So I've been thinking about buying a microphone for my voice over recording for my video. I usually record my voice with my phone, and the result isn't the best. So I've been thinking to buy a Samson Go Mic for portable and easy recording equipment.
Do you guys know about the overall quality of that mic? Is it worth buying? Or do you have any great microphone recommendation with similar price range for me to record?
Hey, trinistry. The Samson Go was actually the first mic I got when I started tooling around with recording back in 2012. I found the audio quality to be okay. The mic was a little bit noisy, and I didn't know about preamps. It was also really good at picking up noise that I didn't want in my recordings. In addition to this, the build quality was poor. It uses a little plastic ball joint to give the mic more directional flexibility, but the joint quickly lost it's ability to maintain a given position and kind of just flopped over.
The clip on the mic was just about the right size for my laptop and worked well. The mic stayed mounted and the display of my laptop was not effected.
Eventually, I loaned the mic out out to a family member and was thrilled when it never came back, giving me the perfect excuse to get a new mic.
The next mic I used was a Blue Yeti and was actually purchased by my employer at my request so I could "better do my job." I used it for most of the videos on my current channel (everything 3 months old and older). Again, I found it to be noisy. I know Rhett and Link used one as well and they were able to get really clean audio out of it. Maybe that was just a ruse. I'm not sure. That sure wasn't my experience. I found with a bit of post processing the audio came out passable. The Blue Yeti is a wildly popular mic, given that it sounds pretty good and you can almost always get it for pretty cheap on Amazon. When I moved and started working from home, I left the mic with my employer, giving me a fantastic reason to get yet another mic.
This time I kind of splurged. After what seemed like an eternity of researching mics, I wound up dropping about $350 on a Rode NT1-A kit which included a XLR to USB pre-amp and some other goodies (a pop filter, a shock mount, a stand, some cableing). I feaking love the mic. The audio quality is light years beyond what I was working with before. To be honest, every mic I've purchased to date feels like a dramatic step forward in quality. If you want to hear the Rode NT1-A in action, check out any of the current (as of this post) videos on my channel right now.
Here's what I've found over time. Every mic I've purchased has been a learning experience. Would I ever buy the Samsom Go again? Is the Pope Jewish? No. Do I regret getting the mic? At the time, I both rued and lamented it, given that I wanted to buy something much more fancy than my budget would allow. If I were to do it again, I'd probably start with the Blue Yeti based on my frustrations with build quality and background noise.
Now the real question. Are any of these mics any better that the mic on your phone? Your phone mic has been carefully engineered to work well in a specific vocal range. It has also been engineered and has supporting hardware and software to keep spoken audio as understandable as possible. This doesn't necessarily mean high quality sound, but it does mean that you should be able to understand someone speaking into it. My advice? Find videos of other people who are using the mic you are looking at with a similar software setup and listen to the audio with good headphones. Then listen to your recorded audio with good headphones. If yours sounds better, save your money. That's the part that's easier said than done. I'm definitely not known for suppressing my wanter when it starts wanting, especially when it comes to A/V hardware.
Lastly, check out B&H Camera for reviews on the mic you look at. It's kind of the de facto watering hole for a good portion of the pro audio community, you rest assured that some portion of the reviews are from people who are actually in the know. Be aware that while it is a professional audio site, normal people also leave reviews there as well (perhaps not as helpful as they might not have the range of mic experience as pro audio people).
Hope this was helpful. Good luck!
