Amazon Basics Mini USB Condenser Microphone for Online Meeting, Gaming, Podcast - Black

I have anywhere between 4-10 phone calls every day at work, and frequently record tutorial videos or other audio clips for marketing purposes, so the quality of my audio is pretty important. I've gone through a couple headsets with mics, but either had the mic fail or the quality just not live up to my expectations, long-term.I was looking at springing for either a Blue Snowball or Yeti, but decided to start with the Amazon mic here to first make sure that my desk and headphone setup would work with a small desktop mic. I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of this thing, though, and don't think I'll be moving onto a Blue unless this suddenly fails.Pros:- Easily accessible mute button on top- Very light and easy to move when you want to- Rubber tipped legs make it difficult to accidentally knock over- Sound is clear- Long cableCons:- There's not a lot of flexibility with the legs - you can't position the mic really higher or lower, it's just kind of where it is. It might be too low for some folks if you don't mount it on an arm. I have it on my desktop in front of my keyboard, though, and my natural speaking/sitting distance works well.- The cable isn't a standard micro USB or USB C cable, so if it's too long for you (as it was for me) you have to deal with it. This was a weird one - I was planning to swap in a short micro USB cable, because the distance between the mic and my laptop is very short, but I ended up having to cable tie it all together and hide it under a laptop stand.- On that same note, that non-standard cable is REALLY long, so if you AREN'T putting it on an arm, you're going to be annoyed.All in all, a good purchase and I'm looking forward to using this for many months to come.

I looked for the cheapest okay microphone to record music - thanks to the exchange rates. After watching millions of reviews at podcastage, I decided to get this one - and surprise, surprise! As Bandrew as well said, Amazon's engineers actually really hit the nail!The cons: Background noise, rather low gain below 60%, and the need for a pop filter.The pros: Everything else. I mean, literally everything else.I found the mic to work best with string instruments (violin and guitar at least, to be precise). If you'll use it with wind instruments, you'll be better off with something better. To the best of my knowledge, wind instruments are the hardest to record - which is why a lot more is needed to be spent on them (I play harmonica, tinwhistle and flute, with the last being my main instrument). I neither have nor play other instruments, therefore cannot say a word about the rest.For spoken word, you can't go wrong with this mic. That's for sure. Anyway practically any mic is good enough for that.Why five stars? Because1- It's 40$,2- It works great with guitar and violin, and is acceptable with wind instruments,3- Is easy to set up and run,4- It's 40$. Oh, I said it before :/Get one if you're into "basic" music-recording. You can get a better mic once you'll be making money from it. Believe me, knowledge of Audition is no less important than a good mic for music recording - and unless you know how to edit things, you'll better spend less on hardware and develop yourself in software. Who knows, maybe it's your limited editing capabilities, environment, lack of proper sound-proofing, or such that causes not-so-great records?

With a foam cover, the quality is actually not too bad for how cheap it may seem. I like the mute button and the overall size and how it fits on my desk. If you are on a budget, this is the mic for you.

I purchased this microphone because I wanted a replacement microphone to my old Turtlebeach microphone headset, and wanted to have a microphone that sat on the desk over one that is worn as a headset. I originally was looking to buy a Blueyetti microphone which all my friends (gamers) recommend for voice-chat, but did not want to spend $100+ dollars at the time.I have found the sound quality and sensitivity of the microphone to be amazing! At the time I purchased this, it was just under ~$30 and I was expecting poor sound quality, but it has been a huge improvement over my old Turtlebeach headset. My friends have also mentioned that I sound clearer and crisper when I speak.The microphone is adjustable within 180 degrees of upward rotation (see pictures). A nice and unexpected feature of it, is that it only uses a USB port from your computer whereas other microphones would require a USB port for power along with a "microphone in" port. It also features a mute button that changes from blue to red for un-muted and muted settings respectively.I gave this product 5 stars because it was relatively cheap and provided higher quality sound than I had expected for its price. It is also very sensitive to my voice (I tend to speak low) so I do not need to raise my voice too loud if others are sleeping to be heard. Overall, it exceeded my expectations!