Audacity Forum

Hello

I'm interested in buying a Audio Technica AT2005USB microphone. Mainly going to be used for conferencing, recording screencasts etc. I have some questions first.

1) How's the volume/gain control under Windows 7, any pitfalls?
2) How good is the included stand? I'm going to have the microphone plugged into the back of my computer forever and keep it in my padded bag while travailing.
3) Any other problems users have noticed?

I'll update this post if I can think of more questions later.

Thanks

jtl999

This review hit all the concerns I had. It's a stand, not a shock mount. It's going to pick up desk or table noises.

http://www.talkers.com/2014/01/07/revie ... namic-mic/

The review claims built-in volume compression and that may get around the most extreme problem with USB microphones: They're quiet. They have to be. There's no engineer or sound mixer. Quiet may be corrected in post production, but too loud, overload and clipping are fatal.

We have noticed that many USB microphones can have "frying mosquitoes" noises under the sound. This is a bad interaction between the microphone USB and the computer connection. You can't cure it and it's very difficult to remove with Audacity Noise Removal. So that's the first thing to check for when it arrives.

I can"t immediately find the sample noise clip..

Remember that in general, you only get one microphone and it has to plug into the computer, not a hub. There's no mixer or sound board unless you buy one. This microphone will plug into a sound mixer as well as a USB connection. There are tricks to recording multiple USB microphones, but they have restrictions and problems.

Koz

A sound test is here unsure if audio was edited in post production but I've heard other samples from other sources that are unedited and are really the same.

Also the mic has XLR, in the future if I got a fancy mixing device could I control the gain from that?

Thanks

Also I noticed in the link you posted there is a sound sample.

Also I noticed in the link you posted there is a sound sample.

I didn't review the entire review. I scanned through it and it specifically (and correctly) addressed many if not all of the concerns I have about using this microphone.

Microphone "quality" usually isn't as much of a concern as quality of the room or environment. You can, and I have, done very good work with a crappy microphone in a good, echo-free, quiet room. There are several postings from people doing audiobook quality work with a Blue Snowball — but in good environments.

USB microphones have the mic-pre, the line-level booster, the processing, the encoding and the transmission all inside the microphone. I think Windows allows you to change volume to a USB bitstream, but Macs don't. Many if not all the characteristics of the microphone are inside it and unchangeable.

Straight dynamic (moving coil) microphones do nothing but convert your voice into a tiny electrical signal. Everything else is handled in the mixer or sound desk. USB microphones are convenient and handy, but fixed and aggressively non-expandable.

Simple microphones are a lot less "handy" but you can change anything in the process to make it work the way you like. Even my simple sound mixer has three different ways to change the volume, and if I like, I can easily mix three other microphones at the same time and control them, too.'

However, nobody is going to stuff my small mixer and four different microphones and my computer into my run bag for a trip. I can hear you trying to cram one microphone into many different jobs and that can be messy. Also, yes, given everything else works OK, microphones do have a personality or sound and you have to like that before you commit.

Also note that very few people present a "naked" microphone as a finished performance. There's usually a pile of effects and filtering before any performance is called finished. Too many people expect their microphone to sound the same as a finished Warner Brothers Records album.

Koz

Thanks for your insight. While looking last night I found some nice mixing equipment that has USB (to computer I believe) and a XLR input with gain control. This sounds interesting

When you settle on one piece or a suite of equipment, post it and we'll rip it apart. I don't mean in a crazy way. There is a tiny Behringer sound mixer which seems to be a gift from the angels until you find out that it will not work with all makers of condenser microphones. That information is way down at the bottom of the page in the ads and it's easy to miss.

My favorite is the Peavey PV6. It has restrictions, though. I use it with my Macs which will high-quality digitize stereo sound built-in. Your computer probably won't do that. I also have a collection of rescue puppies. I have a terrific Shure FP33 mixer whose right channel doesn't work.

http://kozco.com/pix/shureFP33SoundShoot.jpg

Pay attention to power. My PV6 will not run from batteries, but the FP33 will. I can take my computer and the FP33 to the park to record birds. The obvious solution is to find a mixer that will run from computer USB power. I'm neutral about that. We have had postings from people where that didn't work right. We assume there's a lot of people where it worked just fine.

You don't have to use computers, either. I have my neighbor's Zoom H4. Everything including recording an external microphone and it fits in your pocket. This is where you sit down and make a list of tasks and goals — a real one. If you need to record multiple people around a table, your equipment list is going to be very, very different from someone recording personal commentary in a wheat field.

Koz