, it's always the simple ways that do it best eh

 

[CollapsRanger]

Blue Snowball. Great Quality

 

[Flipflood]

Alot of people seem to be going on about condenser mics... not sure why since in radio studio they use dynamic ones.

The electrovoice re20 is industry standard in radio studios.
I just use a sm-58 through a decent mixer, a Mackie 1202-VLZ3 (although current it's causing excess noise, I need to figure that out), I need a balanced cable or di.

Basically if you buy a really expensive mic and you're plugging it into your soundcard which is cheap, then the quality will still be bad.

All if you're using condensers, you'll probably get more room noise and hiss, no point IMO.

 

[TickledBunny09090]

Alot of people seem to be going on about condenser mics... not sure why since in radio studio they use dynamic ones.

The electrovoice re20 is industry standard in radio studios.
I just use a sm-58 through a decent mixer, a Mackie 1202-VLZ3 (although current it's causing excess noise, I need to figure that out), I need a balanced cable or di.

Basically if you buy a really expensive mic and you're plugging it into your soundcard which is cheap, then the quality will still be bad.

All if you're using condensers, you'll probably get more room noise and hiss, no point IMO.

Well you don't need to buy a good sound card to use a USB condenser microphone. Also, it seems like a good USB condenser is quite a bit cheaper than a good dynamic microphone. If I had the money, I'd get a good dynamic microphone and sound card for sure, though.

 

[Shiznoe]

I would try going for a blue snowball microphone. It is a very good quality microphone for the price that it is at, but if you want to go at a much steeper price range. I would go for the blue yeti.