Why not USB?

[Wallaceman105]

A web show I like is doing open auditions for a couple of characters, and I'm planning on throwing my hat in the ring. For now, all I have is a USB condenser mic that came with my Mic stand. It sounds really good to me on playback, although there's a noise floor I set the recording volume in windows to be above ~75%.

The thing is, everywhere I'm looking for tips on voice recording says "NO USB MICS! NOT PROFESSIONAL! IF YOU USE A USB MIC FOR VOICE ACTING, I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND SH** IN YOUR CEREAL!" /s

I want to know *why* they're so bad, but everywhere I go for explanations, it's just voice actors yelling about how bad USB mics are. I'm really trying to find out what is it that actually *makes* them that bad? Is it the connection bandwidth? The frequency range? Noise floor? What is their technology missing that is important in professional work? I really want to know, and I can never find an answer. Anyone here got one?

 

[Kilrah]

Makes no sense, there are very good USB mics and shitty audio interfaces. 

Probably a matter of "you're not paying enough to be part of the gang!"

[Gamer Schnitzel]

i think it's because usb ones have their integrated amps and the other ones allow you to buy some £10k amp

[jaslion]

26 minutes ago, Wallaceman105 said:

A web show I like is doing open auditions for a couple of characters, and I'm planning on throwing my hat in the ring. For now, all I have is a USB condenser mic that came with my Mic stand. It sounds really good to me on playback, although there's a noise floor I set the recording volume in windows to be above ~75%.

The thing is, everywhere I'm looking for tips on voice recording says "NO USB MICS! NOT PROFESSIONAL! IF YOU USE A USB MIC FOR VOICE ACTING, I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND SH** IN YOUR CEREAL!" /s

I want to know *why* they're so bad, but everywhere I go for explanations, it's just voice actors yelling about how bad USB mics are. I'm really trying to find out what is it that actually *makes* them that bad? Is it the connection bandwidth? The frequency range? Noise floor? What is their technology missing that is important in professional work? I really want to know, and I can never find an answer. Anyone here got one?

 

The amps used basically. Usb uses a built in one and on the cheaper usb mics it's almost always pretty crap. That and it's not universally compatible with all audio interfaces so you are basically stuck using the usb of your computer and can't really use it through any other hardware.

 

Other than that it's just your basic gatekeeping bs.

[rice guru]

Less co tells less choices and generally just doesn't sound as good as a good XLR setup especially if you wanna do voice acting but many also overlook how important room treatment is.

[The Flying Sloth]

5 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Makes no sense,

Probably a matter of "you're not paying enough to be part of the gang!"

No, it's a matter of versatility. With a mic plugged into an interface I have complete control over not only the positioning but also the gain on that microphone, the preamp in an interface will be much higher quality than one inbuilt in a microphone and due to this an XLR mic will often have a much lower noise floor. XLR mics also often have other features like low cut filters, pads or switchable polar patterns that increase the versatility of the microphone. This is all completely ignoring the wide variety of terrible, cheap USB mics with capsules that make you want to swan-dive off a bridge.

 In voice acting the quality of sound your mic produces is everything and with the lower quality and higher noise floor there's no competition, you have to be using an XLR mic (and a decent one at that). The most common VA mics are in the multiple thousands of dollars range, now, for sure there are other options that work just as well for much cheaper but there's a reason VA mics cost so much and it's not because they're interchangeable with USB mics.

Think of it like this, you're driving a qualifying lap for a car race, instructions clearly state that lap time is important and not to show up with a slow car, but you show up in a Corolla, when questioned you respond with "This car is good enough, I race my friends with it all the time, by the way there are some really crappy racecars out there too so it's not like this is any worse".

You can use a USB mic for gaming or talking to your friends, that's fine, but anything audio related at a high/pro level and it's just not an option.

[Kilrah]

3 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

the preamp in an interface will be much higher quality than one inbuilt in a microphone

Not necessarily. 

4 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

XLR mics also often have other features like low cut filters, pads or switchable polar patterns that increase the versatility of the microphone

These can be on a USB mic as well.

5 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

This is all completely ignoring the wide variety of terrible, cheap USB mics with capsules that make you want to swan-dive off a bridge.

The fact some (many) USB mics are bad doesn't mean they all are. 

 

 

[The Flying Sloth]

Just now, Kilrah said:

Not necessarily. 

