Microphone Recomendations

[Codicier]

I need to get a new mic.

 

I'm dyslexic so i do a lot of dictation, and my current headsets been on the way out for a few month now and its never really given me the clarity i need for the dictation. Add to that the fact i want to be able to record reasonable quality audio in the not too distant future and i need something a bit better.

 

I'm currently looking at these two

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Microphones-Bidirectional-Omnidirectional-Microphone/dp/B002VA464S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379463594&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+yeti

&

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Microphones-Snowball-Omnidirectional-Microphone/dp/B000EOPQ7E/ref=sr_1_2?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1379463625&sr=1-2&keywords=blue+snowball

 

because they seem like a all in one solution that i can't fuckup. So if anyone got any experience using them or other good solutions i'd be grateful.

 

I'd be open to more complicated solutions to if people can push me in the right direction. I'm not sure if it would help or not but I've currently got a http://www.asus.com/Sound_Cards_and_DigitaltoAnalog_Converters/Xonar_DG/

as my soundcardand though it was a marked improvement over the motherboard soundcard it obviously pretty basic.

[Twig]

I have the Snowball and it's great. U:

[Coods]

If sound quality is more important than thriftyness, shoot for the Yeti. It's also got a bunch of handy knobs and you can plug some headphones right in. 

 

 

You're not going to get that much of a drop in quality of you get a Snowball; just less options, but it will also work much better with a pop filter than a yeti, which for some reason has no good place to clamp a normal one. 

 

Personally I have a Yeti with a pop and the sound is crystal clear, but I'm pretty sure a snowball will work for you.

 

p.s. consider the audio technica 2020 if you want a good middleground; it also looks less dorky  nvm the usb version seems to have gotten much more expensive.

[Thrik]

I was considering the same thing a couple of months ago and eventually settled upon the Yeti. There were things about the Snowball that bothered me I recall, but over everything else I just listened to a bunch of comparison videos of all sorts of microphones (including that ubiquitous one used on stage whose name escapes me) and the Yeti simply sounded great at a good price.

I should note that I never actually bought it as my funds had to be diverted elsewhere. But I nearly did!

[Codicier]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm sort of edging towards the yeti since it seems like it has a few extra bells & whistles that could come in handy long term.

 

Deleric would you recommend a pop filter as a essential purchase? or is the mic probably going to be fine 90% of the time without one?

 

Lord Remo tells me this

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-C-1-Studio-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B000CZ0RLK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379507310&sr=8-1&keywords=behringer+c1

 

is what the thumbs use for the podcast but my worry would be the extras i'd have to buy to get that running through a pc probably would make things too fussy for me.

 

Edit: decided to take the chance on the yeti, will decided if im going to grab any extras depending on what people say & how well it works

[JonCole]

If you're going to use it to record voice (rather than music or something) a pop filter is quite useful. Not necessary by any means, but makes things sound a lot nicer on the whole.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I have a Blue Yeti I got from Woot.com for sort of cheap. It works quite well.

[Niyeaux]

 (including that ubiquitous one used on stage whose name escapes me)

You're almost definitely thinking of the Shure SM58.

Also, yeah, another vote for the Yeti. As far as USB desktop mics go, they're pretty much the gold standard.

[mkenyon]

Here you go: http://www.modmic.com/

 

Personally, I really dislike all of the USB microphones. They have a little whine and pop to them that sounds very digitized.

 

The ModMic is the only one I've found that can compare to the mic on my old Sennheiser PC-350s.

[JonCole]

There's something completely awful to me about having a mic like that. I used to have one of these guys and I thought it was pretty solid quality compared to most USB mics, but having that second audio cord was horrendous. It's the same problem I have with most fancy headsets for video game consoles - WAY, WAY too many wires. Having a free-standing mic or a USB headset are both way more preferable to me than any solution like that, despite how snazzy it looks and how it allows you to use a good set of cans (used that Zalman clip mic with a set of Sennheiser 555's).

[Dewar]

I figured I'd piggyback on this thread to ask for headset recommendations. I currently have a Logitech G930 that I absolutely love. Now that my wife and I are playing games together with folks online, I want to get her a headset as well, but maybe something more thrifty since she doesn't play nearly as often as I do. I'm thinking USB will be fine for her (her computer doesn't have a microphone jack so 3.5mm won't work) but I still want pretty nice comfort and sound quality, both in and out. The current forerunner on my list is the cheaper wired and stereo version of my own headset, the Logitech G230, but I'd love some more suggestions.

[Codicier]

Has she given the G930's a go and found them comfortable or not? most of the USB recommendation's I can make come from friends experience and tend to be huge sets of "cans" that I know some people are not entirely comfortable with.

 

I know one friend has used

http://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-3H-Gaming-Headset-Black/dp/B003ZXKVJE

for a while (since i asked him when i was considering whether i should buy a new mic or a new headset) & he always sounds clear enough but i can't speak for their comfort. 

