The preamp that outputs this monitoring signal runs a little hot in our experience, distorting well before the mic itself does; however, it’s still a useful feature when the gain’s rolled off. Blue Yeti X is the best-sounding USB mic yet. The single cardioid polar pattern limits the Wave 3's versatility, but if you're looking for the best microphone for their next stream, Elgato has got the mic for you. If a microphone sounds better than all the rest combined but only when it’s on a suspended mic stand with a shock mount, positioned precisely six inches away from your mouth, it’s not necessarily a reliable option to recommend. Our testing found that the Yeti X could articulate a wider dynamic range that sounded a bit fuller. Rode's NT USB microphone screams 'professional'. Depending on your budget and needs, here's how to pick the best USB microphone for gaming… Everyone’s desk and setup requirements are different, so a mic must perform well under a handful of different scenarios. Best gaming headset | Best gaming monitor | Best HDMI cable for gaming Some mics go beyond that gamut though, and although that might seem unnecessary since you can’t hear the extra detail they pick up per se, you can ‘feel’ subharmonics within the low-end frequencies. But Razer’s best budget gaming mic sounds more dry and flat, pleasing with those who prefer less artificial sounding output. Sample rate: 48 kHz | Bit rate: 16-bit | Frequency response: 20 Hz - 20 KHz | Condenser Type: Electret | Polar patterns: Supercardioid | Cable length: 3.3 feet (1m) | Connectivity: USB Type-A. Another nice feature is the touch-sensitive mute button at the top of the microphone. There isn’t even a mute button or headphone jack. 2. If there's a main road outside your window or a super loud air conditioner in your bedroom, you'll want to prioritize noise-canceling features to prevent picking up any background noise. Thank you for signing up to Tom's Hardware. Visit our corporate site. Best Budget Gaming Microphone: Razer Seiren Mini. The Blue Yeti X is a hybrid model of the Nano and the original Yeti. The point is, after all, to find a mic that makes you sound good. We’re surprised not to see the former included, but they’re inexpensive to pick up on their own. The best microphone for streaming and podcasting. Optimized for Skype, the LifeChat LX-3000 is a winner based on its mic quality alone, delivering audio that could give more expensive gaming headsets a run for their money. New York, There was a problem. Make yourself heard with the best microphone gaming, streaming, and anything else you do with your PC. Whether you want to venture into the worlds of podcasting, music recording or streaming or are just a gamer who wants to ensure their teammates hear every command barked at them, you'll find the best gaming microphone to tick all of your particular boxes below. Decent shock mounts usually go for around $50, which helps prevent the microphone from picking up any accidental bumps and thuds during streaming. Although it somewhat comes at a premium, the Yeti X is still a lot cheaper than most multi-polar pattern studio mics. It tells you the lowest and highest pitched sounds the mic membrane is capable of picking up, and the baseline range is 20 Hz-20 KHz. Best Gaming Headsets If you're not an RGB fan, you can save yourself $20 and pick up Quadcast since they are the same microphone sans the light show. If you really love RGB though and want to sync all your peripherals up to the beat of the same light show, consider Razer’s Seiren series instead. Visit our corporate site. It's not so much as to prevent it from being an available streaming mic, but we'd hoped for better noise-canceling from Razer given their trumpeted super-cardioid polar pattern. Best Gaming Microphone for Recording Music, Sample rate: 96 KHz | Bit rate: 24-bit | Frequency response: 20 Hz-20 KHz | Condenser Type: Back electret | Polar patterns: Cardioid | Cable length: 3.3 feet (1m) | Connectivity: USB Type-A. That way we were able to relax and not spend our session worrying about knocking into the desk and picking up bumps and scratches on the waveform. Perfect for voice-over, vocals, and streaming. Beyond the specs, we also noticed an improvement in recording quality when compared to the Yeti. Thank you for signing up to PC Gamer. A number of gaming mics offer this option via a headphone jack on the mic itself, so when you plug in you’ll hear the raw audio lag-free and minus any compression or effects applied to the track. A greater number of condenser capsules brings smoother sound with better sensitivity compared to the standard Yeti. It's even got a toggle for noise reduction in case the sound of your air-conditioner regularly plagues your recordings. The microphone isn’t as hidden as I’d like, but that’s the sole flaw. That’s because those extremes are also the limits of human hearing, although in the real world of hearing damage it’s usually more like 15 Hz-15 kHz. Grabbing one of the best mics is necessary for putting on a good show. USB microphones have become more prevalent in recent years, so there are many choices out there. 