Help Me Pick A 100 Dollar USB Mic

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ChrisFriday

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i know this thread is probably gonna turn into a train wreck people have enough problems getting a mic with a limitless budget haha.

i just want a modest mic for commentary/vlogging.

im looking at mainly the blue yeti again.

mildly considering a akg/mxl/at but i havent found one that hasnt been disqualified after listening to tests. theyre all bad i know lol. yeti stereo capsules is cool for 3d style videos and im pretty sure the dual layer grill is great for preventing plosives and eliminating some sibilance. (pretty sure lol ive had one i know)... looking at my old audio tests (very halfassed) what mics do you think sound best? i really keep flip flopping. looking back at my old recording with other higher end mics. i cant really decide which ones were best. so maybe i should decide which one is the easiest to listen to for long durations. which one do you think is best?

/watch?v=uOgWRSgYPNg Shure SM7b Test

/watch?v=SSCKK5k-aq8 SM57 VS RE320 VS RE20 VS RE27

watch?v=IIWlfCIEOWA Sennheiser MK4 Audio Test

watch?v=DLcxqb9u7D4 ND767a Test

/watch?v=Ip6f3HcxEus AT2035 Test

watch?v=YVMuUJ_MGaM NT1a VS AT4040

oddly i kinda miss the nt1a a lot even though i used to think the at4040 was the best of them all after tests. i def hate the nd767a, re320, re27, mk4, sm57. re20 annoys me with its top end. so that leaves only the at4040, sm7b, nt1athat i kinda like. at2035 didnt sound that bad either. why did i sell these mics... :/

after relistening i like the sm7b and at4040 the best still. MY BABIES WHY DID I SELL MY BABIES
976828_125941307604763_352675854_o.webp
 
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Hmm. You've been here before, haven't you?

edit: Haha...Just checked the vid.
Man...Are you seriously still trying to pick a mic?

Last I recall, YOU were telling US what mics suck and why.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hmm. You've been here before, haven't you?

edit: Haha...Just checked the vid.
Man...Are you seriously still trying to pick a mic?

Last I recall, YOU were telling US what mics suck and why.
Click to expand...

i devalue things and forget why i do things easily. its hard to stay happy with things. buying shit is half the fun. shut up
 
I didn't really like the nd767a, and it sounds like you'd need a pop filter if you were to use it.
Out of the four way shootout vid, my favourite was the re20.
57 wasn't bad at all. 320 sounded tighter - More like a broadcast sound.
re20 was just nice. Natural. re27 was too thin for me.

Out of everything, my favourite was the sm7b.
It's just an opinion, but that's the one I prefer.
 
Steenamaroo said:
I didn't really like the nd767a, and it sounds like you'd need a pop filter if you were to use it.
Out of the four way shootout vid, my favourite was the re20.
57 wasn't bad at all. 320 sounded tighter - More like a broadcast sound.
re20 was just nice. Natural. re27 was too thin for me.

Out of everything, my favourite was the sm7b.
It's just an opinion, but that's the one I prefer.
Click to expand...

yeah. you better say the sm7b. the re320 does some weird crap with the sibilance and sometimes the bass it offers is horrible. they really should have put a normal magnet in that thing i think. im really growing to hate the n/d. i used to use a sm58 for a few years and then tried a sm57. those two seem to bring out a cheapness in the sound with my voice. sm7b def better and worth the money. i really wanted to like the re20. i actually bought two re27's cause the first one was so bad i thought it had to of been the mic. the second one sounded different but bad too. one of them sounded so bad i demanded a refund/return cause i accused him of trying to modify its impedance or something and was scared to sell it. i wish i could try out a few more condensers especially more expensive ones. im sure id like some of them. just listening to the howard stern show comparing howard's condenser to that fat black woman's sm7b i prefer the more powerful sounding condenser than her cottony muffled sm7b. i dont know how much i like hoaward's mic though...
 
Have you been to coutant.org?