The fact some (very few) USB Interfaces are bad doesn't mean they all are. 
Unless you're buying a 'sort by cheapest' interface and comparing it with a USB mic that costs 10x as much, an Interface WILL have a better preamp.
 

3 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

These can be on a USB mic as well.

For sure they can, there's nothing stopping the manufacturers from including all the useful features an XLR mic/interface has......
.... Except that USB mics are marketed as a simpler option, so manufacturers don't include the extra features because it increases product complexity and cost, two things the USB mic is specifically designed to combat.

 

5 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

The fact some (many) USB mics are bad doesn't mean they all are.

I'm not arguing that they're all bad, I'm arguing that none of them are excellent.
VA work demands an excellent microphone (Neumann U87 or Gefell M930 are common choices) and USB mics just aint it.

[Kilrah]

4 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

VA work demands an excellent microphone (Neumann U87 or Gefell M930 are common choices) and USB mics just aint it.

Context matters. OP mentioned a webshow (read: people will watch it in 480p on their phone in a noisy train). You don't need a $5K setup for that, and a high quality USB studio mic will be just fine.

[The Flying Sloth]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

a high quality USB studio mic will be just fine.

This does not exist.
Not ever have I seen or been in a studio that used a USB mic.
Besides, Context matters, OP says

6 hours ago, Wallaceman105 said:

I have a USB condenser mic that came with my Mic stand.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but that doesn't sound very "Studio mic" to me

 

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Context matters. OP mentioned a webshow (read: people will watch it in 480p on their phone in a noisy train). You don't need a $5K setup for that,

OP asked why 

6 hours ago, Wallaceman105 said:

they're so bad, but everywhere I go for explanations, it's just voice actors yelling about how bad USB mics are. I'm really trying to find out what is it that actually *makes* them that bad? Is it the connection bandwidth? The frequency range? Noise floor? What is their technology missing that is important in professional work? I really want to know, and I can never find an answer.

I answered OP's question.

This conversation is going nowhere, there's no point in continuing it, 
OP, I tried to explain as best I can why voice actors and audio professionals dislike USB mics, if you choose to use one that's up to you, in the end I can't force anyone here to do anything butt I would strongly suggest you take a more in-depth look at all the options if you plan to do VA at a higher level in future. You don't need to buy a super expensive mic for professional VA, just a super high quality one.

[Derkoli]

10 hours ago, Wallaceman105 said:

A web show I like is doing open auditions for a couple of characters, and I'm planning on throwing my hat in the ring. For now, all I have is a USB condenser mic that came with my Mic stand. It sounds really good to me on playback, although there's a noise floor I set the recording volume in windows to be above ~75%.

The thing is, everywhere I'm looking for tips on voice recording says "NO USB MICS! NOT PROFESSIONAL! IF YOU USE A USB MIC FOR VOICE ACTING, I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND SH** IN YOUR CEREAL!" /s

I want to know *why* they're so bad, but everywhere I go for explanations, it's just voice actors yelling about how bad USB mics are. I'm really trying to find out what is it that actually *makes* them that bad? Is it the connection bandwidth? The frequency range? Noise floor? What is their technology missing that is important in professional work? I really want to know, and I can never find an answer. Anyone here got one?

 

If you have an issue with a high noise floor, then, low-and-behold, you have a crappy analog circuit/ADC within the microphone.

 

Like @The Flying Sloth said, get an XLR microphone and decent interface. Even something as cheap as a Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 is a great option.

 

Really, audio interfaces/XLR microphones are vastly favoured in the audio world due to a few things:

 

If you spend 300 on a USB microphone, you're not spending 300 on a microphone. You're spending 300 on an interface AND a microphone. Hence the lesser quality.

 

They are not nearly as versatile. If I wanted to, I could plug every XLR microphone under the sun into any of my interfaces, and they would work if they are supplied with +48V phantom power as and when it is needed.

 

Wanna upgrade? Buy a full new USB microphone/interface system. With an XLR setup, you can upgrade the microphone, or the interface. With a USB microphone, you can only upgrade both at the same time.

 

You can't shove a USB microphone output into a mixing desk.

 

Most USB microphones only record at a bit depth of 16. The studio "standard" tends to be 24 bit, due to the increased achieveable Dynamic Range with a bit depth of 24. This gives you greater flexibility during the post-production process.

