There is no doubt that in today’s studio climate, microphone manufacturing is a competitive business. With Chinese OEM
companies like Shanghai Feilo and Bejing 797 making mics at a dizzying rate for many of today’s top brands, users are given endless
choices of good quality, affordable mics.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that sometimes clever marketing
allows some of the not so great ones to become tempting choices for would be recordists. Some mics which sound seductive
by themselves are not so flattering when you begin to blend the recorded tracks into music. Some can imprint a nasty sonic signature
while tolerable with few tracks, becomes tiresome to the ears when stacked. Many of them, unbeknownst to the end user, suffer
from poor noise specs (let's say, above 20dbA) which really begin to increase the noise floor as the tracks are layered. Others
have odd harmonics that make them not so "mix friendly". In other words, they don't take EQ well, which makes it difficult to
shape the sound. I hope that my top 5 list of mics under $400.00 (street) will help some potential buyers hone in on what is
really important in purchasing a new mic. The top list is based not only on tone, (i.e. fat, large, round, huge, detailed, dominant,
etc) but how well that tone sits in a mix. Does it do well on multiple sources? and so on. Also, features and specs play
an important, but lesser part. Specs include noise floor, max SPL, and sensitivity. Features includes pad, roll offs,
and multi pattern control.
With that said, it is guaranteed I am going to raise the ire of many readers’s favorite budget mic.
(SP fans beware; NO studio project mic makes the list). Sometimes this is honest opinion, other times it is people trying to
justify their purchase, so let's set some parameters here: Imagine of you had only $400.00 to spend, and you needed ONE
good large diaphragm condenser. It has to:
1. Sound good with a friendly, mixable sonic signature
2. Be versatile
3.
Be sturdy and well manufactured
4. Have good specs
5. Have some features (note: If a mic just sounds simply dynamite,
then the lack of a pad or roll off is not going to drop it much in points)
