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Samson CO1U USB Condenser Microphone | 
 enlarge | Brand: Samson
Category: Musical Instruments
Buy New: £54.00
New (4) from £54.00
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 8
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 6 x 3
Legal Disclaimer: Please check manufacturer's website for product compatibility
MPN: C01U
Model: CO1U RS
UPC: 809164005810
EAN: 0809164005810
ASIN: B000AP1RE8
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Industry's first USB Studio Condenser mic | | • | Plugs in directly to any computer with a USB input | | • | Cardioid Pickup Pattern | | • | Large 19mm Diaphragm | | • | Heavy Gauge Mesh Grill |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic is the first affordable studio condenser mic with a USB interface.For the first time ever, musicians who record music on computers have a simple, affordable way to capture high-quality vocal and acoustic instrument performances.Seamless integration was the idea, and it was obtained by creating a studio condenser microphone that can be plugged into any computer with no in/out boxes, no expensive computer pre-amps, just a USB cable.The C01U condenser microphone is based on our wildly successful C01. It features a 19mm internal shock mounted diaphragm with a cardioid pick up pattern ensuring pristine studio quality recordings.The C01U works perfectly on any computer, Mac or PC, and with any DAW software program. It immediately solves a huge problem for users of many laptops, many of which have no other input method for audio devices.It?s a must for any musician on the road or in the project studio, but the C01U is going to offer solutions to more than just musicians. The mic opens up possibilities for anyone who records audio?from Podcasters, journalists, students, and business people adding audio files to websites and multimedia presentations
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A great microphone - just a few installation niggles. August 22, 2008
Mr. J. Horniblow (Reading, Berkshire)
Technically, this mic is really good for the price, and the onboard A/D and usb connection completely removes the hum often associated with inbuilt PC cards.
I'm still going to give it 5 stars, but beware that if you choose to use the SoftPre drivers in Windows XP (which does help improve the sound and gives you extra tweaks) then you might want to check on this FAQ page:
http://www.samsontech.com/usb_mics/driver_update/
The drivers don't always install properly, you may find yourself having to reboot and re-install them manually if you plug the mic into another USB port, and then having to restart Audacity.
Tip: Set the audio buffer in Audacity to 100ms to avoid "blips" when your PC does something else, and set the latency correction to -110ms if recording multiple tracks over one another - there's a slight latency with the mic, so you can't listen on headphones as you record. Or you can, but you'll give yourself a quick headache!
Altogether a really good mic - but worth spending 5 or making your own "pop" filter from a pair of tights or something, and also looking at websites on microphone technique if you're new to recording.
Do that, and your recordings will sound even better!
 Very Good Buy July 14, 2008
D. Reilly (Glasgow, Scotland)
Bought this item today, came home and plugged it straight in. No problems at all apart from when i tried it out with skype it as a little muffled. I sorted it out though. It was just the settings. After I changed all the configurations to work with the mic it was great!
No background noise, Very clear quality and even comes with its own sturdy stand so you can make it a fixture of your desk.
The usb feature is great as it allows me to also plug in a set of noise cancelling headphones to monitor the sound.
Overall a geat buy and good value for money
4.5/5
 Potentialy good but no cigar (at the moment ) June 2, 2008
Robinski
I had heard generally good reports elsewhere and decided to buy (not through Amazon on this occasion). Plugged in and immediately recognised by XP with the appropriate generic driver loaded. On repeated visits to the Audio setup panel I found the volume recording level slider was not always displayed i.e. sometimes greyed out. This did not bode well! When the volume control was displayed and set to maximum I still got very low recording levels in Audacity my recording package. Downloading the specific Samson driver package made matters worse - recording levels going from low to non existent - low recording levels being a common complaint levelled at this mic on the web. Is it the mic, XP or the Reaktek sound card/drivers? I don't know but after wasting a whole day trying to get it to work I no longer care and it's going back. Shame because when I tried it on a friends machine (Cmedia sound chip fitted) levels and sound quality in Audacity were excellent. Potentially a good product but in my experience you may not get adequate recording levels with your particular computer/software setup.
Clean, Clear, Female Clarity April 27, 2008
Satisfied at Last (UK)
Dead easy USB, runs direct from Vista drivers, with superb results - EVERYTIME.
Using Audacity, free software to record podcasts.
the recordings are clean, clear and excellent quality.
Faultless performance from this mic.
Has a Cardioid(heart shaped frontal direction), Omni (all directions) and a figure of 8, so that it picks up you and the person you're facing for interviewing.
Good off axis performance, so you can move up to 18 inches from the mic and maintain clear recordings. Some mics limit your movement, this one doesn't.
Slight plosives (p's and b's), so use a windshield, or put some popsocks over the mic (dont' laugh, popsocks really work!). Especailly when set to maximum sensitivity.
Two points.
1. Stand fittings are european (smaller) and American (larger). Undo the US fittings and the European fittings are underneath them. But they don't tell you that! So you'll spend 10 mins or so working out how the stand thing fits together, unless you know about the preinstalled US screwmount.
2. It comes preset with the recording level set to 3. This is very quiet.
to change go to start/control panel/sound/recording/[select micrphone]/properties/levels [slide from 3 to 90]
Now stand back. It will record airplanes flying overhead, dogs barking in the street, the whole lot, even gurgling in your radiators. Superb sensitivity. This way it picks up every nuance in your voice, every inflection.
Good mic for female voices. Some mics are optimise for deeper male voices, this has a Radio 4 daytime bright/clean professional feel.
So if you want Radio 4 clarity, airy, clean, beautiful midtones, you'll be dead happy. Also it's a dream for podcasters. Literally plug and play, with Vista. And lets face it, so little works with Vista, that's a huge bonus!
Full recording system for 50...and it works! December 12, 2007
Mr. C. Grier (edinburgh)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I was really surprised when i got it out the box, it was a good big metal solid piece of sturdy kit, very easy to use (I'm not the quickest with these things but I had the hang of it in about 2 minutes on my friend's windows vista computer (though it took me half an hour on my clapped out banger laptop))
You really do just shove it in and it works(hopefully). I DL'd a program called "samson softpre" from the company's website, which made it work a lot more sensitively too.
The only real problem I have is that it picks up the cooling fan noise on my laptop...but thats not the fault of the microphone!
Sound quality is really pretty damn good, speaking singing playing guitar banjo piano, making childish flatulence noises, everything i've tried so far has sounded good on it.
It comes with Sonar LE Cakewalk...Cakewalk is what most people in the recording industry use I believe, and its bundled in with the microphone, installs easily and quickly.
Don't waste time buying a stand for it, it comes with one!
The only real alternative i've found to this is the MXL desktop recording kit, which does appear to be a bit better (such as the stereo recording), but its not worth paying twice the price for IMO.
Samson C01U: 50;solid kit;useful software;easy to use; stand included
best recording deal around...
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