Audio-Technica AT2021 Cardioid Condenser Microphone, Black

I have bought and returned EVERY popular name brand mic here on Amazon that’s less than $100. This beats them all. You get clear, rich sound, and no hiss or floor noise. If you’re semi-pro like me, you can’t do better. If you’re just starting out as a hobbyist on a budget, forget the cheaper paired sets. Just get 2 of these and buy a cheap stereo bar mount instead. It may cost slightly more than getting the cheap pair kit, but those cheap ones come with hiss and noise you can’t get out of your recording. This captures everything you want, and nothing you don’t want. You can’t ask more of a good mic than that.

I bought this for use as a mic for my upright bass. inhave a D clamp on the bass that supports a short mic stand with standard screws for any mic clip. This mic is a condenser mic at a fraction of the cost of a condenser in bass. The sound is a superb reproduction of my acoustic bass. far better than a piezo bridge pick up, and playing with a bow actually has a natural sound.

The purchase and shipping were easy and swift. The mic is amazing. Works great!

If you need a mic to record your guitar (both electric and acoustic), this is the one. Look no further, this is all you need

I knew this $80-ish mic would not be as amazing as a Sennheiser 416, but I can't help but be super happy with the sound. I'm not mixing for a movie theater or massive concert. I'm just making indie productions to be played most likely on someone's computer or phone. Through my 598SE headphones it sounds just fine. If you want a budget mic for indoor recording, get this one.

1. Got here OK.2. Build quality is A1. Audio quality is A1.3. Close up mono acoustic guitar sounds great, and as a tight stereo pair, they're excellent.I'm sure they would work on Piano in the same way. Solo strings? Bass strings?For the price

It's a sturdy little mic that I've recommended to people for years until I found out about the iSK Pearl and iSK Little Gem.These two SDC mics from iSK both sound better than the AT2021 and are half the price.

I bought this to learn about small diaphragm condensers for recording, I had only used dynamic mics before. Its hard to know how the specs translate to actual sound until you buy a few and use them and listen. This was my first condenser and first small diaphragm condenser. This microphone is nice, its small, its good value for the money, its very sensitive and has a wider and flatter frequency band than does the Shure SM57 I had been using. But I haven't figured out how much I like it or dislike it yet since its so different. Its seems bright as heck and a little noisy to me,but maybe the gain is too high and the EQ and compression and noise gates/noise suppression isn't set up right. So many knobs and buttons and I don't have any formal training or classroom time to learn audio. But that is in comparison to a dynamic mic, not another small diaphragm condenser I like better. After I bought this, I bought another small diaphragm condenser (AKG P170) but still didn't really appreciate the specs for Noise and sensitivity and in comparison to other more expensive small diaphragm condenser mics. I bought the P170 because it was recommended in a Classical Guitar magazine article about recording classical guitars. What makes one cost $100, another similar mic from the same manufacturer $500 or $1000? The specs are different in some respects. - the Noise Level 19 dBA vs 17dBA vs 15dBA? what does that actually sound like in my room on my guitar? Do I need to do more acoustic panels and bass traps and room treatment to know? Do I need to have recorded with the air conditioner grills off and the fan off at night? Crud - I don't know and I don' know if I am willing to spend $500 or $1000 bucks to figure it out - unless I do want to. I'm not sure yet. I'm going to try to make some recordings with what I've got - Keep playing with placement. Maybe I will buy another oof these AT2021s to try stereo techniques in direct comparison with the AKG P170s. Or should I buy different ones with omni-directional capsules and spend a bit more money. Or buy two ribbon mics and two fancy preamps and try Blumlein? Or get a big diaphragm condenser and pair it with this? Again, I don't know. This sound for recording the guitar is all so subjective. "If it sounds good - it is good!" as Duke Ellington would say. I haven't decided if I like the way these particular mics sounds but I will probably buy another to try it as a stereo x/y, and ORTF configuration. Because its not a costly experiment. I can also use it as the M (mid) in an M/S stereo config when I can get a figure 8 large diaphragm mic. Should it be an AKG or an Audio-Technica? Should it be a ribbon and get a new preamp? Auugh! you can't tell until you try it and try a lot of variations with placement and settings, and try it with another guitar or in a different room with different size walls and different drapes and carpets. on a different day when the air is different humidity. endless variations. Okay, this mic is good enough to buy to learn with - I'll leave it at that. I'm keeping it.