# Need suggestions- quality mic that connects directly to a Sound Card mini stereo jac



## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

I am looking for a relativelt low cost (under $200) microphone that has reasonable high quality that easily connects to a computer sound card which is a HiZ mini stereo jack. Most of the "Computer Mics" are very low quality but do connect easily to a computer sound card. Does anyone here know of something that is a few steps above these?

What I use here will not work for the average non-tech person wishing to do some voice recording but needs relatively high quality. In my sound booth I have an RE-20 broadcast mic connected to an XLR preamp from Sure. This has a HiZ out to feed a computer input. It has an isolated ground to prevent hiss and num, ground loops etc. Cost is about $900 and it sounds it! This is too high for the people asking me what's available. They need something cheap and reasonable quality but also simple to connect to a computer sound card which leaves out XLR mics.

Richard? Any suggestions?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Don...
Have you tried the BSW catalog or something similar? I assume you get those in the mail all the time like I do. I just "filed" my latest one last week. Sounds to me though that you need some kind of an adaptor/transformer to go from xlr to mini. The RE-20 is a great mic, but, how about something cheaper through the same preamp, or through a cheaper pre-amp (Rane MS-1B preamp?). There are dozens of pre-amps out there compeating for your money.  Good luck in the search. Let me know what you find.
http://www.rane.com/ms1b.html


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

The preamp isn't cheap either, I recall $300 or so. 

I just got back from shopping and the goal here is to find something that works, is low enough cost and easy to connect to get decent quality. 

The problem with connecting mics to the computer sound card has always been the impedance mismatch and the noise that degrades the quality because the mic isn't balanced (XLR). You know that but I mention it for others. The expensive sure preamp fixes all that but at a very high price. 

Here's what I found today at Circuit City- $54 Logitec USB headset that has a boom mic. I haven't tried them yet but my thinking is that the USB connect will eliminate all the sound card incompatibilities and him / hiss issues. The price will work for the people I'm recommending this solution to and the connection is said to PnP with windows xp, probably for Macs as well but I don't see anything on that. 

The final test will be the voice clarity and dynamic range. If that passes my critical ear for Voice over quality, problem solved!


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Don: I'm wondering what you mean by quality mic. Obviously, the use to which the mic is going to be put is an important consideration. For speech or even vocals, you don't need as good a mic as you'd need for instrumental music. There are a number of dual impedance mics out there that have XLR connectors on them, but can be switched from low-z balanced output to higher z single ended output. From there, it's a simple matter of providing the appropriate cable such as Belden's thin cable and the appropriate plug. For example, Radio Shack's $49 model 33-3036 omni dynamic might be good enough for their use. Unfortunately, RS doesn't publish worthwhile specs on most of their mikes, so you can't tell if they're pretty good or absolute garbage.
On the other hand, you might look at the Shure 100WD, which claims compatibility with most major sound cards -- check this link:
http://www.shure.com/microphones/models/100wd.asp
It's a unidirectional mike and appears to have pretty good response characteristics (usable range 50 - 15 K Hz) -- looking at the curve on the description, it's flat within 3 db from 100 Hz to 2K Hz, with a rising characteristic with a peak of around 7 db at about 4 K, after which it rolls off to baseline at around 9K with a few wobbles of +/- 3 db out to 15K


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Actually, Cholly, as one who does professional audiop (for TV) I can't agree with everything you said. We use "quality" mics for voice that may be quite high end ,aka $375 for a simple pea lav mic to a $3500 studio system for vocal singing. Music is a differenr mic as it may be just a flat response curve for instrumental pickup but offers proper pickup pattern to isolate itself from other nearby instruments. Point being that voice mics can and often are more specific and colorizing of sound that music mics whichj are often basic flat response design. 

What I was looking for is entirely different than the stiff in this category. What I needed was a basic design mic that will technically install on a computer and produce good voice characteristics for a voice over talent but mainly considereing these people may have a very limited engineering background and don't know hi from low impedance or how to adapt an xlr to a mini stereo jack, I wanted a PnP mic but didn't want the associated problems often associated with unbalanced feed cheap condenser "mics for computers"


I discovered the USB mic now but haven't had the time to run the tests on it yet. The idea here is to eliminate the sound card in the digital audio path. The idea sounds (no pun here) good but is it? I'll know after I run the tests. It certainly appears to be the answer to the problems I had with sound card mics. 

