Behringer C-1U Studio Condensor 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.

I bought this in March 2024, and have had no complaints about the quality of the mic. As you would expect from a condenser microphone, it is extremely responsive, and to my ear certainly of excellent quality. One thing no-one had ever told me about though, is the sensitivity of condenser mics to low temperature and moisture - I had been storing it in a cold and sometimes slightly damp environment, and found that when I plugged it in to use it, there was a quite loud background noise. I now store it indoors and this problem has never recurred. It is supplied in a good quality padded case, along with a foam pop filter, and an alloy shock mount. The shock mount is the only thing that lets this microphone kit down - 21 months after purchase, the swivel mount just disintegrated. First of all the bolt broke (even though I hadn't attempted to tighten it for a long time), then one of the side pieces just broke off with very little force on it. So the mic itself is great for the price, and given this low price I would suggest that anyone buying one also invests in an aftermarket shock mount for when the supplied one falls apart!

I have been using Garageband on a Macbook Pro for just a few weeks now and wanted a mic that was going to give me better results than the on board mic of the macbook. I have tried to record acoustic instruments using the on board mic but results were not great. After looking around I wanted a mic that did not require phantom power as it would just add more expense purchasing a power supply. I opted for the Behringer C-1U as it was powered from the USB which is just very convenient for me. After reading other reviews about the low volume issues I was a little wary, however I have no issues with recording volume as I simply turned the mic input up in my audio settings to 90%. When recording my acoustic guitar from about 1 foot away the results were great and so much better than the on board mic, I tried a few vocals and again so much better than the on board mic. Agreed that there is a little hiss at the high level but nothing that cant be filtered out with software but this still gets 5 stars from me as I have used other mics in this price bracket and none even come close to the recording quality I get from this. *Update* After using this for over a mouth now I still have no issues with recording level. I have some noise as expected but noisegate in Garageband got rid of most of it, Here is a sample of the recording of acoustic guitar and vocals. Noisegate has only been applied to vocal tracks not the acoustic recording. [...]

趣味の範囲で使うには文句の付け所無し！もう1本欲しくなるかも。。。

Excellent Micro plus que satisfaisant. Vraiment impressionné par la qualité.

عالي الدقه ولاكن افضل ال xlr افضل مع كارت صوت وذالك لصوت افضل

Great build quality, with respectable case. At the end of the day, an overpriced mic has never been a big factor in a great song. I once used a high school musical usb microphone from the wii, and have had people comment on my songs. Put your money into a good preamp and AD/DA converter. This mic will hold its own with the industry loved Rode NT1, and Shure SM7B.

I've researched and researched on budget mics. My budget was about $100 for a decent studio mic for my music hobby. I originally opted for an AKG Perception 120 but then I came across the Behringers. I picked the C-3 because of the multi-pickup patterns, roll-off and filter switches which allows for wider sonic possibilities. I was reluctant to purchase because there hasn't been any reviews for it. But I eventually decided to give it a shot because one, the price difference between this and the AKG was about $40 which allowed me to buy a mic stand and an XLR cable. Not bad. Secondly, it was a hobby. All I needed is a much better mic than the one I had which was a cheap $9 mic. Physically, it's heavy, giving it that robust, hefty feel but I won't be too adventurous knocking it around. Didn't come with a manual but you can download one from their website. Comes with a foam padded case, which is nice. The mount is a bit flimsy, I think. You can only screw the mic in and position it on its swivel in such a way that the mic doesn't droop because of its weight but it's not a big deal and there are other ways to work around it. Testing the mic... so far so good. I've only recorded one song with it. It is indeed far better than the cheap old dynamic mic I had. And since I haven't used any other mic in its class I have no way of comparing it. But in my opinion, it provided a clear reproduction on vocals. The mic's directional patterns worked as it should. It was able to filter out my noisy PC which I thought was amazing. I still need to learn proper mic'ing techniques though. I believe I can get even better results from it as I learn how to work a small home studio. I will update this review as I get more familiar with the C-3. The reason why I give it four stars is because I really like it but I can't give it 5-stars until I'm able to compare it with other mics in its class and price range. I won't give it anything less because in my opinion, it sounded great and I'm happy with it so far. If you'd like to have a listen on the results, here's the link to my Reverbnation page: [...] The song using the C-3 is a cover on Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Excuse my singing though. I'm a bit rusty. The rest of the songs on the playlist were recorded on different mics which I plan to re-record using the C-3 as well. UPDATE 03/16/10: Oops. I guess Amazon doesn't allow active links. Well, go to[..] and search artist Mario Gozum. UPDATE 02/14/15 I upgraded my rating to 5-stars. Really happy with this mic. It's not a "magic mic" that will turn your music into grammy winners. You need to learn proper recording techniques and know the limits of your equipment and software to get good results. I'm not one to blame the equipment for bad results. This microphone does what it says it does and I'm happy and satisfied with my recordings so far, using this mic. I have two songs on Reverb Nation dot com. Just find artist Mario Gozum or Pill to hear how the mic sounds the way I recorded and processed it. I use a Line6 UX2, Reaper and free VST plugins.