Affordable microphone for laptop recording

[onkeltuka]

What kind of microphone would work best for getting just a bit more decent sound recorded with my laptop camera, than the computer's built-in microphone? I play a Martin dread, and send video clips to my online guitar teacher, and record clips just for my own use. Budget is max 100$ but 50$ would be even better thanks!

[Hurricane Ramon]

¿ What interface are you using ?

I use a Focusrite Scarlet 6i6 & T.C.Helicon Voice Live 3 X that I can also use
as an interface and use a combination of mic set ups into my computer , and have these mics :

• Shure SM57 lohz
• Samson C01 large diaphragm phantom powered condenser
• X2 Tascam phantom powered X/Y condensers off my Tascam DR44WL
• X2 Shure/Unysphere PE585 hihz matched pair

The Shure 57's are $100.00 - great for acoustic guitar and anything else .

The Samson C01 are $70.00/$100.00 - Very nice and I found it to be a really quiet mic .
This is not what I heard other's say of it , who claimed it to be noisy . Both on my
Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 & T.C.H. VL3X the mic performs well and is/was quiet and not noisy .

The Tascam DR44WL is a hand held digital portable 4 channel recorder @$250.00 .
Going out of this unit's stereo line outs I can use the X/Y mics and go in with the
Scarlett or the VL3X .I can also hook the Samson C01 & SM57 to the Tascam with
the X/Y condensers for a wild set up in stereo into the Scarlett or VL3X interfaces .

The old PE585 Unysphere's made by Shure can be had cheap . Anywhere from $50.00 on up .
For a hihz mic they are really nice sounding with a characteristic close to a Shure SM58 .

EZ :

HR

[philjs]

Originally Posted by onkeltuka

What kind of microphone would work best for getting just a bit more decent sound recorded with my laptop camera, than the computer's built-in microphone? I play a Martin dread, and send video clips to my online guitar teacher, and record clips just for my own use. Budget is max 100$ but 50$ would be even better thanks!

Without an interface, and for your purpose you don't really need one, your best bet will be a USB condenser like a Blue Snowball, they're in that $50 range, I think.

Phil

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Hurricane Ramon

¿ What interface are you using ?

Since he said he's using his computer's camera, I'm betting he's not using any interface at all but is simply inquiring about using a usb mic rather than the computer's built-in mic.

If that's the case, he can use something like a Blue Snowball. For $50 it's not going to deliver amazing audio but it will certainly be better than built-in microphone to which his computer defaults.

[onkeltuka]

Yes,my technical know-how is just "plug and play" in through the earphone/mic jack or usb. I have Ubuntu on my computer I'm not sure would there be some program through which to do it better?

I have been looking at some Tascam portable recorders at the 100$ range. For recording at a jam etc.

[Brent Hahn]

Quite a while ago I had some people come in and do an episode of their podcast in my pro studio using a Blue Yeti. It sounded surprisingly good. But the main reason was that the room sounded good.

If your room sounds lousy, the difference between your laptop mic and an upgraded one won't be terribly significant.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by onkeltuka

Yes,my technical know-how is just "plug and play" in through the earphone/mic jack or usb. I have Ubuntu on my computer I'm not sure would there be some program through which to do it better?

I have been looking at some Tascam portable recorders at the 100$ range. For recording at a jam etc.

Ubuntu as your operating system may be an important detail now revealed. There are a lot of freeware/low cost recording programs for Ubuntu, but I'm not sure which interfaces or USB microphones are supported in Ubuntu. I'm no expert here, but I don't know if my very common Focusrite interface is seen just plug and play when I've booted up "Live CD" versions of Linux operating systems. That doesn't mean they can't work, it just means that if you don't want to fiddle around getting it working, and you want to record audio and video for learning and informal recording, then I'd recommend one of the simple to use Zoom digital recorders. The Zoom Q2N will do a nice job with both your audio and video, and the H2N is a slightly lower cost audio only unit from Zoom.

You can do simple editing with a dance of the buttons on the Zoom devices and you don't need anything but the devices to record, though the Q2N does eat batteries fast if you don't use a USB power source (AC adapter or a computer) to power it.