Good Starting Mics

[Troubadour]

Hey all. I have some decent software (Adobe Audition 3) that will let me record and such, but I need a good mic. Something that I could power off my computer or that is self powered, and preferably cheap. Anyone know any good starting mics. Oh yeah, it would be used mainly for singing or recording acoustic guitar...

[Gesshoku]

Honestly, the biggest thing with PC recording for String instruments and voice is the sound card. You could have a $2,000 mic and use it with an onboard sound card and it'd still sound like crap.

So the first question I need to ask before I can give ya advice is what sound card you have.

[Troubadour]

Hmm, well, I have a HP Pavilion laptop and all I can find in the hardware area is some Legacy Audio drivers. I suspect that it is just a built in, so I think I am out of luck there. However, I do have access to a mixer board. Now if I were to record through that would I still run into the same problem?

[NexUmMonastica]

it all depends on what kind of voice you have and how you are speaking.

EV and AUDIX mics have a much lower frequency response (picks up more low end) and are my preference. On stage I use a OM-2 AUDIX cardioid dynamic vocal mic which runs about 100$.

the more common SHURE SM58's and 57's have a boost in midrange frequencies and IMHO do not produce a good voice-acting sound.

you can also go with an AUDIO TECHNICA studio condensor mic which may be more spendy but is worth the cash: and on that note you can get a much cheaper MXL condenser which can even plug through usb.

go to musiciansfriend.com or samedaymusic.com and look for a mic that has good low frequency response (around 12hz-30hz) this is common in kickdrum mics, bass amplifier mics, and some vocal mics.

And no: the soundcard is almost the least important. I have recorded countless vocal tracks and you can get a proffessional recording through a H-IMP input on an onboard 10$ soundcard. Your mic, cable, and interfaces that it may be running through (compressor, noise gate, efx processor, EQ, audial enhancers) are much more important.

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The absolute most important variable to recording is your enviornment. You can record with 10,000,000$ worth of gear in a bathroom and it will still sound like crud.

:edited: and Gesh: i'm not trying to step on your toes here but I have tested this hundreds of times on expensive and cheap cards. None of them have ever made a difference in my recordings. Any discrepancies would be lost in the mixing process anyways.

[Macar]

and Gesh: i'm not trying to step on your toes here but I have tested this hundreds of times on expensive and cheap cards. None of them have ever made a difference in my recordings. Any discrepancies would be lost in the mixing process anyways.

Seeing as gess. is a professional sound designer I'm going to take his word for it!

[NexUmMonastica]

maybe I've just had a good enough sound card that I've never had a problem. Someone looking for a "starting mic" is going to do better for themselves purchasing a better mic first if their sound card is 'OK' I bought a 200$ periphial years ago and was still using a 60$ mic. Still sounded like crap until I got a decent audix mic to work off of. If someone was looking for a 400$ mic I would agree with Gess: of course you would want a good card to support your expensive equipment: but in this context a starting microphone will not have the nuance that is going to be picked up on a good sound card.

[William14]

Thank you for developing these kind of software's.

[Thrignar Fraxix]

I rarely delete posts, but I made an exception in your case. This added nothing to a thread that could still be considered useful (though dead) and I didn't want to see a 5 page discussion on necromancy as we so often get when threads are necromanced.

Please refrain from making spam posts. (I'm not going to lock this or archive it because as I said it could still be relevant in the future)