I will also look into the links you poste4d and thank you for them. But please understand, it isn't all about responce curves when selecting a mic. One has to select a mic by actually using it to check for how it responds to a person's voice. I have one lady who gets away with a cheap RS mic through a line xsfmr and another talent who needs a $1200 sennheiser to give him the quality we need for air. You just don't know until you use it. But in other cases, the connection and ease of use is the primary concern. That would be what I'm asking here.


edit- 

I reviewed the Sure 100wd mic and I believe this is very similar to the Sure sm58 design which has been the indstry workhorse for stage performers for decades. I don't think it is particularly computer friendly, anymore than any other mic. One needs to do the engineering and then you may get the issues of noise from the unbalanced soundcard. There is an excellent blog on connecting mics to computers that explains lots of the complications, these are just a few of the things I wanted to avoid. The people I want to recommend this mic system to will not want to mess with stuff like was in the article.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Don: I fully understand where you're coming from. After I made my post, I had some misgivings about it because I'm aware you're in the business. It's been quite a few years since I was really active in audio. (I worked for NBC in Chicago).
Things have come a long way since then. I have to confess to a fondess for Shure products, which is what prompted me to offer that link. The sub $200 price figure led me to believe that what was wanted was something better than the typical electret microphone. Not knowing whether the intent was for a speech mike or a vocal mike, I hought first of that RS mike. Nothing special, to be sure, but I used a similar one from them several years ago for church bazaars (not a demanding use  ).

And I agree regarding the response curve data. There have been a number of microphones in the past that bragged about flat response characteristics and still sounded horrible.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I used to use a pair of these in my recording days....
http://www.soniccircus.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SC&Product_Code=49

I didn't own them, but probably could have gotten them very cheap when the studio closed down.  By that time I had been hired away from myself and had to give up the studio buslness. I look back on that as one of the big regrets in my life (allowing myself to be hired away from myself, not missing the two U-67's).


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Cholly- There are lots of advantages of "being in the business with your own business" the main disadvantage is not having a good person to person networking on a daily basis. This is why I rely on forums for suggestions. My goal is to find a simple, yet quality solution to enable non-techie types to purchase without breaking the bank and get their voice talent on the internet for fast delivery. In effect I will put them in business but that is to my advantage since if I can lower their costs by eliminating a recording studio and engineer, those costs savings will be passed back to me. Lots of talent for $50 to $75 a read but if you add the cost of the studio and recording engineer, we're at $150-$200 per read. I've been working with a number of people now who are doing this and it proves there is no need for the studio for a single Voice-over, but these people HAVE invested in high end mics and consultant to connect and set things up once. I want to take it to the next level and have the non-techie do their own setup and this would eliminate that upfront cost to enter the business of on-line voice talent. 
Richard probably recalls but in the past VO talent would need an ISDN expense, sound booth and fairly pricey microphone, DAT recorder, small mix board and phone patch. Some even added editing to that but that is not necessary since most buying the reads do their own. Things have come along way. 

Cholly- I too, favor sure products. I have two mixers from sure but my favorite is the Intellimix. Uses AI to switch multiple mics when needing many people laved in a discussion. This eliminates mic to mic reverb and phase cancellation completely. Not "sure" they had that when you were working but thought you'd like to hear about it.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> eliminating a recording studio and engineer


You are not a nice person. :lol:


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## BigApe (May 12, 2006)

DonLandis said:


> I am looking for a relativelt low cost (under $200) microphone that has reasonable high quality that easily connects to a computer sound card which is a HiZ mini stereo jack...


Don,

For what it seems you are looking for, I would recommend the ATechnica AT2020 ($99.00 at BSW). If you need something that can take a little more of a beating, try the Shure SM58LC ($99.00 at BSW). I started off with the Audio-Technica AT3035 ($199.00 at BSW) and ended up back to the good ol' Electrovoice RE20 ($399.00 at BSW).

Of course, YMMV depending on how they are going to use the mic.

Joe


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

UPDATE- While at NAB I spent some time asking about USB microphones or XLR to USB adapters. I found several boxes that do this to varying degrees of preamp control. The costs ranged from a few hundred bucks to a thousand. It will be interesting to see if, by next year at NAB, considering all the seeds I planted with product developers, we have a $ <100 solution for a simple one control XLR to USB adapter. I think with the growing podcast industry, an XLR to USB adapter would be a popular product


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## BigApe (May 12, 2006)

DonLandis said:


> UPDATE- While at NAB I spent some time asking about USB microphones or XLR to USB adapters. I found several boxes that do this to varying degrees of preamp control. The costs ranged from a few hundred bucks to a thousand. It will be interesting to see if, by next year at NAB, considering all the seeds I planted with product developers, we have a $ <100 solution for a simple one control XLR to USB adapter. I think with the growing podcast industry, an XLR to USB adapter would be a popular product


Don,

Very true. The technology is there, it just needs to be made.

Joe


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Gee, this sounds like a product that three audio guys should be able to put their heads together and make their personal forturnes.


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## joeyweb (May 14, 2006)

samsontech.com


The C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic is the first affordable studio condenser mic with a USB interface.

For the first time ever, musicians who record music on computers have a simple, affordable way to capture high-quality vocal and acoustic instrument performances.

Seamless integration was the idea, and it was obtained by creating a studio condenser microphone that can be plugged into any computer with no in/out boxes, no expensive computer pre-amps, just a USB cable.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

joeyweb-

Good find! I may look into this more. I see it is on sale at $79 but has an MSRP of $234. Thanks. 

PS- Welcome to the forum!


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## BigApe (May 12, 2006)

I'm curious what it sounds like. I'll have to snoop around the b-cast forums and see if anyone has tryed one.

Here is the direct product link!

Joe


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