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Best indoor mic for under $1,000?
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  • sammysammy

    Oktava's are great, but like vitally said you need to be on the look out for fakes ones....I had a 319 that died on me, I did a little surgery , took the capsule (which i love) and put it in an American tube mic (made in china :) ) (that i liked but sounded a little thin) cad m9 , now sounds much fuller with the 319 cap inside

  • sammysammy

    http://www.theelectroniccorporation.com/Home.html this guys (Vincent Thomas) is in la, has been modifying audio gear for long time, and he is known for good work..I bought a stereo pair of modded mxl ua-1 mics, 135$ each mic plus shipping,they are condenser mics, so they do need phantom power, I have basically just used them to record guitars, but they sounds very nice for the price,they are very directional (forward) ,no extra features (like pad etc) to me they are on par if not better than the AT4050 mic (costing 3 times more), He informed me that few film students have used this latest one on sets.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    The oktavas are the only non-bright option in a cigar size (boomable) package that I have seen except for the naiant omnis which are tiny cheap and really rather nice sounding. But I have only used the omnis, which you need to really get in close with. I mean, a used oktava is so cheap.

  • kavadnikavadni

    I have 2 x CM20C ... they sounds good.
    I find that when boomed, you cannot move it very fast ... poor shock mounting. Static mounted I'll use them ... mostly I stick with NT55 and the NT3

  • TjaboTjabo

    @DrDave, have you tried the CM20C, or are you going off of some of the samples here?

    I will look into the Oktavas, but my guess is that I'm not discriminating enough to hear the difference... Still, I would like to find out!

  • DrDaveDrDave

    To me it sounds bright and also there is some high frequency hash in the electronics. An unmodded Oktava would sound better.

  • TjaboTjabo

    I used a boomed CM20C for an indoor interview project last week, and it sounded fantastic. By far the best sound quality I have gotten. I'm sending it into an iRig Pre, and from that into the GH4 through an adapter cable. Input sound all the way down on the GH4.

    Thank you to all here who I've learned from on this and other topics! :)

  • robertGLrobertGL

    It sounds good to me; I like the pickup of her voice. The rejection's not too high but I actually like that. The room acoustics blend well with the backdrop IMHO.

  • TjaboTjabo

    I'll be interested to see what others say about that sound, but the visuals are nice! :)

    BTW, when my phantom power has been in the 46.x volts range, I have had very nice sound from the CM20C also. I'm still not positive, but indoors I think I prefer it over my Sennheiser ME80, which I like a lot too...

  • liukaitcliukaitc

    Hey, I just uploaded a quick sample of the iSK CM-20C. What you guys think.. I am not expert on sound.

  • RamboRambo

    The CM20C gets noisy if its not powered by full phantom power (45v+) other wise it's quieter than my Senn. I found the side rejection from the mic very good outdoors, not really used it indoors.

  • TjaboTjabo

    Wow, that will keep my busy for a while -- Thanks!!! :-)

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @Tjabo

    Better check http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/camera-usage/audio-faq

    It also seems like you do not understand principal difference between shotgun and such mics.

  • TjaboTjabo

    It turns out that Vitaliy was correct. I guess the battery in my iRig Pre was just dying when I tested the CM20C, and I forgot that there is an internal battery in the Sennheiser ME80 (amazing to think how old that battery is) that must have kicked in when the phantom power from the iRig Pre got too low. There was only about 8V going to the CM20C.

    I put in a new 9V battery, and VOILA! about 47V coming from the iRig Pre, and nice quality sound coming from the CM20C.

    My only complaint is that the side rejection of the mic seems quite minimal, more like a cardioid pattern than a super-cardioid... Still a good sounding mic! :) Oh, and just for reference, to me it initially seems like the sound quality is very similar to the Sennheiser ME80, but the ME80 has a bit more side rejection.

  • TjaboTjabo

    I liked this video for the explanation of directivity:

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Spacewig is exactly right as usual about shotgun mics, hyper and super cardioids picking up noise from the rear. Many of these mics are basically modified figure-of-eight patterns, so they have a narrow view from the front and back, with the back attenuated but still present. They also have real nulls on the sides, which is really handy sometimes if you are micing two things that are close together but you want some separation.

