"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" wrote in message


"fredbloggstwo"
wrote

I assume you are taking the **** here - a LDC mic within
2 m of an teenager is asking for a short lifetime and a
waste of money. There is also the problem of proving a
phantom supply and adding a matching transformer to
match the 50k ohm input impedance of a typical guitar/pc
amp input.

Better a Sure mic- reasonable quality, street cred and
robustness.

I still say a USB mic is the cleanest solution here if
they are recording straight to PC and the Samson mics I
mentioned are very solidly built - any teenage son of
mine who couldn't use one without breaking it would get a
kicked arse....

USB mics are very interesting products. Putting my cynical had on, I
could say that they are a good way to sell the same basic mic twice. First
you sell the mic to a beginner with the USB interface built in, and then
you sell the same basic mic to them again sans USB interface for use with
the mixer that they will eventually grow into.


So where's the harm in that - they get to learn on a perfectly serviceable
and robust mic then buy summat a little more flash when they know better
what they are doing.

I would have thought that this possible/likely ploy would ensure that the
'VFM USB' mics are sufficiently good (which I suspect they are) to ensure a
little brand loyalty later on - in much the same way the best optics on the
planet were (still are) the 'standard 50mm' lenses for 35mm SLR cameras.




Three other alternatives exist:

Any of the 3 alternatives are a tad more bulky and may take a little more
time and expertise to set up.



You are not thinking garage band here - if they don't have a microphone
geek, they will be stuffed....



Use of none of them are IME outside the mental
capabilities of a bright 16-year-old.


No argument here provided they are at least a bit geeky and not just *death
metal guitar warriors*....