Hi group.

I intend to replace my Extigy with the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro and also would
like to upgrade my microphone.

We need professionally recorded sound from this mic in the form of voice
recording.

What is the best mic to get and where from!? (Budget = around £60-£80) and
do I need some sort of [wind?]shield on it to prevent loud parts of the
recording (on the 'P' and 'SH' sounds etc?)

Also can I attach more than 1 card to the audigy 2 or any sound card? Do I
need a hub of some sort?

Thanks for any useful tips and advice guys,

Tom

In article ,
Tom wrote:
I intend to replace my Extigy with the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro and also
would like to upgrade my microphone.

We need professionally recorded sound from this mic in the form of voice
recording.

What is the best mic to get and where from!? (Budget = around £60-£80)
and do I need some sort of [wind?]shield on it to prevent loud parts of
the recording (on the 'P' and 'SH' sounds etc?)

You only need a pop shield if getting close to the mic - not really
necessary for decent speech recording, unless the room is noisy.

Also can I attach more than 1 card to the audigy 2 or any sound card? Do
I need a hub of some sort?

The better mics will be condenser types, and will need powering. Some can
do this via an internal battery, but better ones will use phantom power.

Thanks for any useful tips and advice guys,


I think your budget may be a bit low for a quality mic, unless you can
find one secondhand. There is a fair range of eastern large diaphragm mics
available at reasonable prices - well reasonable compared to 'proper' pro
versions - but I'll leave others to say which is the best.

--
*Black holes are where God divided by zero *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Tom wrote:

Hi group.

I intend to replace my Extigy with the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro and also
would like to upgrade my microphone.

We need professionally recorded sound from this mic in the form of voice
recording.

What do you mean by 'professionally recorded'. if you mean a sound as good
as recorded in a professional studio then you will not achieve it with am
£80 microphone in a room that has not been treated acoustically.

Ian

Tom wrote:

Hi group.

I intend to replace my Extigy with the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro and also would
like to upgrade my microphone.

We need professionally recorded sound from this mic in the form of voice
recording.

What is the best mic to get and where from!? (Budget = around £60-£80) and
do I need some sort of [wind?]shield on it to prevent loud parts of the
recording (on the 'P' and 'SH' sounds etc?)

For a professional sounding product you'll need a decent sounding room
to record in. The cheapest way would be to take a DIY route but you can
also buy ready made booths from places like Studiospares
(http://www.studiospares.com).

Take a look at the range of microphones that Studiospares sell too while
you're there. The industry standard voice mic is probably the Neumann
U87 but that is well out of your budget. The great thing about the U87
is that it works acceptably well on just about any voice - cheaper mics
tend to favour one type of voice but may sound terrible on other voices.

The only other mics with this universal property seem to be the Shure
SM58 for close vocals or the Shure SM57 for instruments or more distant
vocals. They don't sound as good as the Neumann but they'll work in most
situations and they're in your price range.

I'd also investigate alternative mic preamp and sound card combinations.
You might find one of the M-Audio mic pre/audio interface boxes to be a
better bet for semi-professional use.

Cheers.

James.

In article ,
James Perrett wrote:
The only other mics with this universal property seem to be the Shure
SM58 for close vocals or the Shure SM57 for instruments or more distant
vocals. They don't sound as good as the Neumann but they'll work in most
situations and they're in your price range.

They may be 'universal' but sound dreadful for speech.

--
*If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
James Perrett wrote:
The only other mics with this universal property seem to be the Shure
SM58 for close vocals or the Shure SM57 for instruments or more distant
vocals. They don't sound as good as the Neumann but they'll work in most
situations and they're in your price range.

They may be 'universal' but sound dreadful for speech.

--
*If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Agreed.
Any particular mic recommendation for speech, (cardoid sub £100)? We use 4
x '58's 9 x '57's in a band but have no decent speech mic for client
announcements.
TIA

Mike

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:32:12 +0100, "Mike Gilmour"
wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
James Perrett wrote:
The only other mics with this universal property seem to be the Shure
SM58 for close vocals or the Shure SM57 for instruments or more distant
vocals. They don't sound as good as the Neumann but they'll work in most
situations and they're in your price range.

They may be 'universal' but sound dreadful for speech.

--
*If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Agreed.
Any particular mic recommendation for speech, (cardoid sub £100)? We use 4
x '58's 9 x '57's in a band but have no decent speech mic for client
announcements.


Slightly over your budget is the AKG C1000S (110 pounds inc VAT from
Digital Village). This works with either phantom power (preferred) or
an internal PP3 9-volt battery.

