Cheap Microphone Reports

[dogstarman]

If anybody is in the market for cheap mics
(so when the joker manning the boom poll smashes it against a brick wall you don't mind so much...):

I'm pleased to report that my two recent purchases of cheap microphones are quite nice.
The first (two) were a matched set of SKY wireless lavalier mics. They are essentially the same design as the lower-end Audio-Technica lavs, but they're wireless. The mic plugs into a VERY cheap plastic belt-clip transmitter, and the reciever is just that: a reciever with a 1/4" mono plug that goes right into your recorder/ board, about the size of a pager. These are manufactured by Sound Of Heaven manufacturing in China, and exported here under the name SKY. They operate on one-of-two FM-frequencies, and the frequencies are pre-set on the individual units. The nice thing is, they're color-coded, so you can make sure you get two that aren't on the same frequency (though I'm not sure it would really matter if you were using them for dialog audio). I picked them up on eBay as a set, and I got them for $31.00 + shipping.
The guy who's selling them usually offers them as single units w/ starting bids of $18.00, and they usually go for about that, because he lists a LOT of them. Just type in LAVALIER and you'll come across one.

The second one arrived today. This one is a Audio-Technica ATR-25 stereo mic. It's made for video cameras, and is a lot like the ATR-55 (which is more $$$) EXCEPT, unlike the 55, which has a dinky, useless, fixed 1-foot cable that is supposed to go in the 3.5mm mic jack on your camcorder, the ATR-25 has a detatchable cable with dual-mono plugs at the end. I experimented with an ATR- 55 some time ago, and if you try to add an extention cable to the fixed cable, you get MEGA line noise.
The ATR-25 is a better mic because it can drive a lot more cable with NO line noise. The bad part is that several web-sites claim that the mic comes with a 25' cable. WRONG. It's maybe 10-foot, so I went to Radio Shack and picked up two 24' shielded microphone cables with 1/4" mono M/F ends. No line noise at all.

The mic picks up REALLY well, and I was able to get good volume from a low-lever source more than seven feet away. The stero pattern will take some getting used to, though...

The microphone is available from a lot of on-line merchants, and while the MSR price is $69.00 or something, I found it for $31.00 + shipping (funny didn't notice that before) from VES (I think) through Yahoo!

I should point out that I ran all of these mics through the mixer on my Tascam 424, and maxed the gain, bass and volume sliders to achieve a sound that I liked. Running any one of them straight into a minidisc recorder or what-not isn't going to work as well. In order to compensate for the massive ammount of gain-generated noise, I ran out from the MONITOR outs to my minidisc recorder, and thus used the headphones volume control SET REALLY LOW to adjust the signal, in effect creating a poor-mans limiter, because the signal gain-hiss didn't get through but the nice bassy, stereo signal from my mics did...

And I spent less than $70 bucks.

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[Matt Pacini]

You had to max the volume, treble and bass controls to "get the sound you want"?

You mean the output level of these mics is so low, that you had to dime all the controls?
I don't know... sounds pretty scary.
There is a ton of gain in Tascam low-end gear too, so this scares me to no end.
I think these are probably too wimpy for most peoples use.
I admit, I find it appealing, and I would love to get some LAV mics, but that's a lot of pream noise coming through, if you are diming all your controls just to get signal.

Matt Pacini

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[dogstarman]

Well, as I said, I overcame almost all of the gain noise generated by going through the monitor outs and controllong the volume with the volume pot rather than the master fader. And no, I didn't max the trebble, actually I edged off the trebble and the mid sweep to compensate for the high end noise generated from the gain.

Yes, you are dead on about the Tascam gain levels, and the "monitor out" trick is something that I started doing years ao because even with line-level inputs like my Alesis gear recorded straight onto tape, mixing down through the line outputs created 10-times more line noise then even the ammount of normal tape noise I get using the recorder. However, once I started routing throught the monitor outs to minidisc, I was amazed to find that there is almost NO gain or line noise at all, and the quality of my mixdown is really quite good.

I started using Tascam and Fostex 4-track machines when I was twelve years old, and I've always had one or another unit that I tinker with. As such, when my last one died and I had the option of jumping up to digital 4-track or buying a brand new 424 from a guy who bought it and stuck it in his closet for a year and wanted $150 for it, I figured I knew enought about the units that I could get really great results. And I do. Those machines require a TON of patience and attention, but they do work well if you know how to handle them. They're not particularly user friendly, and you can get really BAD recordings from them if you don't maximize every aspect of the recording process. But I like them a lot and they do work.

As for the mics, as I said, THEY'RE CHEAP. I have access to better mics and I may not even use them, but for around $30, they're nice insurance if you're in a jam.

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[Matt Pacini]

Yeah, the Tascan porta studio's are great.
I had one of the originals (I forget the model, but it was before they started coming out with a bunch of different ones... This one ran at double speed only, I think it was the 424).

Anyway, great little units for demoing music.
That's what Sting used to demo Police songs in the early days (up until at least the Synronicity album).
He would put together 4-track demos of the songs in his living room, with bass, guitar, and an Oberheim DX drum maching (which I also had once), then bring it in to rehearsals, and the guys would learn the songs from what he recorded.

They sound pretty good, with double speed, and DBX noise reduction.

Warning, I'm NOT suggesting recording dialog on these. They float all over, making sync a total nightmare!

Matt Pacini



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[dogstarman]

Right on that last point. I used to have trouble just syncing up more than two sequenced tracks. I have no idea how machines that have such good record heads could have such a drastic differences in record/ playback speeds. Not very obvious to the ear when you are overdubbing, but try syncing two tracks that are perfectly in time and last 8+ minutes... forget it...

Oh yeah, and I take the extra step of not only recording in at high speed w/DBX, but I also maximize the tape speed by turning the pitch control to +6%. Don't know if it actually improves the sound quality, but it makes me feel good to know I'm squeezing that extra 1/4"per second out of the unit...



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[This message has been edited by dogstarman (edited January 12, 2002).]

[deathstar8914]

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