What is your favourite microphone? We asked our contributors to share their thoughts. We restricted them to mics they owned, no fantasy mic cupboards! And mic modelling systems were disallowed, after all that’s not really making a choice. The responses were both interesting and varied. Have you used any of these and which would you choose either from this collection or from your own?

William Wittman - Microtech Geffel UM70 Multipattern Condenser

The UM70 is a vintage large diaphragm multi pattern condenser mic from Microtech Geffel, a company with an interesting shared history with Neumann shaped by the Second World War and the Cold War. 

The UM70 is highly rated by people in the know and given its relative anonymity compared to vintage Neumanns, if you find a good one it is likely to be something of a bargain. Vintage gear is always less straightforward than new and there are several versions of the UM70. This ’s’ version operates at a higher voltage than its predecessors for greater sensitivity and lower noise. There is a modern, transformerless version the UMT70 if you want to check out a new alternative.

Vintage, price varies. Current equivalent UTM 70 £1470

William says:

“I’m lucky in that I often get to work in studios with serious microphone collections and I’m not limited to mics that I own. But in my home studio (where, let’s face it, almost all of us are working a lot more these days) my ‘go to’ mic for anything and everything is the Microtech-Gefell UM70s. This early version of the UM70 was one of the ones we bought to make Joan Osborne’s Relish album, (I used UM70s and M71s all over that record) and it’s one of those mics that I can happily use on virtually anything and everything
And I frequently do! I will also often bring it along to sessions in other studios as it’s my favourite guitar amp mic, no matter what else is available. It’s also fantastic on Toms and it’s ended up as the Vocal mic of choice more times than I can remember. A brilliant all round microphone.”

Paul Maunder Beyerdynamic - MC740 Multipattern Condenser

The MC740 was released in the late 80s and has since been superseded by the MC840. It is a high quality multipattern large diaphragm condenser which has a deliberately contoured high end rise in its frequency response, a broad lift of +5dB from 6-8KHz rising to +8dB at 10KHz. It sounds like a lot but considering how common such tailored responses are in condensers it’s possibly more about how the mic captures that top end more than how much top end it captures. The mic itself is a respected performer from a brand who don’t make many condensers, being better known for dynamics.

Discontinued. £977 when new

Paul says:

“My favourite mic overall is the Beyerdynamic MC740. It's a large diaphragm condenser with switchable polar pattern, a high pass filter and pad. Its response isn't flat but includes a presence peak which, when recording dialogue or vocals, sounds great!

The high pass filter can be switched between linear (off), 80Hz and 160Hz and the pad is 10dB. I've used the MC740 for years and it has stood the test of time, comparing favourably to other mics in my collection. For voice overs or narration, I find that recordings made with this mic require little to no EQ. It has a decent signal to noise ratio and is solidly built.”

Steve DeMott - “The Rhoades” Custom Multipattern Valve Condenser

This is something of an outlier as it is a hand built mic. We’ll leave it to Steve to comment:

“I know there is an expectation that we engineers are all gear heads, but I have to disappoint you. I choose gear based on what works for me, and I don’t get hung up on pedigree or the “vintageness”. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the magic of the classic gear. I just don’t let it get in the way of me getting things done with the gear at my disposal. That said, certain microphones will get most engineers to swoon. One of those is the venerable AKG C12. Now, I don’t have a classic (nee vintage) C12, but what I do have is a clone that was hand-built and then tuned by a mic tech in Nashville named Shannon Rhoades. The tuning was done to add a little 251/U47 vibe to the C12 sound. A little less scooped with a smoother top…but without adding the pronounced midrange. It’s truly a unicorn of a mic. I’ve dubbed this mic “The Rhoades”.

This is easily my favorite mic in the locker. It has everything you want from a tube mic, a solid bottom with a smooth midrange & a little air on top. It sounds positively huge & seems to instantly “3-D” anything you point it at, smoothing the source is such a pleasing way. Like a “real” C12, the polar pattern is selected on the power supply from 9 options ranging from omni, through cardioid to figure-of-8. It was recently out of rotation while it was being serviced for some noise & we now have it back in use, which makes me just so happy. I smile when I hear a vocal or acoustic guitar through this mic. It’s a thing of beauty.”

