20 Best Microphone For Vocals Under 200 (2023 Updated)

I use a mike for voice overs and connect the mike via a Behringer Q502USB mixer and I was plugging in a cheap mike into the phono jack which didn’t give me a good sound. The Behringer has an XLR input so I wanted to try that.

Did a lot of research on mikes and settled on this one. It was a good choice. I purchased the Kopul Studio Elite 4000 XLR cable along with the mike to make sure I had a quality cable connected to the mike.

It’s a condenser mike so it needs phantom power which the Behringer mixer supplies. The mike’s cardiod pattern suppresses background noise not coming from the front of the mike. Note that you don’t talk into the top of the mike, but rather into the side.

Thus, the mike is optimized for sound coming directly in front of it. So far, I’m very happy with the mike.

This is one of the best USB microphones I have tested. I do have dual Sennheiser MK8 and dual NTRs, and I find performance from this very similar to more expensive XLR mics. I now use this mic on (almost) a daily basis, apart from my XLR mics, to record my grand piano.

Pros of this mic: *Very wide dynamic range and frequency, goes from 20Hz-20000Hz/20kHz. *Well balanced bass and treble voices for mono setup *Amazing build quality, solid full metal build *Internal LED light to indicate power to mic *Real-time zero latency monitoring off headphone jack *Sturdy included stand *Nice codec 16bit 44.

1/48kHz *Premium mic pouch Cons of this mic: *No pop filter or any other goodies apart from the short mic stand *USB mics, so no two way ORTF or any stereo type of recording. You can’t use two USB mics at the same time.

Workaround: Plug each individual mic into different computers, then transfer both audio files into a single computer and sync audio in post *Wished they included an XLR port. Some USB mics have XLR built in as well.

Overall, Audio-Technica does not dissapoint. Another amazing mic from the legendary Japanese audio company.

I’ve been composing music since the 80s using whatever I could get my hands on at the time (as a youngster). A mid 90s upgrade to a Tascam 4-track and finally a Pro Tools setup in the early 2000s. My current interface is a Universal Audio Apollo.

I’ve settled for middle of the road gear for years because tone was always 2nd to the composition, at least in my eyes, and any professional work I did would be performed, mixed and mastered by pros anyway.

Now that I have years of music recorded, I’ve decided to revisit all of my personal projects and re-record/remaster them. My voice has a mid-rangy quality that is difficult to eq so it sits nicely in my somewhat subtle prog-rock songs.

This combo changed everything! It compliments my voice and gives me the ability to add that breathy air my Rode and AKG mics can’t. Maybe it’s the pre-amp, maybe it’s the mic, don’t care. It sounds great and I have tons of options when it comes to eq because of the flat output.

Definitely recommend 100%. I also splurged on Mogami Gold cables to wire it up. Don’t know if it helps, but in a placebo kind of way, it makes me feel better :).

Overall: I just bought Neumann TLM 102 for a few sessions on my vocals and nylon & acoustic guitar. I do noticed, TLM 102 does have a little more presence and somewhat compressed on the bass. If you want to tame the bass, then you’ll be happy with TLM 102 (note: There’s no cut low/high filter switch).

If you’re asking a flat sound, it’s not here. Presence is strong? “yes. ” A lot more than mine Oktava MK 319. Treble? a little less than mine. If you want a little more treble for your vocals, you might want TLM 103.

But remember, 103 is two times for you to pay. Do you want something “warm’ish” in your vocals? It’s all right. It’s not the best for a warm warm sound. BUT it is good though. You may have to turn up the mid a little more when you mixed.

On my vocals and nylon & acoustic, I had to decrease -10 db on the bass. After my recording and testing, I decided to return mine TLM 102. For me, It’s just not worth it –especially it’s 8x than my MK319.

I really expected a lot more, but I know there are a lot of people that they love it. They say, they would pay 10 times. For the rest of my sessions, I went back to my MK 319. RECOMMENDATION?? Well, if you have a budget….

sure. It would be nice recording a few acoustic rhythms. But, I know there are few more mics that are a lot cheaper than TLM 102 with the same quality sound.

