Customer Reviews

Behringer C-1U Condenser Microphone Cardioid

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This USB mic is fantastic. Easy to use with USB, as you don't need any external hardware to get the recordings into the computer. Behringer's C-1U sound quality is fantastic, as the condenser mic only picks nearby sounds. (Within reason, of course.)

I bought the mic in conjunction with a tabletop stand, a spider mount, and a pop-filter. All of which are recommended for a recording station.

So I bought this mic 2 weeks ago and it has amazing quality. When you first get it, it might not be as loud which may make you mad. But if you play aroud with your computer and get the right settings, its Amazing- way better than the samson's condenser mics. One little annoying thing is that the shipper is from New York, so the shipping took awhile, or maybe it was just because I really wanted it so i couldn't wait.

As a musician who records at home, I've owned numerous Behringer products and I've always felt they provided good quality for the price point. Behringer products don't impart "signature" sonic qualities on a signal the way pricier units do, but mine have always proved durable and efficient in a way that far exceeds the usual "get what you pay for" maxim.

The C1U is a good sounding mic for spoken voice. I agree with all other reviewers that it is quiet right out of the box and will require some tweaking within your application or in Windows to get the gain up to a good level. I honestly can't remember exactly what I did to get mine going well, seems like I just went into my Creative Labs sound control and increased the gain on the input fader (I have a Creative soundcard). A good comparison came when I had been using Skype with a friend, and I had been wearing a Plantronics wireless headphone/mic combo. The battery eventually died on the Plantronics, so I quickly switched to the C1U, which was in a nearby drawer. It was as simple and plugging it into the open USB port, waiting a few seconds for Windows to recognize it, a few seconds more for Skype to recognize it and offer it as an option, and then I was back to talking -- at which point my friend said, "Whoa! What did you do? You sound a WHOLE lot better now!" Of course, a large diaphragm condenser mic is going to sound a lot better than a little headset mic designed primarily for gaming and VOIP, but that's the whole point. This mic is cheaper than a lot of headset mics (to be fair, though, it is not wireless and does not come with speakers), but its sound is definitely a level up from that kind of setup, in particular in its ability to capture the lower frequencies. Your voice will sound much "richer" than on a tiny mic resident in a laptop, camera, or headset combo. So, if you get a desktop stand, it would be very suitable for spoken voice applications like Skype, podcasting, or narrating home videos.

I don't really recommend it for singing, though, unless you are really constrained by budget. There are intangibles when it comes to recording vocals for music, and this mic just doesn't do it for me.

I'm having what is a quite common complaint with this unit, which is that the level seems awfully low, even with the windows record level maxed out. However, this seems to be a combination of the microphone's inherent characteristics and some sort of windows misfeature. This is using Audacity under windows 7, but the same complaint is widespread on the net on other platforms.

A high-order bit is that if you use the ASIO driver, then (somewhat nonintiutively) the level seems to be about 10 dB higher than using the builtin windows support, which is a significant difference. It *will* work without ASIO (without installing any drivers at all), but the level will be lower. And with ASIO there seems to be no record level adjustment at all. The windows control has no effect, and the Audacity control is disabled. You can of course change the level digitally, but this won't recover from clipping.

As it says in the manual, this microphone is intended for vocal use at a fairly close distance (4-5 inches.) If the level is maxed out, and I speak in a loud-normal voice at this distance, then the level is plausible (but nowhere near clipping.) If I sing at this distance, then I can send it into clipping. Since there is no level adjustment with ASIO, I have to back off to a foot or so.

This is speculation, based on ignorance of the details of the USB microphone protocol, but it seems that in the absence of any way to set the analog gain before digitization, there is always going to be a design compromise of what level to use, and since a too-low level can be more-or-less recovered with digital gain, whereas clipping is just plain bad, Behringer chose a low analog gain level.

I don't understand what the windows record level control does with a USB mic, whether it is actually sending something to the mic, or just postprocessing the signal somehow. But the onset of clipping is different using ASIO or the windows driver, so something real is going on. It seems that some other mics, like the CAD37 CAD U37 USB Studio Condenser Recording Microphone mentioned as an "also bought" item have a much higher gain, which results in the opposite "I had to put it outside my door" problem for musical use.

In summary, I'd say that for podcasting and spoken voice use, choose another microphone. In general, it seems that the USB microphone concept still has problems with setting levels.

For the price, the Behringer C1-U is pretty much a steal for the buck. Its as simple as plugging it in the PC and start using it right away. I love the fact that its software is compatible with both Mac and PC so choices are not limited to this mic. I love the crisp sound as I used it to sing a cover on the PC. If you are a vocalist or just needs a mic that is set to detail this is the mic to go. Though I wish they did come with a case but overall its a good condensor mic for about 50 bucks. Pretty solid body too. I recommend this to the people. Believe you will love it too

At first I was a bit skeptical about this mic being that it was USB powered but I decided to risk it and try it out. The mic itself looks and feels like a high end condenser mic and overall it is very appealing to the eyes but it's responsiveness was nothing to brag about. So I thought I might have to send it back but BOY WAS I WRONG because after a few minutes of adjusting the mics recording levels......it worked like a champ and once again Behringer delivers a quality product that will do virtually anything you can think of. If you can't figure it out than you're doomed but like many things if you can get it to work properly than this is the mic you've been looking for.

This microphone is perfect for vocals & this mic is simply plug & I have windows 7. I didn't have to install nothing exept for the aios driver so I could use it with adobe audition 3 which is great. I get professional studio sound from this mic its just crystal clear. I don't have the pop filter yet so when I get that I know I'll love it more. Get this Mic if you need a good mic but have little money to spend on one this will do the job.

The microphone works well. I plugged it in and it worked immediately (XP Pro). The volume is fine, the quality is excellent, the DC bias in nil, etc. The problem is that when it's recording, it shocks me! I noticed that when I touch it in some places, there's tons of noise, like when I touch a plug for a speaker system. Apparently, on mine, the mesh over the microphone is connected to the power or something because it shocked my wife's lip when she got too close, and my finger when I licked it and touched the mesh! I hope this isn't the normal situation for this mic, and that it's just a problem with my particular unit, but I think I'm going to try to return the unit.

EDIT

I traced the problem to a faulty ground. We just moved into my house and the ground wire from the wall (being shared with the computer, and the usb functions) were not actually grounded. After grounding, everything works perfectly. GROUND YOUR MIC!

Due to a Microsoft driver update his product no longer works with Windows 7 64-bit. If you use Windows 7 64-bit, don't buy this product!

This mic is amazing! I was using a rock band mic before, and that simply would not do for Machinimas. For walkthroughs it was fine. Literally I just plugged this bad boy in and adjusted the volume on it, and now I'm using it in Skype, TeamSpeak, and of course for Machinimas. Note: I have XP Media Center Edition, and it WORKED, so it better work for anything else. The quality is the best when you get the recording volume to your liking (depending on how close you are to the mic.) For the best quality, turn down the volume and speak right into it. Also, I recommend the 15 dollar pop filter you probably see in the related items. It works WONDERS. Also, I have two fish tanks in my room, which are currently a few inches low on water, and it doesn't pick them up! Also, my computer tower is an older Alienware Area 51. (2009) Go look it up on google images. The fan is not loud, but definitely present. The mic doesn't get sound from that either. It's just great. If you just do youtube videos or make simple hip-hop or quieter music, I would recommend this mic. I'm not sure about instruments, rock vocals, or singing, but it probably at least does well with them. All in all a great mic!