USB Microphones Close the Margin Between Price and Performance

We all know that USB connectivity effectively eliminates your vocal microphone setup time and just kind of makes sense. Plug and play appeals to just about everyone, and I am sure that for most, it wouldnt hurt to cut down on that spaghetti pile of XLR cables that always seem to be tangled around the chair legs. To be honest, for most recordings I really wouldn’t choose a USB microphone. Im just as attached to my microphone preamps and old-ish school way of doing thing as most of us are. I would say that for pod-casts, stuff like that, USB microphones are fine… However, some long-awaited game-changers are making waves in the home studio biz.

Before I go any further, we should all acknowledge that the USB microphone class is getting better and better all the time, as the market demands better products. Its always been true that for recording dialogue for pod-casts, yakking online with your war game buddies via gaming headset, or cheaping out on long distance with SKYPE, USB has always been the default and sensible choice. But for recording vocal tracks, the stakes are much higher and its important to feel confident with your vocal microphone before you start wailing and immortalizing yourself on hard disk. The truth is, Its that feeling of confidence that has taken years to take seed through the home recording studio industry, but gradually that seed is beginning to grow.

USB microphones as a sub-category of vocal microphones, are still basically thought of as consumer products, and not as good as pro-sumer and professional level wired microphones. Fair enough, that same is probably still true, but the time has come to take notice of what companies like Audio Technica, Shure, AKG, CAD, and NADY are developing for the home studio. Audio Technicas AT2020 is a competitively priced large diaphragm USB microphone that sounds good enough to fool most home recording gurus.

A new development that has a lot of people pretty excited is Shures new X2u XLR-to-USB adapter. Now, you have the luxury of being able to hook up your higher end vocal microphones with the USB adapter seems to good to be true. So far, people seem to have had pretty good results. Great development for anyone who likes to simplify in the home studio, but doesnt want to give up the collection of wired Sennheisers. The X2u adapter is perfect for multi-track recording and features zero latency.

Whatever your goals in the studio are, consider picking up a USB condenser microphone and see what kind of results you get on your next vocal track. I bet you will be surprised at just how good these companies are getting it.