I ventured out into other dynamic mics, and for my voice in particular it suits me the best of anything I have ever found. It has a warmth and low end to it that takes the harshness out when I’m singing powerfully, but has enough mid and high end to still sound great and cut through the mix.

I tried other dynamic mics but they have to much mid and high leading it so sound a bit too harsh for my style of singing. In the end I think it depends on the singer to find the best fit, but you know you can never go wrong with an sm58.

It’s so versatile too, I’ve used it in a pinch for home demo’s recording acoustic guitar, put it in front of a guitar cab into a PA, and used it on a snare and bass drum live. While those aren’t it’s intended use, I’m always surprised by how this mic can be used for almost anything in a pinch.

It’s certainly very well rounded. It’s also extremely durable, I’ve seen punk bands try and break one and they still work afterwards. If your feeling anxious about making the right purchase, this is one mic that you’ll likely never have buyers remorse from.

Ok, I didn’t spend thousands but I definitely made an investment in my art and myself. This mic has been a dream of mine and it’s versatility to giving clarity on vocals is everything I have wanted ! To be able to hear crisp vocals recorded to be able to perfect my recording voice for my own music and to use as a vocal mic to record my voice reading for Audible, I am in my happy place having made this purchase for where I am in my journey as a home recording artist.

Thank you American Musical Supply again, for making it possible for me to afford to buy my equipment over time ! Your customer service was also outstanding when I had a delivery issue with my Breedlove 12 string and you shipped out a new one right away.

I also still have and use the Kurzweil PC2x, the Yamaha Motif and the monitor speakers I bought from you quite a few many years ago. Looking forward to continuing to be a valuable customer, and I always recommend AMS whenever I can.

I don’t know how this mic made it to SDOD (actually SDOH), but what an incredible bargain! I wish I would have bought another one at that price. Pair it up with a good preamp and an interface with a good DA/AD converter and you won’t be sorry.

I have it going into a SSL VHD pre –> UAD Apollo Twin –> PC, and it just sounds amazing, so crisp and clear. So far have only used it on vox but that is what I bought it for. I had been researching for a good vocal mic for quite a while, so I was ready to pull the trigger when I saw it on SDOH.

I’ve owned this microphone for several years now, and for a long time had a sort of “I’ll just use a dynamic mic for recording because this thing is too much work” and I had always seemed to have serious issues with volume and having it pick up literally every little sound in the studio.

That being said, that was several years ago before I knew anything about gain staging and proper recording technique and all that. For someone who is relatively experienced (I am by no means an expert) this mic is a gem for the price.

Vocals and Harmonica are all I’ve used it for an all I’ve found it incredibly useful for, but it excels in recording both. It delivers are great range as far as vocals go, though it seems to drop little nuances, particularly with raspy voices.

However for clear voices, this thing really does the trick. It really does well with rounded off singing, and delivers a clean sound that is easy to mix. For Harmonica its pretty crisp if you keep your distance.

It definitely needs a pop filter in any circumstance (seriously, even for amplifiers if you try to mic one up) because it does clip and pop if there is a lot of air movement. Also, knowing which side is the front helps a lot too (guess who didn’t read the instructions and thought it was bidirectional).

Overall its a great work horse for vocals, I’ve recorded most of an album with it and it’s great for isolated vocals and harmonica. It does pickup a lot of background noise so know that if you own pets that make a lot of noise or have any people around with you who are a bit loud.

Once again, for the money, it doesn’t get much better. SM57’s and SM58’s won’t deliver the quality that this will in a home studio if it’s used right. Plus the shock mount and case are really nice given it feels a little fragile.

(it definitely needs to be on the shock mount because it picks up movement in the stand really bad without it). I would definitely recommend to semi-experienced people in a home studio.

