Interesting conversation.

I'd only add that I would recommend passing on any USB based mic. From my early years in the cakewalk forums, the folks who were using the USB mics were the ones coming in asking for tech help to get them to work without serious latency and other issues with recording in their DAW about the clocks not properly syncing and things drifting on playback.

Those mics are ok for podcasts and other simple things but put into a DAW with other soundcards in the system and they were nothing but trouble. Someone had actually posted a sticky on how to make them work but it seemed to not work for the vast majority.

Maybe that has been worked out now..... I don't know.

My advice is still the same, avoid the USB mics for recording. Get something that plugs into your external interface.


Another thing..... To the average listener..... A $200 mic sounds just as good as the $2000 mic. And for a home studio, that $2k mic is simply overkill and bragging that you have money to throw around. Again, back in the cakewalk forums, there were several people who used a $59 condenser mic for vocals and it sounded really good.
I bought one, fairly decent, condenser mic and use it for everything.


Back in 2009, I attended a songwriter convention in LA. One of the sponsors was a new mic company called Gauge Mics. They had a booth where you could compare, side by side, A/B with a switch, their $100 mic with one that cost 10x more. Suffice it to say that I was hard pressed to hear any difference between the two mics.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 04/12/25 04:34 AM.
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