 

Trust me when I say that receiving a 16 bit audio file is probably the worst thing in the world for an audio engineer. It's so hard to work properly with such a low dynamic range file, you try and work with the levels of it and you clip the shit out of it more often than not.

 

USB Microphones tend to be cheap and noisy little buggers. Shoving all that analog circuitry close to a relatively sensitive transducer can fuck with it. Also if phantom power is needed, you can introduce noise from the transformer that is needed to take the voltage from the USB power lines and turn it into +48VDC Phantom power.

 

Really, as me and @The Flying Sloth are both audio engineers, we tend to recommend what is the most versatile and best sounding solution. In this case, it's an XLR microphone + interface.

 

 

The issue is not the fact it's USB. USB is great!

 

The biggest issue is the fact that the microphone is attempting to be a jack of all trades. And it really can't be. It's trying to be a microphone, pre-amp and AD converter all at once.

 

An XLR microphone just has to focus on being a damn good microphone. Nothing else.

 

An audio interface just has to focus on being a damn good pre-amp and AD/DA converter. Nothing else.

 

11 hours ago, Wallaceman105 said:

"NO USB MICS! NOT PROFESSIONAL! IF YOU USE A USB MIC FOR VOICE ACTING, I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND SH** IN YOUR CEREAL!"

 

We will find you, and we will defecate in your cereal. Beware the audio engineer.

[shoutingsteve]

I mean... this year's high end USB mic will sound better than the XLR passive mic from 5 years ago or the phantom powered ones from 8 years ago.  I would say record your demo for the audition and see if the casting director calls you out on it...  Audio people are the grumpiest mob you will every encounter; they love to hold opinions "because it's always been that way" (says the guy who works in the A/V field)

The SM58 sounds like crap, but it is still the industry standard for a professional grab and go vocal mic.  Don't put too much stock in what haters say.

ALSO: (added later)  you will find a trove of people who will blame the equipment, but the truth is, environment plays just as big a role as capture equipment.  If you are in a room with little to no noise reflection, you will sound better (some of the best clips I've ever heard were recorded in the back of a minivan where the seats adsorbed all the sound).  If you decide to record in a concrete room that is a perfect cube, you will sound like garbage, no matter what mic you have or who is mixing the show.  if your budget is $400, spend 300 on the mic and 100 on environmental improvements like sound dampening. (I tell the same thing to people asking about cameras, 75% on the camera and 25% on lighting)
 

[The Flying Sloth]

4 hours ago, shoutingsteve said:

I mean... this year's high end USB mic will sound better than the XLR passive mic from 5 years ago or the phantom powered ones from 8 years ago. 

Let me touch on this for a second,
NO, VERY NO, BAD TAKE.

There's a reason the Neumann U87 (Phantom powered mic released in 1967) is one of the most sought-after mics for studio use, especially for VA work. 
Absolutely we've come a long way in the decades since then, especially when it comes to making recording cheaper and more accessible to the general public but that doesn't mean that everything new is instantly better. I suggest you take a look at the comment above yours and try to understand what Derkoli is saying. We're not arguing that USB mics are all terrible, only that none of them are excellent.

[Ahoy Hoy]

Its just price and manufactures skills.
USB microphone is normally 100 quid. So all components for microphone to audio converters to power has to cost less then 100. Yet the cheapest audio interfaces which deal with just audio conversion are around 80 to 100. Your spending 100 pounds on just the interface your going to spend at least 150 on the microphone. So your getting better quality.

The next thing is microphone technology hasn't changed drastically in fifty years. Most microphone companies Shure Sennheiser AKG etc are old companies who have been doing microphones and audio products for decades and spend millions on development and research. These companies know microphone technology really well.
Now compare it to most USB microphone manufactures are just tech companies. Razer Logitech etc make keyboards mice other random computer stuff. They dont spend every penny of their research and development on microphones.

Price to performance is also very important in audio world. The difference between a 50 pound microphone and a 300 pound microphone is huge but the difference between a 300 and a 2000 microphone isnt anywhere as big.

So buying a 90 USB razer microphone your spending 50 quid on microphone 20 on USB parts and 20 on green LEDs. You spend 100 just on a Shure or Sennheiser microphone you are buying a professional grade microphone and 80 on a interface. You've spent double the money for 4 times the quality.


