Need help finding a recording mic

[BaconRace]

Hi.

I have been looking at the Audio Technica At2035 and thought that was quite the solid mic for my uses which will be streaming and recording audio for videos. Are their any other mics you guys recommend at this price range? I also have a Steinberg UR22 so I can use XLR connections.

[SlothPaladin]

It looks like a quality mic and it is well reviewed by users on B&H, but getting feedback on XLR mics seems more likely on an audio specific forum. I have a Audio Technica AT875R which costs about $20 more and does not include a shock mount which makes it close to the same price range on the 'nicer side' but really you likely won't notice much difference in quality till you get to the $500 range from this point.

 

If you want to hear a raw wave file of my  Audio Technica AT875R  where I demonstrate the directional nature of my shotgun mic I uploaded an unedited *.wav where I have the mic pointed at myself and then pointed at the computer. You can listen to it here. It was recorded a Focusrite's Scarlett 2i2 preamp.

 

Your planned recording setup and the recording pattern of the mic you want should be taken into account [I nabbed these images from the Audio boards FAQ thread]

 

The mic you are looking at has a cardio pattern which looks like this:

 

if your computer does have audible fan noise and is off to the side you may pick up fan noise that you would have to digitally remove which I find degrades the quality of the audio, however if your PC is behind the microphone you will be in good shape and all you'll have to worry about is your room's acoustic  conditioning.

 

If you can't have your mic in front of your computer you may want to consider something like my shotgun mic, it's recording pattern looks like this:

 

In the recording sample the distance my head is to the mic is much smaller then the distance from the mic to the computer when I point the mic at my computer, my fan noise is noticeable but not overbearing in the room, but the directional shotgun mic almost completely eliminates it. Not having to digitally remove background noise is going to save you editing time and increase the production quality, and if you are doing anything live you have less to fear from ambient sounds.

 

HOWEVER! You recording setup may make the advantages of a shotgun mic unnecessary and if you find yourself moving your mic often the included shock mount of the At2035 is going to bring a great value to that mic, and the $20 extra dollars my shotgun would cost turns into $40 extra if you need to buy something like this to reduce handling noise. So if one or both of those things are the case the AT2035 Cardioid Condenser would be a much better value to you then the AT875R Shotgun mic.

 

In this price range it's not really about which mic is better, but what mic is best for your planned use.

 

Take all this with a grain of salt, I can't give you info on equipment I haven't used and I am not an audio technician, my audio background is, is I am a freelance animator who most does animation content for other peoples youtube channels and I have a microphone to record sound effects, and actors (and in worse case scenarios myself) I most of what I know about recording after I worked with an audio engineer on my own person project and he told me that most of the voice acting I had recorded was crap and I needed to re-record whatever parts of it that I could.

 

Hope that helps

Edited July 4, 2016 by SlothPaladin
clarity