Top 5 Budget-Friendly Mics Under $500 (For Recording SFX)
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- Опубликовано: 12 июл 2024
- In this video, I share my top 5 budget-friendly mics under $500 for recording SFX. These microphones are perfect for any beginner starting out as a sound designer without having to break the bank.
One of these is an ultrasonic microphone which you can get for under $100 (which is quite unheard of)!
Sound Designer's Starter Pack (free): daviddumaisaudio.com/starterpack
Tools used in this video (May Contain Affiliate Links):
Tascam Portacapture X6: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/x6
EM258: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/em258
Lom Usi Pros: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/lom-...
EM272: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/em272
Cortado MKIII: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/cort...
Rode NT5: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/nt5
Rode VXLR adapter: www.daviddumaisaudio.com/rode...
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - Tascam Portacapture X6
01:51 - What To Look For When Purchasing A Recorder
02:38 - EM258
05:39 - Lom Usi Pros/EM272
07:13 - Cortado MKIII
09:31 - Rode NT5
Thanks for watching!
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About David Dumais Audio
David Dumais Audio is committed to creating professional, creative, and expressive sound design and music for video games. David wants to share what he has learned over the years; everything from creating energetic music to crafting ambient sounds, gun sounds, foley, recording sounds, UI sounds, game sounds and so much more.
The David Dumais Audio RUclips Channel contains some of David’s best advice, strategies, concepts, and philosophies which he has effectively used to help hundreds of game developers realize their goals. This channel is designed to help the beginner as well as the professional continually improve their skills and challenge their creative process. 
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really useful review, thank's a lot for your great work with your channel !!
It would be great to have a version of this video, but for like mid-high budget
Amazing.. thanks for the video. Thinking about buying a tascam x6
David I have used this matched pair (SO.1 Primo's highly regarded EM272 capsule ) from Sonorous and the price quality and services I received from them was fantastic. I also use the Binural CS-10EM and the AKGC411pp its a bit more pricey from the Roland. But my favourite is the DPA 4560 use it for my outdoor ambient and stealth recording.
Nice. Yea, I’ve seen FTUS using the 4560 and they sound great.
Excellent channel, excellent video! I admire your work! I've started watching all of your videos. Every video of yours is enlightening for me.
I wonder if recording in 32-bit recorder affects quality of pitch shifting? When I try to pitch shift, some sounds respond quite well and some don't. I am struggling to complete my first sound design job while working with free soundpacks. If you say recording with 32-bit or other parameter is important, I would consider buying that tascam portacapture and record my own sounds. Any advice on better pitch shifting?
I don’t think it affects the quality of the pitch shifting. 32-bit affects the dynamic range of the recorder so it is almost impossible to clip your recording. Basically, it allows you to be able to record really quiet sounds and really loud sounds all within the same recording without clipping.
If you want better pitch-shifting capabilities from your recorded files, I would look into a recorder that can record up to 96k or better yet, 192k. This affects how many frequencies are recorded. The more of the higher frequencies you can capture, the more will be retained and pitched down. Of course, this will also be limited to the sound source you are recording. Some sounds have lots of high frequency information and some don’t.
So if you want to look for a recorder, look out for bit depth, sample rate, and the other one that is important is EIN. EIN is the “self noise” of the recorder. There are many more aspects to consider, but these 3 factors will affect every single file you record.
@@daviddumaisaudio I have tascam dr40x and it has a little bit of self noise (too much compared to similar devices). I guess portacapture series are superior compared to my device. Thanks for the info!
I got a set of Usi Pro's and also a set of Earsight Nano's. The Earsight are OK, but sadly I did not get a matched pair. One side is definitely lower than the other. Decent price if you get a proper matched set though. They're also seem to be very well made. For now I'll have to fix the bad channel in post.
HI David hope and pray all is well question Sir how to create a realistic Powering down effect I have some recordings that 2 minutes long and want to use it all thanks, as always great video teaching
What kind of powering down are you trying to create?
I use the portable recorder Zoom H2N, which sells for 130/160$. Honestly I haven't find any valuable argument to invest in something else. The only issue with this recorder is some hiss noise at higher gain stages, which I can easily fix with 2 or 3 clicks on Izotope RX10, this is probably due cheaper AD converters. Now let's see the pros: record at 24bit/96khz, has 5 integrated microphones and 4 different polar patterns, including quad channel for surround recordings. Can also record in XY or MS (mid-side). It allows to adjust the MS matrix on the go, so the stereo image can be adjusted during the recording. If necessary to adjust the stereo image after recording, the Recenter plug in by Boom Library can be used for that propose, it has a "MS input" dedicated matrix but there are other free alternatives.