Mark M Thompson - Audio Technica AT4033 Cardioid Condenser

Introduced in 1991, the 4033 is a clean, no-nonsense cardioid large diaphragm mic which offered quality for significantly less than the competition the time. It still sounds great. As a transformerless mic it has low noise, it can handle loud sources, making it a popular choice on drums, and has a pleasing top end which makes it a great performer on acoustic instruments. Its 4050 multi pattern variant is also an excellent mic. Still current - £339

Mark says:

I was working in a music shop on the South Coast in the mid noughties when I was setting up my first project studio (ok, yes, the spare room setup that eventually blossomed into a real studio on commercial premises). One of our visiting distribution reps was helping me choose some gear and asked if I’d looked at Audio Technica. By all accounts, the AT4033a was the vocal mic that both Sting and George Michael were currently using (never confirmed!) so I went for it, along with the AT4041 for acoustic guitar.

Almost 20 years later, the 4033a is my main studio mic for vocals despite the collection having grown substantially to include the usual suspects from the likes of AKG, Shure and Neumann. It is a true and colourless representation of anything that gets put in front of it (paired with a decent preamp, of course) and has never let me down. I have acquired several others from Audio Technica over the years for both studio and live use including the AT4080 ribbon mic of theirs which, whilst stunning in its sound, has never been a constant go-to or have the versatility of the 4033a. Its an absolute workhorse and one I can’t recommend highly enough, especially for its price range.

Russ Hughes - AKG C414 XLII Multipattern Condenser

The AKG C414 has a long and complicated history, the direct descendant of the C12, I can think of no other mic which prompts the question “which one?” more when you say you have one. From the early coveted brass capsule models to the more pedestrian modern versions, the 414 is one of this baseline mics against which others are judged.

The first 414 was released in the early 70s but the C12 which originates this line dates back to the 50s. The version here is a modern one. Some years ago the C414 line split into two parallel product lines, the XLS based on the 1980s ULS and this one, the XLII, which lends more to the TLII version which has a brighter character and seeks to emulate the response of the original C12 capsule. When the first 414 replaced the 412 which preceded it the new ‘4’ denoted the 4 polar patters the new version boasted. The XLII version featured here has 9 patterns so maybe it should be a 419?

Russ says:

I own about 15 mics which range from basic dynamic microphones, some condenser, a tube mic, a couple of ribbon mics and some other specialist mics. They include a Shure SM7B, Sontronics ARIA, SE Electronics Voodoo VR2, and about ten others.

All of the microphones have merit, for example most of the vocal tracking I do is always done with the Sontronics ARIA, a gorgeous smooth and characterful microphone, for female vocals it’s stunning and delivers the goods with minimal fuss.

However if I have to choose one microphone to be a ‘jack-of-all trades’ then it has to be my AKG414. I own the AKG C414 XLII Microphone - Dark Grey/Gold model, it has nine Polar Patterns including Omnidirectional, Wide Cardioid, Cardioid, Hypercardioid, and Figure of Eight.

For a songwriter I’ve found the C414 to be a great addition to the studio, I use it on vocals, guitars, drums and other solo instruments, it can even be used for speech when making videos and the adjustable polar patterns are great at reducing room acoustics.

The quality is fantastic, it’s a great Swiss army knife and the one I would choose to keep if I was forced to make that choice.

Luke Goddard - Line Audio CM3 Wide Cardioid Condenser

Small diaphragm condensers have long been the choice for acoustic instruments and their smaller diaphragms gives them excellent performance at high SPLs and great off axis response. True omnidirectional mics, as opposed multipattern mics set to omni, are well known for their accuracy - there is a price to pay for a cardioid response in terms of fidelity. And they have unmatched bottom end response. However an omni response isn’t always what an engineer would choose and the wide cardioid pattern offers some of the advantages of both cardioid and omni. The fact that you don’t have to spend very much to get the performance of a true wide cardioid, as opposed to using a multipattern mic, is food for thought.

Discontinued. Replaced by CM4 - $190/£160

Luke says:

“OK, full disclaimer: these mics are cheap. Perhaps as a hangover from the Bad Old Days, I have been suspicious of cheap gear in the past. That said, most reading this will understand that mic choice is all about the fit with the source more than anything else (no matter how much that big purchase might be telling us otherwise).

These little wide cardioid mics (yes the “cardioid” designation is generous) do something that other SDCs I’ve used have failed to do, and that includes some expensive ones. In the versatility stakes, to me these mics really do sound good on anything. Perhaps due to their superior ability to hear into a source, condenser choice isn’t always straightforward, but these do a good job across the board.

