Choosing a mic?

Things you'll want to look for in UTAU mics are:

- large-diaphragm condenser microphone (this is the best mic type for clear vocal recordings, essentially)
- a cardoid pattern (as opposed to omni, etc)
- USB format, unless you are willing to spend the extra on the preamp required to utilize XLR mics
- Depending on your gender/voice type and singing note, the human singing voice varies between 20 and 1,000 hz. You'll want to look at the frequency response chart for any microphone you're looking at, and make sure the microphone doesn't cut out any frequencies essential to making your voice sound 'clear' (for example the Blue Yeti sharply rolls off starting around 100 hz and makes a lot of lower and speaking tones sound 'muddy'. Personal experience with the mic definitely makes my altos and below sound terrible.)

Those are some tips I can think of just now. Some fan favourites for $100 and below include:
- CAD U37
- Samson CO1, Samson Meteor
- AT2020u
- Blue products (Snowball, Yeti, Nessie)
- MXL USB006
- Behringer C1u

I'd highly recommend listening to demos/comparisons of mics to make your decision. At this price range it really starts to come down to personal preference. Best of luck in your microphone hunt!

riptunes said:

Thank so much for the info! I'll look into these right away. I don't know exactly what I should look for in a frequency response chart but I'll keep it in mind.

Click to expand...

No problem! This webpage explains the concept of frequency response pretty well. Basically, a microphone will automatically do equalization (like you do in mixing!) and you want to find what 'equalization' sounds best for your voice.

If you're a bass male (the lowest singing type) for example, you'd want to find a mic that has a flat response (or on zero on the chart) near the 60-200 hz range, because that's where the majority of the voice soundwaves are coming from.

Terindie basically covered the ling and short of it! I'm going to take this opportunity to describe the mics that they've listed (as I always try to do in these mic threads)
Please note that budget mics are still budget mics and you won't find anything "studio quality" but choosing the right one can really take you a distance.
This list will be listed from most favored to least(at least in my opinion).

CAD u37: I like to call this mic the "snowball killer". Sure it costs a tiny bit more but it sounds magnitudes better than even a Yeti. It has a very decent sound that is pretty clear for it's price. It is available in many different colors/styles which means you can get one you like too.

Behringer C01u: Used to be my top recommendation but now has taken a backseat to the CAD. It's also really good for the price. The sound isn't as rich as the CAD and sounds slightly more muddled but if you find it for a LOT cheaper then there's nothing exactly wrong with getting this one.

MXL.006: at this point tue diaphragms will start to shrink a little. The 006 isn't as full as other mics so I would only recommend it to a higher female if they got a really, REALLY good deal.

at2020(usb): Thos goes for the xlr version too; even though it's listed as. LDC (large diaphragm condenser) on most websites it absolutely is not. It's very muddy and muffled sounding for it's price and while it's a decent "just works" mic that sound about the same on everyone tje options above are cheaper and sound the same/better.

Samson C1u: it was hard to decide where to place this one. Often compared to the Behringer simply due to name. It's known to sound similar to a Behringer (but even less full) but is also quite a bit more noisy. Since noise is an Utau user's arch nemesis I put it this low. You can get the Cakewalk bundled version for only $30-$35 but I suggest against it.

Snowball: Run. This is the absolutely most overly recommended mic in the community. It's very noisy, finicky, and is really meant to be used for skype calls. Blur uses their brand name to over sell this mic along with all the extraneous accessories. Here's a tip: The snowball has 3 capsules (physical mic elements). Take it's current price and divide it by 3 and that'll give you a good idea of how cheap the sound it.
This is a mic that people //hate// but recommend anyways because "master race". Also is not a LDC.

Samson Meteor: This one crops up once and a while. It's below the Snowboard because while it's not as noisy, the frequency response is largely exaggerated. The low end is really boosted in a attempt to make it sound "vintage"...
It's absolutely gross and unnatural sounding and I haven't heard a single good bank recorded on one.

Yeti: Yes! To many individual's surprise I list this below the snowball! The reason being that while it's arguably a "better" mic it's a lot worse in my opinion. While less noisy than a snowball it has a severe low frequency rolloff below 100-150Hz. This makes for a very thin and frail sound. You essentially are paying for even more knobs and switches amd the aesthetics of the mic.
Also it's downright almost impossible to mount accessories to the thing amd many have gone as far as to drill a hole in the stand.

Nessie: This one is at the botton because...who the hell is this for? I Don even know. It sits between the Yeti and the snowball..sort of.
If has a knob at the bottom that switches between different EQs but you are really paying for something very gimmicky. If you really wanted you could get something like the CAD and EQ your samples after recording. (Please don't do this unless you know what you're doing as it'll go wrong very fast.

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I normally will go into things like frequency response more in depth. But that seemed a bit unnecessary. I suggest looking into the top 2-3 mics if you want a good sound.
After you buy a mic I recommend you also look into getting a pop filter. The fabric dragonpad one on amazon is cheap and is decent enough.

//slaps himself

Sorry about the wall o' text. I just really get a bit ridiculous in mic threads.
[doublepost=1452225937][/doublepost]woops, There have been a lot of posts here while I was typing that. orz.
[doublepost=1452226533][/doublepost]If you know your range then you can sort of find your required frequency response. Lets say you could hit B1. That's around 60Hz in terms of frequency (a tad higher actually) so you would want a mic that can extend even lower than that so you know it can record it strongly.

As for response graphs. Every mic is tuned differently and record sound slightly differently. Manufacturer graphs lie a lot (often smoothed quite a bit) so you can't always trust them.
A "scooped" mic will hace a slight decrease in response around the 1000-2000hz range where a lot of a voice's tone resides and will sound clearer but also thinner. A mic with a rolloff (the response rolls/decreases/falls.) on the high range (10kHz+) will sounds dark as a lot of a voice's brightness is in that range, a lot of vocal mics actually boost this which often sounds alright on most females and some males.
It all depend. The majority of a voice is 2kHz and below but there is still a LOT of content higher in the frequency range that play huge roles in the final tone of the recording/mic.

riptunes said:

Wow, thanks so much for all this! I just checked out the cad u37 on amazon and saw that some reviews find it a bit metallic with high voices, which might be a big problem. I'll be looking more into these, I didn't realize there was so much that goes into voice recording. Thank you again! This is amazing.

Click to expand...

Yeah, unfortunately nothing's going to be perfect at such a low price point (or at any price point lol) and regardless of what you get there will be sacrifices. I still recommend it regardless of this minor issue since where you record also plays a big role and you can work around it most of the time.