Interview microphones - what should I get? Shoestring budget.

David W. Jones said:
If this new gaming network is as popular as you say it is, maybe it's time to get paid for you hard work.

Or do you enjoy working for free and spending your money on gear for their projects?

Have them buy you an RE-50 mic, mic cable, or butt plug & receiver, and a proper camera with XLR mic inputs.
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I didn't say how popular it was. We are fairly popular, but not enough to spend company money on a project by one of the producers (of which there are over 30). The network doesn't make enough money to fund stuff like this, and they don't expect it of us. I wanted to do this myself, and it means I'll have the equipment for use in the future.
 
David W. Jones said:
...
Have them buy you an RE-50 mic, mic cable, or butt plug & receiver, and a proper camera with XLR mic inputs.
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Amen to that. When one is doing a project strictly as an exercise for oneself, making do is fine. But when one takes the project public, now it's a new game with big-boy rules. One's work is competing for audience, attention, and credibility in comparison with other professional grade work alongside it and to stay in the game it's time to get serious about doing it right. Compelling subject matter only goes so far - at some point the way it's presented becomes critical. Not suggesting our OP go out and spend thousands on new kit, just that he needs to raise his head over the edge of the trench and look around a bit.
 
Just a few points of clarification. XLR does not "send power." It is a low-impedance standard for sending microphone level (and now, other) signal, that _can_ carry phantom power if necessary-- from a unit that has phantom power, to a microphone that accepts it. It does not send power by default. A dynamic microphone will ignore phantom power regardless, which is moot if the OP's recorder is the Olympus mono note-taking Mp3-only model (no phantom power, probably no plug-in power either). A ribbon mike would be a different issue, but of course, again a moot point.

As to mike choices, many ENG people choose omnis rather than cardioids, due to low handling noise and lack of proximity effect. However, there are advantages to cardioid, such as lower background noise due to the pick-up pattern which is designed for that purpose.

Finally, I agree with everything said by posters attempting to push the OP in the direction of
higher quality tools of production. However, in his initial post, it was stated that finances (or,
complete lack of them) where of paramount importance. You cannot gave everything that you
want, with every perfect-world scenario feature set, for absolutely nothing. As we used to say in the infantry, "You can have it Good, Quick, or Cheap... Pick any two." I would choose a 58 over a 57 for vocals any day; while they are essentially the same mike, I would stick with the 58, should you choose to go that route, for reasons that would become obvious if you did a side-by-side comparison. Miking a guitar amp would be a different story.

For about $200 US, you could get a Zoom H1 and a dynamic mike. For about $100, you could go with the Zoom and use the onboard stereo mikes. You can, of course, spend much more, but spending much less isn't a great idea. Remember, you can have it Good, Quick, or Cheap-- Pick any _two_.


GJ
 
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frogbrains said:
... in September I am going up to London to provide coverage of Eurogamer Expo. For this coverage, I plan to do a number of interviews, mostly impromptu, with other attendees as well as those showing there. I have a digital recording device of sorts already.

I am here, as I said before, to ask one question regarding this situation;
What microphone should I get for this purpose?
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The answer to the question of interview mics is well known. The big popular mics (because they work well for the intended purpose and have excellent sound) are the EV RE50 (omni), and the Sennheiser MD 46 (cardioid). These two mics are completely dominant in the ENG field. Nothing else comes close. As a result, they are often available on the used market. Which is where I got my RE50B. And I gotta tell ya, it works like a dream on a crowded and noisy show floor.
 
Not used the EV, as their mics are not particularly popular here, but concur the Sennheiser is good - and of course the one I recommended, the Beyer M58. We often forget that the British market is light on some popular US brands - sometimes simply down to availability and dealer networks. Lectrosonics is only recently starting to appear here, and in numbers - and mic brands such as Audix, while having devotees are still a bit rare. Oddly, even Beyer have a limited UK penetration - DT series headphones, and the M201 hyper-cardioid (which is loved by the BBC local radio people) being popular - but still a bit rare.

These differences mean ebay UK often pulls up US sellers for many of the makes spoken about here. For labs, Sennheiser, Countryman and DPA seem very common. Some of the others spoken about as being good by the US members I've never even seen, let alone heard. It seems location makes a big difference. A few years ago I had a cheaper Audio Technica interview mic, that was really neutral sounding - but I can't remember what it was. It was so well worn, it was almost shiny rather than the usual colour!

