Now on to microphones...

[Bartlomiej Plichta]

Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive, high-quality microphones 
available. Most microphones available commercially are designed for 
specific recording applications, such as stage, studio, broadcast, 
aviation, etc. Such microphones are not appropriate for linguistic 
analysis because their spectral characteristics are significantly 
biased, particularly in the low-end. One notable exception are the 
so-called measurement microphones. Those are omnidirectional microphones 
with very broad and flat frequency response (e.g., Earthworks M30). They 
require an excellent microphone preamplifier and an excellent phantom 
power supply. Those analog electronics need to be matched to the 
microphone in terms of input impedance and sensitivity. Otherwise, they 
will distort and/or overload easily. This is true of all microphones - 
they need to be perfectly matched to the preamplifier. More information 
is available on my website at
http://bartus.org

I personally use a hybrid microphone of my own design. It is based 
around the Beyerdynamic Opus 55 MKII capsule. I have in the past made 
those microphones for my colleagues in the US for the price of parts 
only. However, lately I have been ill and have not been able to make any 
more mics.

Still, I would like to make some recommendations:

Best electrical and acoustic performance:
1. Shure Beta 53
2. Sennheiser HSP2
3.  Beyer Opus 55.18 MKII

Recording speech in very noisy environments:
1. Sennheiser HMD25-1 <http://www.bswusa.com/prod_item.asp?item=HMD25XQ>
2. Sennheiser HME25-1 <http://www.bswusa.com/prod_item.asp?item=HMD25XQ>

Recording speech in a lab when headset mount is not possible:
1. Earthworks M30
2. Earthworks M30 BX

Cheap but decent lavalier mic when all above options are not possible:
1. Audio-Technica AT831b with low-pass filter enabled

If anyone has any more specific questions, please email me off the list.

Best regards,

Bartek

Andrea L. Berez wrote:
>
> The recent thread on high-quality, inexpensive headphones has been 
> very enlightening. Can we extend the conversation to suggestions for 
> high-quality, inexpensive microphones? What are people buying these 
> days? All styles included.
>
> Andrea Berez
>
> -- 
> -----------------------------
> Andrea Berez
> Dept. of Linguistics
> University of California, Santa Barbara
> http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~aberez/
>
> Co-moderator,
> Academics with Long Distance Partners
> http://www.academics-ldp.net
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Bartlomiej Plichta
http://bartus.org