I own several microphones of which, include Dynamics, Ribbons, and Condensers. For me the MXL 990 was a pleasant surprise for the price paid. This mic is featured in several youtube videos from both professionals and amateur users.

obviously not everyone was pleased with the MXL 990 performance but, that’s kind of expected. I am a pro musician, Broadcast engineer and, an old school electronics guy. I connected the MXL 990 to my Soundcraft mixer board, set-up the mixer channel for the mic and what a surprise.

it sounded really good. Very quite noise floor and plenty of response for my use. The mic is excellent but you can’t use it everywhere or to mic anything as it does have it’s limitations. A pop filter is a must for close vocal work.

If you are considering this mic, check out the videos on youtube first-that will help you a lot and of course reading reviews from users of the MXL 990. Enjoy your journey.

IšverstiShow in original languageThis is my favorite mic model that I used for 10 years running in a traveling rock band with many drops and no failures. The gold standard of live vocal amplification! The on-off switch is a nice option, and this can be locked in the on position by reversing a metal tab and tightening a screw.

Although not mentioned in the ad, this mic comes with a factory clip and vinyl zipper carrying bag. The stand is very sturdy and steady. much more than I expected. The 20 foot cord works great with nice cable flexibility.

If you desire a better quality cord, you can always use this for a backup. This is an unbeatable deal.

I bought this mic as a replacement for a Blue Yeti that I was using. The old mic had some serious USB port issues, and It was becoming too irritating to keep up with, so I decided to go with this one after a bit of research.

The sound is great, I feel like it captures a more natural tone than the Yeti. Live monitoring is great, and the fact that this mic lets you adjust the live monitor mix is fantastic. Makes it very versatile for both listening and recording at the same time.

I use this mic mainly for Teaching online classes, attending online classes, and amateur podcasting. It works for all 3 of those perfectly with absolutely 0 issue with hardware. Plug and play feature makes setup a breeze.

My ONLY (and I mean ONLY) complaint about this mic is the lack of Mute/Gain. The fact that this mic has no gain knob makes it a little irritating to adjust levels, but its easy to work around that. The lack of a mute button just makes me have to adjust the mix knob if I want to listen without a live monitor.

Both of these issues have very easy, very simple workarounds. The complaint is more about convenience than operation, because this mic does everything I need it to. Great build quality, came with a nice little bag.

Had this on want list for awhile. Bought it new when I saw a price break of 17% on MF. Software & plugins misadvertised by IK multimedia. They make it sound like you get all the iOS and OS X plugins and amplitube included with the pedal.

Well some you do as freebie hook and bait and others you have to buy. They do give you Amplitube 4 Deluxe which is good, (4)-T-Racks processors, Mic Room, Ableton Live 9 Lite (Mac/PC), Amplitube Acoustic, VocalLive and Mic Room for iOS.

I already previously bought Amplitube Max for OS X and most of the iPad amps & stomp effects apps for iOS. Previously using iRig HD as interface into iPad Pro 12. 9 1st Gen. This pedal allows you to control amp and stomp effects for live performances and studio using stomp mode and LIVE settings and to scroll between user saved settings and favorites.

I am constantly tweaking my user settings. I mount iPad on separate stand with an extension cable not included, so I can control some settings with my fingers. tips and tricks. I like how IK Multimedia approaches tone through modeling Amplifiers very quality sounding industry top of the line manufacturers.

Tuner is good. I figured out by accident by placing finger and holding on volume knobs on amps using ASSIGN CONTROL to assign a selected parameter to pedal or external controller. You can save this to your settings and the parameters you select are highlighted in faint yellow color.

I was wanting to see a volume pedal and this satisfied my desire. Having to have an iPad or Computer is not cheap to use with this pedal, but top of the line stuff here IMHO. IK Multimedia is an Italian company and product.

I would say this falls into the Ferrari category of effects and control pedals.

