Good microphone for 200 usd

[rippy4500]

Im looking for a good microphone for 200 dollars, 250-300 is my absolute limit though.

 

I want to make youtube videos so I need a good microphone. But I dont know that much about microphones.

Requirements:

-Best recording quality I can get for my money, dont care about anything else like size, connections, whatever.

-XLR connection, I believe this is what better microphones use, but I think I need some kind of amplifier though so im gonna need some help with that

-No software required to use it.

[person123456789]

3 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

Im looking for a good microphone for 200 dollars, 250-300 is my absolute limit though.

 

I want to make youtube videos so I need a good microphone. But I dont know that much about microphones.

Requirements:

-Best recording quality I can get for my money, dont care about anything else like size, connections, whatever.

-XLR connection, I believe this is what better microphones use, but I think I need some kind of amplifier though so im gonna need some help with that

-No software required to use it.

Beyerdynamic M201TG

[Meatball the man]

23 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

Im looking for a good microphone for 200 dollars, 250-300 is my absolute limit though.

 

I want to make youtube videos so I need a good microphone. But I dont know that much about microphones.

Requirements:

-Best recording quality I can get for my money, dont care about anything else like size, connections, whatever.

-XLR connection, I believe this is what better microphones use, but I think I need some kind of amplifier though so im gonna need some help with that

-No software required to use it.

blue yeti pro 

 

the basic version uses usb

 

also your gonna need a sound board to use a xlr i would say get a sound board and the yeti and when you get big replace the yeti with a shure sm7b (the best) the yeti will sound good and will leave your budget for a sound board

[Meatball the man]

tho using xlr will requre getting a sound board ($100) and some studio headphones ($50)

[rippy4500]

12 minutes ago, Meatball the man said:

tho using xlr will requre getting a sound board ($100) and some studio headphones ($50)

Can you recommend me a good sound board?

 

Also I already have the sennheiser hd 600s and a good amp+dac so im fine in terms of headphones.

[person123456789]

1 hour ago, rippy4500 said:

Can you recommend me a good sound board?

 

Also I already have the sennheiser hd 600s and a good amp+dac so im fine in terms of headphones.

Motu M2

also the Blue Yeti Pro isn't good

[rudimedia]

In which way do you want to record your videos? Are you okay with / do you intend having the microphone in the shot? Or do you want a „cleaner“ look with the mic being out of frame? Or do you just not record Video of you speaking at all anyways?

[rippy4500]

6 hours ago, rudimedia said:

In which way do you want to record your videos? Are you okay with / do you intend having the microphone in the shot? Or do you want a „cleaner“ look with the mic being out of frame? Or do you just not record Video of you speaking at all anyways?

My videos will be a little random, like gaming, talking about stuff, messing with things, etc.

Most of the time it wouldnt be in view, so I dont want to sacrifice recording quality for better appearance or size, as long as its not excessively large because I dont have infinite desk space.

[rudimedia]

6 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

My videos will be a little random, like gaming, talking about stuff, messing with things, etc.

Most of the time it wouldnt be in view, so I dont want to sacrifice recording quality for better appearance or size, as long as its not excessively large because I dont have infinite desk space.

Alright, so no small diaphragm condensers then .

 

You may wanna look at dynamic microphones. They are often regarded „inferior“ to condenser microphones, but could suit your use case a bit better as they usually offer better rejection of unwanted sounds (which includes room echoes or your keyboard clicking about). The Shure SM7B for example is a dynamic microphone and highly regarded as a top-choice for what you wanna do. It’s not worth getting just starting out tho, as it requires quite good amplification to sound its best. Gladly, there are a multitude of much cheaper options that can produce quite similar sounding results (with a little tweaking in post) or may even suit your voice better out of the box.

 

Examples would be the Røde Podmic, Røde Procaster or the t.bone MB7 (USB)

They all have different personalities so you might wanna listen to a few reviews / comparisons. Pick the one you think would suit your voice the best. The two Rødes use solely XLR connectors while the t.bone offers both a XLR and a USB connection. 
 

