Topic: Best Inexpensive Microphone

[charles]

A bit of a survey question here. What does everyone consider the best inexpensive microphone out there?

[sexymexi]

depends on inexpensive....  some might say AKG c1000, MXL's.  there are many..  how much do you have to play with??

[jpschust]

i would say the studio projects c4's, priced at 300ish +/-20 bucks or so with card and omni caps, screens and shocks...pretty much a deal that cant be beat in terms of sound, quality and value

[Sanjay]

i would say the studio projects c4's, priced at 300ish +/-20 bucks or so with card and omni caps, screens and shocks...pretty much a deal that cant be beat in terms of sound, quality and value

Exactly, we should just sticky this answer up at the top of the messageboard it gets repeated so often.

[charles]

In other words, the C4's above all? Is the sound quality pretty good?

[Sanjay]

In other words, the C4's above all? Is the sound quality pretty good?

Well not above all mics, but above all under $400 imo

Oktavas are decent you can get a pair for 200 or so, however once you buy the omni caps it brings it up to $340, plus you have to buy mounts. AKG C1000s are alright but they are very large, think soda bottle size, and they can be cumbersome to find mounts or screens for, plus no omni pattern, just hypers if you dont lose or break the feeble adapter they come with, plus they are around $250 total.  So the C4's come out to be a better deal and I have yet to meet anyone who was dissatisfied with them, including myself.  They are a great starter mic, by no means the best but you will pull some nice tapes with them.  This is just one of the recordings I did, and this was less than great conditions to say the least, and it still came out nicely: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=18720

I have run all three and can honestly say that the C4's were a healthy step above the other two

[leegeddy]

Audio Technica AT853Rx will outperform Oktavas day in and day out, imho of course. 

marc

[admkrk]

In other words, the C4's above all? Is the sound quality pretty good?

Well not above all mics, but above all under $400 imo

Oktavas are decent you can get a pair for 200 or so, however once you buy the omni caps it brings it up to $340, plus you have to buy mounts. AKG C1000s are alright but they are very large, think soda bottle size, and they can be cumbersome to find mounts or screens for, plus no omni pattern, just hypers if you dont lose or break the feeble adapter they come with, plus they are around $250 total.  So the C4's come out to be a better deal and I have yet to meet anyone who was dissatisfied with them, including myself.  They are a great starter mic, by no means the best but you will pull some nice tapes with them.  This is just one of the recordings I did, and this was less than great conditions to say the least, and it still came out nicely: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=18720

I have run all three and can honestly say that the C4's were a healthy step above the other two

first off i thought the c1000s were omni? defenitly not hypers though unless i'm not right. and while i'm not happy w/ my rode n5 tapes(blame falls on me, not the mics) i want something other than a card pattern. they're not bad mics either. somewere around the $200 mark. they're small too (+/-) so most shockmounts are too big. the ones from here:

 (http://www.superlux.us/smalldiaphragm.html)  

seam to fit pretty good. puting them to the test next weekend

all that said i know nothing about the c4s

[Sanjay]

In other words, the C4's above all? Is the sound quality pretty good?

Well not above all mics, but above all under $400 imo

Oktavas are decent you can get a pair for 200 or so, however once you buy the omni caps it brings it up to $340, plus you have to buy mounts. AKG C1000s are alright but they are very large, think soda bottle size, and they can be cumbersome to find mounts or screens for, plus no omni pattern, just hypers if you dont lose or break the feeble adapter they come with, plus they are around $250 total.  So the C4's come out to be a better deal and I have yet to meet anyone who was dissatisfied with them, including myself.  They are a great starter mic, by no means the best but you will pull some nice tapes with them.  This is just one of the recordings I did, and this was less than great conditions to say the least, and it still came out nicely: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=18720

I have run all three and can honestly say that the C4's were a healthy step above the other two

first off i thought the c1000s were omni? defenitly not hypers though unless i'm not right. and while i'm not happy w/ my rode n5 tapes(blame falls on me, not the mics) i want something other than a card pattern. they're not bad mics either. somewere around the $200 mark. they're small too (+/-) so most shockmounts are too big. the ones from here:

 (http://www.superlux.us/smalldiaphragm.html)  

seam to fit pretty good. puting them to the test next weekend

all that said i know nothing about the c4s

C1000's are cards, and they have a plastic converter that comes with it to convert it to hypers

I forgot about superluxes, but I have no experience with them

[Ed.]

superluxes are awesome.  The set i was using came with a case, shocks, tbar, 3/8>5/8's adapter, extra bands for the shocks and card, hc, and omni caps all for around $200.

As far as i'm concerned they sound better than octavas.  i've never really compared them to c1000's or the c4's but for the price i'd say they're definitely one of the best starter mics on the market.

[pfife]

Audio Technica AT853Rx will outperform Oktavas day in and day out, imho of course. 

marc

qft

although it seems almost blasphemous these days, I sometimes think my ATs outperform the TLs.

[Sanjay]

Audio Technica AT853Rx will outperform Oktavas day in and day out, imho of course. 

marc

qft

although it seems almost blasphemous these days, I sometimes think my ATs outperform the TLs.

brace for stoning j/k 

[charles]

superlux?