greetings earthlings today i'm back with a review of a brand new microphone from audio technica
the microphone we're looking at today is the atr 2100x which is an updated version of the atr 2100
we will be doing a comparison a little bit later but if you are interested in
the 2100 x it will cost you around 100 to 120 like always i'll throw some links down below
and for the majority of this review i have the microphone connected directly to my mac
my input gain is set at around 60 percent i am recording at 24 bit 48
kilohertz and i will not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it in post
so check the doobly-doo to see what i didly did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
of course you are going to get the microphone you'll get a desktop
tripod stand a desktop mount which has a 5 8 inch threading a usbc to usba cable usbc to usbc cable
an xlr to xlr cable a quick start guide as well as a us lifetime limited end user warranty very cool
then as far as the build quality the microphone does feel pretty good it has an all metal body as
well as a metal mesh grille which doesn't have any kind of give to it even when i hit it on the table
on the side you will find a little blue light to let you know that it's plugged in and getting
power there is an on off switch which works in usb or xlr mode and there is nothing else around
the side of the microphone but when you look at the bottom of the microphone you'll find the usbc
port to connect this to your computer the xlr port to connect this to an xlr interface or mixer a 3.5
millimeter headphone jack which does offer zero latency monitoring but you are unable to turn it
off and it is very very noisy and you'll find a volume control to control the computer playback
then as far as the specs this microphone has a cardioid polar pattern meaning it just picks up
audio in the front of the microphone it has a frequency response of 50 hertz to 15 kilohertz
a bit depth of 24 bit a sample rate of up to 192 kilohertz and as far as the headphone
amp i was able to drive the sennheiser hd 650s although my volume was near 100
and it was not clean at all it was very very noisy sounding now i am spinning around the microphone
to 90 degrees so you can hear the off-axis rejection and coloration continuing around
the microphone to 180 degrees speaking into it from the rear continuing around the microphone
to the second 90 degree angle or 270 degrees and then rotating and ending at the front of the
microphone although this is a usb microphone it takes the handheld dynamic form factor
so i will pass it back and forth between my hands so you can hear what kind of handling noise it has
now i am right on top of the microphone so you can hear the proximity effect on this thing
three inches off of the microphone with it pointed at the corner of my mouth about one foot away from
the microphone two feet away from the microphone and about four feet away from the microphone now
let's go ahead and see how this microphone does at rejecting plosives please bring pizza pronto
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto now i am typing on a keyboard with
cherry mx blues to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up
and for all you gamers now i am typing on the sad w keys
here's how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
and here's how the microphone sounds in a completely untreated room
and now to demonstrate why you could benefit from getting a boom arm for this microphone i have it
set right down in front of me and if i were to need to type this is what it would sound like
it picks up bumps of the desk it really picks up a lot of the keyboard and it makes it very
distracting much more so than when you have the microphone on a boom arm and now i am bumping a
desk with the microphone on a boom arm so you can hear how much of that it rejects
and i will also bump the boom arm so you can hear how much of that it rejects
now let's go ahead and see what kind of noise is generated when we switch the microphone off
now i want to do a very quick comparison between the atr 2100 x the older version of this
microphone the atr 2100 and a much cheaper version of this style of microphone with the xlr and usb
output the samsung q2u so first up i am speaking into the atr 2100 x about three inches off of
the microphone and make sure to check the lower third when i'm speaking into these microphones
so you can see what my gain was set at and how much i boosted it in post now i am speaking into
the older version of this microphone the 2100 my gain is set at around 75 on my mac i am recording
at 16 bit 48 kilohertz three inches off of the microphone and here is how the audio compares
and lastly i am speaking into the samson q2u i am recording at 16 bit 48 kilohertz
my gain is set at around 60 i am three inches off of the microphone and this is the cheapest option
out of these three microphones and here is how the audio compares now i want to demonstrate the
audio coming directly out of the usb port compared to the audio coming out of the xlr port running
through an audio interface so for this section i will switch back and forth between the usbc and
the xlr so you can determine which one you like better and if you hear any kind of a difference
but at the same time i'm also demonstrating a really cool feature about this microphone where
you can record and output audio from both the usbc and the xlr port simultaneously so you can use the
usbc port to connect to your computer and record that way and if you have a portable recorder that
has an xlr port you can plug this microphone into that and record a backup for your podcast
now i have the atr 2100 x connected directly to a windows 10 pc i have my input gain on the windows
pc set to 90 percent and this is how the audio sounds when i am recording at 24 bit 48 kilohertz
