MXL 990 Condensor Microphone

What Is It: Microphone for recording

I first heard about the 990 from MXL from a book about music production. The author recommended it after having spent time comparing the MXL 990 with many other more expensive microphones (a process called a “shootout”). It seemed a credible source and something worth looking into. What I found was worth the hype and certainly worth the $99.

The 990 is a large diaphragm condenser microphone, which just means that the part that picks up the sound (the diaphragm) is bigger (large) and that it requires you to enable something called Phantom Power, that could also be labeled 48v, in order for it to work. It needs this extra power so it can have the energy to keep up with the speed of the frequencies found in higher sounds, which thus produces a crisp sound and determines some of its use.
While microphones like these have limited live sound application, usually paired as overheads for drums, these are often the workhorse of the studio and the 990 delivered great results. We used it heavily on vocals, guitars, stand up bass, a grand piano, even on podcasts and walked away each time excited about what we had captured. So thrilled, in fact, that we even went out and bought another one.

The 990 comes in a case with two mounting options. The first is a very sturdy shock mount that releases quickly for adjustments and secondly a very secure mount for a conventional stand.

Who Would Be Interested: Churches or individuals that are doing any kind of production work: Voice overs for announcements, podcasts, demos, or full scale album recordings.

More: Cost and Sonic Quality
Less: Nothing that I have found so far.
Bottom Line: Good looking microphone that sounds great at a great price.