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[Tav]

I am looking for some suggestions for a microphone for recording with the multi-track I am about to get. I would also be using it with my PC. Basically I need it for recording acoustic guitar, guitar amp, vocals and maybe some other bits n pieces. I don't want to shell out heaps, I would like to keep it sub £100 as I will only be using it on a small multi-track and PC for ideas/rough demos. I do however want a well made mic that will last and one that will capture the sound well enough.

[M.A.R.T]

shure sm57 - its the one and only! £70

[Alex]

i like the bd421 for all-round stuff. You could always look around (sound-on-sound forums?) and see if you can pick up an nt-1 (not a) for that or hopefully a bit under. I just nicked my friend's nt-3 and it's amazing.

[Graham]

Have a look on the shure website (www.shure.com) and under Knowledge there are teaching materials, and I think there are tips on what mics are good to use for certain things. Might be worth a look.

[soundian]

SM 57 is a good all-round mic which'll do you fine for putting down rough tracks at home. Sennheiser also do mics which are similar but slightly cheaper.

I'd be dubious about buying second-hand mics. Most engineers would rather sell their grandmothers than a good mic.

[Tav]

I checked the Sure site and the SM57 came up in all the suggest uses I was looking for. I think it'll be that but I shall check those Sennheser mics.

[spellchecker]

Originally posted by soundian:
I'd be dubious about buying second-hand mics. Most engineers would rather sell their grandmothers than a good mic.

erk, just what i want to hear after what i've just bought off ebay.

on a side note, i saw an MXL 77 valve microphone or something on ebay that never sold. you can buy it from turnkey for 700 quid, yet this thing got no bids and started with a no-reserve opening bid of 300 quid. the thing that confused me was that it had a 7 pin XLR - what the hell are the extra four pins for?

[soundian]

Originally posted by spellchecker:
erk, just what i want to hear after what i've just bought off ebay.

on a side note, i saw an MXL 77 valve microphone or something on ebay that never sold. you can buy it from turnkey for 700 quid, yet this thing got no bids and started with a no-reserve opening bid of 300 quid. the thing that confused me was that it had a 7 pin XLR - what the hell are the extra four pins for?

It would depend where the mic came from, if it was a defunct studio then you're probably alright.

The extra pins would be for power to the valve. It should have a PSU with it as well, maybe that's why it didn't sell?

[craig deadenstereo]

some guy is selling a sm57 on the harmony-central amp forum for £40 or something. Look in the uk spam thread at top.

[spellchecker]

Originally posted by soundian:
It would depend where the mic came from, if it was a defunct studio then you're probably alright.

The extra pins would be for power to the valve. It should have a PSU with it as well, maybe that's why it didn't sell?

Mine's a Neumann TLM103, it came from a guy in Fife, and I'm guessing (hoping) it was home studio usage.

The MXL valve mic did come with a power supply actually. I'm surprised it didn't get a single bid. I probably would have, had I not bid on the Neumann instead. The guy with the MXL said he had bought two for a job, was keeping one and selling the other.

I picked up a spirit folio mixer as well, should arrive tomorrow or saturday, along with the dirty old compressor unit.