low cost stereo mic for minidisc recording

[stixsmith]

Looking to purchase a stereo mic (on a tight budget) to record band rehearsals with my minidisc recorder...

Anyone have any comments on the Audio Technica ATR25 for this purpose? Or anything else suitable - sub £50/$75?

It will have a hard life (used and abused), hence wanting something in the "disposal" price bracket!

Cheers
Paul

[comfortstarr]

I bought one of these:

http://www.planetminidisc.com/ecm-ds70p.html

It's a sony. It's okay. It was cheap.

[anahata]

Originally Posted by stixsmith

Looking to purchase a stereo mic (on a tight budget) to record band rehearsals with my minidisc recorder...

Anyone have any comments on the Audio Technica ATR25 for this purpose? Or anything else suitable - sub £50/$75?

It will have a hard life (used and abused), hence wanting something in the "disposal" price bracket!

Cheers
Paul

I think you've answered your question. The ATR25 will do fine, and there aren't many well known branded products at that price point.

You can get stereo electret mics for less than that - I've seen them for about £10 a while ago here in Cambridge. Don't expect brilliant separation but the sound even from cheap electrets isn't bad at all. That's an even more disposable option! Or you could get two electret capsules from an electronic component shop (e.g. Maplin £1.50 each) and make your own - what I did except I use a single mono mic with my minidisc.

[doorknocker]

Originally Posted by comfortstarr

I bought one of these:

http://www.planetminidisc.com/ecm-ds70p.html

It's a sony. It's okay. It was cheap.

Be sure to check the gain setting on your Mini Disk recorder. The Sony ECM-DS70P didn't work right with my Sony MZ-R70. Even turning down the input gain all the way resulted in ugly distortion with loud sources.

I highly recommend the binaural Core Sound mics: http://www.core-sound.com/mics/1.php

Cheap and good. Perfect for recording rehearsals and the like as you're able to place the mics where your ears are or at least almost so.
The mics are available in 2 versions, this is how I found out about the overload problem of the above mic with my recorder.

[carousel]

for super duper cheap and diy nerd bonus points:

panasonic wm series capsule mic

very much like the tapeop mics

site below has live sound samples

http://phreakmonkey.com/projects/monkeyphones/

http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording...mic_16_1.shtml