 

Perhaps check out Sennheiser's range too.

 

Finally have you considered getting a cheap soundcard & installing it in her rig(assuming its not a laptop)? getting 3.5mm stuff will definitely be cheaper than usb perhaps even by a margin where the sound cards cost will be cancelled out. The Xonar i have is cheap as chips http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-XONAR-Headphone-Audio-Card/dp/B0045JHJSS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1380108066&sr=1-1&keywords=xonar+dg and it's output quality has been excellent for me.

 

Btw thanks all for the yeti mic recommendations, so far I've been very happy with it. Simple as you could hope for to setup and I've noticed a immediate reduction in the number of corrections i'm having to make for my dictation (despite the fact that i came down with a nasty head cold only days after i picked it up).

[Dewar]

She's on a laptop unfortunately, so it's going to have to be USB. It seems like most of the options hover around the $50 range, so I guess we'll have to see if we can find a place with  some display models.

[JonCole]

I usually use The Wirecutter for initial tech recommendations, their "Best USB Office Headset" is $40 and looks pretty good. Obviously not marketed directly towards gamers (doesn't say anything on the product page about accurate stereo directional representation or whatever), but seems like a solid enough piece of kit:

 

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-office-headset/

 

Other thing I'd recommend is this guy, a USB Sound Card. A lot of USB headsets just come with one of these and pack 3.5mm plugs, instead of building the USB plug into the wire. I used this one for a time and I thought the audio quality was surprisingly good, plus it let me use a solid set of Sennheiser cans with a stick mic:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-CM-UAUD-Adapter-C-Media-Chipset/dp/B001MSS6CS/

[Dewar]

That's a couple of good recomendations there. I didn't think to check Wirecutter. Even better, we have a nice headset lying around, so that USB sound card I think is the ticket for me.

[Codicier]

just a minor warning, some onboard soundcard can have serious issues with external usb ones (i know from personal experience a few years back), think its a good idea but do your homework about potential issues.

[Dewar]

In the end, it's a cheap way to use my nice $150 headset on her computer. If it doesn't work, it'll still be something handy to have around.

[Niyeaux]

just a minor warning, some onboard soundcard can have serious issues with external usb ones (i know from personal experience a few years back), think its a good idea but do your homework about potential issues.

You just have to change your windows settings so that it uses the USB card as the default sound device. It's not a big deal.

[Dewar]

Ug, the USB thing I got (the 7.1 version of the one that JonCole posted) broke after plugging and unplugging the cables maybe 5 times. The speaker ports actually busted off the circuit board on the inside.

 

My wife and I switched headsets, since I already had the necessarly ports on my computer to plug in the Razer Chimera 5.1 I was trying to get setup for her. Being without my Logitech G930 really made me realize how great of a headset that really is, so we went ahead and bought a G230 for her. I over-night shipped it because I'm already tired of this Razer.

 

Edit: Crap, I just realized that headset requires 3.5mm stero plugs as well.

 

Edit 2: Who builds a laptop without a 3.5mm microphone port?

[JonCole]

Can't say I have any experience with the 7.1 version, but I imagine they're built similarly. In any case, it's not a super-durable piece of kit so I'm not surprised it broke. I have it plugged into my computer using a USB extension cable and I don't have any reason to unplug and replug the wires so there's practically no stress on that component at all.

 

If you care to try again, I know that both Turtle Beach and Logitech also make USB soundcards that are quite decent (personal experience with the Logitech, Turtle Beach good from hearsay) but they were significantly more expensive (2-3x, $20 or something like that) so that's why I went with the cheap-but-good one I recommended.

[Dewar]

I saw that there's a USB converter on-sale from Logitech that looks pretty nice, but I ended up just going with the suggestion from that Wirecutter article. If my wife ends up needing something more comfortable, I'll just splurge on another G930.

[JonCole]

Oh, did you return the headset you overnighted then?

 

Either way, the headset you like so much was added to my Amazon wishlist. I have an old set of Sennheiser cans that are on the edge, so I'd like to line up a replacement when the time comes. Best of luck with your choice, I'd hope that a set of "office headphones" would be comfortable, as that seems like an important criterion for wearing something like that for hours on end.

[Dewar]

Oh, did you return the headset you overnighted then?

 

Either way, the headset you like so much was added to my Amazon wishlist. I have an old set of Sennheiser cans that are on the edge, so I'd like to line up a replacement when the time comes. Best of luck with your choice, I'd hope that a set of "office headphones" would be comfortable, as that seems like an important criterion for wearing something like that for hours on end.

 

I tried to cancel it, but I was too late, so I'll just have to send it back when it arrives I guess. Personally, I can't stand on-the-ear headphones. Considering there are days that I wear these things for 6-ish hours, I really want over-the-ear if I can get it. That's why I was concerned about comfort, but my wife will probably only use them for a couple hours at a time, so it should be fine.