what model computer mic do you have?

[flyingfox2002]

If you own a PC mic, can you give a quick review here? I'd like to see which model is good.

I have owned 3 mics.

My first one is a Labtec Axis 302 model, got it for $13. Pros: Excellent recording quality. Minimal white noise and sharp sound quality. Cons: Flimsy built. Doesn't fit very well on the head/ears. Started falling apart within a few months. Headphones broke down quickly. The mic function still works very well to this day, but the overall piece is in bad shape so I don't use it anymore.

My second one is an Inland model, I dunno the model number but this must be the most basic (cheapest) model. It retails for $10 but I got it for less. Pros: Nice headset design; wraps around the back of the head and fits around ears comfortably and snugly. Cons: Everything else. Mic doesn't pick up sound well at all. Terrible white noise. Not recommended at all. Only useful for listening.

I immediately bought my third mic after testing out the Inland model. Labtec LVA 8450 model. I think I paid around $15-$20 for it. It has a 'noise canceling' feature so I thought it must be even better than my first Labtec mic since that mic had such a quiet natural background noise level. Pros: Sturdier built than the other Labtec model. Picks up sound quite well, even at low PC volume settings. Cons: Much noisier than the Axis 302. Very little hissing noise, but that noise is replaced with a low hum - must be the 'noise canceling' feature... It's also monoaural, only one earpiece, can't listen in stereo.

Overall, I would recommend getting the Labtec Axis 302 model. I don't think I handled it with the best of care. Had I done so, it may have lasted longer.

[warlock110]

yeah, those PC mic are ok if you just chat online, but for quality purposes I wouldn't use them. But stepping out of them will be much more costly, i just happen to have some audio gear for personal reason.

I have this simple setup
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ne-?sku=271266
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...nce?sku=180630
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/2ko...itemid=5871204

MIC>>> PREAMP >>> SOUND CARD

There's something about this setup that I like in term of price/performance ratio.

1) The mic is a decent one for a budget mic, you can pick 1 up for about 90 (not sure if it's still there, i bought it onsale). CAD is made in the USA and they have a decent amount of supporters, it's the single pattern of the M179 which cost 200 (most of the time if not all the time). I don't use the different patterns, so it makes no difference to me. The mic itself i really like the tone, it's a little dark and it doesn't have the tendency of hyper high end of most condensers. I think it's a good value mic. I also have the Shure SM-58 but i like this better.

2) The MPA gold is a really nice preamp for the price. It is a real tube preamp, you will not find a 2 channel real tube preamp for 300 or less, something similar is the Grooves tube brick that runs for 500 per channel. The tube can be upgrade fairly easy... so you can actually change the sound to your liking for the better, the stock tubes are cheap chinese ones, i picked it up new for 200 on a sale (i don't think i've ever saw that again). This is probably a low-mid range pre amp, not as good as the high end but it'll hold it's ground better against the low end (150 range). Most people will list this under the mid range area (500) after the tube swap.... Moving up to the higher end we're talking 1000+ dollars, not worth it IMO considering i only use it once in a full moon.

3) The sound cards is an Audigy 4 pro... many people will tell you that it's not good, because it's a sound blaster, not made for recording. In fact that's true, but they are talking about the low end of Sound blaster, Sound blaster top end model like the Audigy 4 pro and the X-Fi elite that goes for 200+ retail carries the same converters as the pro recording cards such as the Emu 1212 that cost 150 AND you don't get a break out box with the Emu version. Although the Emu cards are better for hard core recording, in terms of just simple recordings, you'll probably find the Audigy 4 pro much better in terms of usage. Best part is, it'll cost you only 100 (if you can still find an audigy 4 pro). The reason why the Emu 1212 has similar components to the Audigy 4 pro? Sound blaster owns EMU . The reason why the xfi elite pro cost 280 while the audigy 4 pro cost 100? i dunno, they have the same components, the only difference is the processing chips, makes no sense to me to spent the extra 180.

That's a decent setup IMO for people's hobby, i've seen much more grand setup but i can't afford it and the next step up in terms of quality will cost you an arm + a leg + some organs... this will give you some what of a decent results. The recording is usually done in 24 bits and it sounds decent, but once you're converted to mp3 @ 128 bitrate you loose alot of the quality, the fullness and mid range + high + low just went woosh out the window. So for internet usage it's not gonna matter much. But @ 160 or 192 bitrate you do retain alot of the original quality you recorded with.

