Songcrafters.org

Good Day--

   I'm reaching the point of laying out some vocal Ideas & wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a decent mike??

    Thanks,

             Piljoe
             Seattle, WA

For a small diaphragm condenser the built-in mike is quite good. It's worth it to do some custom settings with the high end reduced to see if it serves your purposes.

Beyond that a decent large diaphragm condenser will give you good rich vocals. Depends on how much you want to spend. Samson makes a decent one, the C01 which goes for under $100. But you'll be able to tell an obvious difference in this and a mic in  the over $500 range.

.....I didn't even give the built in one much thought...

Quote from: piljoe on April 27, 2009, 08:50:06 PM.....I didn't even give the built in one much thought...

Neither did I--and maybe I should have.  I bought a Samson C03.

It was a slippery slope from there.  I needed phantom power for the microphone, so next I needed a preamp/eq/compressor.  Why do I feel like I've told this story before? (https://songcrafters.org/forum/micro-br/recording-an-acoustic-guitar-with-external-mic/msg18042/#msg18042)

Most of the folks on here use the built in mike. It's very good. Listen to anything with OldRottenHead doing vocals, or Greeny's stuff - all done with the onboard mike, and they sound great. This is the real beauty of the MBR - you can take it anywhere and record anywhere. There's a technique to using it, but search through some of the posts on recording vocals and you will find tricks and tips.

Cheers,

Nigel

The beauty of the built-in mic is that it's already there are requires no additional equipment to function. You have so many processing tools you can play with to monkey with the sound of it. The standard mic processing tools include the Enhancer that can really really give the vocal some presence.

And don't forget that you can use the guitar effects and the Master Tools processing for the mic. The Master Tools has a stellar three band compressor that compresses each EQ channel separately for amazing yet clean loudness and presence. (All this is available for an external mic too.)

Like Ted, I bought a mic, then had to get a power supply, then had to get a mixer and found the results were not that improved over the built-in mic. Since I keep my Micro on a mic stand I can move around, the convenience of the built-in mic won out.

As mentioned earlier, the built-in mic is a small diaphragm condenser. These have a potent high end. It will sound more like a large diaphragm studio mic if you tame the high end. Don't turn up the bass too much or the low-end weaknesses become obvious.

As Nigel says, the in-built mic (for me) is the complete package. I was truly astounded by how good it is when I got the BR, and have used nothing else since - both for vocals and acoustic guitar. I don't even fiddle with sensitivity settings etc... for me, it's just a case of choosing the effect patch I want, and singing. I hold the BR like a microphone, and you just get used to having the right distance from mouth to mic, and being careful with certain syllables / volumes that might peak or fluff the input level.  :)

like greeny says, the inbuilt mic is all you need, i have a pile of expensive mics i have never used since purchasing my micro. should stick them on ebay cause they are just gathering dust now. tho i did by the little sony stereo mic, which i have only used to record friends gigging.

Thanks for the advice!!!! I'll be playing around w/ the built in Mic today....

As the others have mentioned the built-in can is quite underated and certainly holds it's own very well. The trick with getting a vocal mic is then you will need a preamp w/ 48v phantom power. if you go that route, a compact mixer can provide this (or a preamp like from ART on cheap, or nicer ones like Avalon, RNP, etc but this gets expensive.) If you are still sold on this idea (it's not a bad one!) look for a large condenser microphone in your budget. The MXLs and Samsons are very good at their price range. Also look up Cascade mics as they have some very well priced stuff. Just try not to get sucked in to buying more than you really need, or worse, buying something that wont work for what you need.

Oh, I highly recommend the MXL 990, for sure. Just personal preference, really. You get a lot of bang for the buck, though. Heard the 909 is pretty cool too.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/MXL-990-Condenser-Microphone-with-Shockmount-273156-i1126975.gc

For the money, the MAudio Nova is a great bargain. You can find it for about $100.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Nova.html (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Nova.html)

I heard engineers refer to it as a good copy of the Rode NT1000, which I've heard engineers refer to as a good copy of the Neumann U87. (The U87 is probably the most pictured studio mic in the world and goes for about $3,500.)

The Nova rivals any large diaphragm condenser in the under $500 range. Like all of these mics, it sounds a little cold when compared to the warmth of the Neumann. The biggest issue is that you'll probably spend more on a preamp and phantom power for these low end big mics than you'll spend on the mic itself.

To get a noticeable jump in quality over the built-in mic you're going to have to spend as much on the mic and the connecting toys as you did on the Micro.

I find the built-in mic is just a lot more convenient and less of a hassle. If you buy an external mic, you can spend a lot of time and money fixing hiss, hum and shock mounting problems that have already been worked out by Roland's engineers in the Micro.