£25 microphone from Argos...

HippoPete

Just a postscript that might tickle you all here. I don't do any serious recording but for £25 I also put it on the kids Christmas list for me to tinker with. Blow me down, it's now £160 at Argos.

robinbowes

HippoPete said:

Just a postscript that might tickle you all here. I don't do any serious recording but for £25 I also put it on the kids Christmas list for me to tinker with. Blow me down, it's now £160 at Argos.

You snooze, you lose!

AntonHunter

Haha, I just noticed that today too! Wondering which Argos employee is watching the forums... 

Sporky

You can buy mine - tested but not "used" - for £125. Bargain!

AntonHunter

Sporky said:

You can buy mine - tested but not "used" - for £125. Bargain!

Much more preferable than paying £44 for the ones on Amazon, at least Sporky pays his taxes! Sold! I'll send the cash by carrier pigeon...

flying_pie

Sporky said:

You can buy mine - tested but not "used" - for £125. Bargain!

If you hold on we could ask Josh Scott to do a video showing his it's as good as a U87 and you could them sell it for £1250

PolarityMan

HippoPete said:

Just a postscript that might tickle you all here. I don't do any serious recording but for £25 I also put it on the kids Christmas list for me to tinker with. Blow me down, it's now £160 at Argos.

well i guess im not going to use my single one on drums now lol

octatonic

PolarityMan said:

HippoPete said:

Just a postscript that might tickle you all here. I don't do any serious recording but for £25 I also put it on the kids Christmas list for me to tinker with. Blow me down, it's now £160 at Argos.

well i guess im not going to use my single one on drums now lol

Always buy mics in pairs!
Always buy mics in pairs!

mike257

Ah, bollocks.  That's been on my "I'll get round to grabbing this when I pass an Argos" list since I saw this thread!

robinbowes

HippoPete said:

Just a postscript that might tickle you all here. I don't do any serious recording but for £25 I also put it on the kids Christmas list for me to tinker with. Blow me down, it's now £160 at Argos.

Currently one on Amazon for £43.75 and a few on Cex for £35 - £48

octatonic

It was back down to £24.95 so I bought a couple more.
These are really exceptional mics for the money.

flying_pie

octatonic said:

It was back down to £24.95 so I bought a couple more.
These are really exceptional mics for the money.

@octatonic have you been using them for some tracking in place of existing microphones?

octatonic

flying_pie said:

octatonic said:

It was back down to £24.95 so I bought a couple more.
These are really exceptional mics for the money.

@octatonic have you been using them for some tracking in place of existing microphones?

Sort of. 
I don't have pairs of LDC's.
I've got a U87 & a U87 but just one of each, and the same with things like Rode NT1/NT2/NT3.
I have a few SDC pairs- Beyer M930, Josephson C42's, Peluso CEMC6's that I use a lot.

SDC's are precise and fast, with a pinpoint stereo image.
A pair of LDC's is different- you get more body, so more drum shell, thicker cymbals or more acoustic guitar body resonance.
And I didn't really have that covered before.
Also, it is helpful to have some microphones that I don't need to worry about.
There are situations where I don't want to use a U87- like anywhere near a drummer- I'll be happy to use these.

So the King Bee's aren't necessarily something I immediately need but at £25 a piece- owning four of them for £100 is a no-brainer. It would be £400 for any other decent mic and quite a bit more for anything really good.

At some point I will buy another U87 or a pair of C414's- something with omni and figure 8 polar patterns that I can use as a stereo pair. I do a fair bit of mid-side recording using ribbon microphones, it would be nice to be able to do the same with LDC's too. The King Bee's, being cardioid only don't allow this- you need them to be figure 8.

MrTee

PSA they appear to have them in stock at £24.99 again

octatonic

MrTee said:

PSA they appear to have them in stock at £24.99 again

Yes, I posted about this a few days ago... look up ^^^^

MrTee

Balls. I checked all the messages I’d thought and somehow missed that specific one!
D’oh, as you were!!

impmann

I bought one.
Its OK.
Not sure I prefer it to my Rhode NT1 and it is *bloody* heavy/awkward in comparison.

Its a bargain at sub £30. Not sure I'd pay more though.

thecolourbox

That's probably fair, I've not had too much difficulty with the bulkiness of mine (i use it on a gooseneck desktop stand and it's fine...) but I suppose if you're used to more slender items, it's probably more noticeable. I think I'd expect a mic that costs 6x the price to be preferable! but for my level of music, it's perfectly adequate and better than the similarly priced Marantz condenser I was using before. I don't think with the nonsense I record, anybody would notice an improvement if I spent hundreds on new mics

impmann

thecolourbox said:

That's probably fair, I've not had too much difficulty with the bulkiness of mine (i use it on a gooseneck desktop stand and it's fine...) but I suppose if you're used to more slender items, it's probably more noticeable. I think I'd expect a mic that costs 6x the price to be preferable! but for my level of music, it's perfectly adequate and better than the similarly priced Marantz condenser I was using before. I don't think with the nonsense I record, anybody would notice an improvement if I spent hundreds on new mics

I have a Marantz condenser mic that I bought s/h on ebay for a tenner. Its OK but suffers from background hiss and the explosives are terrible without a pop shield when doing any vocal stuff. I was using it in a pairing with a Samson Pencil condenser I also got cheap to record acoustic guitar - and it was pretty good in that pairing tbh, but I've since found other options that work better.

mike257

Didn't want to miss it a second time, got a pair waiting for me. 

Anyone tried it on an amp yet?