5. Specs: Power: 5V | Polar patterns: Cardioid, Bidirectional, Omnidirectional, Stereo | Connectivity: USB | Frequency response: 20Hz-20,000Hz | Features: Blue Vo!ce, zero-latency monitoring, Smart knob controls. We usually just with the Cardioid polar pattern since that's how these mics are used most of the time, gaming and live streaming. We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices, Arctic's Super-Popular Thermal Paste Updated To Last 8 Years, Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Industrial Cluster, Dell S2721DGF 27-inch Gaming Monitor Review: Great HDR Value, AOC 31.5-inch 155 Hz Curved QHD Gaming Monitor Spotted in Early Listing. The HyperX QuadCast is the best gaming microphone for most players because it stands out with great vocal warmth and clarity. Unlike the vast majority of its USB interface peers, the FOX offers hi-res 96 KHz/24-bit recording quality, which is an impressive feat for a mic you can simply plug in via USB and hit record. There's also a cheaper version of this mic, the Elgato Wave:1. The sturdy microphone now has an LED-lit front panel that usefully monitors your volume levels at a glance. How we test microphones. Best Streaming Microphone: Blue Yeti USB You might not make use of that extra quality on platforms that compress audio and video, like YouTube or Twitch, but if you’re into podcasting or music production you’ll be glad for the option to go beyond CD-quality 44 KHz/16-bit. In this article, we’re going to go over 6 of our top picks for best gaming mic. Kmart has the best selection of Computer Microphones in stock. In this Blue Yeti review, we’re going to take a look at all the features, sound quality, and let you know who it’s best for. NY 10036. Please refresh the page and try again. Best capture cards: lessen the load with a dedicated card. The digital audio mixer allows for up to 8 channels for game audio and devices that can be imported into OBS and Xsplit, giving you more control over your stream's audio without needing to be a sound engineer. The HyperX QuadCast is the best gaming microphone for most players because it stands out with great vocal warmth and clarity. The first is mic type. Awesome. Read our review; See it on Amazon; See it on Amazon (UK) If you want a microphone for more than just gaming… Sample rate: 44 KHz | Bit rate: 16-bit | Frequency response: 20 Hz-20 KHz | Condenser Type: Back electret | Polar patterns: Cardioid, bidirectional, omnidirectional, stereo | Cable length: 3.3 feet (1m) | Connectivity: USB Type-A. While it doesn't quite match up to the Yeti X in terms of sound quality, the Quadcast S makes up for it in design and feature-set. Best Gaming Mice Behind the cradle, a strikingly dramatic red light illuminates when the mic’s operational. And as PC gamers, we will, of course, always try to get the best we can for less. USB interface limits audio to 48 KHz / 16-bit, May lead to a mega-expensive headphone purchase, Higher quality bit/sample rate is irrelevant for streaming platforms, Brings in pleasant room sound at distance, Not quite up to the Beyerdynamic FOX's sound quality. ... Latest Headsets & Microphones Reviews. From the get go, it’s impossible to mistake the Corsair Void RGB Elite Wireless for any other kind of product: This is a gaming headset through and through. In a straight shootout with the Beyerdynamic FOX,  the AT2020UBS+ comes incredibly close to matching the FOX's warmth and detail but falls slightly short. Alternatively, if you're looking to round out your streaming set-up, one of the best webcams could be the critical piece of gear you need. It’s just about the easiest mic to use on the market and really excels when picking up a single vocal signal at a time. Whether you like to croon some tunes during or after your Twitch stream, this music-centric microphone is a great choice. It's also worth noting that microphones have different polar patterns meant for various uses, which you can find out more about at the bottom of this guide. Still, the fundamental recording quality is there, as is the quality of finish. For a mic