Hopefully next week shure will release a high end USB microphone which will probably be around 350 to 400 price mark. And it will probably be good. Because spending decent money on something from a company who specialises on that thing gets you a decent product. While buying a cheap thing from a company who doesn't specialise on that thing gets you a trash product.

[Ahoy Hoy]

7 hours ago, shoutingsteve said:

I mean... this year's high end USB mic will sound better than the XLR passive mic from 5 years ago or the phantom powered ones from 8 years ago.  I would say record your demo for the audition and see if the casting director calls you out on it...  Audio people are the grumpiest mob you will every encounter; they love to hold opinions "because it's always been that way" (says the guy who works in the A/V field)

Thats not true. 

Microphone technology hasnt changed in decades. 

Most changes to the microphone parts are small 1% improvements from minor component changes. 

The difference in microphones in the past 10 years has come from wireless technology. Using less frequencies, transferring more data, improvements to squelch levels.

Sennheiser for the last few years has been improving their wireless microphones year on year. But one thing which hasnt changed is the microphones. You can take the same head of their first gen wireless microphones and put it on this years new one and its the same.


Shure 58 is the same age as my dad (1960s) theyve hardly changed in the 60 years of manufacturing. Better manufacturing has made it cheaper and the body stronger. The one thing which has change is the magnet. Because they cant getting any because we have used all the magnets up. During university when being taught about frequncy response we had a 1970s 58 and a modern one, recorded the same sound and the response was basically the same and we couldnt tell the difference between the recordings. Also it doesnt sound like crap its not the best but its not meant to be, its a get the job done and its good enough to get the job done. 

[shoutingsteve]

7 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

...We're not arguing that USB mics are all terrible...

No, this is exactly what you are saying.  You are subscribing to the mindset that plagues the industry.  I used to be the same way with lighting; thinking that nothing will ever beat the ETC source 4.  But LED technology has advanced so much that the fears of Luddites were pushed away.  But that is lighting, not sound... back to sound.

USB 3 allows for a lot of bandwith, and proper electronic shielding goes a long way to reducing noise.  How would you feel if a pro sound company endorsed a USB mic?  Surly that would change your mind?  What you have said is "there is no way a professional product can come from a USB interface"  (essentially that s what you said, not a direct quote)

[shoutingsteve]

4 hours ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

 its not the best but its not meant to be, its a get the job done and its good enough to get the job done. 

This single sentence.. .this is the cornerstone of my argument.   The equipment doesn't automatically make you a professional.  There will be times when a duffous with SM81 and brand new cables will record total garbage but a guy with his macbook and integrated mic will do a better job just sitting in the middle of the room of the concert hall.
If the OP knows how to create a good environment for recording and understand the principals of the job, he will be able to create excellent results with the upper tier of consumer grade equipment.
Granted, with better (in this case professional grade) equipment, and the same level of knowledge and same environment, the OP would have better sound.  But it is not the equipment that is making him sound so great, it is his skill.

[The Flying Sloth]

1 hour ago, shoutingsteve said:

What you have said is "there is no way a professional product can come from a USB interface"  (essentially that s what you said, not a direct quote)

No, that's not what either Derkoli or I said because both of us endorse USB audio solutions and use USB audio ourselves. I use a UMC1820 8 input USB audio interface while Derkoli uses the CHORD Electronics DAVE, Matrix Audio X-SABRE Pro and RME ADI-2 Pro FS all of which are USB equipped. It's not the USB but we have an issue with it's the mics being designed and built to a price and specifically for simplicity. It means that you're not getting high quality converters (like Derkoli explained), you're not getting high quality microphone elements (Like I explained) and you're not getting the reliability of a studio workhorse mic. USB mics have more points of failure and due to being self-contained (especially due to cheap parts) so when one cheaply made part breaks you need to throw out the whole mic and start again.
 

6 hours ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

USB microphone is normally 100 quid. So all components for microphone to audio converters to power has to cost less then 100. Yet the cheapest audio interfaces which deal with just audio conversion are around 80 to 100. Your spending 100 pounds on just the interface your going to spend at least 150 on the microphone. So your getting better quality.

A UMC202HD and Behringer C2 combo is cheaper than many USB mics and (if I had to put money on it) would argue it sounds better than any of them within reason.
If we're talking proper studio sound swap out the C2 for either an ISK Pearl or 3U Audio CM1 and you could be literally recording pro-level audio (depending on placement etc).

