Introduction
The Behringer C-1U is a USB studio condenser mic suitable for podcasting, vocals, and more.
Design and Build
- Sleek, sturdy, and compact design.
- Durable build, ideal for regular use.
- Easy plug-and-play setup.
Sound Quality
- Crisp and clear audio output.
- Captures vocals with great clarity.
- Minimal background noise pickup.
Features
- USB connectivity for direct computer use.
- Comes with a desktop mic stand.
- Integrated headphone jack for real-time monitoring.
User-Friendliness
- Simple to set up and use.
- Compatible with various recording software.
- Convenient volume control on the mic.
Pros
- Clear sound quality.
- Sturdy build.
- Easy to set up and use.
- Versatile compatibility.
Cons
- Limited features compared to higher-end models.
- May lack advanced controls for professional use.
- USB cable length could be longer.
Conclusion
The Behringer C-1U offers excellent sound quality and ease of use, making it a solid choice for podcasters and home studio enthusiasts. While lacking some advanced features, its affordability and reliability make it a valuable addition for beginners and intermediate users.
Prise2Tech –
Correct me if I’m wrong,
You’re writing recording and producing songs at home.
Every time you want to record vocals you connect your audio interface, switch on phantom power, connect your XLR cable and find your levels.
What a faff. With the C1U obviously it connects straight to your DAW without drivers, shove a sock over it so that your plosive syllables don’t wreck the vocals and you’re away.
I challenge any of those listening to your finished tracks to tell the difference between this and a £2,000 or upwards microphone by time you’ve compressed, EQ’d and added effects or harmony.
How do they make such an amazing mic for this money! It feels looks and performs beautifully.
Creative –
microfone funcionou muito bem, e chegou bem antes do prazo estimado, nota 10!
Danny Stowe-Masters –
Muito bom microfone, atende as minhas necessidades. Só senti falta de um case.
youthxciz –
EDIT: After 9 months of use, I have to say, this thing amazes me upon every use. I use it for Machinimas, and it is extremely high quality. It never lets me down. A lot of people ask em for voice acting because I have such a great quality. Highly recommend, insanely good price too. 🙂
This mic is amazing! I was using a rock band mic before, and that simply would not do for Machinimas. For walkthroughs it was fine. Literally I just plugged this bad boy in and adjusted the volume on it, and now I’m using it in Skype, TeamSpeak, and of course for Machinimas. Note: I have XP Media Center Edition, and it WORKED, so it better work for anything else. The quality is the best when you get the recording volume to your liking (depending on how close you are to the mic.) For the best quality, turn down the volume and speak right into it. Also, I recommend the 15 dollar pop filter you probably see in the related items. It works WONDERS. Also, I have two fish tanks in my room, which are currently a few inches low on water, and it doesn’t pick them up! Also, my computer tower is an older Alienware Area 51. (2009) Go look it up on google images. The fan is not loud, but definitely present. The mic doesn’t get sound from that either. It’s just great. If you just do youtube videos or make simple hip-hop or quieter music, I would recommend this mic. I’m not sure about instruments, rock vocals, or singing, but it probably at least does well with them. All in all a great mic!
Diego Rios –
Por el precio cumple excelente su función. Quizas graba a volumen demasiado bajo pero con un buen lugar para grabar sin ruidos externos no tendras problemas al levantar y comprimir.
Márcia Medeiros –
Title
Prise2Tech –
Micro condensateur parfait pour mon utilisation
> Réunions à distance
> Prise en main à distance avec echange vocal
> Discord
> Streaming.
Facile d’utilisation, “petit” format, capte bien la pièce et n’oblige pas à être aussi proche que certains micro de la concurrence.
Pas de besoin necessaire d’investir dans un pop filter.
Recommande chaudement !
Eddie r –
At first when i plugged it in, i had problems but that was because ableton would not recognize it but then it worked perfectly fine. I noticed the light was green instead of blue like its supposed to be but i looked in to that problem and found out that my computer wasnt giving it 48v phantom power like it requires. Also after around 15-20 minutes of it being plugged in, it starts making this static noise. i suspect because of the lack of power from my computer. so none of that is the microphones fault. also people are complaining about the levels. well their pretty easy to change. the only thing i did not like about this microphone was the amount of background noise it picks up when your not talking but then again, its a $55 microphone. so all in all, its a good microphone for beginners and good to start out with. but if you want more professional results, get a good $200 microphone. I was just on a budget so I bought this. And go with XLR over USB. to many problems with usb. once i get the money, im getting a rode nt1a
Rode NT1A Anniversary Vocal Condenser Microphone Package
with a nice audio interface
Focusrite Saffire 6 USB Audio Interface
and thats all you need to get great results. thanks behringer though for a product well worth the money.
Robert A. Maclachlan –
I’m having what is a quite common complaint with this unit, which is that the level seems awfully low, even with the windows record level maxed out. However, this seems to be a combination of the microphone’s inherent characteristics and some sort of windows misfeature. This is using Audacity under windows 7, but the same complaint is widespread on the net on other platforms.
A high-order bit is that if you use the ASIO driver, then (somewhat nonintiutively) the level seems to be about 10 dB higher than using the builtin windows support, which is a significant difference. It *will* work without ASIO (without installing any drivers at all), but the level will be lower. And with ASIO there seems to be no record level adjustment at all. The windows control has no effect, and the Audacity control is disabled. You can of course change the level digitally, but this won’t recover from clipping.
As it says in the manual, this microphone is intended for vocal use at a fairly close distance (4-5 inches.) If the level is maxed out, and I speak in a loud-normal voice at this distance, then the level is plausible (but nowhere near clipping.) If I sing at this distance, then I can send it into clipping. Since there is no level adjustment with ASIO, I have to back off to a foot or so.
This is speculation, based on ignorance of the details of the USB microphone protocol, but it seems that in the absence of any way to set the analog gain before digitization, there is always going to be a design compromise of what level to use, and since a too-low level can be more-or-less recovered with digital gain, whereas clipping is just plain bad, Behringer chose a low analog gain level.
I don’t understand what the windows record level control does with a USB mic, whether it is actually sending something to the mic, or just postprocessing the signal somehow. But the onset of clipping is different using ASIO or the windows driver, so something real is going on. It seems that some other mics, like the CAD37
CAD U37 USB Studio Condenser Recording Microphone
mentioned as an “also bought” item have a much higher gain, which results in the opposite “I had to put it outside my door” problem for musical use.
In summary, I’d say that for podcasting and spoken voice use, choose another microphone. In general, it seems that the USB microphone concept still has problems with setting levels.