What mic should you buy?

[MrBogosity]

We've been discussing microphones and what are good ones to get for what price. Mostly this was spurred on recently by Charles and Dave getting higher-quality mics. I'll let them tell you about them in replies, this post will be just my recommendations. But first, relevant terminology:

Condenser: This is how most mics work, and they can be made inexpensively. The sound waves push a diaphragm, which acts as half of a capacitor and so vibrating it varies the voltage. However, they're omnidirectional by nature, and so to give them that directional pattern ("cardioid" is usually what you want for voice work) they have to engineer the mic to mute out the sound from other directions, which if course is going to be limited and doing a better job means charging more for the mic.

Pressure gradient: With this one, both sides of the diaphragm are exposed to the sound, not just one. These microphones are bidirectional, not omnidirectional; they pick up sound from the front and rear, but do a good job isolating the sides.

Dynamic: This is what you REALLY want--IF you can afford it. Here, the diaphragm is attached to a coil which goes around a magnet, so it vibrates back and forth and generates a radio signal as it does. So these are naturally directional. However, they're more expensive, especially for the large-diaphragm dynamic mics you'd need for voice work. Also, they don't have a "flat" pickup the way condensers do, meaning that certain frequencies will be picked up more than others. However, they engineer these to favor vocal frequencies so this ends up being an advantage if that's all you're doing with them. (But they won't be so good for, for example, foley work.)

So, then, let me give you my recommendations:

Let me start with the one I've been using: the Audio-Technica AT-2020USB. This is a large diaphragm condenser mic that has a reasonable price, and you can hear how good it is on the podcast and my YouTube videos. It picks up a bit of the room noise (mostly my computer's fan), but I can easily take that out with a noise filter without sacrificing sound quality. However, there are others that are just as good that are cheaper--Dave and Charles can tell you about them.

Here's the one I would buy if I were to get another one: the RØDE Podcaster. This is a dynamic USB microphone and it's really good: even if you're just in your living room it sounds like a recording studio! It is a bit pricey, but consider that for the most part you're going to be adding maybe $100 or more in accessories: a pop filter, a shock mount, and a swing arm. The Podcaster comes with built-in shock mounts and podcasters, and B&H has them for $229 with a free swing arm (and headphones) included: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/450171-REG/Rode_PODCASTER_Podcaster_USB_Broadcast_Microphone.html

But if you really want to go down the rabbit hole into XLR mics and mixing boards, nothing beats the Heil PR-40 for the price (generally around $300). This is a studio-quality dynamic microphones, and I even know of professional recording studios that are ditching their $5000 mics and going with these! Way overkill for podcasting, though.