Find me a microphone

[Surfa]

I am not a tech wiz in any respects and I am confused by all the microphones that are on offer and I was wondering if you guys could help. You see I recently ran over my old microphone (with my chair) and it doesn't work any more. I would most appreciate some help in choosing a good quality microphone. I have a budget of around £100-£150 which is about $160-$240. Again any help is appreciated.

[korge]

Vocal mic, or headset mic?

[Surfa]

Either is good.

[mat_de_b]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shure-SM58-LCE-SM58-Vocal-Microphone/dp/B000CZ0R42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264103818&sr=8-1

Pretty multi purpose and much reccomended microphone

[korge]

I use a couple of cheap dynamics that get the job done well for voice over (considering I ditched audacity's horrid input recorder). Its really a matter of what you need the mic for. Music? Voiceover? Online gaming? :p

[Surfa]

Probably should have mentioned that the main use will be gaming but I suppose that could work if set up properly although I would prefer a mic more suited to gaming. But thanks for the recommendation I might look into that later for a more musical purpose later.

[korge]

Sennheiser is known for their studio mics and headphones.

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/private_he ... oip_502141

Might be an excellent (high end) combo for gaming purposes (that isnt stickered and stamped with "gaming headset" to sell itself).

[coder0xff]

I was actually gonna recommend an SM58. They are very common for vocal use. They are durable and sound fairly good, though some professionals would describe their response curve as sounding harsh. As an alternative with a tailored response curve is the SM86, but it's a bit pricier. I also guess the ones labeled beta have a different response curve too, but I've never compared.

As for me, I have two SM58 (the cheapest kind, with no switch or anything- about $100), and I love them for live performance, though for recording I have notice that "harshness" myself.

Max out your budget. You get what you pay for.

[cohrt]

The Logitech g330 is pretty good, and its cheap.

[RawMeat3000]

Everything listed so far is meh. Get this.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webca ... 5&cl=us,en

I've had these for almost 2 years and I love them.

Edit: I take that back, it hasn't even been one year yet! Seems like forever ago.
Edit2: I've been reading up on headsets and It seems that these aren't "real" surround sound and it doesn't work with some people. Like me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6826104281

The person who says this also mentions a different pair of headphones, that are real 5.1 surround sound

http://www.psykoaudio.com/

[Hollow]

Don't go for seinheisser or logitech for music purpose recording, I know, they are big names, but they are crap from my experiences with them in the studio. They are well suited for games and general recording though, as that is more their target market. All the industry standard mics & headphones I own are from companies like Beyer Dynamic and AKG...but I'm music production orientated, so I buy the big expensive, heavy gear lol....its not typically useful for gaming really.

[MaK]

I'd go with mat_de_b and coder0xff, I love my SM58.

[vcool]

SM58 is what everyone recommends for music and even voice acting. I would get it as well but I couldn't find a version with regular headphone input or a USB one so I ended up getting a CAD37 - a USB mic. It was around 60 dollars. I think it's a great mic, pretty sharp but it picks up a lot of stuff. It's probably not good enough for proper music recordings, but what the hell I like it.

[Terr]

I think the key point is to be very clear on what you want before choosing: To what extent is this just gaming? Or recording music/voice for media purposes?

You might also consider a relatively cheap gaming headset and then a good non-headset microphone for everything else.

[RawMeat3000]

I think everyone is forgetting this little snippet.

Probably should have mentioned that the main use will be gaming