Small, cheap microphone?

D

dyesan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
320
Not sure where to ask this, but it's audio/hardware related:

I'd like to purchase a mic to use in conjunction with my laptop (EEE PC 1000h). It has a built-in mic, but when trying to record live music such as violin or piano, it fails. I don't think it can handle very high/low frequencies, hence my reason for an upgrade.

I just need a portable mic that will do the job. Could anyone recommend something on this basis, or point me into the right direction?
 
but when trying to record live music such as violin or piano, it fails.
Click to expand...

There are lots of omnidirectional so-called DAT or Minidisc microphones that are used for portable applications and are self-powered with AA batteries. I can think of the Audio-Technica AT822, which isn't that cheap, but sounds great. The problem is that every good portable stereo mics were/are made for recorders with STEREO microphone inputs, while all sound codecs have mono microphone inputs.

If you use the onboard inputs, what you need is a mono omni-directional self-powered cardioid microphone.

A USB interface or mic preamp might be to consider, as the mike the choice becomes way larger, but it depends on your budget.

I'll check a little bit on microphone mfg. sites, but if you could give more details on what inputs you currently have, what's your budget, if you consider external equipment, etc. that would help a lot.

An onboard microphone is made to pick-up voice with live chat, etc. It doesn't really pickup anything well and probably costs $0.50.
 
I found on CAD's website that they have a few USB microphones. Model U37 would be decent for $70 and light years ahead compared to an onboard mike. It's not making part of their pro-line, but it's better than AudioTechnica's $9 computer microphones.
 
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