They aren't exactly in depth tests, but he does a brief audio clip of every mic he catalogs.
It would give you a vague idea of what might be worth looking into.
 
If you're sold on the USB concept then the Blue Yeti is a good choice. I like the sound and they're built ruggedly and well. Conventional wisdom is that USB mics are a bad idea but, realistically, you won't get a conventional XLR mic plus an adequate audio interface for your $100 budget (unless you get very lucky on the second hand market).

Just make sure that, for your purposes and software, the "one way" nature of the basic Yeti isn't going to be a problem. The biggest issue using most USB mics is signal routing since you have to set the input to be the mic but monitoring etc. has to be your built in sound card. Depending on what you're trying to do, this may be okay or may cause you no end of grief trying to hear the thing you need.

FYI, the Blue Yeti Pro (yeah, more money) has a monitor out that eliminates a big chunk of these problems--but, even there, make sure you can see and hear whatever you're doing commentary on at the same time as recording.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Have you been to coutant.org?

They aren't exactly in depth tests, but he does a brief audio clip of every mic he catalogs.
It would give you a vague idea of what might be worth looking into.
Click to expand...
thx ive used the clipilator or whatever sample archive a few times


lol 27 sounds like shit on there too.

Bobbsy said:
If you're sold on the USB concept then the Blue Yeti is a good choice. I like the sound and they're built ruggedly and well. Conventional wisdom is that USB mics are a bad idea but, realistically, you won't get a conventional XLR mic plus an adequate audio interface for your $100 budget (unless you get very lucky on the second hand market).

Just make sure that, for your purposes and software, the "one way" nature of the basic Yeti isn't going to be a problem. The biggest issue using most USB mics is signal routing since you have to set the input to be the mic but monitoring etc. has to be your built in sound card. Depending on what you're trying to do, this may be okay or may cause you no end of grief trying to hear the thing you need.

FYI, the Blue Yeti Pro (yeah, more money) has a monitor out that eliminates a big chunk of these problems--but, even there, make sure you can see and hear whatever you're doing commentary on at the same time as recording.
Click to expand...

im paranoid a lot of these usb mics are being shipped with bad preamps etc. some samples have noise floor thats more than audible on youtube and i know its the mic cause they do them in shootouts so im really paranoid. ive only had a blue yeti, snowball, pg27 usb (came broken)

only other weird chinese mic i got my eye on is this Apex440 mic. i need to look it up mroe i guess. yeti just seems like a safer bet. but all the apex electronics Apex440 features make it tempting.
 
Being blunt, you're talking about $100 mics here. None are going to be great and there's no magic bullet mic that'll give you $1000 performance for your hundred bucks. You probably spend more than $100 in a week on groceries without spending so much time researching which brand of corn flakes is best.

At the same time you mention you've already gone through 3 mics (Blue Yeti, Snowball and PG27) without being happy with any of them. If you had all the money you've spent so far on economy mics you could buy a decent XLR mic plus a decent interface that'll last you a decade or so.

So...my advice is to stop with the shoot outs and reviews (most are biased anyway--you'll find it amazing how often the quality of the review is directly proportional to the amount a company spends on advertising) and just buy something to get you going for now. Then, have fun with that mic, putting up with any deficiencies you start to notice, and save up for something genuinely better.

Life is too short to overthink every basic purchase.
 
You missed the catch, Bobbsy.

Those reviews are all his! He has/had all those mics. :facepalm:
 
Dang! I caught that he's owned the list of mics (hence my note about saving up for a single good one) but completely missed that all those reviews were his own work.

I think my advice still stands though. Instead of spending ANOTHER $100 for ANOTHER review, use whatever he has to hand now and save up for a proper mic and interface.
 
Reminds me of my brother-in-law in the 80s who used to talk everyone up about hot cars
and yet kept buying one Chevy Vega after another for <$500. But the next one was always
going to be killer....

USB mics are for podcasting. End of story.
 
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