Behringer C-2 Studio Condenser Microphones (Pack of 2)

These mics get mixed reviews depending on users' expectations. Are these the best mics you'll buy? No. Can you buy better? Absolutely. Are they worth £40? Yes! If I'd spent £200 on these mics I'd have described them as noisy and disappointing, but these are not expensive high quality mics. They are budget mics, and as such they are great. I compared them to an AT835b (shotgun mic, worth much more), and for indoor use found them a good substitute with similar sensitivity. Size is the first thing that hits you, as they're look tiny at just 9.5cm long and 2cm wide. Outdoors, they're not so good as they have poor wind/pop rejection. They do have a little internal hiss if you wind the gain up, but they have a sensitivity of -41dBV, so you shouldn't need crazy amounts of gain, and the specs imply they are good for loud sources (up to an SPL of 140dB at 1kHz, 10dB more with the cut engaged - that's airshow loud). They are a little "toppy" above 10kHz, but you can EQ that out if necessary. I'm not disappointed with these. For the money you get a pair of functional mics, good for drums, guitar amps, crowd mics, and "off axis" speech (so your plosives don't pop the living daylights out of them) for indoor video (eg about 8 inches above and in front of a subject, out of shot).

Whilst I wouldn't say I was a professional music producer, after studying music tech at college I do feel confident in being able to determine whether something is of an acceptable quality for an enthusiast on a budget. I really do think these things are great. Getting two microphones for £45, I wasn't really sure what I was going to receive. Especially when I have used fairly expensive mics (nothing ridiculous costing, mainly mid range rode and shure microphones) at college and further at University. This was exacerbated when I opened the package to find that they are small, I mean really small. They are fairly heavy for their size and feel of nice quality in the hand with the aluminium finish. They come in a 'nice for the price' carry case that seems to be well padded to protect them well enough with all of the accessories and the mics themselves packing up into a small area, great for on the move recordings. Small note about the incidental pairing stand that they come with, I thought (quite possibly stupidly) that the stand would act as a table mount and hold the mics up. Whilst that is the case without xlr's attached, attached it topples over straight away. Not an issue as a stand is better practice anyway but thought id mention it. Having quickly set them up through my alesis io2 audio interface onto cubase I set about recording my acoustic guitar and vocals as well as just general sampling. They sound great, nice and clear free from distortion etc. Really excellent, especially considering the price point. They need a fair amount of gain from my alesis to get a decent signal through to cubase but once that's sorted they record acoustic guitars very well. For such a small diaphragm they do a good job of picking up low end, maybe too much so when it comes to vocals (probably just my untrained boomy voice haha) for my taste. I do plan to try them out recording a brass band and continue to use them as acoustic bedroom mics. Whilst im not going to lie and say these things are big boy killers (they really arent) they will do a brillinat job of semi professional music production, which in the end is exactly what i bought them for, for a fraction of the price of two Audio Technica Mics or other budget options.

I bought this in March 2024, and have had no complaints about the quality of the mic. As you would expect from a condenser microphone, it is extremely responsive, and to my ear certainly of excellent quality. One thing no-one had ever told me about though, is the sensitivity of condenser mics to low temperature and moisture - I had been storing it in a cold and sometimes slightly damp environment, and found that when I plugged it in to use it, there was a quite loud background noise. I now store it indoors and this problem has never recurred. It is supplied in a good quality padded case, along with a foam pop filter, and an alloy shock mount. The shock mount is the only thing that lets this microphone kit down - 21 months after purchase, the swivel mount just disintegrated. First of all the bolt broke (even though I hadn't attempted to tighten it for a long time), then one of the side pieces just broke off with very little force on it. So the mic itself is great for the price, and given this low price I would suggest that anyone buying one also invests in an aftermarket shock mount for when the supplied one falls apart!

I have been using Garageband on a Macbook Pro for just a few weeks now and wanted a mic that was going to give me better results than the on board mic of the macbook. I have tried to record acoustic instruments using the on board mic but results were not great. After looking around I wanted a mic that did not require phantom power as it would just add more expense purchasing a power supply. I opted for the Behringer C-1U as it was powered from the USB which is just very convenient for me. After reading other reviews about the low volume issues I was a little wary, however I have no issues with recording volume as I simply turned the mic input up in my audio settings to 90%. When recording my acoustic guitar from about 1 foot away the results were great and so much better than the on board mic, I tried a few vocals and again so much better than the on board mic. Agreed that there is a little hiss at the high level but nothing that cant be filtered out with software but this still gets 5 stars from me as I have used other mics in this price bracket and none even come close to the recording quality I get from this. *Update* After using this for over a mouth now I still have no issues with recording level. I have some noise as expected but noisegate in Garageband got rid of most of it, Here is a sample of the recording of acoustic guitar and vocals. Noisegate has only been applied to vocal tracks not the acoustic recording. [...]

Love the clarity of sound i get from these, little hum if you turn gain too high but that's expected might get another 2 for the guitars

This brand is astonishing value for money. I have bought other Behringer items. These mics come with a good protective carrying case and extra mounts. -10dB switched too! Recording of Gibson sj200 (strum) and a Martin OOO Koa (finger pic) were high fidelity! You could clearly hear my mistakes! Used the sound hole and 10th fret at c12" distance positioning (dual mounted on one stand). Obviously you need XLR cables and a phantom power recording apparatus. In my case a Zoom R16 with 2 phantom power channels (usable across 2 banks of 8 channels). Gain at about 7.5 and monitor channels flat. These are great value for money additions to your recording capabilities.

I am only just getting into making music recordings using my voice and electro-acoustic guitar. I am using this mic with a M-Audio Fast Track. This mic has worked out well and produces a nice enough sound. Remember that this Mic requires that you have Phantom Power, which my M-Audio supplies, otherwise you will not hear much as the volume will be too low. I have tested the different settings on the mic and found that although not perfect, the 3 settings (cardioid, omnidirectional or figure eight pickup patterns) work reasonably well. Using the cardioid setting is particularly useful to me as it help block out much of the hiss generated from my PC fan. For the price, I think this is as good a mic as you are going to get. I have seen in forums that you would have to spend more to improve on it, but I have also seen that people argue that if you understand how to set up your environment optimally, you may find spending more on a mic to be pointless as the amount of improvement to the sound is not worth the extra. Once I had tweaked all my settings and recorded from the correct distances etc, I had a surprisingly clear recording. So I would recommend this to others who are just getting into making recordings of whatever nature as a good affordable starting point. I for sure do not feel the need to get anything else and I think that will be the case for a while.

I purchased this mic to try and get some home recording done (Mostly acoustic folkey stuff). I am very happy with the mic. My budget was very limited, and so price was a key thing for me, and like many people I looked across many other websites for reviews of the mic, and not a lot of the reviews were as good as I would have liked, but due to budget I went for this mic anyway. Since purchasing the mic however I have realised that the bad reviews were simply people being equipment snobs! I can find no fault with the mic whatsoever. It does exactly what I want it to do, was easy to use, and I am very impressed with the quality of the recordings I am getting. I will say however as a simple note, (and as I believe other people have already said) you will need Phantom power for this mic. For anyone who doesn't know, phantom power is simply a particular voltage (48V I believe) DC power supply required for the mic to run. This can be acheived via a dedicated phantom power supply (£20 ish quid) or most mixing desks will supply phantom power (but check it does first!). I personally use a Behringer 802 mixer (~£45) for my phantom power. So to sum it up, I think the mic is excellent, will give you pretty decent recordings and is fantastic value for money!