    One way to use these of course is to make sure that there is no sound coming from back end, and you can sometimes point the front down and the back "off into space", for example in a Cathedral or auditorium with a very high ceiling.

    The AKG 414, especially with the Audio Upgrades mod, is a good sounding mic but as paulhouston mentions it is heavy for video work, and for pure audio work it is on the bright side.

  • TjaboTjabo

    I will definitely contact them if the fault of the problem isn't mine! Lol :) I will edit my post to be more clear on that point.

    Your suggestion on checking the voltage from the iRig Pre is exactly why I was asking if someone had the same problem though. If they had and it was because of a problem with phantom power voltage or something, I wanted to erase any of those possible issues that would be my fault.

    To check that, I guess I should be able to check voltage across two of the XLR connector pins? I'm not exactly sure how the phantom power gets to the mic...

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Has anyone else tried their CM20Cs?

    In such cases best idea is to contact seller, not to write on forums asking "if someone has same thing" :-)

    Also check voltage and behavior of iRig Pre, thing is cheap and make sure that it output proper voltage with proper method.

  • TjaboTjabo

    I was away from home for a few days on a family vacation. Upon return home I had a nice surprise of both an RJ lens turbo and an ISK CM20C waiting for me. The RJ Lens Turbo was an extra nice surprise, since it has initially exceeded my expectations! :)

    When I went to trying out my CM20C, I started in my basement studio by taking a comparison clip with my Sennheiser ME80 vintage shotgun boomed overhead, and phantom powered with 48V from the iRig Pre. Then I switched to the CM20C, dialed in the preamp a little bit real quick and hit record. It sounded pretty good for about 8 seconds, and then died off over the next 10 or 15 seconds to where there is almost nothing recorded...

    I've switched back and forth a few times to ensure that it's the mic, and it sure seems to be dead. Must be a I got a dud, huh? Or maybe I am messing something up? That may be more likely! Lol

    On the up side, I got my $13 eBay "EM-320a shotgun" dialed in a bit better to where I can actually get some usable sound from it. It's a bit tinny and not what I would call "good quality sound," but it is a lot better than what I have gotten from some other mics in the past... I'd even say that with it boomed above and dialed in, it is probably a bit better sound than the Rode VMP on the camera at 10 feet away, which is too far away from the audio source for that mic in some circumstances at least.

    Has anyone else tried their CM20Cs? I know there was at least one other person in this thread who had initially had problems with their first CM20C, and maybe there is a common misuse with these mics that I might have done...? After all, I am pretty new to phantom powered mics.

  • TjaboTjabo

    Has anyone tried out their recently purchased CM20C mics? Mine is en route I guess, I'm champing at the bit to get it in my hands and try it!

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Some info about fake Oktavas

    http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/Spotting-a-fake-Oktava-/10000000004595107/g.html

  • TjaboTjabo

    I have the ISK CM20C coming from Australia, but in the mean time I got my hands on a Sennheiser ME80 short shotgun capsule with a K3U power supply unit from eBay, and it isn't too bad, even boomed in my basement "studio." While the sound quality is pretty nice on phantom power, the sound rejection from the side is only ok by my newbie estimation. At any rate, it's a lot better than a video mic pro on the camera, and about 100x better than my $15 chinese shotgun from eBay, which seemed exactly like a Nady SGM-12 I tried out for about two minutes before I returned it -- JUNK. :)

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @Psyco

    MXL FR-333M is now available for $169

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Broadcast-MXL-FR-333M-10-245MM-XLR-Video-Shotgun-Microphone-48V-/161361702115

  • TjaboTjabo

    Have any of you who have recently ordered the ISK CM20C mics had a chance to try them out yet?

  • paulhoustonpaulhouston

    The only drawback of the AKG 414 is its relatively large size and weight. For on-camera mic, I have tried many. While most, if not all, are good enough for voice/speech, some are not suitable for musical instruments. And the best all around on-camera mic for my purposes is the M-Audio Pulsar II. Small and light weight, only ~$275 a pair, but its audio quality is very good in most recording situations

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