Best studio mics you've found about $200 or less new?

[stoopicus]

I just use a Shure SM58. That said I am a terrible vocalist.

lol

tbh I am not a fan of the mic for studio vocals (excellent live mic though). It's too boxy. If we're talking dynamics, I'd opt for something like a Senn 835.

You know what *really* sucks, is the Behringer clone of it that people tried to convince themselves was not bad for a while. The XM8500. Now that's the worst mic I have owned.

[dan_flash]

The only mics I have are SM57s (which are amazing and used for everything, including my voice which is shit but regardless...), a Rhodes M3 which I use on vocals when using the car as a vocal booth) and an old AKG C3000B which sounded fairly shit so I did a solder hack to flatten the frequency response and removed the internal foam shield.

Now all of a sudden the cheapo old AKG C3000B sounds like a fancy more expensive large diaphragm condenser.

[michaelrempel2]

In general you get what you pay for. You can get an over priced cheap chinese knockoff for that kind of money, but you WILL end up spending it again. As far as the SM57 goes, there are better mics but for durability and use on guitar cabinets, snare drum etc. It is a work horse.

If you want a quality condenser you could look at the Rode S1 vocal mic, or I pair those with Rode NT1000 mics for choirs and other area pickups. Both are work horses that take a huge dynamic range and eat it up with really clean sound that needs very little EQ. If your budget is only 200 I would think about it for a long while. If you intend for this to go into a professional position your mic collection needs to be big, and cover a lot of ground. At the beginning especially you need to stand out from the crowd, and quality microphones are the best answer for that. Go be a pest in your local music stores and try every one you can get your hands on. Try with different sound systems, and insist on flat eq and little to no compression (sales guys know tricks, you dont want to be tricked) You want all purpose do everything mics to begin with at least. The two I suggested are among the best bang for the buck, but there are other good ones too. NT1-A isnt bad, but the NT1000 is far better IMHO.

When you finally make a purchase ask yourself if this is a compromise? If it is it will be hard to sell.

If you never want to sell it once you have it, then you probably made a good choice. If you take your time and do the research you can probably save up for the difference in price with the time it takes.

BTW I used to give away cheap Chinese mics to people like you, but I cant any more, retired and the money doesnt go that far these days. I wish you well.

[Scotty]

Terry Brown, who produced several Rush albums made positive reference to the MXL V69 . When I was starting out that is what I bought. If it was good enough for him it had to be good enough for me.

They came out with the MXL V69 ME meaning the Mogami Edition which had better quality cables and internal wiring, It is a tube mic with an external power supply. It doesn’t sound harsh. I have used them for years and I still choose them routinely over my U87i mics and Townsend Lab Spheres, among others. They sound great on most vocals and acoustic instruments. I recommend these without reservation. They are great mics and affordable. I’ve seen them new for just over $260 USD. A little over your stated price but still in the approximate zone.

This is not my listing and I don’t know the seller but I just found this one on EBay as a price reference on this particular mic.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374304750824?_ ... R4bX74u6ZA

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

RODE NT1000 is relatively cheap mic (~320 euro),do everything flat,according to www tests i saw/heard.

[tkdalien]

Honestly I've tested a good amount of mics, both condenser and dynamic, mostly below the $600 range and it is still my belief that the Sennheiser E line dynamic mics like E835 (which is what I have) E935 etc. really sound the best, especially when coupled with a solid audio interface. The reason I always recommend dynamics over condenser is because they pick up significantly less background noise due to their pickup pattern and most people don't make music in perfectly treated rooms.

[mixyguy2]

Thanks, yeah I'm a Senn fan too and sooner or later I'm getting a 935, but eyeing LDCs too (hard to do new in this price range!).

[Michael L]

LDC: AKG Perception 220

[Tiles]

Honestly I've tested a good amount of mics, both condenser and dynamic, mostly below the $600 range and it is still my belief that the Sennheiser E line dynamic mics like E835 (which is what I have) E935 etc. really sound the best, especially when coupled with a solid audio interface. The reason I always recommend dynamics over condenser is because they pick up significantly less background noise due to their pickup pattern and most people don't make music in perfectly treated rooms.

It remains a tradeoff. Dynamic mics usually pick up boxy and muddy sound much more, and doesn't sound so brilliant in the upper range. Lots more to do to get rid of the bad frequencies. You pay either with the one or the other.

I had stated above that i used a dynamic one for a while, but am now back at a condenser. Bought a Rode nt1 signature now, which fits into the 200 bucks budget. Even with my bad recording room it needs nearly zero treatment with the eq anymore again. A real relief.

[mixyguy2]

Yeah in general, I'm definitely recording with an LDC. I'd rather treat my room more vs trying to cover up its flaws with a dynamic mic. But there are times a dynamic can work in the studio.

[Ploki]

spring a bit more and get Austrian Audio OC16

[stoopicus]

Yeah in general, I'm definitely recording with an LDC. I'd rather treat my room more vs trying to cover up its flaws with a dynamic mic. But there are times a dynamic can work in the studio.

Yeah, like we discussed above, the good old SM58 works fine for me. Would a condenser work better? Honestly in my room - no. I also don't have the option of room treatment (my music area is in a room with a dresser with full glass faced front - the mother of all terrible room acoustics).

[Uncle E]

I’m interested to see how the new Sonarworks VoiceAI handles room acoustics.

[Ploki]

Yeah in general, I'm definitely recording with an LDC. I'd rather treat my room more vs trying to cover up its flaws with a dynamic mic. But there are times a dynamic can work in the studio.

Yeah, like we discussed above, the good old SM58 works fine for me. Would a condenser work better? Honestly in my room - no. I also don't have the option of room treatment (my music area is in a room with a dresser with full glass faced front - the mother of all terrible room acoustics).

Room/direct ratio is a function of polar pattern and membrane proximity.

If you go the same distance from a dynamic and match the frequency response to the similar pattern condenser, you’ll see that it doesn’t reject room any better.

You just tend to sing closer into a dynamic, but there are also condensers designed for close applications

[stoopicus]

Sure but that’s not what I was getting at - what I meant was that I don’t have the room acoustics to allow taking advantage of the greater sensitivity of a condenser mic.