It has been a long time since I actually created a post asking for some help or recommendations like this. So, after long talks with many people… I might be getting a bit into streaming and a bit of singing on the side for the fun of it… nothing too crazy but I want to get a setup going for this with the cleanest and clearest vocals I can within budget… If I absolutely need to get an audio interface… I will consider it, but for now lets just talk microphones… I want to set the budget around… lets say $250 - $300 that should be enough for a pretty damn good microphone in this use case I would think. I used samson q2u there for a while with a focusrite scarlet 3x3… now using a Yeti… background noise isn’t that big of an issue as long as I can adjust its sensitivity. What do you guys think?
What sort of room/environment is it going to be used in and can you properly treat that environment (as in where would it be placed in said room, what objects would be around it, what type of background noise)? Do you plan to do any realtime processing (realtime eq/compression/noise reduction/etc)? Generally do you have a desired tone/signature you find yourself interested in? And do you still have the focusrite?
pretty good size room designated solely as the computer room… so itll be my desk and audio equipment.
if you mean forms of sound proofing if necessary I can implement something of that sort but feel that won’t be completely necessary… I will be having the walls sound dampened as well later through some renovations I have planned…
if anything itd be the random vehicle nearby if any, maybe someones at the house, lady of the house, that sort of thing… but in most cases even my current condensor mic doesn’t really pick up anything.
I currently use a bit of noise reductions so things such as the open back headphones, keyboard, etc aren’t picked up but thats about it… if I need more I am willing to check into it…
honestly no, I just kinda prefer having a natural clean signature… as long as its not overly warm(like for example when I tried the fox mic my voice was definitely a deeper resonating tone than it should be).
I do, I have considered upgrading it though honestly… like to motu m2 or something
Gotcha gotcha
Good good, it will matter more depending on what mic you end up going with
Ok so nothing consistent
Gotcha
Solid choice, I’d also consider like an audient id4 mk2 (or id14 if you need it). But you could also go the route of a separate preamp which might be more appealing
Hmmm so clear vocals, good but not ideal environment, and not too preamp intensive.
It’s not as common, but personally I think this is a very solid choice. It’s a pretty clean and clear signature without being dry, it’s reasonably forgiving in placement and isn’t too picky to power properly, pretty versatile for the money imo. It will capture a large amount of the room so you do want to make sure you have some treatment and know what you are doing to some extent. Sounds pretty natural with a slight lift in the midrange for clarity, and does a good job at not causing issues with sibilance from my experience
I’d also consider something from lewitt like a lct 440 pure. Overall pretty neutral, a bit more picky overall, but brighter leaning without being offensive but can get slightly hot, although it could use a slight bit more body and sweetness for vocals imo (which I think the aa does better) but gives things a bit more of something that really pops out which could be good or bad depending on how you want to do things as a streamer. Also a bit lower profile/sleeker looking
You could go for a dynamic mic, but I honestly think you might find that it’s not going to have that clarity factor a condenser would, but if you did want to consider one, I’d look toward something like an akg d5 or shure beta 57a as those tend to be cleaner leaning, block a reasonable amount of noise, but imo aren’t going to hold up to the above 2 in most technical aspects
If you do decide to go for a nicer mic preamp what you would consider would depend on what mic interests you more
more appealing always sounds good man, I just want the clean textured vocals though I am not too picky as long as it actually sounds good.
I mean, I would create an ideal environment if I was really getting into singing and the like but that really isn’t the plan here. thats more of a little side hobby
hmm, so my voice already is a bit higher pitched… I don’t have that deep grizzly male voice… If anything I have more of a Tenor voice… so I am not sure a brighter hotter mic would be a good idea you know?
yeah, lets stick with condensors
hmm, I am concerned with how picky it is about capturing outside sound sources and the like though…
Good to know
So given your current yeti if you think that’s fine when sensitivity is adjusted, it’s going to pick up more than that, but it would likely be manageable.
