11 Best Microphones for Your Home Studio (2024)

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Dynamic Mics

Shure SM57 and SM58 ($89): SM57, are the Toyota Camrys of the microphone world. There’s a reason these unflashy but supremely reliable machines turn up everywhere, whether onstage with your local bar band or on snare drums and guitar amps at the world’s priciest studios. In a pinch, you can use them to record anything. The 58’s bulb-shaped grille has a built-in pop filter—to reduce the blown-out distortion that sometimes happens when you speak or sing a “P” sound into a mic—which makes it ideal for vocals, while the 57’s streamlined shape is designed for mic’ing instruments. Otherwise, they’re pretty much identical. Schlett sums up the appeal: “It will get on the track, and it won’t be f*cked up. Is it the absolute best? Probably not. But is it going to work every time? Yes.”

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Shure SM7B ($399): The SM7B is the current model in Shure’s SM7 series, a higher-end dynamic mic designed for vocals, whose original model was famously used to record Michael Jackson’s voice for Thriller. It has some features that aren’t present on 57s or 58s, like a switch that rolls off unwanted low-end rumble, and it offers a smoother, more well-rounded sound. It isn’t limited to vocals, either. Ami Dang used an SM7 to record both her voice and her sitar on her Meditations Mixtape, Vol. 1, and it can hold its own when recording drums, too. “It’s a really great mic for a lot of different uses, at a relatively reasonable price point,” Dang says.

Sennheiser MD421-II ($325): The MD421 is another well-loved dynamic mic at a similar price-point to the SM7. Message boards for engineers and gear fanatics are filled with countless threads about which is better. Frankly, you can’t go wrong with either. In studios, you’ll often see MD421’s placed on guitar amps, horns, and all over the drum kit. “I wouldn’t worry about buying a mic pack,” Schlett says, referring to sets sold with multiple mics designed for use on different drums and cymbals. “Unless the pack is just four SM57s, or four MD421s.”

Electro-Voice RE-20 (from $380): Along with the SM7 and MD421, the RE-20 rounds out the holy trinity of slightly higher-end dynamic mics. It’s designed and marketed as a broadcast microphone, and used by DJs at plenty of radio stations, making it an ideal choice if you’re recording a podcast or any other spoken voiceover. But it’s also a staple of music recording studios, where you’ll see it used on everything from vocals to bass amps to kick drums. Steve Albini, the legendary audio engineer behind albums like Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, lists it among his favorite mics, and uses it for all three of the above applications.

AKG D112 MK-II (from $150): The D112, and similar mics like Shure’s Beta 52 ($189), don’t have the same versatility as the above options. They’re built with just one purpose in mind: capturing low frequencies. In practice, that usually means you’ll see D112s placed on kick drums, and sometimes on bass guitar amps. If you’re on a budget, you should consider one of the above three options, because they’re well built for recording kick drums as well as voices and other instruments. But if you want a massive thump-you-in-the-chest kick sound, you might consider a D112.

Placid Audio Copperphone ($275): Polyphonic Spree bassist Mark Pirro founded Placid Audio for the purpose of developing mics with “distinctive sonic character,” which is putting it mildly. The Copperphone’s intentionally lo-fi sound makes it more idiosyncratic by a long shot than any other entry on this list. It probably shouldn’t be your first mic, but it might end up as the most fun one in your arsenal. “They instantly make you sound like you’re on a tin-can radio,” says Schlett. “It’s the opposite of trying to get something sounding really perfect. They’re more like, let me throw up this crazy-sounding mic, and it just sounds cool right away.”