Microphones

"Buy the best microphone you can afford" is bad advice#

The prevailing advice is to buy the best microphone you can afford. Well, I think that advice is rubbish. Why? Firstly, "best" is undefined. Do you want the flattest, most linear mic for measurement, or a coloured one that sounds great on one specific source? Each is the best at its own job.

Secondly, if you blow the whole budget on one microphone, you can record one thing, in mono. Sooner or later you will meet a drum kit. For a demo or something intentionally vintage you might get away with one or two mics, but for a big, modern stereo rock sound you need something like seven or eight at least (see drum recording). A beginner is often better served by a multi-mic kit. A seven-mic drum kit that was sent to me for review retails for less than a single small-diaphragm condenser from one of the famous brands.

Past €100 to €200, extra money buys very little#

The capsule is the part that does the heavy lifting, and it costs very little to make. There is some cost in building a decent microphone, so I'd expect to pay 100 or 200 quid, and €100 to €400 is completely fine. Below about €100 it starts to get hairy, and I have heard some genuinely bad mics there.

Above that, the returns diminish sharply. When the classic large-diaphragm condensers cost €1,000, €2,000 or more, I am honestly not sure what the extra money buys you in sound.

Most people in my blind poll preferred the cheap condenser#

I recorded a song on three microphones: a budget Chinese condenser at around $100 to $150 (the manufacturer sent it to me), an AKG C414 and a Sennheiser MD421. I did not say which was which and asked people to vote. A majority preferred the cheap condenser, by a percent or so over the C414. Only 12% preferred the MD421.

So you don't necessarily need to spend a thousand euros to get a good-sounding condenser. But it helps to know why the cheap one can win. Many budget condensers have a bump around 10 kHz to sound "airy" and "high resolution" to an inexperienced buyer. A professional condenser like the C414 is more neutral in the high frequencies, so next to the hyped one it can sound dull. Listeners still heard the C414 as more nuanced and intimate on the vocal.

Different does not mean better or worse#

Microphones that sound very different are not simply better or worse. They have different tonalities that suit different sources, so I'd choose by the sound you want, not by the price tag.

I wouldn't dismiss dynamics for their colouration either. The peaky midrange of an MD421 is not a defect. It cuts through a mix, which is often what you want on acoustic guitar in a rock track, and it is my favourite mic for that job. Dynamics are generally less true to the source than condensers, and delicate acoustic-and-vocal material may genuinely suit a condenser better.

A microphone does not know what it was sold for#

People think you have to use a mic for what it was designed for. No. I recorded vocals on a kick drum mic, probably the least suitable mic in the box, and the only thing that sounded bad was my singing. I recorded a ukulele on a stereo pair of tom mics.

For speech and online content, mic choice matters even less. One of my most viewed videos was recorded in an Airbnb with an iPhone as the microphone. My most common YouTube dialog mic now is a kick drum mic.

An SM58 first, and inexpensive stands#

If you can only buy one cheap mic, I'd go for a genuine Shure SM58 or SM57 before any budget condenser.

Mic stands just hold the mic up, so they do not need to be expensive. The one thing I'd avoid is a plastic clamping mechanism, because it can crack. I'd look for metal plates with rubber between them.