USB mic for simple recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter MCreel
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MCreel

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Hey guys, the group I write with wants to have a way to do quick on the fly recording so we can keep a record of our ideas.

I have a laptop with cubase on it. Now I just need a mic. I figure a USB mic is the way to go, for the sake of ease.

Which one would you recommend? I'm inclined towards the Snowball.

There will only be one mic running. Although I suppose that if I have multiple USB ports I can run more than 1 mic. Is that accurate?

Thanks for any assistance.
 
USB mics are one option. You can also get a small electret mic. Granted that most laptop soundcards suck. But it's an option. For not much more money you could just a get a Zoom H2. And bypass the computer all together. Laptops have limited battery life anyway. For similar money you could get a Mobile Pre and an XLR mic. In terms of resale value, the USB mic is probably the worse option.
 
we have two blue snoballs and they are incredibly clear for the money, and great on the fly. That's the way I'd go. $99 and you're recording.
 
Thanks for the replies.

The zoom sounds pretty versatile, and I like the sound of that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Guitar - how do you have those Snoballs plugged in? Can you put one mic at each USB port and then specify a channel for each of them to feed to?
 
With multiple USB inputs there's a latency issue. Plus each has it's own DAC so there's issues with sync. Maybe only a few seconds difference per hour. But enough to have timing issues over a long track, and intonation issues that weren't present at creation time when mixed.

In linux I couldn't find a way to record from my two Mobile Pres in any one application. So I had to script it. Even doing that there was a latency issue between the start up of each application, about 0.2 seconds. So it is possible, but not supported by most apps. And the difference in DACs was maybe a second over an hour in that instance. Basically if you want multiple inputs, you're better off with a single device.

I generally use this mic when I'm slumming it.

http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/gs/gs-minigold1.htm

I even buy them in bulk when they're on sale, like right now. It's about as good as these mics get. But really no comparison to a good mic through a good pre, into a good soundcard. Lots of self noise and low in terms of transparency / presence. I'd recommend the battery box as it makes even a crappy laptop soundcard do much better with these mics. And you basically need it if you're gonna run this mic to a decent soundcard (no plugin power / bias voltage) or a microphone preamp.

My needs are slightly different. So I've gone with a Korg MR-1000 myself. A little more than 2.5 hours of battery life per set of batteries. But the difference between this thing and your run of the mill soundcard setup is drastic. Unfortunately it doesn't multitrack. And despite taking 8x AA batteries, battery life still kind of sucks.
 
MCreel said:
Thanks for the replies.

The zoom sounds pretty versatile, and I like the sound of that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Guitar - how do you have those Snoballs plugged in? Can you put one mic at each USB port and then specify a channel for each of them to feed to?
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Never tried to use both at once. To be honest, I don't know if you can.
 
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