Let’s talk about mics baby! As a streamer you have a lot of decisions to make regarding your microphone of choice. There is no “one mic fits all” solution. Let’s dive into some microphone considerations.
Polar Pattern
This term is used to describe a microphones sensitivity to sound relative to the direction from where the sound is coming from.
Cardioid means the mic is most sensitive at the front. Ideally, this is what you want for podcasting and streaming.
Bidirectional polar patterns means the mic will pick up from the front and the rear but not 90 degrees to the left and right. Think of it sort like a double cardiod pattern. This is a good polar pattern for ASMR streams.
Omnidirectional means the microphone will pick up from all angles, equally.
Supercardioid is similar, except it offers a little less rear rejection of sound from the back.
Hypercardioid offers an even narrower pickup than supercardioid from the front and a greater rejection of ambient sound.
USB vs XLR
USB microphones have come a long way. There are several high quality usb microphones that can be considered for purchase to use for streaming. Our favorites are the Blue Yeti’s. They offer excellent sound quality, variable pattern modes, and excellent build quality. One benefit of the USB mics is you don’t need an audio interface to get their audio to your PC. USB microphones are great beginner mics. One of the bigger downsides to a USB microphone is the lack of 0 latency monitoring. This makes it difficult to know how loud you are talking when you are using headphones. USB microphones are also easier to travel with.
XLR microphones generally have a slight edge over USB microphones but that edge is only based on flexibility of use and mic selection. If you’re going to use an XLR mic, make sure you purchase a mic that allows you to change the polar pattern or has the polar pattern you need. XLR mics provide 0 latency when monitoring them so you are more aware of how loud you are being. The downside is they need an audio interface to work with your pc. We currently use a Zoom LiveTrack L-8 because it suits the needs of our stream at the moment. In the future, we will change.