I don't understand why the industry insists on XY recorders when the MS is far superior in terms of accuracy of the stereo image, frequency response, phase issues and flexibility in post production.
Microphones can only pick high frequencies when pointing directly to the audio source, usually when using XY none of the microphones are pointing directly to the audio source, so that part of the spectrum is not being picked up, the only thing it might pick up in that part of the spectrum are the reflections and not the direct sound. While more expensive portable recorders have better pre amps, microphone capsules and AD converters than the H2N, very few (usually starting at 4 digits $$$$) can record in MS and for that reason alone I'm keeping my H2N for ever!
Sorry, for the long text, this is the battle of my life.
Haha, this is great. I’ve never looked into the H2N let alone used it, so now you have me intrigued :)
Bought an old second hand H2N some years ago. So versatile and compact. Still using it every week. I agree there hasn’t been any upgrade or any model like this. I’m considering x6 or x8 because the screen and I’d like to start investigate with phantoms but I have the feeling the H2N will be still always with me wherever I go. Imagine H2N with a good camera, for many musicians would be a no brain buy.
for what reason would you be recording at more than 48khz (with a non-ultrasound mic)
Good question. Quick answer is to get as much ultrasonic information as possible because most mics record above their ratings. So if a mic is rated to record up to 20kHz, most will record above that. If I cap my sample rate at 48kHz, then it’s like applying a filter at 24kHz. I’d rather have as much information there as possible to have max pitch-shifting abilities.
*yikes* I've just ordered Zoom H6 past week and today my status changed to "shipped" - Of course video couldn't start with anything else but "this is better option than Zoom H6" 😆But jokes aside, I hope that I'll get perfectly fine with 24bit for a long time, since many SFX libraries still use 24bit sample standard and it is simply enough for most uses. This is also my first field recorder, so I do hope to learn a lot with it. By the way - do You think the foam is necessary when I've ordered a WSH-6 windshield for it? Will there be any noticeable difference in recorded sound if using one or another?
Lol. Yes, you’ll be just fine with 24 bit. The H6 is a good first recorder.
From what I remember, the WSH6 is kind of useless. I don’t remember using it much, but maybe it’s cuz I used the WSU-1.
@@daviddumaisaudio My bad - I totally meant WSU-1 while talking about windshield, and "WSH6" was the one I was asking about, since it was on Your footage :) But that confirms there's no need to buy the foam "just in case" then, thanks a lot David!
Do you really rate tascam over zoom h series?!
I do. The ability to record at 32bit is huge as a sound designer, at least in my experience. Also, the preamps in the Tascam are much quieter.
i know this might be totally missing the point of the video, but I started of using my iphone microphone just when i started. Its basically for free, you get decent recordings and you can get started right aways especially when you are on the road you will always have your phone with you. Obviously its not ideal for clean recordings and incapable to do stereo recordings. Just my small advice for people who are literally just starting to sound design go with your built in phone microphone first (assuming you have a decent phone though, I wouldnt recommend that if you are using a very entry level phone).
Good tips. You could also look into getting a stereo mic that you can attach directly into your phone via USB/thunderbolt. I’ve never tried those out, but I would assume they are better than what your phone comes with.
@@daviddumaisaudio Yea I sure thats better, but thats also money to invest. If I would invest money as a total beginer, I would buy a recorder (like the tascam one you recommended) and just use the stereo mics on the recorder. They are enough to start of in my humble opinion.
Lovely video.
But I still miss some kind of video explaining how to properly setup these mics, and have a proper field recording session.
I’d love to do a video about that. Any specific questions or things you’re unsure about that you’d like me to cover?
@@daviddumaisaudio How to properly setup a field recording setup, what hardware are entry level, tips you wish you knew when you started, that kind of begginer stuff
Noted! Thanks for the suggestion.
@@daviddumaisaudio Hi David, I was wondering the same thing as @HeltonYan. Did you ever create a video to address this? Thanks.
@@blaineblack311 I did make this video: ruclips.net/video/2Z09NU0_LKI/видео.html
Let me know if this answers the questions you had.
I clicked on this because it said "under $50..." 😂 stayed anyways 😔