20
Aug
Author: DJEquip // Category:
Yamaha Mixing Console
Really great headphones. Comfortable and blocks out most other noises.
The sound is very good to me.
What mic to get for a home studio?
I rap and now i want to record my lyrics.I have recorded before but ive decided why record at someones else house when i can get it all done from my own house at my own pace. Now i have Recording Studio Supplies a dell dimension E510 computer and windows xp. I want to start off by buying a mic under 100$ just because im starting off. I hear that mxl mics are not as good, but for me would it be a good idea to buy one? I just may buy one from guitar center, and if you have another suggestion what would it be? And what all would i need to get everything to workI take it i would need a condenser mic pop filterpower supplyand what else?
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Recording Studio Supplies
Tags: Keyword, Online Information, Recording Studio, Studio Headphones
August 20th, 2010 at 8:30 am
the AT2020 is great for voice, the 2021 for guitars,etc the combo price just makes the quality for price untouchable. I use the AT2021 for passivly recording groups in a room sometimes, the tiny size and solid construction makes it a take anywhere mike
August 20th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
These two microphones have impeccable quality for their cost.
I highly recommend these mics to any new musician, youtuber
wanting better audio, or anything like that.
August 21st, 2010 at 8:56 am
We’re using in a church worship service, one for picking up spoken voice and one for picking up an acoustic guitar and variously also our children’s choir.
Both microphones work excellently, have nice clear noise-free sound, pick up even children’s voices quite nicely without having to overdrive the sound system, and appear to be fairly solidly built.
My only disappointment with them is the AT2020 side-address condenser – I thought that it work as a mic from either side, but it is unidirectional. There was nothing in the advertising telling me that it should work from both sides, it was just an assumption I made, which assumption comes from the fact that I know very little about microphones. Perhaps it’s a known fact that “side-address” means one side only, I don’t know.
I don’t offer that as a complaint, only as a helpful guide in case someone else who doesn’t know much about microphones is wondering how it works.
As I said, sound-quality-wise, these are both wonderful, and we’re getting another set for the church.
August 21st, 2010 at 9:10 pm
The AT2020 and AT2021 condenser microphones included in this package are simply great quality. The microphones are very durable and aren’t cheap like many microphones at this price level. They sound really clear and fresh, which is a relief upgrade from my old Logitech [ew] microphones.
The 2020 produces rich sounding vocals through my Roland AC60 Amplifier. I even took the mic to the bathroom to capture the natural re verb of other rooms and the results were excellent. I opted to spend the extra $40-50 on the small diaphragm condenser 2021. This was a good choice because it sounds absolutely awesome while miked up to my acoustic guitar.
True, there are much, much more high quality condenser microphones available on the market. But, ladies and gentlemen, for this price it isn’t going to get much better! Best bang for the buck. 5/5!
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:03 am
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R9G6K69LOSLEN Here is my video review of the Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Condenser Mic. Enjoy! -Matt
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:07 pm
This microphone is great! I really like to sing, and I wanted to find a microphone that is good quality and that could plug into your computer/laptop. This microphone is good quality, but I wouldn’t say it is as good as a studio mic. It is really good quality for the price though. I definitely reccomend this product.
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:02 am
The item is incredible. Wasn’t sure what to expect because I bought this to work with Window 7 speech recognition. And they recommend a head microphone. But this thing, even when I talk with a low voice picks it up and recognizes the things I want said. And I live the site, seems well build and easy to hold. Or if you want, comes with a nice tripod type cradle where you place on your desk in front of you.
I highly recommend this.
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I have found this Audio-Technica to perform under many circumstances and as well as I hoped.
I do not have much experience with condenser microphones, but have found its direct utility within the computer enviroment to work seamlessly!!!
I like the look and more about this condenser microphone! I think many others will too!!
Recommend for Sure!!!!!