If you want to use XLR because you want greater control, quality and expandability you can do so with all the beforementioned microphones.  You‘ll need, as you’ve already noted, an audio interface with a preamp to do so. While I agree that the MOTU M2 person123456789 recommended is a great audio interface, I don’t think it is quite suitable (nor necessary) for your use case. You may wanna look at the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen - It’s quite the tried and tested thing. A cheaper but similar alternative comes from Native Instruments, the Komplete Audio 1. If you‘d like something more modern and don’t wanna have to spend any time learning about audio (but still retain the possibility to do so) you might wanna check out the EVO 4. It offers Smartgain so you don’t have to worry about setting your gain and will avoid distortion if something loud happens during recording. It also has two XLR inputs so it might be a good option if you intend on expanding your setup or recording a friend / collaborator. 
 

Hope some of it helps.

[person123456789]

10 hours ago, rudimedia said:

While I agree that the MOTU M2 person123456789 recommended is a great audio interface, I don’t think it is quite suitable (nor necessary) for your use case.

I primarily recommended it because it has a very good DAC

[rudimedia]

18 minutes ago, person123456789 said:

I primarily recommended it because it has a very good DAC

Yeah that’s true and I love MOTU Interfaces, but I think that of his 200-300$ Budget the Interface shouldn’t take up 2/3 of the budget. Sure, Preamp and DAC Quality are important, but a little bit neglectable when considering budget setups. It’s not like other (cheaper) offerings nowadays sound like Behringers Mixing consoles of the 2000s  

[rippy4500]

6 hours ago, rudimedia said:

Yeah that’s true and I love MOTU Interfaces, but I think that of his 200-300$ Budget the Interface shouldn’t take up 2/3 of the budget. Sure, Preamp and DAC Quality are important, but a little bit neglectable when considering budget setups. It’s not like other (cheaper) offerings nowadays sound like Behringers Mixing consoles of the 2000s  

Do they have a noticable upgrade in quality? I could wait to find a good price on one of them. And I can go above 300 if its worth it but it would have to be a good improvement over the cheaper options.

[rudimedia]

8 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

Do they have a noticable upgrade in quality? I could wait to find a good price on one of them. And I can go above 300 if its worth it but it would have to be a good improvement over the cheaper options.

I truly do not think you need to worry about that. Those details are mostly only truly important for high-end audio productions in sound design, studio music production and few others. Notice that I specified studio music production here. That’s because even for Live-Sound oftentimes there’s not given much thought to the used Preamps and DACs. A lot of shows are being done with the Behringer X32 Mixing Desk which inherits the same preamps and DAC from Behringers cheap Audio Interfaces like the UMC202HD. Theres nothing inherently wrong with those. 

 

High-End Preamps become important if you need to amplify either a very quiet source our a very quiet microphone. The Shure SM7B for example would be such a quiet microphone. BUT, if you would intend to use that SM7B later on, you could also just use a „Cloudlifter“ which is like a preamp before the preamp. That would probably be cheaper than buying an audio interface capable of delivering such high amplifications outright. 

 

I‘m gonna repeat myself just for clarification: You don’t need to worry about it. For recording spoken word you don’t have to sweat it, its not gonna be noticeable enough. Instead of investing more into these teeny tiny differences, you could instead look at treating your room acoustically for example. Makes a MUCH bigger difference, but is also a very different topic.

[The Flying Sloth]

Take a look at the guide in my sig, I wrote it specifically to answer this question but it will also help you make an informed decision

 

Short answer, Behringer umc202HD interface with Behringer C2 is a good budget option, it's what I got both my younger brothers.

 

Longer answer, it really depends on the specifics of your situation, whether your space is treated and what you'll be using it for but as a general rule, mics from 3U, ADK, Advanced Audio, Aston and Groove Tubes can be found pretty cheap used and are usually stupid good value for money.