MXL 990

This is an excellent microphone for its price.

This is currently used in a radio studio for recording voice tracks. When connected up to compressor etc it does sound much better.

The mic does give a very warm sound, which works very well with vocals and spoken word.

For the rather cheap price, it comes with a decent shock mount and a solid mount. The shock mount makes a world of difference, and allows us to move the mic around on its boom without the listeners hearing anything.

If you're looking for a good microphone that comes with good accessories, then this is the one for you.

In my opinion this is one of the very best microphones I've encountered in my life so far. I used to work at a recording studio too, and it never failed to deliver amazing, natural, raw recordings. The closer to reality your recordings are, the better.

so, pros:
- good size, although i don't think that's very important.
- pretty looking, although, also, not very important.
- natural, raw, realistic, excellent quality sound.
-comes with a very sturdy and resistant looking (haven't tested how resistant it is and hope i never find out, haha) case to transport it or keep it safe and sound at home.

cons:
-mmm, i don't think i can think of anything.

I purchased it a few years ago as it was mentioned on several forums as a good platform for tweaking and customizing. Well I ended up actually using it "as is", maybe now I will finally have some free time to do the tweaks.
Using "as is" means putting it on men's vocals in front of a gospel choir on a quite loud stage. The included shock mount provided good noise isolation and I could get a decent beefy men's voice to the PA without much disturbance from drums and other instruments. I put it about 80cm-1m from the faces of the singers.
I also used it on some home demo recordings with quite usable results.
Anyway, I am not shy to use it here and there on different types of setups. Knowing it is quite cheap, I don't have to be too careful and can allow myself to experiment.
To finalize, I would say it is a good value for the price.

I bought this microphone as I wanted a large diaphragm microphone for my home studio and I have seen good reviews on this one.

Sound wise this microphone performs very well - for the money. I stress, I think there is not a better microphone of this type on the market for the money; although there are better microphones you just have to pay a whole lot more.
I have used for vocals, percussion and acoustic guitar recording and all seem true recordings.

The small locking nut that holds the housing at an angle has a tendency to slip however if you are using as a static vocal microphone then this should not be too much of a problem.

Overall I quite like this microphone for sound and quality, so for budget home studio this is a good buy, for professional studios you may want to spend a bit more.

A good looking product. Well packaged in a plastic hard case, with firm foam padding holding the unit in place and with support cradles all fitted into the box. For a low cost microphone it performs well. I am using it for home studio work, as a vocals microphone, for traditional music. The audio clarity is good with no apparent colouring, and sensitivity was good. In a session the pick up off the rear of the cardiod was a little higher than I would have liked in an open studio, but did not present a problem in practice. This would not be an issue in a vocals box. Excellent value for money for those not having a large budget and I would not hesitate to reccomend it.