August 24th, 2010 at 8:53 am
I had high hopes for this given its specs and price, however, though it is said to be compatible with Windows XP, I couldn’t get my rig to recognize it and load the drivers without which nothing worked. I called the tech people at Lexicon (Harman is the parent company) I was immediately connected with a knowledgeable engineer-type who listened to the symptoms, had me look in my device driver where we saw that it was listed, but not as an audio device. It was under “Other Devices.” “Ah.” he said “That’s the problem. XP doesn’t recognize it for what it is and therefore won’t load the drivers.” Encouraged by his astuteness, I asked, “OK, what’s the workaround?” He answered, “There isn’t any. Windows was supposed to have fixed it in SR 3. Which version do you have?”
“SR3,” I told him.
“Yeah,” He sighed, “this comes up every once in a while. I’m afraid I can’t help you. It’s a Windows thing.”
“Really?” I whined, “Nothing you can do?”
“Sorry. Everyone here in engineering has been talking about this since it first came up, but nobody’s got a fix for it. Like I said, It’s a Win…”
“…dows thing,” I sang along in harmony.
Left with no other recourse, since Windows online support naturally had nothing remotely close to helpful that I could find, I returned the item and purchased, for about 30 bucks more, (at 170) an m-audio firewire solo audio interface which I set up yesterday. I had a few awful moments when the blue screen of death kept appearing, after I’d installed the drivers and was trying to open my recording app, Sony Acid. But m-audio’s extensive and well-organized knowledge base led me right to the problem: I had downloaded the most current drivers and installed them *after* I installed the older ones from the disc that came with the solo. The KB told me that is a big no-no and you must never install their drivers without first uninstalling the old ones. Once I cleaned that issue up, it started working like a charm. At least for some simple test vocal recordings. But I’m not reviewing the m-audio solo here, so I’ll stop, with a warning to Win XP folks that you may, like me, be one of the unlucky few who run into the same “Windows Thing.” If anyone reading this does know a work-around for this issue, do everyone a favor and post it!
August 24th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
The Lambda is the best of Lexicon’s line up! Why? It uses USB power, and has built in phantom power for a powered recording mike, which is what you’ll want to make pro live acoustic recordings.
Lexicons upper end OMEGA seems to be manufactured differently. Just read all the disapointing reviews. Even on the Lexicon forums.
In short, the Lambda (or the Lambada as I affectionately call it), can be used in any manner your needs can think of.
I started, wanting just an input into my computer for audio. And you can use this for that.
But after seeing what it can do, I use it instead of my older Roland digital recording console.
I use the included CUBASE program, but I’ve also purchased Acid Pro 6, which is my main program.
Granted, the Lambda isn’t for recording a whole band in one take. But with a little creative know-how, you could record your band’s demo CD in HIGHER quality than the Beatles ever had at their disposal!
I just use it recording one “Take” at a time. Home Studio style.
Put it this way… Recording quality is NOT what will be the weak link. Your imperfections will! and..
Your cables, mikes, and instruments will too!
Hopefully your unique TALENT will shine through the imperfections, as it does with every true artist!
So get real, go for it, and don’t be afraid!
August 25th, 2010 at 8:26 am
The fact that it was USB powered and still was a source of phantom power is what sold me but when I used it on my PC, the lag time was remarkably annoying. I found myself wasting more time editting this product’s mistakes instead of recording. Waste of money and time.
August 25th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I needed a sound input / output device for my notebook, which is not that expensive and suitable for home recording. Not for professional recording – just to make a recording of my 6 years old daughter learning to play a piano. So… I was looking on Internet to find some inexpensive (but not the cheapest) USB PC Interface, and I found this device here on Amazon. I was quite impressed by the description of the Lexicon Alpha, which was all about 24 bit A/D converters and all the features, and included Steinberg LE, etc.
I ordered it directly from the Amazon (I mean it was sold by the Amazon, not the other company) a few days ago and received it as expected, no problem with that. I opened the box and I was somewhat disappointed by the cheap look of the device. The box is made from cheap plastic (this I knew from the previous reviews and was not surprised by that), but even connectors are made from plastic! Even nuts on the connectors are made from plastic and all this indicates that it would not last any long. Anyway, I thought, the convertors are 24 bit and they should produce some decent sound, and I don’t need anything better.
