Hey guys
Can anyone suggest a good condenser mic for around the 100-150 mark
its for vocals and accoustic guitar,
the guitar is a simon and patrick cedar wood, it has a mellow sound
not too bright,
i was also going to get the behringer mic200 as a preamp/ phantom suppy. any thoughts?
i was using an old soundcraft folio notpad mixer which is gone bad and
a AT dynamic mic, which is woeful with guitar and not great on vocals!
Thanks for any ideas
james
Sterling Audio St 55, or ST 51.
Reviewed very well in Mix a while back, and I have the 55 and it is great.
the 55 would be worth your time checking out to see if you like it.
I’m surprised there aren’t 20 replies on this already, people get very excited about their mics. 
I use a Stellar ribbon mic for acoustic…don’t know how good that would be on vocals tho.
Shame on you Tom, you did not mentione the Rodes NT-1… 
and to think they gave you a T-shirt.
Those Simon and Patrics are made by the same company as Godin if memory serves me.
IF I was in the market for a preamp and a mic for acoustic, I would go with a ribbon myself and get the highest gain cleanest sounding preamp I could afford.
PS what is you budget for the preamp, that is going to make a big difference in what we suggest.
keep shinin
jerm 
Quote: (JayK @ Oct. 21 2010, 2:30 PM)
i was also going to get the behringer mic200 as a preamp/ phantom suppy. any thoughts?
IF you on that low of a budget I wouldn't even worry about a "tube" preamp.
But if you want a good clean/quiet sounding solid state pre (that also has a tube available in it) than the Studio Projects VTB1
This retailed for $200 when they came out, and if you can snag one under $80 that is descent.
This would give you the ability to record the guitar with a clean preamp and experiment with the tube for vocals (but still have the option to use the quiet solid state side of the unit)
keep shinin
jerm
I have a number of condenser mics. If I had to chose one as an all-around I thik I would be tempted to use the Octavia MK-012 - it’s a small condensor, phantom powered mic great for accustic instruments and more than acceptable for vocals and has changable capsels so that you can get “several mics in one.”. Opps, I just looked and they are more than your budget. There are so many good mics available that it is really had to say. The STerling mics mentioned are pretty good, but they do “color” the sound some. You might want to consider saving a bit more and getting the ST59 which is a multi pattern mic - but about double your budget. The MXL mics are inexpensive and get pretty good reports. I thnk what you might want to do is go to a site like Musiciansfriend.com and read the customer reviews on the mics that are in your price range. Most retail store ( here in the states) claim thay can’t let you return mics for “health” reasons, but last time I checked Musiciansfriind still accepted returns if you just hate the mic. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for actually using a mic. Really, if I had to have only one mic it would be the Shure SM58 - a dynamic microphone, but it sounds good on everything.
I bought one of these
http://recordinghacks.com/microphones/SE-Electronics/SE2000
I think I paid
£70 - that included the bird-cage, pop-shield and wooden box!
It’s probably a load of old shite but it sounds ok to me.
IT was said that is identical to the MXL 2001P,
They are doing wonders with those over at Oktavamodshop (Michael Joly)
keep shinin
jerm
The Rode is a bit too much for the budget, and yes, they gave me a t-shirt!
http://recordinghacks.com/reviews/tapeop/se1-se2000-z5600/
Who am I to argue? This review swung it for me. For the money - hey!?
We had a cheap Behringer to start with and for
£35 it was acceptable.
We moved onto the Rode NT1-A which we’ve used for vocals and acoustic guitar with great results.
I highly recommend this mic.
I hadn’t realised the difference between a cheap condenser and a quality one until I heard the Rode.
Rode makes great stuff pretty cheap. I have the ntk, a pair of nt5 mics, and an nt3, which often gets overlooked. Boy, does it have a high output.
Mics with a high internal gain for the most part, is a good attribute, to have…
It tends to over-ride a mic preamp that suffers from a not-so-good noise floor…
However, if you happen to discover the right combination of mic/preamp match, with all the right dynamics, it makes that signal chain tough to beat, for just about any application…
After that, the only thing that comes into play is, the frequency bandwidth and EQ, for the track to be recorded, with that chain…
For the “Spec Freaks”, the mic with the lowest output number/rating…
e.g. a mic that has the lowest output rating
(-52 db
has a higher output than a mic with -57 db figure) higher output level…
However, not necessarily the better mic for the application…
Well…
Bill…
Quote: (TomS @ Oct. 22 2010, 4:39 PM)
The Rode is a bit too much for the budget, and yes, they gave me a t-shirt!
your right I sold one of my NT1's for $160.
keep shinin
jerm
Used - that would be just in the budget.
Bill, here are the specs for the Rode NT3 - do they show that it has a high output? It is really surprisingly high compared to my other mics.
Link:
http://www.rodemic.com/microphone.php?product=NT3
Power P48 (48V), P24 (24V), P12 (12V) phantom supply or 9V battery
Acoustic Principle Pressure gradient
Directional Pattern Cardioid
Frequency range 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Output impedance 200Ω
Signal noise ratio >77 dB SPL (A - weighted per IEC651)
Equivalent noise <16 dB SPL (A - weighted per IEC651)
Maximum SPL >140dB SPL (@ 1kHz, 1% THD into 1KΩ load)
Maximum output voltage +9.5dBu (@ 1kHz, 1% THD into 1KΩ load)
Sensitivity -39 dB re 1 Volt/Pascal (12 mV @ 94 dB SPL) +/- 2 dB @ 1kHz
Weight 371gm
Dimensions 206mmH x 32mmW x 32mmD
Gonna weigh in here despite reservations.
I have a pair of Behringer C1 Large diaphrams that I fell in love with for their price/quality ratio. Had them for years.
But lately (and this is the part that will get me boo-ed out of here) I’ve been using the built-ins on my Zoom H2 (through USB) I just love the little buggars.
(Gear snobs can begin throwing things now…)
I’ve got a Zoom H-2 as well…
However, I haven’t used that machine as much as I should…
My tracking has slowed down to a mere trickle, of what I used to do, around here… I’ve barely tapped into all the resources it is capable of, including 24-bit resolution recording…
Bill…
Ain’t no gear snobs here, Mr. Clark!
Yeah, you sure you got the right forum?
Don’t get us wrong we love good gear! lol
but any gear that does the job it is intended for well is good!
That Zoom H-2 seems like a great concept, I mean forgoing a mic cable, external mixer, and all the other things involved in the signal chain of stereo applications, got to have a real low signal to noise ratio it’s all inclusive to the unit!
Plus you get 4 mics for a 360 if you want…
IF this has a 1/4 out I would use this to patch into my Sure wireless monitor system and give me a nice added sound of the room in my ear. (the stereo mic I am using now for that is just noisy and only really gives me the sound of whatever is a few feet in front of it) when I turn the gain up to try and get more of the room in my monitor it just adds to much hiss to my ears to get through a set.
keep shinin
jerm