I read every review and the IK Multimedia product details on their website before purchase. Although it appears that this gear was designed around the use of a Mac tablet or iPhone, it was advertised as usable on a Windows laptop or tablet running Windows 10 (with a lot of gigs of space needed).

The Microsoft Surface Go was listed as a usable device. I was intrigued by the idea of losing all the stompboxes (now digitized) and cables. I bought a tablet mount for a mic stand and then decided to replace my old Android tablet with a new, pricey, MS Surface Go with a port expander.

The iRig Stomp arrived quickly and undamaged. I made a simple USB connection to the new tablet and started downloading the IK Multimedia app called Amplitube 4 that drives the whole rig. I’m fairly well versed in downloading and running apps, but this took many hours to get sorted out (lots of changing settings in the computer to recognize and accept the Aplitube 4 program and the USB input from the iRig Stomp).

I finally got it running, and worked out a latency issue, but it would crash, making horrible screeching sounds every couple of minutes. I tried to call IK Multimedia tech support, but you can’t. The system answering their phone tells you to use their website and leave a support request in their automated system for a return phone call in a a day or so.

Not good. Especially since their software is so buggy. I called in a musician/computer geek friend to take a look. After more hours of troubleshooting, he said, “they had an interesting idea to digitize everything, but it is so unreliable that no one should ever rely on it for a live performance.

Go back to your analog stomp boxes. ” So, the hardware of the iRig Stomp is robust and does it’s job. The huge problem is the software/programming/application. Maybe it works better with Apple gear. I’m returning it.

At least I have a nice new tablet I can use for other things.

I don’t have much experience with studio-level condensor mics, I’m probably easily impressed. But this is certainly better than anything I’ve ever used before and I’m delighted with it. I used it recently in some studio recordings for vocals and bongos (+ cowbell) and stubbornly resisted the studio’s invitation to use their massively more expensive posh mics, in favour of my new AKG C214 as my primary mic.

In the studio, the AKG C214 went toe-for-toe against a top quality studio condensor room mic and 2 top quality dynamic studio mics, and they all sounded great (each slightly different). The low cut filter rolling off from 160Hz at 6 dB/Octave seems to be primarily intended for proximity effect bass inhibition (unlike the 414 there are no other deeper low cut options).

I love the sturdy AKG C214 carry case! Additionally (this is not necessarily a recommendation), I’ve been combining it with a Kaotica Fatboy, which just fits over the top (only) of the AKG C214 shock cage.

This leaves a distinct displacement of the diaphragm downwards from the correct centre of the Kaotica Fatboy, which has the side-effect of creating a slight bass proximity type effect, even with vocals some distance away.

At first I was concerned about this, but now I’ve grown to like it; I’ve embraced it as a unique sound style. I was initially astonished at the sensitivity of the AKG C214 to the slightest background sounds.

When I used the C214 with a FocusRite Scarlett 4i4, with the Kaotica Fatboy on, I found myself putting the front input gain knob well below “12 O’Clock” even for background vocals.

I bought this years ago and to this day, it has been the greatest microphone I’ve ever used. Without mentioning specifics about other brands, I also own a $6,000 microphone. I find myself using the AKG 214 far more for the following reasons: It is bright, but not brittle It has depth and clarity without being too glassy It has a beautiful roll off Vocals sound crisp without sounding brittle Mid range is perfect – not too muddy, but still enough to have presence.

Best item I’ve ever bought in my life. A true standout. All recording studios tend to have this in their cabinet. It’s a no brainer.

AKGs C214 is a large diaphragm condenser microphone that is aimed at the home studio musician. It uses the same capsule as AKGs C414B microphone which is often considered a must-have mic in top studios however the cost has been reduced by limiting the microphone to one polar pattern.

The C 214 delivers a highly detailed, up-front sound and its cardioid polar pattern makes it a perfect choice for solo vocal and instrumental recordings. The C214 has very low noise and accurately picks up subtle nuances and transients in vocal recordings.