So, I connected it to my notebook, and voila! – it worked right from the start! My Windows XP did say – new device is found, and did recognize the device as “Lexicon”, even without installing the drivers. So far so good. But then I put on my headphones and tried to listen my Yamaha keyboard connected via the Lexicon – it did not sound right! It did sound like some cheapest Casio $20 toy. OK, let me listed the CD, I thought, but CD did not sound any good either, the sound was even worse then I can get from my notebook headphone output.
I thought, may be the problem is that I did not install the drivers. So, I inserted the installation disk and started the installation. The installation started as expected, I did all steps to unplug and plug back the device, and so on. After installing drivers I tried the sound again. Nothing changed. May be I need to restart the computer? I did – nothing changed. May be I need to reinstall drivers? I did – nothing changed. Apparently it was a sound quality, which this device can produce.
At this point I was quite disappointed, but still did not think to return the device. I thought, I needed it only for the simple home recording, may be it will work OK just for that. So, I tried to do some recording, only to realize that the background noise is so bad, that it is impossible to get any decent recording from this device. In other words – it was bad in all respects! I saw one review, where the reviewer did complain about horrible background noise, why did I not listen?
As a result, after several hours lost to make any use of this junk, I’m returning it back and I will probably never buy anything from Lexicon again.
I’m giving two stars to Lexicon Alpha only because it works and it has Cubase LE 4 in the package, but, really, it should be one star.
Updated: to be fair to Lexicon, I should mention that the background noise I got, while connecting my Yamaha to the Alpha audio input, and at the same time connecting Yamaha to the notebook to transfer MIDI using USB. This is what I needed. If you don’t need to connect some of your equipment directly to the computer, you may be ok, because you will not have a loop, which will pick up all the noise. However, I should also mention here, that other devices have a ground-off switch (for example, like e-mu usb audio interface, which I got after returning Alpha, and which, I believe, is excellent), which will allow you to connect equipment exactly as I did and have no noise at all.
August 26th, 2010 at 8:21 am
Contrary to what some think, this does work with Win7 x64 unless I just have an updated version. It will work as a WDM or MME device using the default Win7 drivers and shows up as a USB audio device. I’m using Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 PE so I didn’t bother installing Cubase but the following method should work just the same if you want the better ASIO mode.
First google the asio4all driver and install the latest which was the 2.10 beta version at this time. Plug the Alpha in, it will say error but that is probably just the missing Lexicon ASIO driver. Once that installs, go to the Windows sound device panel and set the USB audio device as the default for playback and recording. If the USB audio device doesn’t show yet, unplug the Alpha then plug it back in or restart.
Now when you start a program that can use ASIO mode, the asio4all icon will show in the system tray and you can set which devices to use. Adjust the ASIO buffer size if there is any crackle in the playback caused from missing data. I was able to get half the latency compared to the Lexicon driver running in XP so I wouldn’t even bother using their driver even when they finally update it.
As for the actual device, it’s very solid and has a clean sound with low latency (30-60ms). The base is metal and the top is plastic but an industrial strength. There isn’t really much of a choice in this price range for 24bit 48Khz so I consider this a good replacement for default on board sound more than anything. It’s nice to have the monitor mix to have 0 latency when needed then switch back to standard playback. One thing I don’t like is that the output level is linked to both the headphone and line out so you can’t adjust them independently.
I’m pleased with it and give it 5 stars for myself but 3 stars for regular people. It can’t really be recommended simply because of the extra steps needed for Win7 x64 which is becoming the default Windows install.
August 26th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I’m an audio professional and radio dj for over 30 years. People who knock this unit don’t seem to know what they are talking about.
Back in the early 1980’s you couldn’t buy any Lexicon box for under $2000. And those were 1980’s dollars!
I use this unit with my Thinkpad, radio dj software and a Lacie external hard drive to have access to 50,000 songs while I’m on the air. Granted, I don’t record through this unit (I use Pro Tools in my studio), but I can tell you this: for a mere $[...] bucks this unit has that famous pristine Lexicon sound quality that used to cost us at least a couple grand in 1980s bucks.
Great sound. Pro balanced +4 dbins and outs, just the right feature set and high enough reliability for live broadcasting.
I’m more than happy I checked around and selected this fine piece of gear.