that can handle a broader range of situations, the Yeti X is still preferable. Best computer speakers | Best SSD for gaming | Best CPU for gaming, Specs: Power: 5V | Polar patterns: Super-Cardioid | Connectivity: USB | Frequency response: 20Hz-20,000Hz | Features: built-in shock mount, mute button, zero-latency 3.5 mm headphone monitoring port. The Seiren Mini is currently just $50 with sound quality that rivals its close competitor, the Blue Snowball iCE. Its sound quality goes above, and beyond the competition (Blue's Yeti, for instance), the inclusion of a free pop shield is much appreciated. This is a medium-diaphragm condenser with just a cardioid polar pattern available, which makes it somewhat specialized to lone vocal recording, but luckily it’s brilliant at that very thing. PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices, tested multiple microphones with different mic settings, Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game review, Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming OC Review. Different kinds of mics have different recording patterns and, especially important with gaming headsets, different power needs. The Yeti X also offers a broader array of customization options, and on the fly adjustments, you can make with the new smart knob. The HyperX Quadcast is the best gaming microphone for most players. That's a fantastic microphone in its own right, and we can bear losing the full list of features and range of polar patterns when we want an easy plug-and-play mic. Omnidirectional: Picks up sound from every direction. The Blue Yeti’s four polar patterns also give it great versatility, so if you venture out into music recording or podcasting, you’re not limited by a single cardioid pickup pattern. It's mostly a Seiren X with an exception for LED display and the interchangeable gooseneck stand. Best Webcams A microphone’s polar pattern is the area around it in which noise is picked up. Best Gaming Microphone for High-End Streaming: Elgato Wave:3 And if you're just after higher-quality audio, and don't want to start messing around with gain settings mid-stream, then the SoloCast could be all the mic you need. Hearing the direct input signal while you’re recording can be really handy. Tapping the top of the mic mutes it instantly and handily turns the light off. You will receive a verification email shortly. A hypercardioid pattern creates an extremely narrow cone around one side of the mic, so it’s ‘listening’ to a really selective area and blocking out the rest. The controls couldn’t be easier to use while you’re streaming. $43.47 $39.49. It’s easy to get lost in the deep dark woods that is the world of audio, and even easier to spend a ludicrous amount of time and money chasing the best possible setup. This miniature version of the classic Blue Yeti is the perfect microphone for those just starting with streaming. But the Seiren Mini is cute, portable and offers you simple, quality audio. The Best USB Microphones for 2021 Don't rely on the wimpy mic built into your phone or laptop. Best Gaming Microphone Overall: HyperX Quadcast Best PC controller: sit back, relax, and get your game on. The design of that stand, along with the understated, retro aesthetic of the mic capsule itself, makes this the most stylish USB microphone, and that’s important when you’re streaming yourself for an audience of judging eyes. We also could use more bass from the Wave:3. Mimicking the look of studio microphones while maintaining a reasonable cost, the NT is the right choice for users who want to further their hobbies. The biggest and perhaps most useful change comes in the form of Yeti X's Blue Voice software via G Hub. The best wireless gaming headset we've tested at a budget-friendly price point is the Logitech G533 Wireless Gaming Headset. Not everyone needs multiple cardioid patterns and a pile of features. It stands on your desk like a can of Red Bull; such are its unassuming dimensions. As great as USB-based gaming mics are, they are but one of two options for the streamer, competitive gamer or home recording enthusiast who happens to play a bit of PUBG on the side. Best Gaming Microphone for High-End Streaming, Sample rate: 96 KHz | Bit rate: 24-bit | Frequency response: 70 Hz-20 KHz | Condenser Type: Electret | Polar Patterns: Cardioid | Cable length: 8.2 feet (2.5m) | Connectivity: USB Type-A. Want from the brands you love today at Kmart a big fight distortion! Recording can be really handy display and the original Seiren mic design and packs just as much quality. 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