What is a great microphone for recording vocals?
by Lyrics Seeker on 03/12/08 at 9:55 pm
Sarah M asked:
I need a great microphone for recording vocals. Here’s what I already have at my disposal…a top of the line laptop and the H2 Zoom handy recorder. What’s the best microphone for a reasonable price? Condenser?

ovationlj
Dec 7th, 2008
To get a good quality microphone you’ll need to spend about $250 or more.
There are plenty of condenser microphones around $100 or a little more, but they are not the best of quality, but do however get the job done.
The other thing you’ll need to realize is that a condenser microphone is only as strong as its preamp. So if you are recording vocals on your laptop, you’ll need to get a Audio Interface that has preamps in them to allow you to record to your laptop. Getting a converter and plugging directly in will not work for 2 reasons: 1) the quality is absolutely terrible 2) there is no phantom power available for the microphone
For microphones I like the Shure Beta 87 or the Rhode mics. However the AKG can be pretty good too.
Rode NT1A – $230
Shure Beta 87 – $250
But that is probably too expensive. If you can only spend like $100 then I’d recommend the Shure Beta 58. It’s not a condenser, but it is a good microphone for $100. If you get a condenser like the Samsung for $100, the quality will not be what you expect.
Shure Beta 58 – $99