XLR vs USB Microphones (Watch Before You Buy)

have you ever wondered how to choose between an xlr microphone and a usb microphone which is better for you which is better for your needs i'm brian from red one music and today we're going to be checking out usb versus xlr microphones and we're going to be checking out the pros and cons of each as well as what might be best for your applications so in front of me i have two at2020 microphones from audio technica i have one that's the xlr version of the microphone and then i also have in front of me the usb version of the microphone and so right now we're going to be comparing the two i'm going to give you the pros and cons of each let's talk about the pros of the xlr microphone uh first of all the uh the audio fidelity the quality that you get with an xlr microphone in general is going to be better than a usb microphone this obviously depends on the model if you happen to take a lower quality xlr versus a higher quality usb that's not the case but the ceiling is so much higher with the xlr microphone uh the next thing is the fact that you can do whatever you want to the voltage coming out of this microphone to the audio uh before getting to the interface so if you want to run it through a compressor if you want to run it through a gate if you want to run it through an external preamp or a console or an eq whatever you want to run it through you have that capability with this and then the other thing is the latency on this microphone so xlr microphones in general will not give any latency uh when you record you're you're getting it into the the interface or the recording device pretty much in real time and so latency is less of an issue the usb microphone some of the pros for this one the main one for me is the ease of use so for instance right now the way we're recording this as we speak we've got this microphone plugged into a laptop and that is it we've got a software open on the laptop and it's as easy as that so the ease of use for those who are less interested in learning about all the technical side of audio and who just want to be creative and get something recorded this is a great option for you another thing about it budgetary why budgetarily budget budget wise let's say budget wise uh this is a great option because although the microphone for instance these two microphones this microphone is slightly more expensive you don't need to buy the interface you don't need to buy any other gear you just need this and whatever you're recording on so that's nice about this one for sure and the portability of this one is great as well because all you like i said all you need is the laptop in this so you bring both to wherever you're recording if you're recording on location uh or uh at a live event whatever you're doing uh that's good for that let's talk about the cons now uh we'll start with the xlr microphone uh for this a con would be the fact that you do need some audio technical knowledge uh in order to run it effectively there are some decisions in the signal chain that you'd have to make that otherwise you wouldn't have to with the usb um it you know to get it running effectively you don't need a ton of knowledge but there is a good amount that you should learn if you want to use these to the best of your abilities the next thing is it sort of has to do with that it's the time it takes to set it up with the usb which is very plug and play like we said before the xlr is less plug and play because there's more elements in the signal chain that you have to think about make sure your gain structure is done correctly et cetera and then the last thing is that the unit itself might not be more expensive but the fact that you need the interface and you need all these other pieces of gear on the side makes this a more expensive choice than the usb microphone some cons for the usb microphone you can only use one at a time so right now for instance we're running this usb microphone into a laptop which is recording us and if we wanted a second one for recording a second person or something like that we would not be able to do that we can only run one at a time the other issue is the latency that you get with these types of microphones since the microphone itself is both recording the acoustic energy getting the acoustic energy into the microphone and then converting it into ones and zeros into digital uh that can you know that can give you a bit of latency which is never good when you're uh recording uh and then the last thing is you need a computer to run one of these right you need something for the usb to plug into it's not like the xlr where you show up at a gig and they have a console and you plug it in directly and you can start rolling this you absolutely need the computer with the software to run it effectively so let's now talk about the applications you could use these microphones for for many decades the xlr microphone has been the standard of the industry for every single application you could think of whether it's studio recording live sound post production for film on location recording you name it this is the microphone that they're using for that it's also great for if you're doing a podcast with multiple people this way you can have more than one microphone right the usb we said before you can only have one so for the xlr you put three different microphones on three different people and so you can mix each one independently and get great sound for all of them uh the usb microphone is great if you're doing a podcast by yourself or a remote podcast where you know you're on one end and someone else is doing the other side of the podcast remotely it's great for that if you're laying down a rap vocal or if you're a vocalist singing over a track that you've been given the stems and you just want to record your take over it it's awesome for plug and play if you're a teacher working from home right now and trying to get good audio quality for your students without having to know the whole technical side of things plug and play once again very good for that if you're streaming doing voiceovers for youtube again very versatile mic if you're by yourself recording so this has been our overview of xlr versus usb microphones i hope it's been informative for you if you have any other questions or want to learn more please visit our website at musicred1.com or give us a call in store we'll be more than happy to help you thank you so much for watching don't forget to like and subscribe and we'll see you next week happy recording

Channel: RedOne Music Canada

Views: 63,689

Keywords: XLR, USB, VS, MUSIC, STREAMING, REDONEMUSIC

Id: prOjnOjQcZg

Length: 5min 49sec (349 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/OperationExciting505]

I'm an analog dude. Not a devotee. I'll use a USB in a pinch, but I need more inputs!