Behringer C-2 microphone set
I was looking for inexpensive, condensor microphones to mix acoustic cymbals with an electronic drum machine. There seems to be 2 suggested ways to mic cymbals. One is with 2 microphones in a 'stereo' configuration high over the entire drum kit. This is particularly useful with a completely acoustic set, as it also picks up some of the sound from the drums. The other method, which I chose, was to suspend a microphone over each junction of a pair of cymbals, plus a microphone over the high hat.
Condensor microphones were the mic of choice for both of these methods, as they tend to be able to capture higher frequencies, and being more sensitive, can be further away from the sound source. There are quite a few choices out there in my price range, and Behringer seemed to be one of the more recommended ones, along with Audix and CAD. Of course, there are much better microphones than all of these out there, but at a much higher cost.
I only considered 'unidirectional' microphones (cardiod pattern) so I could attempt to control what each microphone picked up.
I got samples of all 3 brands to compare them. The advantage of the Behringers was that they come as a matched set, useful for 'stereo' recording. The set is in a nice, plastic case, with cutouts in the foam for the parts. There are the 2 microphones, 2 mic mounts, 2 foam windscreens and a 'stereo bar', which allows you to mount the 2 mics on 1 stand.
The microphones are solid and seem well built, and are amazingly small and light. Each microphone has a switch on it, which allows you to filter off some of the lower frequencies, useful in 'noisy' environments, and in the 3rd position, 'pad' the microphone (reduce the overall level to avoid overloading the sound system).
One surprise was that the mic mounts were optimized for 'small' stud mic stands instead of the 5/8" studs I'm used to. The mounts do have both size threads, but the 5/8" ones are rather shallow. They will work on a standard stand, but work better on a small stud stand. The stereo bar has the small studs to mount the microphone clips, and the 5/8" socket to mount the stereo bar on a standard stand. It comes with a screw in adapter so as to be able to mount the stereo bar on a small stud stand as well. I was able to use that adapter on one of the studs of the stereo bar to mount a 5/8" microphone next to one of the Behringers for comparison purposes.
Being condensor microphones, they need a source of 'phantom' power (provided over the mic cable). I plugged these into a small Behringer mixer which has inputs, phantom power and pre-amps for 4 microphones in addition to 4 stereo pairs of other inputs for the drum machines and other sources.
So how did they perform? Pretty well. There were 3 things I looked at: Frequency response, noise and off axis rejection. These microphones seemed to pick up the sounds in the cymbal range of frequencies. I would say they are a good choice for instruments in the higher frequency range. I did not try them, nor do I think they would be as good for, vocals and lower range instruments. There did not appear to be excessive noise, and I was able to adjust them so they picked up only the cymbals they were supposed to and not any of the drum pads.
Of the microphones I've tried, they are not the best. But they are entirely adequate for my purposes, and the small size/nice case makes them the most convenient.Read full review