My point is that it's not just price that controls quality, it's also the target market. You or I might be happy dealing with XLR cables, mic stands, low cut filters, pads and gain controls but the buyer of a USB mic just wants a plug and play solution so those extra features aren't available to them. They don't care about the bit depth so they only get 16 bits while we expect 24 and it's expected that they will mostly use it for gaming and voice calls so it's simply not built with the finesse required for exacting studio recording in mind. It's a quick and dirty solution that might work great for gaming but severely disadvantages you if you're trying to do any serious recording.

[Derkoli]

15 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Derkoli uses the CHORD Electronics DAVE, Matrix Audio X-SABRE Pro and RME ADI-2 Pro FS

Mans does his research

 

Fun fact: I actually use IIS/LVDS to connect to the X-SABRE DAC, as it's part of my "measurement focused" setup. Can get DSD1024 over it and anything below that.

17 hours ago, shoutingsteve said:

No, this is exactly what you are saying.  You are subscribing to the mindset that plagues the industry.  I used to be the same way with lighting; thinking that nothing will ever beat the ETC source 4.  But LED technology has advanced so much that the fears of Luddites were pushed away.  But that is lighting, not sound... back to sound.

USB 3 allows for a lot of bandwith, and proper electronic shielding goes a long way to reducing noise.  How would you feel if a pro sound company endorsed a USB mic?  Surly that would change your mind?  What you have said is "there is no way a professional product can come from a USB interface"  (essentially that s what you said, not a direct quote)

If a "pro sound" company endorsed a USB microphone, I would suspect it's to get more sales on that particular product.

 

USB is a fairly universal standard now in audio. It's quickly replacing Firewire400/Firewire800 in some situations.

 

The main reason it's becoming fairly universal is that USB 3.0 is faster than even Firewire800. Firewire800 is 800Mbit/S, while USB 3.0 is 5Gbit/S.

 

USB is obviously included on pretty much any modern computer/MAC.

 

You can add a couple of firewire ports onto nearly any PC with a PCI/PCIe addon card. Of course, with MAC's you cannot do this. Unless you have a pre-2008/2012 model.

 

USB is totally fine. USB microphones are inferior to an XLR microphone/interface combo. I believe it'll stay that way for a fair while.

 

If a USB microphone can outperform some of my mic/interface combos, and is the same price as that combo, then I'd absolutely switch over to it. But they just can't compete at this point in time.

[LstpersonalOF]

1 hour ago, Derkoli said:

Mans does his research

 

Fun fact: I actually use IIS/LVDS to connect to the X-SABRE DAC, as it's part of my "measurement focused" setup. Can get DSD1024 over it and anything below that.

If a "pro sound" company endorsed a USB microphone, I would suspect it's to get more sales on that particular product.

 

USB is a fairly universal standard now in audio. It's quickly replacing Firewire400/Firewire800 in some situations.

 

The main reason it's becoming fairly universal is that USB 3.0 is faster than even Firewire800. Firewire800 is 800Mbit/S, while USB 3.0 is 5Gbit/S.

 

USB is obviously included on pretty much any modern computer/MAC.

 

You can add a couple of firewire ports onto nearly any PC with a PCI/PCIe addon card. Of course, with MAC's you cannot do this. Unless you have a pre-2008/2012 model.

 

USB is totally fine. USB microphones are inferior to an XLR microphone/interface combo. I believe it'll stay that way for a fair while.

 

If a USB microphone can outperform some of my mic/interface combos, and is the same price as that combo, then I'd absolutely switch over to it. But they just can't compete at this point in time.

im trying to understand what the crap is the point of all of this because Me (coming from a live sound enviorement) Artists sometimes use usb mics for recording on their home studio but when they come to a professional studio to use xlr mics all the time.usb mics yeah they are great they work are simple fairly straight forward and sometimes they sound better than a xlr with a ton of crap in it to make it work but when it comes to the perspective of reliabilty,use case,etc they just not are that great in the past years i used usb mics at my desk but i had to change them 3 times within a year so every 4 months i had to change them i took care of them i do not remember the brands and model because it was like 3-4 years ago. then i switched my setup to xlr mic,mixer and interface they are still working and have had no issues with them great sound a bit better than the usb mics and i liked the usb mics they were simple easy to use fairly staright forward and i didnt have any issues beside the fact that they breaked pretty easily and they stayed on my boom arm every single time but they would just simply break and i didnt like that.

