In the past weeks we’ve gone over some of the things you need to build your home recording studio. If you missed the past installments please check them out here before continuing:
We started with a $1,000 in the bank and a good computer to record with. From the selection in week 2 we bought the Focusrite Scarlett interface for $299. For monitors, let’s grab the iKey 5″s for $260. This leaves us with $441 still in the bank to complete our studio.
Which Microphone Should you Choose?
Even though we have $441 dollars left we don’t want to spend it all on microphones. I wish we could, but we also need to think about the most important thing of all, acoustic treatment. Luckily, we don’t need all that money to get a decent microphone for your home recording studio.
When you’re starting out there’s no need to splurge a lot of money on microphones. We’d all like to own some of the industry standards, but a cheap but decent condenser microphone is a good start.
Here are some options:
AT 2020 – I’ve said it time and again: For the price, this microphone beats everything, hands down. It’s cheap and is great on both acoustic guitar and voice.
MXL V67G – Here is a snazzy looking vocal condenser from MXL for only $109. MXL sells a lot of budget microphones with the beginning engineer in mind.
Blue Spark - This one is a little pricier, at $199, but it has a bunch of features that make it stand out. The focus mode intrigues me. I’ve never tried the Spark before but I’m interested in hearing how different the two modes are.
CAD GXL2200 – This is microphone package that comes with two microphones and a pop filter. Not a bad deal for $123. I looked around for reviews and the large condenser got great reviews around the board.
MXL 993 – For something a little different. This is a stereo pair of small diaphragm condensers for only $99. Ideal if you don’t record vocals as much as drums or other acoustic instruments. It might even give you a push to start learning some stereo recording techniques.
For more options, check out 4 Cheap-Ass Microphones for the Frugal Engineer.
My pick? I would go with the Audio Technica 2020. Even though it’s not perfect in every way, it’s still a great beginner’s microphone and gives higher priced mics a run for their money.
Other considerations
When dealing with a limited budget we can only allow ourselves limited things. I want to show you how to make $1,000 last to buy everything you need. If you had more money then surely you could splurge on more expensive microphones or buy a few different ones. But if you don’t have much then you can’t spend much.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t buy everything you need to set up your home recording studio. Next week we’ll be finishing our budget with acoustic treatment and all the little things you need to get your home studio up and running.
What about you guys? What would you recommend a beginning engineer that wants a cost conscious but decent sounding condenser microphone?
Image by: Seven Morris
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One Comment on "Building a Home Recording Studio Part 4 – Microphones"
For my money, the Audio-Technica 4033 can’t be beat as a budget do-all LD condenser. $200 will get you a used one, and it’s kind of like a 57–there is no source that it won’t work on. It grows with you, too– even if your mic locker expands to include some serious multi-kilobuck transducers, you’ll still find sources that the 4033 works better on than anything else (bass cabinets, in particular). So many budget LDC’s suffer from flaws that a beginner won’t notice for a while (especially if you’ve never owned anything but dynamic mics), like piss-poor off-axis response; also, that bright top-end that once sounded awesome will, in time, begin to sound spitty and harsh. Not so the 4033.