I know a lot of people that own this mic. Actually, I had one in my studio for a long time. It was probably 1 year before I ever hooked it up and tried it out (I have a lot of other mics that see more action). What did it sound like? Well…

I was completely shocked! Yes, and that doesn’t happen very often. Especially with such a cheap piece of gear. But the MXL 990 actually sounds great (caveat – for the price). Sure, you can get a $200+ mic and get better vocal reproduction. But if you have a small budget, get this mic first. It can get any job done and make it sound better than a cheaper or comparably priced mic. MXL really did a great service to the budget studio community with this microphone.

What didn’t I like about it? Well, after a side by side comparison with an Oktava mic, a Blue mic, and a Neumann U87, I realized what made this MXL sound so great. While the world class mics I compared it to are great for on-the-dot vocal reproduction, the MXL tends to artificially hype the high/high-mid frequencies in a vocal track. This makes a vocal recorded with the 990 condenser sit in an amateur mix much better. Yeah, it’s padding for inexperienced recordings. This is not a bad thing – it’s actually a great thing for most home studio owners.

So if you want a cheap mic and you need your vocal tracks to sound great out-of-the-box, get the MXL 990. It’s only a $60 investment, so if you hate it – you haven’t blown too much cash.

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