Microphone review thread

[sysrq868]

My turn!!

I'm not very sick rich, so I have like 20$ Logitech headset on me.



LOGITECH PREMIUM STEREO HEADSET

== Microphone ==========================
It's astonishing how little background noise it actually takes, and the 0,1 dB bg noise it generates awkwardly comes only to the right channel... and if it disturbs the nitpicking, perfectionist kind of people like me, they should noise reduce (it doesn't sound underwater with Audacity). What I don't like about it is that it's made of solid plastic, so you cannot adjust it by twisting and bending it freely, it just rotates from the base. Free modifying is the feature that I would like on any microphone... for me, the mic is near my cheek, rather than anywhere near my mouth.


== Speakers ===========================
Superior. Bass.

It's like, you put it on your head and listen to some music, and you'll fall off your chair because of the bass. Though, the bass and the poofy foam edges highlight all little errors and background noise, and all radioplays sound 65% worse. In addition, if you hang your head downwards (lookie, lookie, are those toes?) the headset slides and falls off because off it's own weight and looseness. But the bass and treble pays back all those thrice.


== Overall =============================
The turn mic on/off button on the remote is just perfect (it wasn't with my previous headset). It is just so weird that if you record with mic off, it still records background noise... Also the package was inhumanely impossible to open. I got at least 10 small cuts, sweat 3 gallons and broke my scissors trying to open the hard plastic pack. But I... a) ...think that this is typical Logitech b) ...digress.

Long cord, I don't know if it's good or not... but I'm certain that this is definately worth every cent.

[Darkblade]

i have seen it once in this post and i would have to say teh shure sm58 is the nifftiest mic you could get yourself for under £70 though im not sure how much in dollars anyway its a cardoid dynamic picks up best from the front, moderatly from the sides and dont even try talking into the back and it doesnt require power at all. there are 3 things i love about this mic
1. inbuilt pop shield, very handy
2. built like a volvo, you wont kill this microphone in a hundred years of solid abuse, there are nigh indestructable. even for shouting into or dropping off tall buildings
3.in built noise reducer that reduces handling noise by loads.

the main dissadvantage to this mic is that you need somthing to conect an xlr lead to your computer otherwise you wont be able to record

now that my sure rant is over, the best sort of mic to look for is prob a cardoid pattern dynamic of some description with a freq response of at least 40hz-17khz, condenser mics are much better at picking up softer sounds ill admit but unless you are spending big money they tend to be very fragile to loud sounds or even being dropped .

[Lil_Angel]

i have a mic... but i dont have a program.. do any of you know where i can get a program? much thanks! <3

[sysrq868]

Darkblade: 70 British pounds = ~127.386 US dollars. And funny, because we had couple of sm58's at school and it was barely allowed to touch them while one uses it because the music teacher was extremely paranoid for it to break from thought and you say it can be abused forever not break... And we had a Volvo once. Broke into two halfs. Now I have two motorbikes, wow.

you need somthing to conect an xlr lead to your computer

Doesn't it come with a cord? Oh, probably one into a mixer... Right?


Lil_Angel: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

[Tomoe]

Hmmm...I bought a 20 dollar Logitech microphone (not USB) and it worked like my other one from 5 years ago. A week later, I walk into EB Games and pick up a PS2 USB headset and they gave it to me for free because it wasn't scanning on the computer (you should've seen the dust on the case, lol) and it works like a charm.

I think for Christmas (oh, probably sooner) I'm going to look into something a bit more professional.

[Nikkikuh]

Right now Im reading around the thread.
This is really helpful because Im going to buy my mic today but Im not sure which one to buy.
And all the mics recommended here sound good, so its hard to choose ^^;;

I have a labtop so I hope that has no effect on the mic and the way it records xP

[Yoda117]

there is also a good thread regarding this in the help section

[anime_freakx1000]

YODA!! *sniff* Please help me!!!! >.<!

Ok, I got the microphone. But it says to buy XLR cable and phantom power. I found the phanton power, but with the XLR cable..I'm not so sure. I found one called the Live Wire TRS-XLR(F) Patch Cable. Here is the link... LINKY And another one called Musician's Friend Lo-Z Microphone Cable..Here is the link... LINKY
But I have noo idea how to connect it to the computer...>.<...please help me!!! It doesn't matter about quality, as long as it it just cheap. ><! Thanks~

[Yoda117]

So... which microphone did you get?

Depending on whether or not it was a dyanmic or condensor mic will be my answer...

HOWEVER. My inclination is to say to you to scrap the idea that the cable doesn't matter, because it actually does. If you go with the el cheapo variety, then you introduce yourself to problems (additional noise on the line, poor power regulation, etc.). At a minimum, I recommend the Mogami Silver XLR cables:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ble?sku=339037

take the cable, run it into your phantom power source (please tell me you got a preamp...), and then run the preamp into your computer

piece of cake upside down

and if you're feeling daring, here's a little something I picked up for my own VO chain (got two, one for the beginning of the chain, one after it gets past my compressor/limiter chains). For vocals they work great by imparting some nifty sonic characteristics, for VO a minor use to deal with unwanted artifacts, but as with any VO... use extremely sparingly.

http://empiricallabs.com/lilmenu.html

[Lucien]

The first link is an XRL female to quarter inch plug. The second is XRL to XRL (female and male). What are you using as your source of phantom power? Yoda can clarify for me, but I believe you need to go from XRL to XRL in order for the phantom power to be effective. So you'd actually need both of those cables; the XRL to XRL to hook up your mic to whatever device is giving you the phantom power for the input signal, and the XRL to quarter inch for the output signal. You'll then need a quarter inch to mini adaptor to plug it into your computer mic jack. You can find those at most hardware stores.