The budget mic bundle for home recording
What are some great quality yet low budget microphones suitable for use at home? Here’s my choices.
Sennheiser e945 Vocal Microphone
The Sennheiser e945 vocal microphone.
This is a durable vocal mic used often for live sound, and it’s got a great feature that makes it better for home recording than your typical $100 SM57: its supercardioid pickup pattern.
A supercardioid mic design has an extra focused pickup pattern, meaning it picks up more of what you point it at and less background noise. They’re easier to use in a home setting, and more intuitive.
Watch out for sound sources placed directly behind this mic, particularly monitor wedges. A supercardioid can pick these sources up, while a standard cardioid will not.
Sennheiser e906 Instrument Microphone
The Sennheiser e906 instrument microphone.
Very similar to the e945, this is another supercardioid design that’s optimized for capturing instruments instead of vocals.
You get a handy filter right on the microphone for dialing in a neutral, brighter, or warmer sound.
This is my personal choice for live sound on trumpet, because this mic can take a lot of sound pressure before distorting.
It’ll work great for any instrument, as well as guitar and bass cabs. I like it on woodwinds as well. Try pointing this mic at the sound hole of your acoustic guitar and the e945 at the 12th fret at the same time, for very nice sounding acoustic guitar capture.
Paired together, these two mics are a great budget mic bundle for the home songwriter. It’ll be years before you need to buy anything else, and you’ll get amazing sounds with great ease of use.
My Home Studio Gear Guide has all of my recommended home studio gear, regularly updated.