[Tom]

warlock110 uses some expensive mics.

i have 2 mics. one is some standing mic i got for 12 bucks from walmart. the second one is the one that came with the webcam. both of them broke already.

[oGaKirA]

hahahah....and Warlock said he only had a cheap setup

bottum line is, if you really want to get into quality recording, get ready to spend some money! And ummm...the name "Labtec" does not exist there. lol
look into Audio Techniqca for mics. Then yea, you'll need sound card/audio card. I just bought a USB Native Instrument Audio Kontrol 1. Im using my bro's Audio Technica AT4050 mic.

[warlock110]

hahahah....and Warlock said he only had a cheap setup

bottum line is, if you really want to get into quality recording, get ready to spend some money! And ummm...the name "Labtec" does not exist there. lol
look into Audio Techniqca for mics. Then yea, you'll need sound card/audio card. I just bought a USB Native Instrument Audio Kontrol 1. Im using my bro's Audio Technica AT4050 mic.

AT mics are pretty good, it's a little too bright for me though. Alot of people like it.

[oGaKirA]

Yea best thing is visit local music stores and try out the demos. Guitar Center etc. That way you'll get one to your liking.

If money is an issue, I'd recommend look into the USB mics.

My first mic was a MXL.006. It sucked. Recorded sound was muffled. Recording squeaks when singing too loud. I cant recommend any but you can read some reviews b4 purchasing. Some positive reviews on Samson GM1U G-Track USB

Inspired by Mr. Warlock110's recordings, I then went searching for quality. I got into XLR plug mics.(3 prong connectors) Supposed to be low noise etc. haha I dunno. My older bro is the expert. I get info from him.

I then bought the AKG Perception 200. It actually sounds pretty good. But after I tested my bro's Audio Technica AT4050...i was in love. The AT captures very true with low noise. Im currently using the AKG for a paper weight.

Then of course youll need the proper interface for connectors.(other than usb)

Best prices for New I found was on Ebay. If buying something expensive, make sure the seller is an actual dealer. That way you'll qualify for warranty.

[oGaKirA]

Another thing that may be helpful is a popfilter. It helps filter the popping sound of "P" and "B" consonants from mic. They have nylon or metal types.

I have a metal Stedman XL version. It works fine. just have to remember not too sing too close to it or else can still hear breath hitting it.

Stedman popfilter, Onstage table top mic stand, Audio Technica AT4050, headphones

[Ren Wo Xing]

Ugh. Any way to get a decent recording set up that costs <$100?

[oGaKirA]

Ugh. Any way to get a decent recording set up that costs <$100?

Sorry, I don't know of many. I could only suggest usb ones but it's a little above that range. http://www.zzounds.com/item--SAMGM1U

[xianzai]

These are the microphones certified for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software:
http://www.dragon-medical-transcript...rophones4.html
http://www.talksight.com/dragon_comp...crophones.html

IBM shipped Andrea Electronics headsets with its speech recognition products:
http://www.andreaelectronics.com/HMA.htm

[warlock110]

Ugh. Any way to get a decent recording set up that costs <$100?

it'll give you more headache than you want... a noisy recording actually helps alot in terms of sounding good... everything sounds a little better when it's fuzzy (sort of like radio missing signals), alot of the clarity is lost in the mix + noises, and it does sounds good but not "clear" (like in a karaoke room with all the echo, everyone sounds good and similar to each other even if they just scream at the mic because the added noise drown out alot of detail to the ears).

Now if you ever heard of a dry vocal track in a studio (we're talking dead room/vocal booth + high end equipment, no noise + super clean track). It sounds like shit. Alot of work is put into mixing that vocal track, a few main things are EQ, Compressor, Reverb/Delay + a crapload of small things that the sound engineer do... I've been trying to play around with it, but the results are never good, the truth is it does takes some teaching + alot of time to learn. Clean vocal track = Very very exposed, it takes alot of work to make it sound 1/2 decent.

for 100 bucks I don't know if it's possible. I would probably look for used stuff on that budget. I would extent that to about 200 dollars.

Here's my take on it:
Let's start with the mic, computer mic will not work, it's too dam noisy and it won't capture realistic sounds. Believe it or not, human voice is much harder to capture than instruments.

The cheapest you can go is a Shure Sm57/58, it's the staple of all studio, all the pro have atleast 1 or 2 of this sucka. New goes for 100, used is around 70, look around ebay for used. (same mic, 58 has a wind pop, 57 is naked). Or something like a Sennheiser E835.

