if you're just starting out on YouTube or podcasting you've likely asked the
question what mic to get for my channel or podcast in this video we're looking
at USB mics versus XLR mics welcome to simple green tech where we do tips
tutorials and reviews to help you create great digital content if you'd like to
see more videos like this one including more mic review videos please consider
subscribing I'm Radio Zane I'm a professional
broadcaster I work with microphones and audio editing everyday and in this video
we're going to be looking at the pros and cons of USB mics versus XLR mics and
just so you know I've linked to all of the products that I mentioned in this
video down in the description so you can easily check out any of the products at
any time you like let's look at some of the pros of each we'll start out with
USB mics now one of the biggest pros of USB mics can be the price typically it
will cost you a lot less to get into a USB mic as you don't have to buy an
audio interface or any extra cables this fifine k669b mic costs under $30
u.s. and it gives you great audio quality but there are higher price USB
microphone options out there like this one right here the shure MV51 it can go
for over $200 but it gives you very high quality sound and it looks pretty cool
on your channel too another possible plus for USB mics is that a lot of them
are compatible with console systems so if you're a console gamer and you stream
and you want a great mic this could be an option for you to easily set up which
brings me to the final plus that will talk about the easiness of setting it up
all you have to do is plug it into your computer your console or your phone and
you're ready to start recording it's that easy you don't need to worry about
drivers because typically they install themselves now let's look at some of the
pros of XLR mics and the first Pro is variety there are tons of XLR
microphones out there there's condenser mics dynamic
mics ribbon mics there are so many XLR microphones out there for you to choose
from just go on Amazon and search XLR microphone and you'll see what I'm
talking about and pro number two is that you can use
external processing like a preamp or an external mixer and this can give you a
bit more of a professional sound the next Pro is that once you get an audio
interface you can always upgrade your microphone or add microphones you might
have a different microphone for different spaces that you record in or
maybe a different mic for the different content that you create another plus to
consider for XLR microphones is that audio interfaces can sometimes integrate
better with certain audio programs and this next plus may be a big plus for you
if you have a podcast or a youtube channel where you talk to more than one
person and you need more than one mic an audio interface gives you multiple
inputs so you can add guests or instruments as needed and the final pro
that we'll look at four XLR microphones is that you can connect them to external
hardware recorders so you don't need a computer to use them you can connect it
to the popular zoom h4n if you have one or whatever external Hardware recorder
you have but if you have a USB microphone like this one it connects to
your iPhone so you can turn your iPhone into a hardware recorder pretty much the
only negative about XLR microphones is the initial cost you'll have to buy the
USB audio interface and the XLR cables to connect it with however there are
budget options and of course there are budget options for USB mics as well and
I've linked to some of those budget options in the description below so you
can check those out whenever you like as far as audio quality goes this is a
matter of preference you may prefer the sound of an XLR mic over USB mic or vice
versa we're going to test a few options right now to show you the differences
between XLR mics and USB mics now the first mic that we're going to
look at is the fifine k669b that I mentioned earlier this is a test of the
fifine k669b USB microphone it's plugged directly into my computer
the audio has not been edited at all now we'll look at this relatively
inexpensive XLR microphone it's the behringer XM 8500 this is a test of the
behringer XM 8500 it's plugged into my focusrite 2i2 audio interface
using an XLR cable this audio has not been edited and now we're going to look
at a fairly budget-friendly XLR condenser mic this is the MXL 990 this
is a test of the MXL 990 plug directly into my focusrite 2i2 audio
interface this audio has not been edited now other than the microphones that we
just tested this whole video has been recorded using this Shure MV51 USB
microphone so you kind of know how it sounds but I'll just do the test so we
can play them all back to back this is a test of the shure MV51 USB microphone
it's plugged in directly to my computer and the audio has not been edited this
is a test of the fifine k669b USB microphone it's plugged directly into my
computer and the audio has not been edited at all this is a test of the
behringer XM8500 it's plugged into my focusrite 2i2 audio interface using
an XLR cable this audio has not been edited this is a test of the MXL 990
plug directly into my focusrite 2i2 audio interface this audio has not been
edited now what it might all come down to is your initial budget if your
initial budget is low then by all means go look for a USB microphone and you can
get started right away with a low investment however if you're starting
with a bit of a budget you might want to look into some XLR and audio interface
options I've linked to those below in the description now I want to know what
do you plan on starting with or what have you started with an XLR microphone
or a USB microphone and let me know what one it is I always
enjoy hearing what microphones people use thank you so much for checking out
this video if you'd like to see more videos like this one please subscribe to
the channel for simple green tech I'm Radio zane and we'll talk soon