Microphone USB.
Microphone USB advantages.
– You do not need a fancy sound card or audio interface to perform high quality audio recordings.
The on board audio device of your laptop or your desktop computer will do, as it is used only for monitoring.
The signal is transmitted digitally to the USB, eliminating the need of a microphone preamplifier.
– You can record your voice your guitar or any acoustic instrument.
Microphone USB Models Comparison.
Several models are available. In the video bellow, you can hear a comparison of 3 models thanks to LiveLoveMusic.
– Blue Snowball
– AT2020
– Blue Yeti
Here is the visual spectrum representation of the above recording.
Unfortunately this video does not include the audio. However, if you let both movies load completely, you can then play them at the same time from the start.
Microphone USB my first impression.
It seems obvious to me that the Blue Snowball is not ideal for guitar recording.
But it might have its use for spoken voice recording.
The Blue Yeti has definitely the widest sound of the three, and also seems to be the most sensitive. This makes it well adapted for distant Micing. (Could capture also the computer’s power fans.) But it has also several settings so it can be adapted to different situations.
Looking at the frequency response of the AT2020, I can see that it is more even, and less sensitive than the other mics, therefor more adapted to close micing.
Microphone USB, witch one to choose ?
The musician will of course choose the Blue Yeti.
With its 4 polar pattern selector, it gives the musician many possibilities to experiment.
- Stereo
- Cardioid
- OMNI
- BiDirectional
Other Blue Yeti features:
- Mic Gain Control.
- Mute Button.
- Master Volume.
- Headphone output for zero latency monitoring.
Other users, like audio book producers, E-learning videos, voice-over use, would be better off with the AT2020 USB, for its quality and simplicity.
Its Cardioid Polar Pattern reduces the capture of sides and rear sound reflections.
This gives a cleaner voice recording, easier to process.
Audio Technica AT2020USB