 

in conclusion from my perspective im not on the xlr side neither the usb mic side but when it comes to professional use wich is OPs intention i suggest to go the xlr route you have more capabilities than a usb mic does usb mics have a use case and so do the xlr mics but when it comes to what do you want to do you are not going to get the most out of a usb mic and they have a trend to break easily from my perspective and my past experience with them.

 

and when it comes to the usb thing if it has usb or not is not relevant enough for me to talk about it and dont care of the discussion you have of the usb on a mic if it has or does not offer one.

 

im open to discussion always but always with respect if i dont see respect on it coming from another person to me dont bother quoting me or asking me to answer because respect for me is a must and im not going to fall on the hole of a disrespectful conversation.

 

hope everyone is doing well and having a nice day.

[Derkoli]

49 minutes ago, Lesantir_12 said:

im trying to understand what the crap is the point of all of this because Me (coming from a live sound enviorement) Artists sometimes use usb mics for recording on their home studio but when they come to a professional studio to use xlr mics all the time.usb mics yeah they are great they work are simple fairly straight forward and sometimes they sound better than a xlr with a ton of crap in it to make it work but when it comes to the perspective of reliabilty,use case,etc they just not are that great in the past years i used usb mics at my desk but i had to change them 3 times within a year so every 4 months i had to change them i took care of them i do not remember the brands and model because it was like 3-4 years ago. then i switched my setup to xlr mic,mixer and interface they are still working and have had no issues with them great sound a bit better than the usb mics and i liked the usb mics they were simple easy to use fairly staright forward and i didnt have any issues beside the fact that they breaked pretty easily and they stayed on my boom arm every single time but they would just simply break and i didnt like that.

 

in conclusion from my perspective im not on the xlr side neither the usb mic side but when it comes to professional use wich is OPs intention i suggest to go the xlr route you have more capabilities than a usb mic does usb mics have a use case and so do the xlr mics but when it comes to what do you want to do you are not going to get the most out of a usb mic and they have a trend to break easily from my perspective and my past experience with them.

 

and when it comes to the usb thing if it has usb or not is not relevant enough for me to talk about it and dont care of the discussion you have of the usb on a mic if it has or does not offer one.

 

im open to discussion always but always with respect if i dont see respect on it coming from another person to me dont bother quoting me or asking me to answer because respect for me is a must and im not going to fall on the hole of a disrespectful conversation.

 

hope everyone is doing well and having a nice day.

Funnily enough, the ease-of-use is the one big pro to a USB microphone. Alot of artists don't want a large interface, possible pre-amp and what-not crapping up their desk, Hence why they would use a USB microphone. It's just easier.

 

Just because of the target audience, USB microphones are inferior. I would suspect if someone tried to make a really nice AIO USB microphone then it wouldn't be completely awful. But then it's getting people to use it properly. Most artists don't know how to actually use microphones properly.

 

 

This image of Lady Gaga singing into the wrong side of a $20,000~ microphone is probably the best example of artists not having a clue about audio engineering:

 

[LstpersonalOF]

57 minutes ago, Derkoli said:

Funnily enough, the ease-of-use is the one big pro to a USB microphone. Alot of artists don't want a large interface, possible pre-amp and what-not crapping up their desk, Hence why they would use a USB microphone. It's just easier.

 

Just because of the target audience, USB microphones are inferior. I would suspect if someone tried to make a really nice AIO USB microphone then it wouldn't be completely awful. But then it's getting people to use it properly. Most artists don't know how to actually use microphones properly.

 

 

This image of Lady Gaga singing into the wrong side of a $20,000~ microphone is probably the best example of artists not having a clue about audio engineering:

 

i totally understand it but then if they have their equipment then why do they go to a professional studio to record their songs because a lot of artist are composers and they have their home studio not the size of professional studio but they have it and know have some basic knowledge about it and know how to operate it and even if they are the only one in the shot there can be people in the background working on it and you will not notice it Also they dont care about the space most of them have the space on their home and thats why they have it in first place because they can and most of the time their producer and engenieers are with them all the time on their home studio and when they go out to a professional studio.