In this topic the OP has a very low budget. If he was into making things, then you could do some interesting things with a small lav mic, a tiny foam windshield and a piece of thin tube. For anybody feeling old - remember the BBC's game show, Blankety Blank - Les Dawson had such a mic, which was regularly broken by the contestants - but sounded really good! If money is tight, maybe try this idea?
 
Gregg Juke said:
I'd look for a used Shure SM58; about $100 US new-- you could find one used right in your price range with persistance.
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An SM58 is the wrong mic. for this sort of work - it's a mic. designed for a singer on stage with a tailored frequency response to enable the vocal to cut through the backing band and is normally used very close to the mouth - it really is the wrong mic. for interview work.

The standard interview mics are the Sennheiser MD62 (omni) and MD64 (cardioid), and EV and a Beyer (whose numbers I forget) but are all in the £100 - £200 price bracket.

For an interview mic. on a shoestring I would go for the Sennheiser e815S which you can pick up for about £45 at DV247.com.

It's a general-purpose cardioid, very well made, and should do the job you want very well.

Oh - if you don't like the switch - switch it on and turn the small plastic screw in the switch 90° and it will lock the switch in the "on" position.


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The beyerdynamic 201, yes, Paul. I reviewed it quite a few years ago for Radio World here in the US. In that article we compared 17 mics for male and female voiceover. The 201 was one of the top 5 along with the U87, C414, RE20 and Sanken CU41. I was friendly with one of the retailers and got to talking about the m201. I said that the problem with the m201 for radio in the US was that it wasn't big enough to catch the eye of the US radio market. My friend solved the problem by adding a very large foam pop filter, which also kept the users a bit farther away from the mic and avoided excessive proximity effect.

But I digress. EV635

Regards

Ty Ford
 
>>>>An SM58 is the wrong mic. for this sort of work - it's a mic. designed for a singer on stage with a tailored frequency response to enable the vocal to cut through the backing band and is normally used very close to the mouth - it really is the wrong mic. for interview work.<<<<

Realize it's not a perfect choice, however, it's a relatively inexpensive choice (in line with the OP's original request), and regardless of characterization here, it is a ubiquitous industry standard, not just a stage-singer mike. Many people aren't aware that the "SM" in this Shure mike line originally stood for "Studio Microphone."

GJ
 
B&H pricing puts the SM58 at $99 and the Electrovoice 635 at $119. Why would you go with the second-choice option instead of the preferred purpose-built option just to save a lousy $20? That's less than the cost of a burger and a movie. Stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime IMHO. Not getting the best tool for the job in order to save a few pennies is false economy.
 
Thanks for all your advice folks, I have learnt so much about audio hardware.

In the end, I was able to pick up an Audio-Technica AT8004 for £20. As far as I can tell, this is an absolute bargain and one I couldn't pass up. What do you think?
 
>>>>B&H pricing puts the SM58 at $99 and the Electrovoice 635 at $119. Why would you go with the second-choice option instead of the preferred purpose-built option just to save a lousy $20? That's less than the cost of a burger and a movie. Stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime IMHO. Not getting the best tool for the job in order to save a few pennies is false economy.<<<<

Last time on this for me, because I don't really care , I was just trying to help. The reason "Why" is, because I said "Why don't you look for a _used_ one?", because the OP was talking $0-$30, not brand new from B&H! The Senn. is fine, the EV is fine, the Shure is fine. Not Hollywood, not NBC, not Rocket Science. The equipment bias on this site, and the bias in general, is awesomely outta site. Saying that "saving $20 is false economy," when the budget is that small to begin with, is false straw-man-knocking-down posting, IMHO.

It's interesting that there were 80-something views before anyone answered; then, when I offered an opinion, the experts come out of the woodwork in droves, seemingly mostly to shoot down my response. I'm not married to a 58 for any use by any means-- It fit the OP's budget, and his simple personal use for his projects! I stated that anything of a higher price/quality/specific use pick-up pattern would be even better (!), agreeing with you and others in this thread. All I said was that to go cheaper would be a mistake. An SM58 would beat a cheap lav on a cardboard tube or a stick any day, but I'm shredded for mentioning an affordable, standard, easily accessible option available around the world!!!!

OOOOOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYY friggin' VEEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

GJ

PS-- BET this post gets deleted.
 
That At looks just like the one I mentioned - go for it, AT make some very good mics, for that money - if you don't like it, I'll take it off you.
 
paulears said:
That At looks just like the one I mentioned - go for it, AT make some very good mics, for that money - if you don't like it, I'll take it off you.
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Sure thing - but I'll want to make a little profit in order to get one of equal grade.
Don't see a deal like this coming along again any time soon :D
 
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