Condensor mic for pc

[Canardly]

I have just bought some very nice Sennheiser 579s to replace a headset and now need a mic. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive but decent desktop mic for everyday use? (Not Zalman).

[Brucey]

I have a very nice sony mic that was originally intended for use with sony minidisc, and cost about £100 fifteen years ago.  I daresay such can be found on e-bay for pennies these days. It is battery powered and connects via 3.5mm jack, so might not be exactly what you want, but the sound quality is excellent.

cheers

[Canardly]

The £118 Rode NT-USB is just about the most popular desktop USB mic and it has quality and features that make it an obvious contender. Rode is a reliable entry level mic manufacturer.

If are trying to see how cheap you can go, then starting with an £18 Fun Generation USB One would be low on the list of recommendationd but some folk like cheap more than reliability, quality or features.

Thanks for this. Lots of other people agree with you. Seems to be very good for the cost involved.

[hairyhippy]

Another vote for Rode here.

[pcolbeck]

What about getting a little mixer with USB then you can have a lot more flexibility. You could use any normal analogue mic you wanted.
Something like this:

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-XENYX-Q802USB-USB-Mixer/IPH



Pcolbeck junior uses a similar one for doing some gaming commentary for Twitch.

[Canardly]

A xlr mic is a possiblity. They forgot the on/off switch with the Behringer mixer which is a pity. Thanks for the suggestion which provides an alternative route.

[andytheflyer]

What about getting a little mixer with USB then you can have a lot more flexibility. You could use any normal analogue mic you wanted.
Something like this:

My ex-sound engineer son has just gifted to me one of these from his heap of old kit (a 4 channel version) so I can record my sax practice sessions.  It's got an Aston Spirit xlr mike with it.  Way better than the cheapo clip mike I had, plugged into my PC input port.

There may be some old kit out there on eBay.  I feed this into my PC and use Audacity to record.  At last I can now hear what I really sound like, and it's much better than the previous £10 lapel mike suggested I was!

[aidan.f]

Is  the usb recording from  those mixers multi-channel? I need to log several audio channels. Audacity has multiple input capacity with the right sound device, and can be configured to record on threshold. - this is not music btw. One of my cha

[Vince]

You would need to check the spec of the specific model, but last time I investigated, the USB output was just the mixed stereo output.
If you only have two mics, you could pan each to a different side, then treat them as single channels in Audacity instead of a stereo pair.

[aidan.f]

Thanks, I need a multi channel interface to remotely log PMR radio channels. Will have to keep looking..

[David Martin]

I've used a Tascam 16x08 to record with Audacity - 16 channels at the same time.