 

also this is a live performance they have to move and if it sounds great and they have a good engenieer behind the camera and its actively doing what they need to do they can move all they want.that is  the reason why most of them with their engieneer pick xlr mics because you have the flexibility to control what you want to do with it something that is really common in live production enviorements and something that is not common on usb mics if u can control the gain on a usb mic thats a miracle. and thats why they choose xlr mics because they have a lot of flexibilty with the simplest thing a compressor,mixer and the audio capture card 

 

if u tell me that you are a begineer streamer or you just want the mic for recording and their voice and calls even if is something homemade like a movie i will tell you go ahead with a usb mic. and im not against them to be clear once again.

 

but when it comes for something like a live at home performance,recording at studios or OPs intention i will tell you to go with a xlr mic because there is all the flexibility you want and you can make it sound however you want knowing what is best for you and consulting a professional studio or people with sound engieneering in their background because it doesnt mean that for you to make sound effects you need a hole professional studio you just need the right thing and with that correct piece of equipment you can achieve your original goal without any problem but just because someone uses a mixer to create effects or  any other kind of audio does not mean you will need the same thing every item has a purpose usb mics:begginers,youtubers,discord,streamers xlr mics:concerts,proffesional studios,home studios,etc and the list goes on but im not going to mention it all just the common things.

[The Flying Sloth]

4 hours ago, Derkoli said:

This image of Lady Gaga singing into the wrong side of a $20,000~ microphone is probably the best example of artists not having a clue about audio engineering:

 

NaH mAn It SoUnDs BeTtEr ThAt wAY, TrUsT Me!!!

 

For real though, I still see so many streamers talking into the top of side-address microphones and even some YouTube 'audio engineers' make stupid mistakes like that, heck, Glen Fricker once reviewed a microphone (got a very bad rating) while talking into the reverse side of it the whole review.... 

 

I think it's a perfect example of buying expensive gear not making you an expert, heck I'm certainly no expert but I've got enough time with the gear I have to know doing stuff like that is dumb. 

[Derkoli]

3 hours ago, Lesantir_12 said:

i totally understand it but then if they have their equipment then why do they go to a professional studio to record their songs because a lot of artist are composers and they have their home studio not the size of professional studio but they have it and know have some basic knowledge about it and know how to operate it and even if they are the only one in the shot there can be people in the background working on it and you will not notice it Also they dont care about the space most of them have the space on their home and thats why they have it in first place because they can and most of the time their producer and engenieers are with them all the time on their home studio and when they go out to a professional studio.

Well, generally the artist will tend to go to a recording studio because the studio tends to have ALOT more gear and options for recording, mixing and playback.

 

The minimum for most recording/mastering studios is 2-3 different pairs of monitors to reference too. Personally, I have over 14~ pairs of speakers, mostly monitors, that I can reference to. This ranges from $71,000 "audiophile" floorstanders, multiple pairs of active monitors, to a pair of old Sony standmounts I managed to buy for $4.

 

Most artists will a pair of basic headphones and possibly a set of simple monitors. This amount of equipment isn't really adequate to produce a significant album/song. You must reference your audio to multiple audio sources to ensure it scales properly across different devices. There is precisely 0 point in making your music sound great on one specific pair of monitors, but not other audio sources.

 

Generally, the artist will tend to have their own small studios for certain situations. The current world pandemic is an excellent example of one of these situations. If they can't get to a studio, they don't make music and then they don't make money.

 

A recording studio is also generally purpose built with a control room or 2 and multiple acoustically treated recording rooms. There is no point in making music in a badly treated room. Your song will just be full of reflections and an entire plethora of other issues that no mixing or mastering can fix.

 

35 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

NaH mAn It SoUnDs BeTtEr ThAt wAY, TrUsT Me!!!

 

For real though, I still see so many streamers talking into the top of side-address microphones and even some YouTube 'audio engineers' make stupid mistakes like that, heck, Glen Fricker once reviewed a microphone (got a very bad rating) while talking into the reverse side of it the whole review.... 

 

I think it's a perfect example of buying expensive gear not making you an expert, heck I'm certainly no expert but I've got enough time with the gear I have to know doing stuff like that is dumb. 

I think the worst microphone use by a musician/vocalist I've seen is holding a microphone like this:

 

 

And they were practically eating the poor capsule as well.