Highly subjective of course, but I can only describe their sound as ‘rich’, owing to their very omni-like bottom end thanks to the wider pattern, and entirely un-hyped top end complementing it. I use a pair of them regularly on orchestral instruments, pianos, and voices, and they do a good job on drum overhead duties as well. They’re also tiny, making them great for working with those who are suspicious of anything that uses electricity…”

Roger Guerin - Sennheiser MKH50 Supercardioid RF Condenser

Sennheiser’s series of MKH microphones have long enjoyed a reputation for ruler flat response, extremely low self-noise and excellent bass response. If you wonder how different they can be, the answer is very different because they work differently to regular condenser mics in a couple of significant ways.

The first of these is that the MKH series are 'RF’ mics. The capsule operates differently in that rather than being charged with a DC voltage they operate by modulating a carrier AC voltage which operates at radio frequency. This approach results in a capsule which is significantly more tolerant of humidity, has lower self-noise and improved bass response.

The second way in which these mics are different is that they have symmetrical capsules, meaning that they move as easily inwards as outwards reducing intermodulation distortion. Something traditional designs don’t do. These are very high quality mics but are correspondingly expensive.

Roger says:

“Choosing a microphone has always been an elusive exercise, because we are looking for the right one, the perfect one, the one that can do it all. I know I have been giving seminars on the matter for the last twenty years or so, and the question always pops up, and I hate to answer: “it depends.” So with all these years of using choice microphones, imposed microphones, vintage microphones, came a time I had to buy my own. 

Being an independent re-recording mixer, I have to record foley sometimes, and foley can be very tricky. It requires a quiet environment, plus the microphone needs to have a very broad dynamic range, low self-noise, a narrow pattern, and it has to sound natural. A tall order.

I also give courses, tutoring, and participate in some podcasts, but my mixing environment wasn’t designed for recording, so I needed a quiet directional mic that you can only get with a condenser mic.

I went for Sennheiser’s MKH50. It might be pricey for some, but it replaces so many microphones. Whatever I throw at it, it comes up shining. It checks all the boxes regardless of the pre-amp. It’s a very quiet secret.

I think I am going to stop my search for a while, unless …”

Julian Rodgers - Sennheiser MD441 Supercardioid Dynamic

Introduced in 1966 and extremely expensive for a dynamic mic, this mic has a reputation for being a dynamic which sounds like a condenser. This reputation might be based on its built in, switchable treble lift which this mic features as well as an integral 5 position high pass filter. All dynamic microphones are naturally predisposed to a midrange focus and various techniques are used to tune the response towards flat, often at the expense of sensitivity. This mic manages commendable flatness and HF extension combined with the beneficial aspects of dynamic mics, particularly their relaxed treatment of transients and, when used live, resistance to feedback. These mics are physically substantial and it’s worth knowing that they feature a spring mounted capsule to reduce handling noise. Otherwise, like me, you might think something was broken inside when you first pick one up. Instant Stevie Nicks cool makes it a popular “video mic” but unlike the the Shure 55 Unidyne which gets trotted out in endless videos, this mic actually might have been used in the studio too!

Current - £879

'“If ‘favourite’ means the mic I use most then there is no contest. I’d have to choose my Beyerdynamic m201. This is the mic I have on an anglepoise style desk stand and is the mic I use every day for VO duties. It’s more useful than that though and is a wonderful mic for tracking. It’s always in the running for either snare or electric guitar, basically it’s what I use instead of an SM57.

However I enjoy mics as objects, I don’t think about the aesthetics of other gear I use in quite the same way but for a recent birthday my partner gave me a framed sketch of some of my microphones, she knew, and agreed that many are beautiful objects which combine form and function in interesting ways. And because classic mics tend to stay in production for decades, they reflect the design aesthetic of their time.

So, on the basis of which mic do I pause and look at when I get it out of the cupboard I’ll have to say my Sennheiser MD441. It looks so of its time. Like something from a cold war movie with sharp angles and leatherette finish. It’s halfway between a a classic car interior and an old electric razor.

None of this would mean a thing if it wasn’t a good mic, luckily it’s an excellent mic, finding use on almost anything, Like its better known cousin the MD421 it features a stupid mic clip, though not as stupid as the 421, but this is all forgiven courtesy of its usability and performance. I love it.”

What About You?

What’s your favourite mic? Please share in the comments. The only rules we had here were that you had to actually own the mic and no mic modelling systems were allowed…