Best mic for voice records for radio show

Blue Spark.
I love it.
http://bluemic.com/spark/

I think it is USD 199,00 so it should be in your price range in the UK.

Chuck van Eekelen, post: 39865, member: 2756 wrote:
I have a preference for condenser mics for broadcast. You do need it shockmounted and preferably hanging.

Yes for studio work, condenser works best.
The Spark comes with a great shock mount that is extremely resilient, you can put it on the table and I was hitting the table pretty hard and had still no crossover… so a lot of bang for the buck. Especially since some pro overhead mounts (hanging mounts) will cost you more than the spark itself… so the Spark gets the job done for very low invest and even has a built in monitor out and volume and gain controls.

Check out the electro voice re20. Standard in radio broadcast. And doubles as a killer kick drum/instrument mic

Indeed the EV is excellent but more like 500 bucks if I remember correctly without any stand or dampeners, so that will all be extra.
And the few I saw used are maybe 20-30% off the original price, as they hold up against wear and tear pretty good.

Chuck van Eekelen, post: 39948, member: 2756 wrote: I’ll second that thought, but you must have missed the “under 150” bit in his original post :-).

And as far as I know, second hand ones are few and far between. Needless to say I would propably not buy a second hand condenser mic unless I was totally sure about the source.

Greetinx,
C.

Haha I definitely missed that one. Hmmmm, check out also the sterling audio st55. Good mic for in the 150-200 range. But if you can save some more “pennies,” go with my first choice.

softcore, post: 39964, member: 243 wrote: The Shure SM58 is also a “classic”…

😉

You mean the worlds worst microphone? LOL …

In my opinion the only real three advantages of the SM58 are:

• They are unbreakable, dip them in beer, run a truck over them and they will still perform
• They can withstand the most incredible sound levels
• Because sooooo many are out there, no artist ever dares complain if you stick him/her behind a 58, after all, they are the “defacto standard”.

And that concludes the nice things I have to say about them. They can withstand loud levels, but really need a fair bit of input to really start working properly (therefor totally unsuited for speech only applications in my opinion). The sound characteristics are not very nice, especially female singers benefit from having ANY OTHER microphone than a 58 :-p.
In all fairness, dynamic mics are, as a result of the physics of their design, not the best suitable for low level voice application. (Large Diaphragm) Condensers rule that world.
But hey, there is an awful lot of second-hand 58s out there. So buying one to test should be relatively cheap and you can almost certainly resell it for the same price you got it for if you don’t like it (which I predict you won’t).
Greetinx,
C.

I have to agree. Speech and vocal wise the SM58 is currently one of the worst mics on the market sound wise.
If you are going in the dynamic direction there are several mics from AKGs budget line (CCS line) or Audio Technica that will outperform the SM58 by a long shot and even save you some money.
However for radio I still would rather get a condenser with shock mount…