What's a really good mic?

[Shadow_Storm56]

I am curious what is a really good mic these days? I Have a Samson gtrack which is pretty good but it's a bit older. Would I get much improvement from a newer better mic or is that still a pretty decent one? I find it hard to judge the quality of my own audio. Thanks!

[NTDaws]

Is this professional audio or just for gaming?

[Shadow_Storm56]

Gaming, streaming, meetings....ect

[TempestCatto]

No budget?

 

The Electro-Voice RE20. Bar none the best in my book. Paired with the right EQ, it can make even Linus have a soothing voice.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RE20--electro-voice-re20-broadcast-microphone-with-variable-d

[Tamesh16]

@tikkerrecently got a Rode NT-USB Mini, which seems to be decently good for a small usb mic, if that interests you

[FavoringWinter]

Samson q2u. I have it is is really nice, sounds great, it is dynamic as well if that matters for you

[Shadow_Storm56]

4 minutes ago, Tamesh16 said:

@tikkerrecently got a Rode NT-USB Mini, which seems to be decently good for a small usb mic, if that interests you

That's actually a really cute looking mic

[Shadow_Storm56]

9 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

No budget?

 

The Electro-Voice RE20. Bar none the best in my book. Paired with the right EQ, it can make even Linus have a soothing voice.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RE20--electro-voice-re20-broadcast-microphone-with-variable-d

That's a nice mic! Although I'd prefer to stick with usb mics Although I'm sure that's easy to adapt. Not sure i need that fancy but it is pretty..... haha

[Shadow_Storm56]

Would all of these mics be an upgrade over the samsom gtrack?

[WkdPaul]

* thread moved to the Audio section *

[Shadow_Storm56]

13 hours ago, wkdpaul said:

* thread moved to the Audio section *

Ohh cool, some weird reason I didn't think there was an audio section:p

[Ahoy Hoy]

Microphones haven't changed drastically in technology over the past 40 years. Don't be worried that something three or four years old is behind in performance compared to modern microphones.

 

[The Flying Sloth]

If you're looking for microphone recommendations that's kinda my niche here, I've got a nice long list of good mics on the recommendations list in my signature but since you've already said it's for gaming and streaming you can't really go past the Aston Stealth, it's like an SM7B or RE20 except with switchable voicings that make a drastic difference in sound signature and it has an inbuilt preamp so you don't have to mess around with finding a way to boost the signal. Well, that and it's much more reasonably priced than the aforementioned.

 

If that price is a bit too high or you're looking for a USB option the usual recommendations here are the Samson Q2U, AT2005 and Tbone MB88U simply because they provide you with the option to upgrade to a proper XLR mic system without replacing mics. As for sound, they sound damn good for the price and have vastly better versatility that just about any other USB option.

 

Now, is there a good reason to upgrade from what you've already got? So long as your mic is working, probably not....

 

Though I will say that for the price of your mic you could have got a very nice proper XLR mic setup, if/when your mic breaks shoot me a message and we can go over some better options 

 

[Shadow_Storm56]

1 hour ago, The Flying Sloth said:

If you're looking for microphone recommendations that's kinda my niche here, I've got a nice long list of good mics on the recommendations list in my signature but since you've already said it's for gaming and streaming you can't really go past the Aston Stealth, it's like an SM7B or RE20 except with switchable voicings that make a drastic difference in sound signature and it has an inbuilt preamp so you don't have to mess around with finding a way to boost the signal. Well, that and it's much more reasonably priced than the aforementioned.

 

If that price is a bit too high or you're looking for a USB option the usual recommendations here are the Samson Q2U, AT2005 and Tbone MB88U simply because they provide you with the option to upgrade to a proper XLR mic system without replacing mics. As for sound, they sound damn good for the price and have vastly better versatility that just about any other USB option.

 

Now, is there a good reason to upgrade from what you've already got? So long as your mic is working, probably not....

