Buy Behringer C-2 Studio Condenser Microphones (Pack of 2). Free
delivery and returns on eligible orders.
Review: Budget pencil mics - These mics get mixed reviews
depending on users' expectations. Are these the best mics you'll
buy? No. Can you buy better? Absolutely. Are they worth £40? Yes!
If I'd spent £200 on these mics I'd have described them as noisy
and disappointing, but these are not expensive high quality mics.
They are budget mics, and as such they are great. I compared them
to an AT835b (shotgun mic, worth much more), and for indoor use
found them a good substitute with similar sensitivity. Size is
the first thing that hits you, as they're look tiny at just 9.5cm
long and 2cm wide. Outdoors, they're not so good as they have
poor wind/pop rejection. They do have a little internal hiss if
you wind the gain up, but they have a sensitivity of -41dBV, so
you shouldn't need crazy amounts of gain, and the specs imply
they are good for loud sources (up to an SPL of 140dB at 1kHz,
10dB more with the cut engaged - that's airshow loud). They are a
little "toppy" above 10kHz, but you can EQ that out if necessary.
I'm not disappointed with these. For the money you get a pair of
functional mics, good for drums, guitar amps, crowd mics, and
"off axis" speech (so your plosives don't pop the living
daylights out of them) for indoor video (eg about 8 inches above
and in front of a subject, out of shot).
Review: How can these be £45?? - Whilst I wouldn't say I was a
professional music producer, after studying music tech at college
I do feel confident in being able to determine whether something
is of an acceptable quality for an enthusiast on a budget. I
really do think these things are great. Getting two microphones
for £45, I wasn't really sure what I was going to receive.
Especially when I have used fairly expensive mics (nothing
ridiculous costing, mainly mid range rode and shure microphones)
at college and further at University. This was exacerbated when I
opened the package to find that they are small, I mean really
small. They are fairly heavy for their size and feel of nice
quality in the hand with the aluminium finish. They come in a
'nice for the price' carry case that seems to be well padded to
protect them well enough with all of the accessories and the mics
themselves packing up into a small area, great for on the move
recordings. Small note about the incidental pairing stand that
they come with, I thought (quite possibly stupidly) that the
stand would act as a table mount and hold the mics up. Whilst
that is the case without xlr's attached, attached it topples over
straight away. Not an issue as a stand is better practice anyway
but thought id mention it. Having quickly set them up through my
alesis io2 audio interface onto cubase I set about recording my
acoustic guitar and vocals as well as just general sampling. They
sound great, nice and clear free from distortion etc. Really
excellent, especially considering the price point. They need a
fair amount of gain from my alesis to get a decent signal through
to cubase but once that's sorted they record acoustic guitars
very well. For such a small diaphragm they do a good job of
picking up low end, maybe too much so when it comes to vocals
(probably just my untrained boomy voice haha) for my taste. I do
plan to try them out recording a brass band and continue to use
them as acoustic bedroom mics. Whilst im not going to lie and say
these things are big boy killers (they really arent) they will do
a brillinat job of semi professional music production, which in
the end is exactly what i bought them for, for a fraction of the
price of two Audio Technica Mics or other budget options.
