Samson Meteor vs Audio Technica ATR2500 (Or another USB mic?)

[jing713]

Hi all,

Was just considering getting the above microphones for recording singing (vocals) at an amateur / hobby level.
I have singled out these two as they have a 3.5mm audio jack for plug in direct monitoring (I need this as it helps me sing better) and seem to be at a mid range price.

I certainly do NOT wish to and do NOT have the ability to get a separate mixer / DAW as this is only for a hobby and these USB mics are ample.


As they are condenser microphones, inevitably they are pretty sensitive and I suppose they pick up a lot of background noise?
Which one fares better in this area, as I do live semi close to the road and have the occasional fly by.

Budget is ideally sub AUD$100 (~US$90) and was wondering if anyone had experience with the 2 in that area?

Some words for either microphone would be good (especially regarding singing).
Other recommendations are welcome

Thanks

 

[TimOBrien]

usb mics are more for podcasters.

Do yourself a favor, save your pennies and get a usb interface and xlr microphones.

(If you live near noisy roads, you are correct you might be better off with dynamic mics...)

 

[jing713]

usb mics are more for podcasters.

Do yourself a favor, save your pennies and get a usb interface and xlr microphones.

I have to respectfully say that
I can't afford to get a USB interface and a microphone on top of that, I also don't wish to do so as I am coming from a 'better than average' sounding computer microphone.
They are also going to be more complicated and I don't want to be associated with such complications.

I think at the moment, a USB microphone with direct monitoring should be lightyears an improvement of what I have already.

(If you live near noisy roads, you are correct you might be better off with dynamic mics...)

I may consider a dynamic mic, though the only one/s that I know of with direct plug in monitoring is the Audio Technica ATR2100, which is quite low cost.
In no way I am saying it is not good, but it doesn't seem like there have been any applications of it vocally (singing) on youtube, which like you say, may be because it is more suitable for podcasters.

As Tim hinted an XLR mic and interface would be more suited to vocal singing, but if you're dead set on the two mentioned mics I would likely say the Audio Technica ATR2500, mostly because I have AT mics and I like the quality . The first youtube video below is a review of the two mics you asked about and in the beginning he mentions the AT seemed to pickup less room noise. If you have a lot of noise a dynamic may be a better choice

Firstly I must thank you for all these links , I might just get the ATR2100 and see how that goes first. Though the ATR2500 does sound decent.

Whatever you get and as your singing improves you always want to upgrade to something better. It's a sickness.

Hahaha!! I suspect this may very well happen, in the case of that I may start of with the ATR2100.

I still don't wish to get a separate DAW / interface as I don't have the expertise in that field and like I said before, this is already a considerable improvement over what I have.

I will come back with a comment on the ATR2100 when I get it.

Thanks

 

[jing713]

Hi,

Just got an ATR2100 (the dynamic microphone)

To monitor myself with the headphone plug, do I have to click the 'Listen to this Device' in Windows 7?

Thanks

 

[jing713]

From the instructions in the manual, just plug the headphones in after setup and the mic is connected to USB. It doesn't appear you need to adjust anything in Win7.

Thanks a lot, doesn't seem to work if I don't tick the 'Listen to this device' on Windows 7!

Enjoying the microphone a lot

Cheers