But if you're really tight on a budget, buy the GLS ES-57/58, they are Shure Sm57-58 clone, but much cheaper, I heard they sound very similar and a bit hotter. (37 bucks shipped on ebay)

These are dynamic mic (stage mic), they don't pick up alot of background noise, and you don't need phantom power to run them. However you do need some sort of mic preamp, either buy a seperate unit or an soundcard that has the preamp built in.

On a budget I would buy an interface with a built in preamp. Check out the Emu 0202 or 0404 USB, it's got very good converter + normal preamp... cost around 100-130 new, i'm sure you can find it cheaper used... This thing actually has a jack to plug in your computer speakers, unlike all the other pro audio gear that uses XLR jack that require you to buy converter wires to plug in your computer speakers. Last bit of info on these, they are USB 2.0 device, much better than the old USB 1 that all the sound card uses, not as good as firewire but we're not doing much here.

And finally grab a mic cable, my guess is that a decent buget 12-25 feet runs around 10-20 bucks...

So it is over your budget, but I don't know anything cheaper than that and can give you decent quality + ease of use. There are cheaper things out there, but they comes with problems, and I'm not sure if you're ready to deal with them.

NO USB MIC, you can't track with that sucka, the only USB mic I know that can track is around 300 bucks +, forgot the brand... I think it was and SE mic.

[oGaKirA]

NO USB MIC, you can't track with that sucka, the only USB mic I know that can track is around 300 bucks +, forgot the brand... I think it was and SE mic.

Sorry for my ignorance but what is meant by "tracking?"

[warlock110]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is meant by "tracking?"

Track is when you record, and you want to listen to what's getting recorded at the same time. (hehe it means just like it sounds, to monitor of what's going in track by track)
I think it's also call monitoring, i'm not sure which one is which, they're very similar i think... but basically you need to hear BG music + yourself while recording only your voice as a seperate track, you can't do that with the typical USB mic, there's only a few USB mic out there that can do it, and it's not even good at doing it.

like the stuff you watch on TV and the singer has on some headphone while recording to hear himself sing? you can't do that with a USB mic, it takes over your computer and acts as a sound card. So there's no "headphone" out, unless you want to set the playback as your default soundcard and record as the mic itself. But you'll probably run into latency or driver issue... it's a whole mess.... The USB mic is really good for podcast or people who chat online that doesn't record (i think that's what they're built for in the 1st place).

found the one i'm talking about
http://www.musiciansnews.com/se/se/s...usb2200a.shtml

[oGaKirA]

Ok thanks bro. I think they use the term "monitor" too right?

Yea I don't even have my setup like that yet. Not sure if I can but I should look into it cuz that would help alot.

[warlock110]

Ok thanks bro. I think they use the term "monitor" too right?

Yea I don't even have my setup like that yet. Not sure if I can but I should look into it cuz that would help alot.

The pro audio stuff is real stupid, they think we buy it and use as if we have a studio... while most of us do it in the bedroom... it's a real ***** because those stuff aren't built to work in a bedroom haha. I find that hybrid stuff between pro audio/consumer audio works best.

[Canuck21]

Is this a thread to show off our knowledge and equipment gear? I think that the OP was only asking for decent MIC for chatting.

[warlock110]

Is this a thread to show off our knowledge and equipment gear? I think that the OP was only asking for decent MIC for chatting.

no, I don't own most of the stuff listed, i just read around on how these things work... besides these things are expensive (electronic in general are expensive), I think people would want to know the basic before spending their money. It sucks *** to buy stuff and realize it doesn't work well (happens alot).

[oGaKirA]

Is this a thread to show off our knowledge and equipment gear? I think that the OP was only asking for decent MIC for chatting.

Hard to say since flyingfox sings as well and discusses recording quality.
And Im just answering the original question. I use the same recording mic for chatting.

As far as a chatting mic, anything would do.

[Canuck21]

Hard to say since flyingfox sings as well and discusses recording quality.

I'm trying to imagine flyingfox singing and what I see is flyingfox's avatar singing .

[oGaKirA]

Yea and I can just see your expression....

 click to show spoilers

flyingfox is an excellent singer.
http://www.blankie.net/spcnet/

go > SPCNET Idol 2/Final/Background Music "For Ka Kui"(if I recall, that's him)