It also produces great results on acoustic guitar, producing a bright and articulate sound. It has a low-cut switch thats effective at removing any excessive bass frequencies. The microphone features a pad switch for recording louder sources and it requires phantom power from a desk or preamp.

It comes packaged with a suspension mount and a foam windscreen; all neatly packaged in a metal carrying case. Its single polar pattern makes it less versatile than its more expensive sibling the C414.

Also some singers may prefer a microphone with more obvious character that will enhance their particular vocal sound. The C214 has a largely neutral frequency response with two subtle high frequency boosts (at 3.

5 and 12 kHz); this gives recordings have a little extra punch. As a result, it works well on a wide range of different voices and instruments and, with a max SPL of 156dB, you could even use it to record drums.

If you need an all purpose studio microphone that can also produce great sounding vocal recordings then the AKG C214 comes highly recommended.

This microphone is hands down the best thing that Ive purchased for less than $500. I truly love the vocal clarity. With a flip of two switches, I can A. set the pad switch at 0db for artists with light vocals or -10db for stronger vocals or B.

I can adjust the low cut to remove low frequency background noise ie. outside traffic, room noise, a/c units, rumble, etc. if youre using a decent preamp, this mic will literally give the higher end mics a run for their money.

I use a lot of outboard gear in my studio. I spoke one word into this mic & I was instantly amazed with the definition of my reverb, dynamics & compression; in addition to the clearness of the word that I spoke (of course).

I seriously believe that I can mumble an entire song & it would sound like I recorded it on a SSL with the fancy outboard bells & whistles. I dont work for the makers of this mic. But as an engineer, I wanted to give my honest opinion about this unit.

If you work with rappers or if you are a rapper whos looking for a microphone thats going to bring quality to your work, this is one of many mics that you should seriously consider. I already own a MXL990 & a Samson C03.

I highly doubt I will ever use them again. The only way Ill unplug this mic is to use a mic thats of a higher quality than this one. SERIOUSLY! Its not a bank breaker but its definitely not a low tier unit.

If you asked my honest opinion, I say this unit is underpriced based on the quality that it kicks out.

This is my first upgrade from a usb mic. The difference is stellar. My voice in the recording sounds like how I hear my voice in my head. 10/10, love it. It’s also not so sensitive that I worry about traffic outside, which for nyc was a big concern going in.

I used to have the AT2020 microphone and I was not satisfied with the sound quality so I upgraded to the AT4040 microphone and have not looked back since. Definitely the “king/queen” of microphones. I will recommend this microphone to all of my friends.

If I were only allowed 1 mic in my personal studio I wouldn’t feel the least bit hesitant to choose this one (over anything else out there). This mic doesn’t bring “the magic” like some mics claim to, and it isn’t the one perfect mic for every job in the studio, but it is so clear and evenly full throughout the frequency range that every signal that passes through it is thoroughly usable! Nothing sounds bad – at least that I’ve found.

I have favorite mics for “this singer’s voice” or “that acoustic guitar”, but when it comes down to it, if I don’t have the time to find “the perfect mic” for the job, I’m grabbing this mic and getting to work.

No worries. Start your microphone collection here – you will never regret the decision, especially for the value. Then add other mics for specific applications later when you need them.

I bought this based on hearing it on a vocal track from a friend of mine who used it on his recordings. This mic sounds absolutely fantastic! It’s very smooth, and sounds amazing on vocals specifically.

I have also used this on acoustic guitar and saxophones, and I really liked it on both of those as well. The build quality on this mic is VERY high. really beefy, and the shock mount is first class as well.

Over-all, I am very happy with the purchase. I am trying to think of anything negative to say about it, but I can’t really think of anything. I did try using it on the outside of a kick drum, and it didn’t particularly work well for that.

/garagerecordings on YouTube Subscribe and look out for this mic being used in the next couple of episodes. We also use the older version. Both are very similar. Slight more gain and low end with the Mk2 giving a slightly less harsh tone than the Mk1.

Both very good for the money. Definitely recommended.