I would be interested to hear the recording professionals' view of
this device.


--
Chris Isbell
Southampton, UK

In article ,
Mike Gilmour wrote:
The only other mics with this universal property seem to be the
Shure SM58 for close vocals or the Shure SM57 for instruments or
more distant vocals. They don't sound as good as the Neumann but
they'll work in most situations and they're in your price range.

They may be 'universal' but sound dreadful for speech.

Agreed. Any particular mic recommendation for speech, (cardoid sub
£100)? We use 4 x '58's 9 x '57's in a band but have no decent speech
mic for client announcements.

As James said, the normal choice for high quality speech will be a large
diaphragm condenser - like the U87. But they're expensive. And only
really suitable for a studio due to their size.

For announcements over a PA system, you've got the problem of feedback,
and a cardiod mic to help overcome this isn't so good on speech if used
very close. If you're not struggling for the last ounce of level, an omni
might be a better bet - that can be used as tight as you want without the
same bass tip up and popping problems. They're also cheaper, like for like.

I'm afraid my experience tends towards pro mics which are all rather out
of your budget. I've heard good reports about some of the far east large
diaphragm types, value for money wise, though.

Personally, I'd go for a secondhand broadcast type - an AKG 451, Neuman
KM84/5 etc as these can often be bought for around your budget, and can be
found with various DPs. But they're phantom powered, which may be a
problem.

One wild card is the Calrec CM654 series. These are decent mics available
in cardioid or omni, but use a one off 50 volt power supply and have
unbalanced outputs. They were popular as a high end domestic mic and
plenty seem to have survived in good condition - secondhand pro mics can
have had a hard life.

--
*It is wrong to ever split an infinitive *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Chris Isbell wrote:

Slightly over your budget is the AKG C1000S (110 pounds inc VAT from
Digital Village). This works with either phantom power (preferred) or
an internal PP3 9-volt battery.

I would be interested to hear the recording professionals' view of
this device.

C1000S is awful, just sold both of mine (used to use them for choirs / drum
overheads) and replaced them with Superlix CMH8K.

Best bet for a 100 quid speech microphone is a Superlux CMH8A, needs
phantom power though.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=3735872 532
is where I got mine. He had some cheap phantom power supplies too.


--
slightly greasy solar atoms...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mike Gilmour wrote:
The only other mics with this universal property seem to be the
Shure SM58 for close vocals or the Shure SM57 for instruments or
more distant vocals. They don't sound as good as the Neumann but
they'll work in most situations and they're in your price range.

They may be 'universal' but sound dreadful for speech.

Agreed. Any particular mic recommendation for speech, (cardoid sub
£100)? We use 4 x '58's 9 x '57's in a band but have no decent speech
mic for client announcements.

As James said, the normal choice for high quality speech will be a large
diaphragm condenser - like the U87. But they're expensive. And only
really suitable for a studio due to their size.

For announcements over a PA system, you've got the problem of feedback,
and a cardiod mic to help overcome this isn't so good on speech if used
very close. If you're not struggling for the last ounce of level, an omni
might be a better bet - that can be used as tight as you want without the
same bass tip up and popping problems. They're also cheaper, like for
like.

I'm afraid my experience tends towards pro mics which are all rather out
of your budget. I've heard good reports about some of the far east large
diaphragm types, value for money wise, though.

Personally, I'd go for a secondhand broadcast type - an AKG 451, Neuman
KM84/5 etc as these can often be bought for around your budget, and can be
found with various DPs. But they're phantom powered, which may be a
problem.

One wild card is the Calrec CM654 series. These are decent mics available
in cardioid or omni, but use a one off 50 volt power supply and have
unbalanced outputs. They were popular as a high end domestic mic and
plenty seem to have survived in good condition - secondhand pro mics can
have had a hard life.

--
*It is wrong to ever split an infinitive *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

48v phantom power wouldn't be a problem. Robustness is important though for
outside gigs & thats what I like about the 57's & 58's. I've got my own
pair of KM183's but I wouldn't dream of putting them into the bands use
(unless its on guarded recording duty). The larger diaphragm condenser
mics are out as they need to be suitable for easy hand held use. The AKG 451
does look a very likely candidate though.
What I'd really like would be a Neumann KMS 105 (but thats just dreamin') &
also I'd always be watching it, having nightmares of it going missing ;-)
I did lose a mic at a gig once and since then I've been sort off paranoid
about mics & mic case. ;-)
I'll also lookout for the CM654 thanks.


Mike