Best Microphone for Streaming, Podcasting & Video Calling
Ensuring that you can be heard clearly and loudly is essential whether you’re playing with your buddies, live streaming, or making material for YouTube or another channel. Finally, if you’re still undecided about what type of microphone to purchase, we have you covered.
For amateur or professional live streamers alike, the best streaming mics may make a massive difference in the quality of your broadcasts. Even if you’re tempted to go with an all-in-one gaming headset, the tiny boom mics will not sound as good as a desktop mic.
Stream quality is an essential consideration for every live streamer. Stream quality is more than just a matter of having a high-resolution image and some glitzy overlays. It’s not just the visuals that are important when it comes to professional streaming. Many people prefer to listen to streamed content rather than to watch it. To make your live streaming profession a success, you’ll need to spend some money on high-quality audio equipment.
At-home streaming and podcasting necessitate the use of USB microphones. So, expect to see a wide variety of microphones on display. XLR microphones are still the most adaptable, but they are also the most expensive and more complicated to set up than USB microphones. If you want something quick and easy, choose USB; if you care more about sound quality and how your voice sounds, choose XLR.
A computer, a smartphone, and an internet connection are the bare necessities for live streaming. Live streaming has a lot of intricacies to it, but it’s worth it in the long run. Streamers need both physical and mental tools to be successful. The absence of either of these can result in a catastrophic failure.
Personal traits like charm and determination and your goals for streaming are all part of the mental component of the streaming setup. Streaming needs a solid foundation to progress. The higher your odds are, the more you’ll learn about live streaming.
For many headsets, the speakers take precedence over the microphone since listening to high-quality audio is essential. Your headphones speakers are no longer relevant if you want to share your golden voice with a listening audience via a podcast or streaming platform. This necessitates the acquisition of a microphone of comparable caliber to that of high-end speakers. So, you’ll need specialist hardware.
The ability to entertain an audience and have a high level of skill in a particular game isn’t the only criteria for success as a professional streamer. Another thing to remember is how you interact with your audience and how your smooth voice entices them into your story.
It’s better to use a stand-alone microphone rather than a headset microphone because it has a larger frequency response range than a headset microphone. In addition to allowing you to reduce background noise from your gaming PC or keyboard, the diverse pickup patterns can also make it easier. For example, you could use a cardioid pattern one day and a bi-directional pattern the next to record you or you and a visitor on the same recording session.
Even though the Yeti has been around for a long time, it doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of wear and tear. It’s not too pricey, so that it can be used by both first-time microphone owners and experienced streamers alike.
With the Blue Yeti, you can also record in bidirectional, omnidirectional, and stereo modes in addition to the cardioid mode, which is what you should use when you’re only recording yourself. If you’re streaming podcasts or interviews rather than games or commentary, this provides you with more options.
Shure SM7B
In the audio industry, Shure is one of the most well-known names. The Shure SM7B is a good choice for ASMR streaming because it is a professional vocal microphone. Some high-ranking streamers, such as Shroud and Tfue, are already using it. The Shure SM7B has the following features: Fidelity: 50hz-20khz, frequency response XLR is the connector type used for this connection (no cable included), Cardioid polar pattern with a high degree of background noise rejection.
JLab Talk
Apart from that, the Talk is a very tiny USB microphone that offers the same four recording patterns as the Yeti, all of which are positive attributes. Furthermore, its bass-heavy but detailed recording quality can undoubtedly provide a professional touch to your live streaming experience. The Talk is also efficient, featuring a light-up gain indicator, a 3.5mm connection for microphone monitoring, and an adjustable tripod platform, among other features. Adding a boom arm to even the best streaming mics can make them much better, but this small tripod can at the very least provide some high-end adjustability.
HyperX SoloCast
Among the new budget-oriented mics, the HyperX SoloCast is the best. Put it this way; This new breed delivers the audio performance of their more costly brothers while preferring sound quality over a broad feature set at a meager cost. In terms of audio quality, the SoloCast from HyperX stands out above the rest because it provides us with the audio capabilities of its more expensive QuadCast S sibling. In its own right, it’s a great microphone, but we’re willing to sacrifice a lot of the capabilities and polar patterns to get a simple, plug-and-play microphone.
Samson G-Track Pro
This is a condenser microphone that is quite capable. Because it has three different polar patterns to choose from, it can accommodate a variety of recording configurations, for starters. You can use the cardioid setting to concentrate on oneself in a desk configuration, the bidirectional setting to converse with a visitor, or the omnidirectional setting to try to pick up everything using the omnidirectional option.
Aside from that, the Samson G-Track Pro is capable of producing high-quality recordings. It will pick up everything from 50Hz to 20kHz, which means it will cover the entire range of human vocalizations and then some. In addition, with a maximum sound pressure level of 120dB, it can handle you being a little too loud. All of that audio can be recorded at sampling rates of up to 96kHz and in either 16- or 24-bit resolution. On the mic, you’ll find several straightforward controls for tuning everything in, as well as a jack for monitoring with headphones and even a quarter-inch jack for connecting a second input source if necessary.