Cheap mic can be used in hit records

[mayaclars]

Have you ever heard a story when an album that was recorded on a mic under $100 sold millions copies. Meanwhile, there are many people who spend thousands on microphones. So there's my question, if cheap microphones have produced successful sold records, is there actually a point in buying an expensive mic? (surely the question to those who record vocals for songs or instruments)

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

If you use a cheap mic, you are either bound to use a low-fi aesthetic, or are dependent on massive digital processing (which will never get to the same results as an "natural" record). Both can result in good music, but it might not fit your artistic vision - so, there are cases in which good hardware is required if you want to do what you want to do.

[Melooon]

I once did a mic-making workshop with a professional sound artist, where we soldered together our own condenser mics from parts, and were talked through what each part did and how it effected the mics output.

The workshop guy said he designed the schematic for the workshop by taking a very expensive mic (cant remember what model but it was 1000 euro-ish) and simplifying it way down - while keeping the same condenser component that the real mic used. The cost of our workshop was about 50 euro for parts.

What he said about the difference was that everything he removed from the mic's design was about filtering and reliability. The 50 euro mics we were making could in an ideal situation sound just as good as the 1000 euro mic; however the 1000 euro mic would sound good in EVERY situation. The real ones could handle weird interference, faulty XLR power, mobile phones going off etc - that's what you need in a professional production, and that's where most of the cost comes from.

Soo you totally can get a perfect recording from a much cheaper mic, but it comes with the cost that you have a higher chance of that recording failing, and the question is how much is that failure worth to you, if the failure costs more than an expensive mic, then the expensive mic is worth the price.

[mayaclars]

If you use a cheap mic, you are either bound to use a low-fi aesthetic, or are dependent on massive digital processing (which will never get to the same results as an "natural" record). Both can result in good music, but it might not fit your artistic vision - so, there are cases in which good hardware is required if you want to do what you want to do.

That's an interesting thought! I like that. I use Behringer Ultravoice XM8500, and it costs 25$, but he sound of it is really natural. yeah, any option might be good it just depends on what you're trying to achieve.

[mayaclars]

I once did a mic-making workshop with a professional sound artist, where we soldered together our own condenser mics from parts, and were talked through what each part did and how it effected the mics output.

The workshop guy said he designed the schematic for the workshop by taking a very expensive mic (cant remember what model but it was 1000 euro-ish) and simplifying it way down - while keeping the same condenser component that the real mic used. The cost of our workshop was about 50 euro for parts.

What he said about the difference was that everything he removed from the mic's design was about filtering and reliability. The 50 euro mics we were making could in an ideal situation sound just as good as the 1000 euro mic; however the 1000 euro mic would sound good in EVERY situation. The real ones could handle weird interference, faulty XLR power, mobile phones going off etc - that's what you need in a professional production, and that's where most of the cost comes from.

Soo you totally can get a perfect recording from a much cheaper mic, but it comes with the cost that you have a higher chance of that recording failing, and the question is how much is that failure worth to you, if the failure costs more than an expensive mic, then the expensive mic is worth the price.

Wow! The experiment is so interesting, and it's funny it turned out that way... All of the mics are used were under 400-300$, the funny thing that I downgraded to a mic that costs 25$ just cuz it sounded better with the tone of my voice. It's very intersting, thank you for your comment!!