USB Microphones for Voice Over Recording 

"To USB or not to USB" *Hits like*

Explained it so well. Every other person is "Buy XLR mic"

His voice is so soothing

To USB or not to USB 😂 Shakespeare in 21st century

This was a great video, full of information. I never understood why the USB mics were always so poorly spoken about. My Yeti mic is USB and sounds great, to me. I was thinking of buying something else until I listened to this video. Great lessons here. By the way, your voice sounds great! You have a new subscriber here!

I have learned more about VO from you in the past week than from anyone else in the past six months. Thank you!

One of the best presentations I came across on RU-vid. Loved it Sir. Very informative and properly explained. Thank you so much !!

Thank you for this. I'm tired of so many professionals looking down on USB mics. The 2 I have now come complete with headphone jacks, Gain and stands. I've done a bunch of recordings which after listening to, you wouldn't tell the difference between a full blown studio and a home set up. I've even patched in a free lines for a huge movie dub in an emergency and that was in the theatres. All from the much ridiculed USB mic. My first ones were lacking but the technology is really coming along. Good to hear something positive for a change. Thanks again :-)

Great video! Several years old but still relevant! Let’s add some more insight to this. 1) A gain knob on the microphone won’t always deliver what it’s inclusion promises. I have seen multiple USB microphones with a gain knob, where the inclusion was a mere afterthought at best. I have had the misfortune to use microphones, where I still had to use the windows volume control on top of cranking the gain knob all the way up. Don’t fall for microphones of brands that produce gaming equipment as well! 2) the level slider for a Windows Audio device is always there and it can mess up the audio of a USB microphone. For every USB microphone, this slider provides software gain, which is inferior to hardware gain, provided by an actual amplifier. The reason for this is, that all the signal, including the self-noise, is being raised in volume, whereas hardware gain raises the actual signal and if you don’t overdo the hardware gain, you can manage to get a much less noisy output. So for a USB microphone, this slider should be set as low as possible and only as high as needed. Ideally, this slider is to be set to 0 of course. The way the level slider on a USB microphone’s recording device works by the way is the exact opposite to an audio interface, where said slider acts as a fader and thus should always remain at 100%.

This guy sounds like he could be the voice actor of a wise wizard in a fantasy video game.

Hi William, I can't believe I actually set through the whole 7 minute of your video, I don't find it entertaining or educational to me at all (nor am I interested in a voice over career), but somehow I feel satisfied XD. Please teach me your magic.

One of the best tutorials I've seen on RU-vid. Mr Williams oozes charisma and has the ability to break down what can seem complicated jargon into understandable bite size pieces. Thank you sir!

this was great, nobody else really talks technicals

Your speech is so professional and friendly, every word is in its place.

Excellent video. In fact, I've almost regretted my Blue Yeti Pro purchase until I stumbled upon this lesson. You've gained a subscriber.

I like ur voice sir..want to make it a bed and sleep on it

Wow. This answered a lot of questions for me! Thanks so much for the great video! I am between mics right now - professional VO actor - and my old USB one isn't cutting it anymore so I'm looking into a newer setup. This was really helpful for me in deciding which way to go forward.

Mr. Aliso, you really know what you are talking about. You are a Master. It is very nice to hear you. Thank you

This dude would be great at ASMR.

I had a silver blue yeti. It's pretty good .it had a tiny buzz I could never totally get rid of. Upgraded to Rode nt1-A xlr mic , and I'm very happy with it.old blue is now my backup and travel mic.

your voice...god damn is it awesome

Man, I love the way you explain things.

I'd just like to say your voice is extremely easy to listen to. On point though thank you for this video it has helped me to identify what I am looking for.

I use the Rode NT-USB Microphone. It is great for podcasting.

Great thank you, been wondering about a USB mic

You could be the white Morgan Freeman, your voice is great.

This channel is a gold mine, thank you :)

I knew these things already . But man you explain everything so well that I kept listening closely

The way you explained things reminds me of George Carlin lol

Good technical information and I appreciate the buyers guide. Thank you

This video was so helpful and educational o: but i think you should change to title to ''History of USB microphones'' XD

Man you have an epic voice! I hope your making a living with it

I've been looking for this information for a full week. Thank you

Very good, simple and concise. I'm a new VO and audiobook narrator, and find all this "engineering stuff" daunting, so thanks!

USB or not USB : 1. Looked at the mic he was using to record the video ; 2. Realize it was not an USB mic ; 3. Got my answer and left.

Excellent video. Very education and yet simple. Thank you!

Usb mics have improved alot over the years but you should buy mics due to your budget and needs if you're recording space is treated or not it doesn't matter if it's usb or xlr if you buy the wrong mic your audio will sound bad regardless

Great teachings good sir! I have been struggling with decisions with a microphone, doing voice overs for my sketch comedy game show. You have been a great help

He's got the Faxx.

Great overview on what to look for. Thank You!

Dude.. you’re awesome. Seriously. I love this channel.

Thanks so much for helping me with choosing a good on-the-road usb mic!!

Very informative video sir, 👍 I'm your new subscriber from India

I don't know how I stumbled here. But this is very interesting and well done. Nice speed with the presentation of information.

I think you also can't overestimate how important acoustic treatment is. You can have as USD 2,000 mic, but as long as your room sounds bad the recording will always sound amateurish (cheaper mics might even sound better in such an environment). Luckily there are many youtube videos that explain how to do it, and it isn't even expensive. But of course you need a space to do your recordings and that's my biggest problem.

This mans voice sounds familiar. Lol.

I just bought a USB mic, and I was real scared before watching this. glad to know they're no bad

Nicely written and performed.

