What is the best microphone for home recording?

Which microphone is best for you depends on the source you want to record.

Different sound sources, such as vocals, acoustic instruments, or guitar amps, require different microphones to achieve great recordings.

However, some microphones work well in almost any situation.

So, what are you looking for? Think ahead! You may want to record different sources in the future. It pays to get audio gear that will fit your needs in the next few years. Otherwise, you might have to buy twice.

Think ahead, don't buy twice.

Every XLR microphone needs an audio interface to record using your computer. Do you already have one? If not, you'll need to get one. Check out our audio interface lineup here.

When recording vocals, you want to make your audience feel and appreciate your performance, and you don't want any technical limitations to hold you back. A condenser microphone can accurately capture your voice.

Therefore, we recommend a condenser microphone for recording vocals at home.

Pros of condenser microphones

• Go-to vocal microphones for almost every record
• Can capture every detail of your voice
• Low noise performance

Here are some sound samples of different vocal performances recorded with condenser microphones. 

If you know what you're doing and have the right microphone, you can create great acoustic guitar recordings at home.

Once again, condenser microphones are the top choice.

They can pick up the whole frequency spectrum and capture your instrument's sparkle.

For acoustic instrument recording, you can either use small diaphragm condensers, aka pencil microphones, or large diaphragm condensers. 

Strengths of small diaphragm condenser or pencil microphones

• Great transient response
• Captures high-frequency detail and sparkle

Strengths of large diaphragm condenser microphones

• Rich low end
• Smoother high-frequency recordings

The video below shows how they sound and how to record an acoustic guitar at home!

If you want to record singer-songwriter-style tunes, consider recording in stereo. Stereo recordings of acoustic guitars help the guitar sound bigger and fuller.

Stereo is great when your song has only a few elements, and the acoustic guitar is one of them.

You can learn more about stereo recording in this blog post.

Below are two sound samples: one recorded with an LCT 040 MATCH and the other with an LCT 040 MATCH stereo pair. Take a listen!

Nowadays, many electric guitar recordings are made with virtual amps, either directly in your DAW or with an amp modeling box. But if you have a great-sounding amplifier, it's worth recording it.

You can dial your unique sound, not some preset that everybody else can use.

Record your amps to get a personalized and unique sound.

The most common microphone choice for amp recordings is a dynamic microphone. These microphones can handle loud sound sources and give you a punchy, powerful sound. 

For another layer of tone, you can combine a condenser and a dynamic microphone and record your amp with two microphones simultaneously. This gives you more options to sculpt the sound in your DAW to fit your song.

Having a "workhorse" microphone that works well for almost all recording occasions is very practical. 

You might have noticed that the LCT 440 PURE has been recommended in all categories as it is the perfect home studio allrounder.

With the LCT 440 PURE, you can get great results on a variety of instruments and vocal styles. It even works well on amps.

Its only limitation is that it has only one polar pattern. For some recordings, you might want to use a different one. For example, changing polar patterns could be useful if you want to record multiple musicians around one mic or if you want to reduce the bleed of the acoustic guitar while recording vocals.

The LCT 441 FLEX is the bigger brother of the LCT 440 PURE. It offers the same sound quality and eight different polar patterns.

Just getting the right equipment will not improve the quality of your recordings.

To optimize your sound further, it is best to educate yourself on recording techniques.

We have prepared many learning resources, so check out the content below to learn how to make recordings you can be proud of.

If you have any questions or need help with any recording-related topics, don't hesitate to contact us via social media or email.

Recording blogs

• How to prevent clipping
• Recording vocals at home
• What is gain staging?
• How to get low latency for your audio interface

You can also check out our YouTube channel for more videos. Below are a few highlights!