 

Though I will say that for the price of your mic you could have got a very nice proper XLR mic setup, if/when your mic breaks shoot me a message and we can go over some better options 

 

hmmmm interesting, is that an xlr mic? the aston shealth. Also I have a thing for mics that's why I want to upgrade. Do I stil need this with the aston one? https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00FFIGZF6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1

[Shadow_Storm56]

See I could use a really nice xlr mic for other things, whare a usb mic I cannot

[The Flying Sloth]

4 minutes ago, Shadow_Storm56 said:

hmmmm interesting, is that an xlr mic? the aston shealth. Also I have a thing for mics that's why I want to upgrade. Do I stil need this with the aston one? https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00FFIGZF6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1

All XLR microphones should be used with an audio interface, bare minimum I recommend is the UMC202HD.
If you "have a thing for mics" I'd strongly suggest investing in an XLR setup as prettymuch every mic worth 'having a thing for' is XLR.

Think of that as a long-term goal though because you already have a mic and don't really need another one...
...having said that, I do have a few more mics than I have inputs on my interface so I really can't be one to judge.

I'd strongly suggest you read through the link in my signature, I've got a bunch more info on there that you might find interesting/helpful

 

[Derkoli]

8 minutes ago, Shadow_Storm56 said:

See I could use a really nice xlr mic for other things, whare a usb mic I cannot

Just gonna vouch for Ribbon microphones, if you can keep them covered when they aren't being used.

[Shadow_Storm56]

6 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

All XLR microphones should be used with an audio interface, bare minimum I recommend is the UMC202HD.
If you "have a thing for mics" I'd strongly suggest investing in an XLR setup as prettymuch every mic worth 'having a thing for' is XLR.

Think of that as a long-term goal though because you already have a mic and don't really need another one...
...having said that, I do have a few more mics than I have inputs on my interface so I really can't be one to judge.

I'd strongly suggest you read through the link in my signature, I've got a bunch more info on there that you might find interesting/helpful

 

is that mic you linked an xlr mic? also I have other uses for my usb one or I could sell it to someone. 

[Ωmegα]

On 11/6/2020 at 5:14 AM, Tamesh16 said:

@tikkerrecently got a Rode NT-USB Mini, which seems to be decently good for a small usb mic, if that interests you

I'm gonna advise you against it, unless you're in a quiet room. It picks up everything, including typing on your keyboard.

[The Flying Sloth]

5 hours ago, Derkoli said:

Just gonna vouch for Ribbon microphones, if you can keep them covered when they aren't being used.

Even though I may be scared of ribbon mics he's right, they can sound freaking great.

 

 

5 hours ago, Shadow_Storm56 said:

is that mic you linked an xlr mic? also I have other uses for my usb one or I could sell it to someone. 

The Stealth is XLR, yes, but don't buy a mic just because it is XLR, there are lots of less-than-great XLR mics out there.
Trust me when I say I didn't learn that the easy way.

Spoiler

Good Mics

BAD MIC (also terrible interface and headphones and silly way of splitting outputs but mostly focus on the terrible mic)

 

[Ahoy Hoy]

Just going to throw my point in the ring again.

The samson G is a reasonably good microphone unless you personally have a problem with the microphone or the audio quality is poor. There is not much point in a upgrade to a microphone at a similar price point. Even if its XLR USB or what ever. Those things dont make the microphone magically better just because its XLR or USB. 

You are already at a sweet point for price to performance on microphones of this design. Unless you have problems with your current microphone you are going to have to spend serious money on a microphone system to get a noticeable difference.

[tikker]

On 11/6/2020 at 5:14 AM, Tamesh16 said:

@tikkerrecently got a Rode NT-USB Mini, which seems to be decently good for a small usb mic, if that interests you

On 11/6/2020 at 5:19 AM, Shadow_Storm56 said:

That's actually a really cute looking mic

Great sound and quality for the price in my opinion. No idea how different it is from your Samson one though.

20 hours ago, Ωmegα said:

I'm gonna advise you against it, unless you're in a quiet room. It picks up everything, including typing on your keyboard.

Any (good) microphone will do that, unless you have a strongly directional one. Edit or a dynamic one.

[The Flying Sloth]

6 hours ago, tikker said:

Great sound and quality for the price in my opinion. No idea how different it is from your Samson one though.

Any (good) microphone will do that, unless you have a strongly directional one.

Or a dynamic mic like the RE20 or Stealth previously suggested...

[tikker]

8 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Or a dynamic mic like the RE20 or Stealth previously suggested...

Ah ok. I don't have a ton of background noise going on, so it's not that big of an issue for me and doesn't really degrade my audio.