Hi,
I need a mic for the sp404. I'm going on holidays and I need to
sample ambient sounds. Any recommendations?

Cheers!

Hi, I'm working on the same problem!

Upshot is I'm making my own battery powered stereo condensor mic preamp because I don't see much on the market that has a sensitive mic that can drive the line-in RCA jacks of the 404. I really don't rate the mic preamp in the 404 because it's noisy and gets even worse as the battery runs down. It's better if you set the 404 display flashing to off, and I'd do that however you record anything on the 404, because a lot of the recoring noise is caused by the 404 lights flashing.

Thing with ambient recording is the best sounds are often the ones you haven't recorded loud enough. Equipment noise is a killer when that happens.

Do you need stereo or mono mics? Are you expecting to record in urban places or out in the wilds? Both Rode and Sony have good mics intended for portable recording, but they're stereo types, and the 404 only has a mono preamp. Otherwise, if you really want to use the 404 mono mic pre, any battery powered omni directional condensor mic will do - don't forget the windshield.