Best Condenser Mic

Ernie Zahn · June 21, 2009

If anyone could recommend a descent condenser mic in the $100 to $200 range for field recording that'd be much appreciated. We have a cheapo camcorder shotgun mic that we've been using that actually sound quite good considering.

David Auner aac · June 22, 2009

Hi Ernie,

I got my Sennheiser K6/ME66 combo for around 200 Euro used. I don't know whether that's the best cheapish condenser mike, but I'm really happy with it! The cool thing is that it's a system, there's a number of capsules that fit that power adapter (K6 is the power adapter for +48 phantom and battery feed. ME66 is the medium shotgun capsule.).

Cheers, Dave

Paul Bruening · June 22, 2009

Mics are one of those things you have to get really lucky to get "good for cheap". Everybody here that's an independent producer winces over mics. It's the most important tool on the sound side and being so, is unavoidably costly. Maybe, you can get one used. But cheap can sometimes indicate that it has been dropped and "shocked".

I guess I'm not helping you with that answer. Here's a better answer: Some people can't tell the difference and can use a $35 Radio Shack mic and be really satisfied with it. Some people can sit around and sincerely comment about the shortcomings of the best Sennheiser mic.

I've got an Audio Technica BP4073 and love it, love it, love it. I also spend an inordinate amount of time explaining to boom operators why bumping it around causes my stomach to knot up.

http://www.audio-technica.com/cgi-bin/prod...ones%3A+Shotgun

Jason Hinkle RIP · June 22, 2009

For that price range I like the Oktava MK012. They have a "movie set" kit with a hyper-cardiod capsule at http://www.oktava-online.com/shop/view_prod.php?id=110 You can get them modded at oktavamod.com which improves the signal-to-noise ratio.

I also have a Schoeps 641. I loaned that to a friend for his feature and I threw in my two modded MK012 mics because they were doing a few multi-mic setups. Even though the audio engineer was doubtful they told me that tracks from all three mics mixed together really well - which is pretty impressive considering the price difference.

Here's a great article with clips comparing various mics - http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/right_mic_brockett.html

Edited June 22, 2009 by Jason Hinkle

Tom Hepburn · June 22, 2009

I've used this one and have been really happy the results:

http://www.abesofmaine.com/item.do?item=RO...2&l=FROOGLE

It's at the high end of your price point. I would also leave room to add in the cost of a shock mount, blimp, and/or wind screen if you going to be recording outside.

Good luck.

Tom