Regarding the preamp, what I might suggest for something both good and very simple is a dbx channel strip
This would give you a basic expander/gate (helpful for potentially controlling background noise), and basic tools like compression, preset eq basically, and a desser which is nice. I think in the same price range you can get better raw sound for money but it’s not going to have the features like these have and might require more hassle as well, so this is more a one stop simple shop for most people and it ends up being all they need.
If you did go with a channel strip I would suggest upgrading the interface after (specifically the id4 given it’s a bit warmer sweeter leaning as well)
I do think that something like an art pro channel ii or moving up something like a drawmer mx60-pro are really sweet and also better sounding, but I think they are both likely more than you’d want to spend and less simple to deal with than the dbx.
Back to mics, I think the advanced audio is still viable but you might want something a bit warmer than the lewitt.
If you want a surprisingly good and well balanced mic for how cheap this thing looks, the roswell mini k47 is quite good
I’d say in comparison to the AA it’s more natural and slightly less focused in the midrange and treble, although is slightly a bit less interesting there too. It leans more overall neutral with a bit of extra warmth, and is just a general all rounder without much flaw.
I would consider warmer mics but in this price range they either tend to go too far with the warmth, or they have pretty bad upper registers tbh
So, I wanted your input on this a bit… I am looking at these mics I will probably sit with them all some point soon enough to see what I think… but whats your opinion on that Shure SM7B… heard really good things about that as far as dynamics go
I really don’t like that mic. Just being real, I think it’s overpriced, overhyped, and really not that impressive. It also has a stronger source gear need which makes it an even more expensive endeavor. Personally I’d rather have a mic like a Sennheiser MD421 II for an all rounder at the same price point. A lot of the other dynamics I enjoy more are either vintage, or higher up in the price bracket where they wouldn’t be reasonable here, or lower down in the price bracket to where I don’t know if they’d be as large enough of an upgrade to what you have now. There is the electro voice re40 but that might be too warm and rich leaning for your tastes most likely, although the re27n/d is a more potentially approachable pick
The Telefunken m82 might suit you well along with the Sennheiser if you wanted to go the dynamic route
Yup, I have one of these as well, works great.
It’s a good mic but I do think it’s over-hyped if you will, doesn’t work for everyone’s timbre, but if you have a higher voice then it’s not bad. Also it’s harder to drive so depending on your audio interface you may need an additional boost from something like a Cloudlifter which is another $100.
I’ve been using a Shure SM57 for $100 along with the dbx and it works great for a 3rd of the price.
lol, as I was typing out my response that I also thought it was overhyped. 
EDIT: It looks like you also want a condenser mic, the SM7B is dynamic.
I honestly do think the sm57 or sm58 do most of what it does at much less cost
I’d agree that the general sound here would lean more toward condenser, but something like the Telefunken or Sennheiser could still be a viable option if he wants to go that route
For a condenser mic, if you can stomach the way it looks, the King Bee line from NEAT punches way above its price range. I have one and it’s awesome.
So, I sat down and tried @M0N recommendations… least the ones I could find currently and I like a lot of them(I am not particularly picky long as its accurate reproduction and doesn’t make me sound awful since I have a higher tone voice). However, I have began to wonder if perhaps I should actually consider a dynamic mic… Since I want to have speakers too I am wondering if I could somehow manage a setup that can let me use the mic while keeping the headphones off sometimes instead using the speakers, its a weird thing for sure and I highly doubt it possible though
Nice nice, what one are you feeling the most so far?
So a dynamic might help, but that’s a tough situation either way, there’s no real winning with that unless you don’t mind whatever going through the speakers getting picked up on the mic as well
If we are only talking mics, I really enjoyed the AT-2035. Really clean, undistorted sound.
I prefer dynamic mics and use a Rode Procaster and couldn’t be happier, but with singing in mind i would prefer the AT due to beeing a condenser mic.
I don’t know why but I always had problems with audio interfaces, so I switched to a mixer. It’s more satisfying to tune your voice analog.
