Tascam TM-80 Condenser Microphone

The TM-80 is a condenser microphone designed and priced for home recording. It features an 18-mm aluminum diaphragm with a cardioid pickup pattern that is ideal for anything from vocals to acoustic instruments. Internal circuitry is optimized to reduce noise and distortion while retaining rich, full sound quality.

Included with the TM-80 are a tabletop stand, an XLR cable, and an elastic shockmount to reduce rumble and noise during recording.

• Listen to a sound example for US-4×4 and TM-80

Here’s a sound sample (link to soundcloud.com) of music created with a Tascam US-4×4 audio interface and Tascam TM-80 microphones. The track includes acoustic guitar and vocals and has been produced by the Japanese composer Masaku Murata.

He used three TM-80s for the acoustic guitar: two were placed in front of the guitar, one pointing at the center and the other one pointing at the bridge. The third TM-80 was placed farther away for ambience.
Vocals were picked up by a fourth TM-80. For mixing, Murata used Sonar Platinum with its included plugins and ProChannel effects. No additional plugins were used for the mix.

Features

• 8-mm, pure aluminum diaphragm
• Cardioid polar pattern
• Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
• Sensitivity: –38 dB ±2 dB (0 dB = 1 V/Pa at 1 kHz)
• Phantom power required: 9–48 V DC
• Output impedance: 200 Ω ±30 % (at 1 kHz)
• Load impedance: >1 kΩ
• Maximum SPL: 136 dB (at 1 kHz, 1 % THD)
• S/N ratio: 77 dB
• Housing: Die cast zinc
• Dimensions (W × H × D): 48 mm × 165 mm × 48 mm
• Weight: 300 g (mic body only)
• Includes: elastic shockmount, mini desk stand, cable (1.8 m XLRM–XLRF)A