Audio Spectrum AS-400

I've been making music for a little over 7 years and I have used everything from tiny boom boxes to professional recording equipment. I've used a couple dozen mics in that time and have had opportunity to experiment with several types and brands of microphones.

In the past year or so I've resolved and been satisfied with my Audix OM-5. I've purchased a few microphones since then to have around just in case the Audix lunkers out on me (which is probably unlikely, but it never hurts to be prepared, right?).

Among those mics was this Audio Spectrum microphone which I picked up for around $10 at a local shop. I bought it to mic my acoustic guitar when I was playing small solo gigs year or so back. Since then I've used it inside the hole of a kick drum while recording. For that purpose it works excellent. For other purposes however it really doesn't measure up. On vocals the sound is muddy and very bassy; yet when I turn the highs up it feeds back before I can hear the difference. On acoustic the sound is dark and undefined, in fact I'd say this mic performs the best within the 40-400hz range. It goes beyond that obviously but anything within that range is what this mic is best at. Got a bass cab and don't want to damage a more expensive microphone? Give this one a shot. Don't want to lay down the lettuce for a Shure PG-52? Though not as elegant, this thing will do the trick for now.

For $15-$20 it's not a bad one-trick mic. I just wouldn't recommend it for live use with vocals or other instruments. It fails horribly there. :-)