In article ,
John Stumbles wrote:
My 16-yo budding rock guitar hero son is after a microphone. He and his
mates often record themselves jamming and don't have a suitable mike.
They tend to record into PCs (or Macs) and I guess might want to bung it
into guitar amps or various bits of domestic audio kit they have around.
Apart from vocals I guess it might be used recording acoustic guitars.

Perhaps the definitive for this sort of thing is the SM58 - although it's
of more use where you're feeding a PA system of some sort as it helps
prevent feedback. Personally I don't much like them, but they are a
standard and very robust.

It definitely needs to be robust and, having some idea what any sort of
serious mics can cost, priced at the Santa-friendly end of the range :-)

You'd have to give a figure. They are close to 100 quid. Although being so
common you might find a mint boxed one on Ebay for less. And a variety of
clones.

Apart from suggestions of what makes & models to go for (or avoid) can
folks guide me through the technology? I guess we're looking at 'dynamic'
(i.e. moving-coil?) with cardioid pattern and some sort of built-in or
add-on pop filters, but no doubt you can get kit with built-in preamps,
bluetooth and teasmades these days - I'm a bit out of touch ...

There's a big variety for all sorts of uses, but a good balanced output
dynamic will satisfy most. You might need to use a balanced to unbalanced
transformer to feed a high impedance input, though.

Oh and I guess it needs to look cool too ;-)

The SM58 is perhaps the most seen vocal mic on TV and at gigs. And many of
the hand held radio mics use its capsule.

--
* I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid

Dave Plowman London SW
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