Quality Microphone?

[John Rofrano]

[Matthew Jeschke] “I’m in need of a quality microphone. Something reasonably priced that will work with the microphone port on my computer or simple USB solution of sorts?”

You don’t want anything that plugs into the audio port on your PC. If you don’t want to buy a proper audio interface, I would highly recommend the Audio Technica AT2020 USB. It’s the standard AT2020 large diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone with a USB audio device built-in. You won’t find any better quality for the money.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Al Bergstein]

Yes, the question of course is what cost, and what is your expectation of quality? Simple documentary overdubs on low or no budget can be achieved with what John describes. I did, however, do an overdub on a $100 desktop mic and usb adapter into my desktop machine. You can hear the results at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shmNmoULnc

I liked the icicle adapter and plugged it into a AT2020 mic. Sound mastering for this was done on FCP (which I was using last spring due to client requirements), but Vegas should do just fine.

For higher quality recordings, you really should go directly into a deck with proper preamps, etc. But it’s all about what your client demands, and what you want to give in the way of quality.

Alf

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[Matthew Jeschke]

Thanks for the help! Yeah I was asking around and figured this is where I should actually ask about mics !

At any rate, I tried my laptop mic and it sounded clear but had no meat to it real character to it. So I’m going to look at that setup you mentioned!!!

[Kevin Mccarthy]

Matt

Before you spend any money, check out https://www.heilsound.com Bob Heil has been building quality microphones at a fraction of the price of Shure, ElectroVoice, Sennheiser,Audio Technica etc. The best part is these mics are also better quality!

I have at least one of each of the mics I just mentioned and they are all on the shelf drawing dust.

His mics are now being used exclusively by Stevie Wonder, Charley Daniels Band, Tom Joyner, Tool, Pink and dozens of others. I do voice overs all over the world for the likes of San Diego Air & Space Museum, Kennedy Space Center, Staten Island Ferry, Marriott and more. I ONLY use Heil Mics.

They have the best bang for the buck!

[Ross Wissbaum]

I agree. Without a decent Mic Pre/Interface it’s kind of a get-what-you-pay-for situation. However the AT 2020 and also the Blue Snowball both give decent results for being USB mics.
You could get something like the M-Audio Fasttrack and an M-Audio Nova Microphone for around $200 and be in better shape though.

[Angelo Mike]

Thanks for the find Kevin. I’m going to check out this site.

[Kevin Mccarthy]

Any time!

[Dave Haynie]

I own over two dozen mics, and can attest that the AT2020 is a bargain for the $70 or so you can usually find it at… a bit more for the USB version ($92.95 at B&H). And if you only ever need the mic for voice-overs, that’s an acceptable package (my AT2020 is the normal XLR version, not the USB version).

A more versatile solution, though, is to buy the normal mic and a USB “converter” device (essentially, a mini “sound card” with XLR adapter and phantom power), such as the Blue Icicle ($35, supports 44.1kHz audio) or MXL MicMate ($40, supports both 44.1kHz and 48kHz audio). You’ll also need the USB cable. Don’t buy the Alesis MicLink for the AT2020, that’ll not work with condenser mics, only dynamic. Anyway, this setup lets you do more interesting things with the AT2020 in the future, for virtually the same cost.

If you want a bit cheaper, the Alesis MicLink is about $32, and it will work with the GLS Audio ES-58-S ($30 on Amazon), delivering 44.1kHz sampled audio. The ES-58 is a Chinese clone of the venerable Shure SM58 dynamic vocal mic… and oddly, it’s actually bit better, mostly because it uses modern Neodymium magnets.

-Dave