Cm47 wasn’t too bad actually. Not at all a fan of 440 lct. I see what you mean by brighter leaning just made my voice a bit too high into rather hot territory. Honestly wondering if a clear yet slightly warmer mic may be best 
havent gotten around to k47 yet.
the more I think on it I am more leaning towards streaming sound quality than I am with musical voice quality… still I definitely want a damn good sounding mic lol
to be honest I am not sure what I want in this case lmao. Dynamic would be nice incase it picks up any background noise or say I have company over or something… condensor would be good because better sound quality.
this is one of the reasons I wanted to ask on here lol… theres so many choices and you get these instances
lol id probably have to do some serious setting up to even manage that… so I assume rather unfeasible… worth a shot
ya know, itd be nice if this actually matched my amps and dacs a bit… like my schiit stack thing stands out like a sore thumb lmao
I use my King Bee for recording music/vocals and I use dynamic for chatting/streaming. I think the background noise reduction is more valuable than any quality/detail being lost.
Also worth checking out is sE Electronics - I have the v7 and it competes very well in the $100 category.
@M0N and I are on the same wavelength in this thread for sure lol:
Good to know, then yes perhaps a dynamic option might make more sense given your case
It’s good and warmer leaning but at this point I’d just mainly consider going dynamic for simplicity here
Honestly grabbing something like a sm58 or a se v7 is a great starting point and does the job for most people, once you get up to some of the higher end dynamics they can become somewhat needy on the preamp side to get the most out of them. Also akg d5 worth a look. Other dynamics I might mention would either be too pricey or might be too dark for what you are after
Would agree
If I had to compare the v7 vs 58, the v7 is more neutral overall slightly midrange focused with less emphasis overall than the 58, the 58 has less air but less dip in the lower treble which gives it more bite and forwardness than the v7 but the v7 is more forgiving to sibilance in that range. The v7 overall is a smoother mic than the 58 and that does give it a bit more of a duller and less energetic character although it has less grain in the treble than the 58 does which has always bugged me about that mic. In the bass the 58 is a bit more boosted there which does pronounce proximity effect a bit more than the v7 so that can be good or bad. So the 58 has a more classic signature and will have things pop more but the v7 is a bit more honest from my experience but can lead to a more dull and less engaging sound so it will depend on what seems more desirable, both are great. In this case I’d lean more toward v7 to try out first
The v7 has better noise rejection and off axis from my experience as well which is great. Honestly the v7 is honestly more similar to a beta 58a than a sm58.
Lol
tried K47, the more I tried condensors the more I realized you are right… it’d be best go run dynamic honestly… less I have a better sound proof room. So dynamic it is.
I tried v7… ya know what? this aint bad at all for the price… its honestly rather impressive and I sound good on it, I might stick with this for some time honestly… less you guys have some other recommendations… Not sure what a step up from this would be since this is in the $100… I think if the gain is substantial enough I could punch this up to around $300 and be comfortable with that. Seriously though, I really do appreciate these SE electronics mics for the price they are damn good compared to some others I tried. I am astonished that I actually despise audio technicas microphones…
also I tried sm7b from shure… holy hell does that thing sound warm I was not expecting that… thats a bit much imo
No, if you like it, I’d stick with it. I think to move up to the next level of performance, you’d be spending much more into the interface and preamp along with more mic, likely pushing what’s feasible to spend, at least with the dynamics I’m thinking of
Personally only really like some of the AT shotgun mics actually
It is known to be a pretty dark mic lol. But I think you are more likely running into big limitations with your preamp and interface there, need more in that regard. Yes you can get an in line pre booster like a cloudlifter or se dynamite or etc, but I think to actually get it sounding good for what it costs you want to drop bigger money into the rest of the chain
But yeah if you find the v7 is what you are after, stick with the v7 I feel in this case
Gonna chime in on this one more time as I am tinkering with some things… just some extra trialing but what would be the best warm microphone you’d recommend within the budget? place an edit here but I want to help another out as well on this… so what would be the best USB mic as well in this case?