now i am going to throw the microphone in my box of doom which attenuates the outside
signal by 30 db and then we will measure the noise floor of the internal preamps
all right so with a sample rate of 48 kilohertz and an io buffer size of 32 samples we have a
seven and a half millisecond round trip or 3.7 milliseconds output when we jump
up to 64 samples we have nine milliseconds round trip or four and a half milliseconds output up
to 128 samples 11 and a half milliseconds round trip or 5.7 milliseconds output and when we jump
up to 256 samples 17 milliseconds round trip or eight and a half milliseconds output
then with a sample rate at 192 kilohertz and the io buffer size at 32 samples we have 6.6
milliseconds round trip or 3.2 milliseconds output at 64 samples 7 milliseconds round trip
or 3.3 milliseconds output 128 samples 7.6 milliseconds round trip
or 3.7 milliseconds output and at 256 samples 9 milliseconds round trip or 4.3 milliseconds output
is there a limit to the number of songs that i may write about the one i dream of at night my
sweet pizza serious question is it too creepy yet i know we're on the way to creepy but too creepy
let me know alright with this microphone exceeding the 100 price point it is now in the price range
where it has a lot of competition that is really good for that price and first up in terms of pros
i really appreciate that they have upgraded to a usb-c port because that makes this microphone
much more convenient to use as that port becomes more universal additionally i really like the
fact that you're still able to record both usb and xlr simultaneously it's also great to see
that they have upgraded the converters to 24 bit 192 kilohertz and even though i am not a big fan
of the zero latency monitoring they do still offer that as well as computer playback which is nice to
see in a device that is this compact but then in terms of cons the handling noise on this thing was
absolutely atrocious yeah you're probably not going to be hand holding it much but don't don't
hand hold it don't bump your boom arm don't even look at the microphone it's that bad but also
the headphone amp in this thing is extremely noisy and there is no way to adjust or turn
off the zero latency monitoring and with a set of headphones that are low impedance like the 7506s
the zero latency monitor ring is painfully loud and if you have open backs it's probably going
to bleed into the microphone i think they need to add a feature that allows you to adjust the
zero latency monitoring and the computer playback and maybe include a better headphone amp but next
what are my overall thoughts of this microphone on the electric guitar i find it to be pretty usable
although between 100 and 200 hertz i find it to be a little bit woofy so cutting some frequencies
there can be really beneficial and with a little bit of post work i think it's a pretty passable
electric guitar mic then on the acoustic guitar i find it to have a very punchy sound as well as
a healthy dose of treble which gives it a really articulate sound however it doesn't sound too open
like some condenser mics do although to be fair it is a dynamic and you don't really expect
dynamics to have a super open sound but i want to describe what i heard next up for singing this is
a very very presence boosted microphone which will help your vocals pop out of a mix but at the same
time it does have a big boost in the treble as well and to my ears the treble starts to get
a little bit grainy on the vocals and lastly for spoken word to my ears this mic has a bit more of
a robust low end and more of an accentuated treble frequency range compared to the older atr 2100 usb
and that yields less of a nasally or less of a honky sound in comparison but as i mentioned in
the singing section i do tend to hear a little bit of graininess in the treble frequencies
almost like those upper frequencies are clipping a little bit so i'm not really too keen on that
sound and to wrap up what i recommend the atr 2100 x both yes and no first up if you are just looking
for a plug and play usb dynamic microphone and you prefer the tone of the 2100 x over the samson
q2u and you want usbc then yes i would recommend it because the usb dynamic microphone market is
extremely limited so you don't have many options there and the groups that i think this microphone
will really work well for are traveling podcasters who need a compact usb dynamic microphone to
record in hotel rooms or at conferences with or if you're an at-home teacher or somebody doing
teleconference work and you don't have a treated room and you want to improve the audio quality
quite significantly over your computer's internal microphone i think this mic would work really well
but on the other hand if you don't absolutely need a usb microphone and you're willing to go
the xlr route i think there are much better sounding options at 120 or less especially
considering i think the converters in this thing are pretty rough when i was going back and forth
between the usb output and the xlr output into the focusrite it was a night and day difference in
the lower frequencies it almost sounded like the usb output had some kind of high pass filter on
then when i switched back to the focusrite it just beefened up the signal and made it sound much
more even and less top heavy so if you have 120 dollars and you don't absolutely need a usb mic
i think you can find a much better set with a budget usb audio interface and an xlr dynamic
microphone all right that's going to wrap up for today but i want to hear from you did you hear
a huge difference as well in the usb and the xlr and what did you think of the comparison between
the new 2100 x and the atr 2100 if you found this video fun interesting or helpful go ahead and give
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you all so much for watching thank you so much for listening i'll talk to you next time bye