Audio-Technica ATR2500-USB Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone

This Mic is everything i wanted, me and my brother are putting together a podcast but we live in a noisy house. So we needed a Dynamic mic for those of you who dont know they pic up sound in a small area rather then in large areas like Condenser mics. The package is nice, comes in the box in a plastic mold, the XLR cables are strong, the mic has a strong metallic build as well, the USB cable is standard and about 5 feet long. No Drivers needed Plug and play im using this with windows 10.IMPORTANT NOTICE: if you do NOT want to speak VERY close to the mic, and i mean like the mic has to be around 1inch away from your mouth then do NOT get this product. This is a Dynamic mic, its made to pic up the closes sounds the best. Which is why its great for a podcast radio station, or on stage or for instruments where you want to pick up only the nearby targeted sounds and not the surroundings.DOES THE JOB FOR ME: With this mic not picking up any background noise and with a mic windscreen on it, when i edit my sounds i never have to clean it up, its already clean, you can see the sound waves and in between where no one is speaking there is almost NO sound picked up which is pretty nice.CONS:You have to speak up close to it, you CAN speak about a foot away if you have an editing software to enhance the gain later. If not, right up in personal gives you the best clear sounds.Even when i Shut down my PC the BLUE LED on the mic does NOT turn off, so i just unplug the USB cable. Not a big deal, over all i love this mic its so professional looking with a strong build does NOT feel cheap.The Table stand how ever kinda sucks, but it does its job of holding the mic no wobbles, no vibrations, it does not tilt forward or backward in a loose way from the weight, as a throw in perk with the mic it is not bad at all.Over all for the price this is a GOOD DEAL.AND YES ITS GOOD FOR SINGING TOO, VERY GOOD. I had my sister sing on the mic to give it a test run and it sounded crisp and clean this mic is just epic.

This is an amazing mic for the price. I'm a budding podcaster and podcast editor and this mic beats a Sno Ball & Blue Yeti hands down.Comparatively, the Sno Ball picks up every background hum and sometimes random sound frequencies so the finished audio track will contain constant fuzz behind vocals that only goes away if the speaker mutes themselves. When using a Sno Ball, it's not always apparent during a live recording, but the audio track will have picked it up. And since it's underneath the vocals, an editor can only do so much without turning the speaker into sounding like a robot. The only thing I would recommend this mic for would be for better-than-a-cheap-headset sounding Skype, Discord or TeamSpeak/Vent conversations but not for audio recordings.The Blue Yeti picks up every single background noise but is usually pretty good with not picking up buzz. Got a squeaky door? Chair? Scratch an itch on your arm or face when you're near the mic? Drop a pen? You got it, the Yeti will pick all of that up with enthusiasm. The audio quality is really decent, however, but, dang, if it doesn't want to record absolutely every sound that occurs within the room.This mic, the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB, since it uses a cardioid polar pattern, doesn't pick up any noise from the sides or rear, making background noise pick-up very minimal. I have it right next to and slightly in front of my desktop and it never picks up the hum of the fans or noises from the processor. I've heard from musician friends that this is a challenging mic to work with on stage as a singer because you basically have to inhale the mic to be heard, but for podcasting, I find that the closer I get to the mic, the more pronounced my pops are. I can be a good 6 inches away and my vocal quality is great, without the pops.When I first got into podcasting, the reason I ended up choosing this mic as my starter mic was because all the podcasting equipment advice I kept researching pointed to this mic over a Yeti for overall sound quality and a better price point. Quality and a cheaper price is something it definitely delivers on. This mic will last me a really long time and couldn't be happier about my purchase of it almost a year ago. If you're serious about wanting really good audio with little hassle (especially in post), I highly recommend this mic. Super easy to set up, too. Just plug the USB into your computer and you're good to go.

I run a small time youtube channel and this records my commentary fine.Since this is dynamic microphone it will mostly capture sound from the direction it is pointing. This is different from a condenser microphone which will capture any sound anywhere in the room.This microphone is useful if you're recording in an environment where you cannot control the environmental sounds. This microphone is great for any amateur podcaster or let's player, since you're probably not going to have access to a quiet recording studio. Another perk of this microphone is that has both xlr and usb connections. This leaves you room to grow and if you decide to get a mixer then you can just switch from usb to xlr.There are a few cons. I have a mechanical keyboard, so it's a bit louder than the average keyboard. This microphone will still pick up the keyboard sounds. These sounds aren't very loud and don't distract away from my commentary so it's not really a problem for me. Just don't expect it to eliminate every single sound perfectly.The other con is that it records kind of quietly so you may need to crank up your gain a bit. From my understanding all dynamic microphones are like this. The gain will create a fuzzy sound in the background. You can easily remove this sound in post though. Even Audacity (free) has a sound removal feature that will remove this sound effectively.Once the fuzzy background sound is eliminated, my voice sounds nice, clear and proffesional. This is a great beginner microphone and your money is well spent on this microphone.If you found this review helpful then please hit that helpful button.