THis was great information keep up the good work

Very useful, clean, and easy to understand, thank you :)

I love you GUYS!!! This man at the beginning of that video makes me smile)) He is Cultural Guru and i believe whatever he says)

Excellent video! Very informative and easy to understand. I learned a lot! Thank you! I'm hooked!

William, Very informative, lucid and concise description of mic fundamentals. I like your style. :) Now, I'm new at video production and as yet have not done any real, intentional narration or voice overs. I've leaned a bit about making time lapse and video's now, and will soon be ready to practice voice overs and narration. I WILL NEED A MIC !!! I like the idea of a turnkey mic set up w/ USB or 3.5 (1/8") connection to my laptop pc. About my interests : I do wood working & wood turning projects in a small home shop and would like to make "how to" video's. I also do Night Sky photography & time lapse video's as well as wildlife video's and time lapse video's I could certainly narrate. I have a Canon T3i for imaging. While I could use a camera mic (prolly LAV mic) at times, I think I'd like to voice over or narrate my video's most of the time. I'd love to know your opinion / advice , regarding a recommendation for a quality, beginners mic. Maybe one for the $150 mark you set or lower (cheaper for me is appealing :) lol I've researched quite a bit before finding you and have found vast differences between mics that include settings for normal, -10db & even -20db choices. Others have reverb or echo knobs,, ......... , very nice. Some have playback headphone jacks w/ separate volume wheels and many have different directional choices or polar patterns to choose from. That said, is it possible to get a mic in this price range w/ a cardioid or shotgun type pattern and most of these other features? I'd like to know your opinion and/or recommendation as you seem to be one of the few, most knowledgeable and understandable, as well as believable personalities I've come across. I'm 52yrs old so maybe I don't trust the millennials as much as I trust someone like you that may have the same values and ethics I was brought up w/. :) Anyway, thanks for your generous consideration, sincerely, Steph P.S. Sorry bout' the book !!! lol :)

Thank you for this video sir, very informative for a noobie to the VO industry

talking about audio quality,,this video has low volume

A slight missed opportunity here. Would have been a pretty powerful argument to reveal that the video was actually recorded with a USB mic. Still, good to know I don't need a mic that costs more than my car to get started.

*I bet, this gentleman can convince us anything with that voice 😜*

What about the e-book? There's pdf only, guys. I want to get the book one!

Really enjoyed this video! Good stuff....and helpful! ;)

Great detailed presentation with all scientific facts. Impressed.

I have a spent a fortune to find the best USB microphone, and it is the Rode NT-USB. It has a nice clean range and 0 latency headphone monitoring. plug in your headphones and voila . There is no gain control on the mic itself, but that is no big deal for me. I just preset to my voice in my recording devices tab and I'm good to go. With all due respect , the gentle man said nothing about windscreens or pop filters, which are essential to recording great voice work with USB microphones or any microphone that doesn't have any built in pop filter material ...The Rode Podcaster does, but is more expensive and sounds tinny. Thank me later for this advice.

First sentence made me like this video

Thx for the upload! I had a snowball which broke(service said it was technical failure), got a new mic. It broke just one day before I was about to start recording for a VO project with a deadline of 10 days only. It was so frustrating and stressful. I am not very well knowledgeable about microphones and I watched some reviews online : comparison with the iCE version. I finally bought it since it was cheaper and promised to have the same cardioid quality as the Snowball but a little bit quieter, however it didn''t seem that way and luckily the producer did accept my recordings(I guess he didn't really have a choice since the VO actor before me was fired and he was late with his project). I would like to upgrade my mic to one that is of great quality and will not break(could it be that USB mics break more often than XLR mics?). William, if you were to choose between a Blue Yeti Standard and a Rode NT-USB, which one would you go for in terms of mic quality and sound? Any other mics in that price range?

I haven't been asked for a 24-bit recording yet and I'm hoping that continues; uploading 24-bit uncompressed WAV files, especially for full gigs, would take ages and kill my upload speed.

awesome explanation brotha, appreciate the tips

@Aliso Creek Voice Over Classes what do you think about the Rode NT usb?

Very professional explanation

very nice presentation, Thanx Sir

Very informative and helpful. Thank you for this video.

Thanks so much! You helped me make my decision and I am happy about it!

I subbed because of the voice. I will learn from you

wow that was a really good voice recording. Very relaxing and good to listen to.

Absolutely superb tutorial! Thank you!!

Best video I've ever seen..simple n very truthful. Can you please advise a full package PLUG N PLAY USB MICROPHONE I can use with my laptop ?????????????? I AM AWAITIN YOUR KIND RESPONSE

Good job, William. Good info.

Great video. Thanks. Do you have any mics in particular you would recommend?

Thank you this was very helpful !

Great Vid , respect from Thailand. THX uncle.

I've learned a lot thank you Mister!

This was so helpful! Thank you!

Sorry Sir. But we are talking here about voice over. The human voice mostly starts at 80 - 100 Hz so there is hardly any reason why a VO mic needs to start at 20 Hz.

So which mic are you using while recording this video?

sounds great sir , thank you

Really informative!: And your voice is comforting somehow, if I can say that?

this guy has done alot of audio books

Thank you.

great voice btw:)

very good and informative.

You sound like the voice in my head !

thank u for this video it taught me everything i needed to know

Nice work!

I really appreciate this tutorial. Thank you Sir

I'm thinking about the Rode NT-USB Condenser mic, is that a good option for studio recordings? I produce music, but to this day I got no mic to sing in (:

I found this video superb! thank you very much (:

again vert good , Thank you.

Good insights, thanks

Thank you soo much

Great tips, thanks :)

*Compression video* ?

The only downside IMO is that you have to deal with computer fan noise in your audio, and that their are very few ways to record in your closet with a USB mic without a laptop.