How do I get high-performance guitar microphone going for cheap?

Question

Main question: Can I use a lot of cheap microphones off digikey and combine the signals somehow and will this make it sound like a higher-end mic?

How do you shop for a microphone: what specs are important in judging how "good" the mic will be?

Any experiences with microphones? What did you find out regarding the above? Thanks.

I will be sampling audio at 44 KHz approx and also transmitting it lossless. This will probably be important in deciding whether or not I need a more expensive mic.

Answer 1

The key aspects of high-quality microphones include:

• Frequency Response: In many cases flatter is better, but many high-end microphones are selected for particular applications precisely because their responses are not flat. They might have just the right amount of high-end or low-end rolloff, or have a midrange boost in just the right place.
• Pickup Pattern: You have a choice of pickup patterns ranging from omnidirectional, to figure-8, to cardioids and super-cardioids. For the non-omnis, the off-axis frequency response can vary quite a bit from design to design. Again, this makes different microphones better for different situations.
• Sensitivity and Dynamic Range: It's difficult to produce a microphone that has good sensitivity for soft sounds while also having the robustness to handle loud ones. You'll use different models depending on the type of sound you're expecting.
• Noise: Especially if a microphone has an active preamp, the noise floor can become the limiting factor on the dynamic range.
• Physical Robustness: You wouldn't take your best studio microphone and give it to a singer to hand-hold in a live concert.

It would be difficult to achieve good scores in all of these areas with an array of cheap microphone cartidges, for a number of reasons.