Samson G-Track Pro - Professional USB Microphone with Audio Interface - Black

Product Information

As far as mic’ing up guitar cabinets, it actually performs a lot better than expected, and even when recording acoustic guitar, it also did a more than decent job. Now, there’s one thing that you should consider before purchasing it, and that is the region of the world/country you’re in. If you're a streamer or a podcaster, and you're giving the short shrift to audio quality, you're doing it wrong. The built-in mic on your laptop, or the one on your headset, are fine for gaming or making video calls, but if you're trying to build an audience, you need to up your game, and a good microphone is is one of the most important places to start. This microphone has been released fairly recently, and therefore is a bit different than all the other USB microphones out there.

It records vocals extremely well, and I believe that recording voice-related audio is where this microphone really shines. Thesoundquality is excellent, and I mean excellent, especially considering the price, since you probably won’t find another USB microphone at this price range that sounds like it (more on the price in a bit, since it depends on where you’re buying it). Since the AT2020 is a plug n’ play microphone, you should have absolutely no issues getting it to work; simply connect it and that’s it, you can now record!So, overall, it’s a pretty versatile microphone that is insanely well built and that also sounds surprisingly well! What do you get in the Box? Here’s a post where I compare the Blue Yeti to the AT2020+, should you be interested. What do you get in the Box? The weight of the stand is more of an issue if you're going to take this on the road, and it's certainly well-equipped enough that you'd want to. But at over 3 lbs with the stand, it weighs more than some laptops.

One thing to be mindful of is that you can be recording a signal from the instrument input without realizing it—if something's plugged in, the only way to ensure it won't creep into what's meant to be a vocal-only recording is to kill its gain level completely, or simply unplug it. It seems like common sense, but the point is that both inputs are live, always, and need to managed and monitored if your intention is to record only one or the other.

The USB version of the Audio-Technica AT2020is just as good as the XLR AT2020 with the advantage of being a plug n’ play microphone that works both onWindowsandMac OS without the need of installing any sort of driver. And this is an issue that I had, since it took me over 10 min to get a decent tone out of it, and I still didn’t quite like it.

In cardioid, the mic only records sounds from the front, making it perfect for recording a voice-over, or for recording music (which is what I mostly used the mic for). One big con though is that when recording an overdriven electric guitar it may take you a while to fine-tune the tone, find the correct mic position, etc. There’s a reason why the AT2020 (XLR Version) is part of almost every music studio, and that is because when taking cost-effectiveness into account, there are few microphones that can stand up to it. That's a fantastic feature for anyone looking to record themselves playing an instrument while singing along. For streamers and podcasters, it's not as useful, although if you have an extra mic laying around with a compatible plug, you could increase your sound quality and toss another mic into the mix without needing to buy a mixer. The extra feature is awesome and has no effect on the price. At the mic's base, it screws into the desktop mount—this is where the included USB cable connects. While the mic can be removed, there's no included adapter so that it can be screwed into a traditional stand for non-desktop use.

Pros and Cons:

The only thing I don’t like that much is that it can sound a bitcrispyat times, but that isn’t that much of an issue really since you can fix that with just a bit of EQ afterwards. Audio quality is exactly what you would expect from a studio microphone. It captures 24-bit/96kHz sound, which is the same bitrate as the Razer Seiren and beats the Blue Yeti's 16-bit. That being said, it's extremely difficult for the average human to tell the difference between something recorded at 24-bit versus 16-bit. You'd basically need to be an audio engineer with an acute ear for nuance in sound. Overall, it's excellent and offers higher quality recording than most people will typically need. It’s hard to say which microphone is better built when comparing the AT2020 to the Samson since they both should last you decades if you take good care of them. USB microphones are replacing the traditional way of recording more and more thanks to their small and compact form, affordability and ease of use. Other than that, the mic supports line-in instruments to be plugged directly into the mic, and that’s definitely awesome especially if you’re like me and you like to record yourself playing an instrument while singing along. I did test out the mic with a couple of songs on the guitar, and the recording quality is excellent. Personally, I felt the recording was clearer than what we used to get with the Blue Yeti, even before any noise reduction or editing chains were applied on it.

Of course, it can be used for recording acoustic and classical guitars as well, which is what I used it for before getting some of the other microphones I own.title=More%20Expert%20Tech%20Roundups&type=articles%2Cvideos&tags=tech-roundup&count=6&columnCount=6&theme=article I often refer to the AT2020+ as my top recommendation for anyone who is looking for a cardioid condenser USB microphone simply because of the overall sound quality. As for the instrument front-end, my electric guitar was recorded cleanly and without issues, though the recorded waveform suggested that the recorded signal might have been polarity inverted somewhere along the line, as transients always headed downwards rather than upwards. Of all the functions, the monitoring feature is my favorite thing. Other mics require you to turn monitoring on either in software, or they're always on or always off. The ability to toggle it on and off built right into the mic itself is rare and very handy.