Behringer B-1 Single Diaphragm Condenser Microphone

These mics get mixed reviews depending on users' expectations. Are these the best mics you'll buy? No. Can you buy better? Absolutely. Are they worth £40? Yes! If I'd spent £200 on these mics I'd have described them as noisy and disappointing, but these are not expensive high quality mics. They are budget mics, and as such they are great. I compared them to an AT835b (shotgun mic, worth much more), and for indoor use found them a good substitute with similar sensitivity. Size is the first thing that hits you, as they're look tiny at just 9.5cm long and 2cm wide. Outdoors, they're not so good as they have poor wind/pop rejection. They do have a little internal hiss if you wind the gain up, but they have a sensitivity of -41dBV, so you shouldn't need crazy amounts of gain, and the specs imply they are good for loud sources (up to an SPL of 140dB at 1kHz, 10dB more with the cut engaged - that's airshow loud). They are a little "toppy" above 10kHz, but you can EQ that out if necessary. I'm not disappointed with these. For the money you get a pair of functional mics, good for drums, guitar amps, crowd mics, and "off axis" speech (so your plosives don't pop the living daylights out of them) for indoor video (eg about 8 inches above and in front of a subject, out of shot).

Whilst I wouldn't say I was a professional music producer, after studying music tech at college I do feel confident in being able to determine whether something is of an acceptable quality for an enthusiast on a budget. I really do think these things are great.Getting two microphones for £45, I wasn't really sure what I was going to receive. Especially when I have used fairly expensive mics (nothing ridiculous costing, mainly mid range rode and shure microphones) at college and further at University. This was exacerbated when I opened the package to find that they are small, I mean really small. They are fairly heavy for their size and feel of nice quality in the hand with the aluminium finish. They come in a 'nice for the price' carry case that seems to be well padded to protect them well enough with all of the accessories and the mics themselves packing up into a small area, great for on the move recordings. Small note about the incidental pairing stand that they come with, I thought (quite possibly stupidly) that the stand would act as a table mount and hold the mics up. Whilst that is the case without xlr's attached, attached it topples over straight away. Not an issue as a stand is better practice anyway but thought id mention it.Having quickly set them up through my alesis io2 audio interface onto cubase I set about recording my acoustic guitar and vocals as well as just general sampling. They sound great, nice and clear free from distortion etc. Really excellent, especially considering the price point. They need a fair amount of gain from my alesis to get a decent signal through to cubase but once that's sorted they record acoustic guitars very well. For such a small diaphragm they do a good job of picking up low end, maybe too much so when it comes to vocals (probably just my untrained boomy voice haha) for my taste. I do plan to try them out recording a brass band and continue to use them as acoustic bedroom mics.Whilst im not going to lie and say these things are big boy killers (they really arent) they will do a brillinat job of semi professional music production, which in the end is exactly what i bought them for, for a fraction of the price of two Audio Technica Mics or other budget options.

This is an outstanding microphone. It definitely makes home recording much easier! - Buying this has saved me some money (not loads - but a good enough amount - Roughly £30).I am a drummer looking to do some home YouTube-ing cover videos. This does the job I want it. I wouldn't however recommend buying this for recording professional music as you cannot tweak individual components of your kit (e.g. snare, toms, bass, etc.). This product isn't for you then.I have read about the low pick up. This didn't happen for me. I use a mac (IOS). I plugged the microphone in and turned up the pick up in the system preferences and there was no issue. - I use Garage Band to record my covers.The only reason for the 4 star review is for one, you cannot record all your drum professionally. And the fact that the CD with the extra's provided is useless (Audacity, Juice and PodNova). All of the programs are out dated and you cannot use them as Apple doesn't support them any more. HOWEVER, I would encourage you to use Garage Band as it is a much better program to record music anyways - The monitor feedback tool is very useful! it gives you a good sense of your sound without having to record and move the mic.I hope this review helps. If you want to listen to any of the recording I do or any YouTuber does, simply search for "Behringer C-1U Drums" - This will bring up plenty of examples!REMEMBER: MIC placement is key when using only one mic!

Love the clarity of sound i get from these, little hum if you turn gain too high but that's expected might get another 2 for the guitars

This brand is astonishing value for money. I have bought other Behringer items. These mics come with a good protective carrying case and extra mounts. -10dB switched too! Recording of Gibson sj200 (strum) and a Martin OOO Koa (finger pic) were high fidelity! You could clearly hear my mistakes! Used the sound hole and 10th fret at c12" distance positioning (dual mounted on one stand). Obviously you need XLR cables and a phantom power recording apparatus. In my case a Zoom R16 with 2 phantom power channels (usable across 2 banks of 8 channels). Gain at about 7.5 and monitor channels flat. These are great value for money additions to your recording capabilities.