USB Microphone vs Audio Interface Head to Head

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🔥 MY FAVE STUDIO GEAR - I USE THIS STUFF EVERY DAY!

✅ Shure SM7B Vocal Mic:

✅ Zen Go Audio Interface:

✅ Focusrite 4i4 Audio Interface:

✅ KRK Rokit 5 Studio Monitors:

✅ Shure MV51 USB Mic:

✅ Sony Studio Headphones:

✅ Roland Go Piano:

✅ Zoom H4N Pro Portable Digital Recorder

🔥 MY FAVE MUSIC APPS!

MusicGurus - My absolute favourite music course platform. For instruments, singers, and production

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[MusicRepo]

My favourite recording gear is here! (Affiliate links)
As an Amazon and Sweetwater Affiliate I earn a commission for qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. This helps support my channel. Thank you :)

[rickster]

I’ve been a sound engineer my entire life (62 years old now) and I absolutely loved this video. Good job! Cheers!

[dodgrii]

Finally!! Someone who understands that we can't pick up the differences on youtube audio. Thank you so much. The moment you said "I uploaded to soundcloud", I subscribed.

[mikekeogh]

How refreshing! No silly banter, no gimmicks, just straight forward factual unbiased information. Your perfect diction and pleasant manner made it a pleasure to watch and listen. In very short order after watching this and another of your videos, I made up my mind and bought a focusrite interface. Thank you.

[johnford]

I have both of these microphones and I can confirm that the XLR version gives a higher quality recording.

[DojoOfCool]

Being a musician I have lots of audio gear for recording including a USB mic. I have to say my USB mic ends up getting used all the time because its small (with it's own stand) and takes little to no setup time. So for making recordings of my practicing, song ideas, recording the sound of some video, just about anything I need a quick recording of. I basically just leave it connected to my computer all the time and I just bring up any basic recording software and go. If I doing more serious recording then I will use my audio interface and good mics.

So to me having a good USB mic is a very useful tool to have around.

[Birdsong]

I love it so much that there finally is a woman who explains this stuff! Thank you for you're clear explanations and keen knowledge!

[marybattiatalittlepink]

As a recording rookie, i am finding this channel so helpful! I haven't searched back through all of the videos yet, but if it doesn't exist, a super basic explainer on the function of pre-amps and midi would be great.

[eareffect]

Honestly... that was a brilliant peace of tutorial video. I've never heard anybody explain computer recording in such an easy and understandable way. Awesome job!

[Tudorlady]

What a joy you are! Thank you for making a tricky area crystal clear. For a non-technical novice like myself, this approach is beyond helpful. Unlike so many video tutorials, you stick to the brief and stay with the essential information.

[stevecook]

Best comparison of this question I've yet seen. Thank you very much.

[shortcut]

I've heard the comparison in soundcloud both in a distance and not. To me it doesn't have a significant difference. Thanks, you saved my money as a beginner

[jean-yk]

so helpful thank you im going to watch all your videos

[picksalot]

Interesting comparison. Not much difference between the two mics - I did listen to them on SoundCloud. To my ears, the XLR/Audio Interface connection had a little more highs and brightness, and the USB sounded warmer and more natural. One thing I've read several times is that higher sample rates become more valuable when recordings are slowed down, like for special effects, etc.

I would suggest comparing the recordings using a "Null Test." For those who don't know, that is where the phase of one of the recordings is reversed, and then both recorded channels are played simultaneously. All the same frequencies cancel each other out, and the resulting output reveals the difference between the two recording devices. I think this is an effective empirical way to compare the difference between the mics when used on the same signal source, and you can see and hear the differences. Thanks

[theberrybest]

I'm a pup entering a dog's world. This is a great channel and I'm happy that YouTube connected us. Thank you for these great tutorials!

[AvvieLanche]

Comparison starts at 10:26 for all of you who know how conputers work.

[RAYDHAVID]

Hi, thanks for this video. From a marketing perspective I suggest adding "Audio Thecnica At2020 vs Audio Thecnica XRL Microphones Comparison" I was looking exactly for this but your thumbnail / and title video didn't seem to approach this. When you mentioned this was what you were doing I was so happy I finally found a video comparing both versions. You'll video will blow up as people tent for looking for specific words. It's a suggestion 🤗🙌🏼 thanks again for this video. 💙

[kenwebster]

There are more options than this, but I guess your keeping it short and simple. Just to take it a bit further if anyone is interested:
Most desktops I have used include an analogue audio input that any microphone can connect to. Analogue connection is either single ended (unbalanced) using a TS plug or multipoint (balanced) using either a TRS or XLR plug. Single ended is a domestic standard that is good for cable runs up to about 5m while miltipoint is a pro audio interference cancelling standard that is good for 100m or so. You can get simple audio transformer devices to convert from multipoint to single ended or simple cheap wired converter plugs to allow a multi point mic to plug directly into a desktop audio input. You can then setup the PC sound properties to whatever digital audio resolution you want this analogue source to convert to. Yes, it's a bit of messing about but it's a cheap way to digitally record any analogue source you wish without using an interface. However, the interface should do a cleaner job, not that most people will notice much. Many laptops include an audio input on their 4 pole headset input/output and external microphones should be able to connect to this via a splitter plug. There are 2 standards for this so you need the right one for your laptop. Microphones tend to be of 2 types, dynamic or condenser. Dynamic mics use a coil and magnet capsule to convert sound to an electric signal and these do not require power. The most well known of these are the Shure SM57 & SM58 instrument and vocal misc. These are old designs but extremely robust with a nice rich tone and still favored for their ability to withstand the rigors of live performance, they are tough and reliable. There are arguably nicer dynamic options for studio depending on taste. Condenser mics require power, usually 48 Volts phantom power for a true condenser mic, but a sub class of these are electret mics which usually work off internal battery power (1 or 2 AA cells, 1.5 - 3 Volts). Electret mics tend to be used for things like camcorders etc while true condensor mics tend to be a more professional standard depending on the model. Both convert sound to electricity by an electrostatic principal using a small light weight diaphragm, so they pickup high frequencies and therefore detail very well, but this signal is week and requires amplification which is the reason they are powered. Warning, electret mics will be destroyed by phantom power. Large diaphragm mics tend to not pickup high frequency detail well but are really good at powerful sounds such as jazz vocals etc. Small diaphragm mics do not do those sounds well but do pickup high frequency details with certain instruments. Some mics include a high frequency cut to remove transients above 10 kHz or so which you sometimes may wish to remove or sometimes not, it's a good option. Of course, you can do filtering in the DAW but better to do it at source than digitally.

Most pro audio recording is done at high sample rates and bit depths. The reason for this is, reducing post processing errors and headroom to avoid clipping. The final pro product though is usually down sampled to CD standard. High res is seldom made available commercially and when it is, it's usually just up-sampled from the CD standard so the consumer isn't getting the recorded resolution anyway. This is a content protection, copyright & licencing issue. Some specialist audiophile producers do release genuine high res and some DVD/BD discs contain real high res (not upsampled) but playing it is generally controlled by licencing agreements where the DAC can only access the high res stream when the content licence matches, else it just accessed standard res. So, you never know what content resolution your actually accessing, even if a DAC reports a high res stream, it may well just be upsampled and not real. You probably should bear this in mind when producing digital audio and not get too carried away with resolution. Honestly, I can hear a difference between CD and higher resolution when AB testing, but if I never heard the original analogue, I'd never know there is a difference.

[reathpd]

Your Sound Cloud examples are excellent. Thank you.

[trancenebula]

i am SO happy i found this channel. it’s exactly what i’ve been looking for. thank you!