Audacity Forum

Ok so I'm looking around for a nice microphone, I got my eye on the audio techina range Because they sound great and are fairly cheap. I'm a gamer but I also do guitar/singing on the side.

My options- ATR2500, ATR2100 OR ATR2005

I couldn't find all good tests on some of the mics but the 2100 and 2005 have an XLR connection aswell as a USB. I'm not sure of I should go for the USB or whether to get one of the other USB/XLR. I'm a very amateur singer but that may change in the future. Thanks

There are some general rules:

USB microphones are aggressively unexpandable. You use it the way it was designed (within 6 feet of the computer) or you don't. There are no options.

XLR microphones are designed to plug into a sound mixer or microphone amplifier. Once you have the mixer, you can buy multiple microphones or other sound sources. You can, within reason and carefully, run an XLR microphone cable hundreds of feet. All sorts of production tricks become available.

One down side is getting the show into a computer.

If you get a strictly analog mixer or amplifier (like I did), then you need a USB adapter such as this:

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Lenovo.jpg

That's a small Peavey mixer and a Behringer UCA202. If you get a USB mixer, you don't need that. They cost more.

Of course, the XLR mixer route is not going to be $40 USD. You need the shock mount, the pop and blast filter, the mixer, the USB adapter, XLR cables, RCA cables, etc. etc. The USB microphone, given one simple job can be vastly less expensive.

Koz