Rode M3 conderser mic

[Steve L]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for a primarily live application mic for my instruments. On any given gig I'll be playing mando, tenor banjo, bouzouki, and guitar and I'm looking at this as a cost effective alternative to an SM 57/58. It gets good reviews and runs on a nine volt battery if there's no phantom power available. I also want to start recording a bit at home and it seems versatile enough to do that for instruments and vocals, at least for demo quality results.

Anyone have any experience with these mics? They retail for about $149.

[Ben Milne]

That's actually probably a pretty good option Steve.
Normally I wouldn't have thought of Rode straight away, but I think the M series area lot more forgiving for live work and perhaps probably a bit more well rounded than the NT. I have only encountered that particular mic once, but I didn't have bad time, so was suitably impressed compared to NT3 etc.
I vote yes, and Be sure to report on the results.

[Shelagh Moore]

Yes... the Rode M3 is an excellent mic, particularly for the price, in my experience.

[Steve L]

Thank you Ben. The Rode seems to get slightly higher marks than it's AKG C1000s counterpart and is about $50 cheaper.

And thanks to you also, Richard.

[foldedpath]

I'm not sure that's a good mic for live use, mainly due to the huge size, which is much bigger than it looks if you've only seen photos of the mic itself. Check out this video promo where you can see how big it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toGZmeX1jaM

The size is probably due to the housing for the 9v battery, and it looks like it's sharing the body shell for the larger 3/4" capsule in the NT3 mic. You could use that mic live, but I think it's more visually distracting to the audience than a typical small diaphragm condenser mic, or even a SM57 dynamic mic.

I don't think the battery power option is very useful, unless you're doing something like field recording, or video shoots. Battery-powered gear is always a headache to maintain for live audio. You have to make sure you're starting each gig with fresh batteries, which means either high cost in disposables or the headache of maintaining charge status on the rechargeable type. I go through that with wireless transmitters and I wouldn't want the hassle with wired mics. Especially with a 9v battery, which is the hardest type to do a quick swap. Any PA system or acoustic amp that can't provide phantom power, is probably one you don't want to be playing through anyway.


In this price range I think an Audio Technica Pro 37 might be a better option. That's a nice entry-level condenser that would get you started with home recording. Audio Technica mics usually have very good build quality, so it should survive use as a live mic.

[Ben Milne]

FP it doesn't rely on the 9v battery, just gives you the option if 48v phantom isn't available.

[foldedpath]

FP it doesn't rely on the 9v battery, just gives you the option if 48v phantom isn't available.

Right, I was responding to Steve's mention of the battery being an advantage if phantom power isn't available. It works either way, I just don't think it's a significant advantage for typical PA use.