The best microphones to start podcasting with

As a resident audio engineer at The edgeSometimes I'm asked what microphone should we have if they want to create a podcast. For professional use, the answer is complicated. You can not simply connect any microphone to your computer and start recording. But for an amateur or a beginner on the field, there are now more options than ever for your show to be operational at a fairly low price.

When Apple started selling Blue's Snowball microphone in its stores in 2005, this opened the door for independent creators who wanted their home recordings to sound significantly better than what the market had previously offered, simply by plugging in a microphone in the USB port of their computer. Now that the market is full of these types of microphones, it can be hard to understand what is the best option for your own setup. We have tested the best USB microphones on the market to help you choose your next investment in podcast or streaming.

The qualifications for this list are specific to a podcaster who starts or shifts to using a superior microphone. The microphone must be user-friendly, accessible and offer excellent sound quality.

Podcasting is in its heart independent and accessible to all; for the creator and the listener. With the rise of podcast companies and the growth of the on-demand audio industry, there are still independent creators who can not afford a multitude of equipment, space and time to produce an audio show. . So before media companies are embarrassed in the industry of podcasts, here are some microphones that can help you make your show sound better than your budget.

Testing 12 USB mics plugged into my MacBook Pro in a quiet environment (Vox Media podcast studio), the obvious winner of the bestsounding micro was the Røde NT-USB. Voice recordings are rich and complete, with a wide signal-to-noise ratio (the amount of background noise in a recording compared to your recorded voice), and require little equalization.

What you get in the box is an anti-pop shield that can be mounted to block the plosives (unwanted sound from letters like P and B), a stand and a cable. The microphone comes with a USB Type B cable that is suitable for general use, but if you want to use it with an iPad (announced by Røde), you need to buy a Lightning cable to USB type B.

Most high quality USB microphones are very big (see Micro Uber M-Audio, Blue Yeti, Samson G-Track Pro). Whenever I suggest someone to The edge To bring a blue Yeti with them and record a remote podcast during their trip, they are very hesitant because of its size. The NT-USB is quite compact. If you separate the microphone, the shield and the stand, it is much easier to put in a bag.

I highly like the anti-pop shield mounted on the mic. It is robustly built so that it is always at the same distance from the microphone and is effective at suppressing these effects. The anti-pop shield for mics like the Blue Yeti is sold separately. I would even say that it is an essential element so that your sound is better and you end up buying it anyway.

When it comes to everything you need to record a podcast yourself, it helps you reach your goal.

I would like the Røde NT-USB to have an adjustable gain on the mic itself. This is a strange complaint from a sound engineer because no professional microphone has this, but a USB microphone is basically an audio interface. It is much easier and more convenient to adjust the input gain on the hardware than to open settings in your system preferences or a small slider button in Audacity or other recording software.

A standard in podcasting for USB microphones, the Blue Yeti is versatile, easily available in most consumer electronics stores and easy to use.

Due to its ability to record in stereo, the Yeti is widely used in the ASMR's YouTube community, as well as for podcasting and streaming.

With the introduction of the Yeti Pro, you now have the option of using it as a standard XLR analog output (with a stereo drop cable) for use with any audio interface or recorder, as well as the possibility of record 24-bit / 96 kHz samples. rates for better quality recordings. This type of feature is why the Yeti Pro costs a lot more than the standard Yeti, but it makes this microphone still usable if you upgrade to a more professional studio speed.

A curve ball! The names of these pickups speak for themselves. They are beautiful. But how do they sound?

Well, not bad. The Bumblebee and the Beecaster have a dry, but still flat sound, but they compare well to Yeti and Røde. The way the parameters are arranged is very neat and easy to use. For the Bumblebee, the base of the stand has three buttons for setting the music, the voice or the neutral, as well as the gain of the microphone and the volume of the headphones. For Beecaster, you can switch from mono width to different stereo width instead of voice / music / neutral preset. There is also a mute button to mute the microphone for any reason. These two microphones have different frequency responses; I found that the more expensive Beecaster seems more complete and flexible for various use cases, such as recording acoustic guitar or voiceover for video.

These controls are very well placed, but that means you can not remove this microphone from the stand and mount it on another stand. It's really a desktop mic that should not be moved. Think of it as a good thing on your desk that you can use for teleconferencing or being interviewed for a show.

The good thing about these brackets, however, is that they have an adjustable height, unlike all other media included with a micro USB. I do not know why no other micro USB has this.

There are situations where your needs for podcasting and audio recording may vary. What if you want a super compact mic for a light trip? What if you want a second, cheaper microphone to stay in your office? Well, I have tested several USB microphones. So here are other options that will do the trick, with their own specialties and warnings.

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