USB mics
2008-09-01 by Bret
--- On Sat, 8/30/08, Philip <kmg5443@...> wrote: > Pretty much low budget...looking for the best bang for the > buck. > > Check out the Audio Technica at2020usb or > > Samson C01U > > Both are large diaphragm condensers getting good reviews. Philip, I understand your budget now. About $150 for mic/pre/da/usb. That narrows things down quite a bit. An important consideration in the mic to pre to d to a converter is the amount of analog gain in the preamp between the mic and the d to a converter. Without proper analog gain you potentially either overdrive the d to a converter (severe digital clipping and distortion), or underdrive the d to a convertor (low record level, changing gain later digitally to make this up will also raise the noise level). So, how do these all in one mics manage the analog gain between the mic capsule and the a to d converter? This, and the sound of the mic capsule are where the rubber meets the road in sound quality for an all in one mic to usb solution. To cut to the chase, within your $150 budget, to my ears, with logical controls (actual hardware knobs), and bundled with audio recording/editing software I recommend the Samson G Track. Listen here, compared to similar USB mics as well as to a reference standard AKG c414 eb mic (about $2200, mic only): http://www.macworld.com/article/134114/2008/07/usbmics.html To my ear, the Samson G track sounds closest to the AKG reference mic, next is the Marshall MXL 006 usb (which has a 3 level gain switch on the mic). Here is a singer, also plugged guitar into the mic (stereo analog inputs with level control) http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/16/review-samson-g-track-microphone/ Samson page on this mic: http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1917 There are 3 hardware level knobs on this Samson G track mic - audio input, headphone output (there is a stereo headphone jack for no latency monitoring), and mic gain (this is the real winner, plus the sound of the mic capsule). All the other mics in this class either use a software driver to control the analog mic gain (you have to load a software driver, so you can open a window in the computer to adjust the mic analog gain via software), or they have a 3 level hardware gain switch. The Samson G Track gives you a potentiometer, and a red/green clip led on the mic to help set the analog level. This implementation makes the most sense to me. It could not be simpler than to set the analog clip level at the mic, at the sound source using both the led indicators and the headphone monitoring to insure the level is right, just below or rarely clipping. This gives you the maximum signal with the least noise (hiss). You will still have a digital gain control at the pc, but you MUST set the analog gain between the mic capsule and a to d converter properly to get the best signal with the least noise on your recordings. The Samson G track comes bundled with well known Cakewalk Sonar LE software for recording and editing: http://www.cakewalk.com/OEM/SONAR_LE.asp The price seems to be about $149 at dealers I know to reputable, to $129 at dealers I do not know. Sweetwater has it for $149 , free shipping, with a free shockmount (I recommend using one). http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GTrackUSB/ This is a cardioid mic , directional (like most in this category). All cardioid mics have 'proximity' effects which means the closer the sound source to the mic, the greater the bass boost. This can be a very useful feature, using the mic to source distance to balance the bass response to the mid and treble response acoustically. Singers and broadcast radio announcers often make positive use of the proximity effect. I have not used this mic, and I think there are limitations to an all in one solution, but within your budget I think this is your best chance for success in recording theremin with an all in one mic with what I know. The next step up in sound and features would be a combo of this usb mic preamp ($150) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MicPortPro http://centrance.com/products/mp/MicPortPro_Data_Sheet.pdf and a good mic like the RODE that I mentioned ($229): http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NT1A/ for a total of $379. This is the preamp you can hear with the AKG reference 414 mic in the url listed before. http://www.macworld.com/article/134114/2008/07/usbmics.html I believe the RODE and the micport combo would rival broadcast quality. This combination would give you much greater to signal to noise ratio than an all in one, higher fidelity, more options on mics to use (has 48v phantom built in), up to 24 bits at 96khz sampling (all in one mics are typically 16 bit at 44.1khz sampling). You could also get the micport pro usb preamp and a cheaper mic, still allowing flexibility in the future if you wanted to only upgrade the mic. The micport pro usb pre is a quality device, great specs, great sound. I personally do not like the all in one usb mic solution because it does not provide any flexibility in the future. In the future when you want to upgrade you throw it all away. bret