SoundTech CM-1000 3.5 mm Omni-Directional Conference Microphone

I spoke to a couple of salespeople at companies that sell recording equipment for lawyers and courtrooms. They recommended these microphones. They are noise cancelling mikes and come with a 5' cord. They are ruggedly built with a non-skid rubber mat under them. They are also electret mikes so they need to be connected to an input that has Plug In Power capability, otherwise you will probably need a preamp or separate plug in power source. But otherwise they do not require any external power input. Many of the Olympus digital recorders have Plug In Power input compatibility and these should work well with them. They work well with my Olympus DM-620. They are daisy-chainable right out of the box. That means that if you want to use more that one mike, you can plug one into another in a chain, and plug the cord on the last one into the mike input of your recorder without have to use a mixer or adapter plug. I think there is a practical limit to the number of mikes you can daisy chain and I recall reading some comment online cautioning against trying to connect more than 5 or 6 in a chain, but I don't know. Since the mikes draw power from your recorder, you may want to connect your recorder to an AC Adapter while recording to make sure you don't run the batteries out while recording. I will use 3 of these mikes for taking depositions. After testing 2 mikes chained together against the internal mikes on my recorder, I found them to be great at capturing voice without picking up a lot of background noise. You could of course rely on your recorder's internal mikes for recording small meetings, but if you use multiple mikes, you can reduce the problem of some voices being louder than others depending on how far away they are from your digital recorder. This is what I like about using these mikes -- by having multiple mikes near each speaker, the sound level of each voice is better balanced. Another consideration in my choosing these mikes was the fact that they are unobtrusive, as opposed to typical shotgun mikes on stands. The result is that the speaker forgets they are there and is more comfortable with the setting. One reminder -- on most digital recorders, when an external mike is plugged into the unit, the internal mikes are disabled, so you can't use one CM-1000 mike alongside your internal mikes. This means that you will want to consider buying at least two of these mikes for conference recording.

Purchased this to compliment my live streaming system, where I occasionally have several people in the discussion. I chose this rather than trying to mic up everyone, which is costly and then requires more work on the sound board. This mic's performance is excellent for panel discussions. While it still picks up the ambient noise in the room, it doesn't have that "open room" like sound that would come off the camera's mics. It's not "tight" and will easily provide good pick up at 6 foot table, to include a reasonably decent capture of questions by the audience close to the area with clarity. The long cord provided gives me decent length to set up off to the side, or jack into a wireless mic transmitter unit, so I can be across the room/venue. Makes for a hassle free experience working with a group of speakers, eliminating most of the workload associated with the sound system set up, and all without the participants having to remember to pass a handheld mic around to get their comments/presentations. Best part: You'll save a lot of money!

I am a court reporter in the courtroom and in depositions. I plug this mic directly into my steno machine (Luminex). Price is great and quality is as good as some high-end mics I've gotten with my steno equipment. Works great, clear, picks up the whole courtroom. Weighted mic with rubber bottom keeps it from slipping. Small and flat so not intrusive. Fits in the palm of my hand. My only criticism is that the cord/plug could be made a little sturdier. But for the price, which is 1/3 that of some other mics I have bought, I deal with it. Definitely a good deal and will buy again.

This is a nice little mic for home use. I have owned it for almost a year now. It has a decent range, but not quite as far as I would have liked. I would say that it works best within 5 ft or so. It being omnidirectional is nice and that does seem to hold true. I haven't noticed any difference in how it picks up speaking from any given direction. I generally use it with it sitting on my desk out of the way and I can lean back and be heard over it without an issue. As it gets farther away though, it gets a bit quiet. I think it works quite well for home use, but I don't know if I would try to use it in a professional environment at all. It is a small form factor and comes with a cord that is plenty long. The microphone itself is sturdy as anything. I don't exactly treat it lightly and it routinely falls off my desk or anywhere else it gets set. The dog even got a hold of it for a little while the one day. Despite that though, it is still entirely intact and looks completely undamaged. Overall, I am satisfied since it costs a fraction of what a high quality one would have set me back, but I may still get a higher quality one for conference calls for work.

I bought this microphone to plug into my steno machine (I'm a court reporter) and it works great. This microphone picks up the voices of everyone during depositions really well. It comes with a good quality zippered pouch for the microphone, as well, which is really handy. If you need an auxiliary microphone, this one can't be beat.