Mics...Testing Testing

I use the Blue Yeti microphone. Really love this one. It's perfect.


Used a Samson meteor prior. Loved the design and the portability. Quality was not even close to the Yeti though....

 

I have an Audio Technica AT2020+. It works pretty well. I don't do any recording of the audio. I just wanted a nice microphone to have. People on the other end of Skype instantly noticed a difference in audio quality when I started using it.

 

I got a Blue Yeti about three years ago. On the second day, it just died - light wouldn't come on, wasn't recognized. Returned it to Best Buy for a refund. I know lots of people seem happy with these, so maybe I just got one of the rare bad ones?

I replaced it with an AT2020 USB and was very happy with it - sounds really good with an acoustic guitar. Since I was so pleased, I got a second one so I could record stereo. About a year later, one of them developed an intermittent problem with a huge amount of distortion suddenly appearing, then going away. Nothing obvious wrong, tried different cables, etc. The other AT2020 still works fine.

Since then I have moved on to a 4 channel audio interface and analog microphones. But these experiences kind of soured me on USB mics. Still use the one working AT2020 at times when I want to make a quick recording with my MacBook Air. One thing to keep in mind, these mics have a very wide pickup pattern and if you place them a few feet away from the sound source, the acoustic properties of your room will be significant. It picks up all the ambient noise in the room.