Marshall Electronics Mxl USB006 48 Volt USB Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone - Marshall Electronics MXLUSB006Customer Review: Convenient and flawless performance on a Mac - truly plug and play
I've been a home recordist for about 30 years. I've owned a variety of mics, from old Crown PZMs to higher-end Audio Technicas and a few exotic Germans. These days, I don't do as much recording as I did when I had dreams of becoming the next Nils Lofgren, but I occasionally like to doodle with music. These days, I'm a great believer in the ease and rock steady performance of Garageband on the Mac. I honestly much prefer working with it, rather than many "better" programs out there. It's just so solid on the mac. The reason for this long intro is just to introduce my approach to recording. I want stuff that works, and that works with little muss or fuss. When I sold of my last AT stereo mic and E-MU 4040 preamp, I thought I was done with wrestling with wires and recording. Well, I caught the bug again lately and felt guilty about ridding myself of all my equipment. But I wanted ease and convenience and I started researching the USB mics out there. I listened to about every sample available, and I was fairly sure the MXL mic were worth investigating further. They have a rich, full-bodied sound which I like. They also seemed to suffer less from ambient noise than the Snowball and Sansom mics. The MXL sounded a little darker, which some might think meant a bit deader, but I was sure that wouldn't be the case when it came down to recording. And I was right. First of all, the .006 works flawlessly. I plugged it it. My mac recognized it and I was up and rolling without latency. Occasionally you'll get hit with latency in Garageband -- but that usually just requires a restart. Then it's gone. The MXL was up and running in less than a minute. No problem getting enough power from my USB port, something I even had problems with with an old Belkin USB mic adapter. No, the MXL worked great. It's fairly well made, the only "suspect" component being the gain switch, which is pretty inexpensive and felt a little unsure. But it works fine, so I wasn't too worried about it. Plus, look at the price of this mic. The sound? Well, I would rate it an 8.75, which I think is quite flattering. I was able to mic myself singing with my guitar amp about 8 feet way and achieve a nice mix. And it recorded my 5-year old's faint, faint whisper (too shy to talk into the mic) perfectly. Stunningly, actually. So this mic is actually capable of great detail and sensitivity when your hitting it within its working range. Not dead sounding at all. I really like it's balance and design which make for quick and easily recordings without a whole lot of tweaking. As far as vocals, my teenage daughter voice sounded fantastic. Very nice with female vocals. I really like my "voiceover" sound with this mic. Rich and fully, but not over bloated. As far as my singing, it handles dynamics great and, as I said, it will handle a whisper to a shout without blinking. It's not a 100% 3-dimensional and rounded like a great Neuman Old Blues Eyes mic, but it's excellent for male vocals when doing home recording. I think I got my best take (of a male vocal) when I was cranking up my delivery a bit. A little R&B shouting, and it was as good as any mic I've played with for a long time. So consider that my take of it's vocal abilties for the male voice. It's less a Leonard Cohen mic and more of a John Lennon mic. And, as I said, I really think it shines with female vocals. I didn't hear the whine as described by the other reviewer. But my recording room wasn't dead silent and the noisest thing I heard was the fan from my mac. I think you're more likely to be bugged by uncontrolled sound in your environment than any noise inherent to the mic -- if there is any. I wrote MXL and they said poor power supplies and likely user error is probably behind the claimed noise. I just know, recording music, that you just aren't going the hear it in the mix even if it does exist. I did some dead silent voiceoever again tonight, and I still didn't hear a whine. So overall, I'm very happy to recommend this mic. Make sure you get a pop screen, it helped alot. I really, really like this mic for both its performance and especially its fantastic convenience. If you don't feel like dealing with the time (and expense) of rigging up a mic and preamp and just want to "plug and play", well, I don't think you can make a better choice than his MXL .006 mic or one in its USB line. And I look forward to hearing more of the mics in their USB line.
Customer Review: Great sound! ... except for the high-pitched self-noise
I got this microphone to record voiceover narration for a video. There are points where there will only be narration, and no music or background audio. Although it sounds pretty good for a USB mic, in that it gives a rich, faithful reproduction, there is a noticeable pitch generated by the microphone itself. This self-noise is audible during quiet moments or even when speech is recorded, if you listen carefully. On the plus side, it does come with a nifty case, desktop tripod and has hardware gain control with three settings. It worked right out of the box with my Mac, so no problems in the compatibility department. I was poking around to make myself feel better about buying this microphone over the popular Samson C01U and Snowball, and came across a review of all of these microphones, including the new Rode Podcaster, pitted against each other. The reviewer noted a distinct B-natural pitch from the MXLUSB.006, though it did have less self-noise than the Samson. Check out the review at Emusician, search google for Samson, MXL, Podcaster and you should find it. Wish I saw that review before I bought the MXL, since I experienced the same thing. Though the MXL has a rich sound, the noise is unacceptable for my application and I'll be returning it. Although USB mics are notorious for noticeable self-noise, I went ahead and got the Rode Podcaster, and have not noticed any significant self-noise. If a faint high-pitched noise is not a big deal to you, this is a pretty good condenser microphone. I would be all over it if it weren't for the fact that I need a really quiet mic.
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