I was actually just looking at mics a few weeks ago and what I settled on with was the
Samson Meteor (
www.amazon.com/Samson-Meteor-Studio-Microphone-Cardioid/dp/B004MF39YS/ ). It's on Amazon for $69, but I bought mine Used in "Like New" condition for $45 and it works great despite not being factory new. I have absolutely no regrets.
I too first looked into the Blue mics simply because I had no idea where to start looking and just because the name was thrown around so much. But after hearing some mic tests that I wasn't all that impressed with and learning what made for a good voice over mic I began to look else where. The main thing to keep in mind is that you want a cardioid style microphone. This is the microphone style in the Snowball, but like I was saying I wasn't too impressed with the Snowballs over all audio quality. The Blue Yeti also has a cardioid setting but it has 2 or 3 other mics built in which jack the price way up. It does sound a bit better than the Snowball but in no way is it worth the cost if you're just using it for voice overs.
After I realized the Blue mics weren't really what I was looking for I started to look outside of the Blue line and just looking for USB Cardioid mics on Amazon. That is where I found the
AudioTechnica AT-2020 and
AudioTechnica ATR-2500. These mics are pretty much the same, though the ATR-2500 is a bit cheaper and has an inline 3.5mm monitor jack, though I have heard that you have to set the mic as a playback device to even use the monitor feature. These mics also retail for around the same price as the Snowball, but I feel they record much more clearly and accurately.
I nearly bought the ATR-2500, but when I took one last look at Amazon's mic selection I saw the Samson Meteor, which I had skipped over many times since the design looked too gimmicky. But as I started to read about the Samson Meteor I realized it is actually probably one of the best mics you can get in the cheaper range of studio mics as far as it went for recording voice. Why is this? Simply because it offers the largest diameter cardioid mic. For example the Blue Yeti($120) only has a 14mm cardioid mic, but the Samson Meteor($70) has a 25mm(1 inch) cardioid mic. That is quite a large difference and this size difference will help you get a much richer sound. Unfortunately the review site(
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/samson-meteor-mic-usb-studio-microphone-solid-quality-in-a-comp/ ) that had a side by side comparison of the Meteor vs YetiPro doesn't have the comparison online anymore but the quality difference was enough for me to confidently buy the Samson Meteor without feeling like looking at anything else.
Now of course there is no 'right' microphone to buy and the best thing to do is listen to a bunch of mic tests until you hear the one that sounds right to you. So my list of suggestions would be the
Samson Meteor,
AudioTechnica AT-2020,
ATR-2500, or
Samson C01U. They are all under $100 and USB powered.
What are you currently using? I just ask because your audio actually sounds pretty good already. Your mic seems to pick up the range of your voice without clipping, there isn't much line noise, and there isn't much popping or sibilants. Or do you just do some post processing to bring the quality up?
