Samson C01U Pro - USB Studio Condenser Microphone with a Headphone Output for Zero-Latency Monitoring - Silver

After much deliberation looking for a decent USB condenser mic for voice work, I went for this mic. I definitely don't regret it!My use case is using it as a vocal mic for recording podcasts and VoIP (Skype), at my desk at home, with a sprung boom arm, shock mount and pop sheild.The supercardoid pattern does a good job of rejecting sound off of centre. The capsule is very sensitive, and renders vocals with little colouration. In fact if anything it's a bit too sensitive! The gain is controlled via the sound driver on the computer, and I've found it need to be set very low (7-10%) for doing close mic vocal work. One slightly odd thing - if you have the volume set to less than about 5, some slightly weird gating goes under a certain threshold (about -50dB) - mostly not audible but if you're going to compress the recording you might hear bursts of noise. Turn the gain up to 7 or above and that seems to go away (at least, there's consistent background noise instead of weird gate-y background noise). Signal to noise is pretty good, too, and it sounds like the pre-amp is pretty decent, about as good as I would expect for a USB powered in-mic preamp. Unfortunately as it has no XLR output there's not the option to use an external pre and/or mixer, so you're slightly limited there. But really if that's the sort of thing you want to do, you really want to spend a bit more getting a standard condenser and a separate preamp (and/or USB interface).Bass tip up (proximity effect) is quite marked - you get a good boost any closer than about 15cm away. Fantastic for vocals, but if you're looking to record musical instruments you'll need to give it plenty of space to prevent the sound getting muddy (esp. miking the sound hole of an acoustic guitar). The built in windshield is fairly good, but I'm glad I invested in a proper pop shield for close vocal work.The build quality is great - very solid feeling, the bicolour LED indicator is bright enough to see without being blinding (like the fashionable ultra-bright blue LEDs you often see!). The headphone socket is very solid, no fear of breaking it with a tug on the lead. The USB socket feels very solid too - although unlike an XLR it's not locking - so you bear that in mind. The stand which it comes with does feel solid, and the mic does stay steady on it, seems a bit small for the weight - but maybe that's just preference.I'm using this with the shock mount (Samson SP01), which is pretty good quality too. The only slight niggle is that if you want headphones plugged in at the same time as using the shock mount, the headphone jack will interfere with the metalwork - easily solved if you rotate the mic around a little bit in the shock mount, but a bit annoying nonetheless. Also worth mentioning that if you have headphones connected to the mic, they're clearly not going to be isolated by the shock mount so you may need to be a tad careful with the headphone lead to stop it picking up handling noise.What would be nice is a carry case of some sort that fits the mic, USB lead and mini tripod stand - which isn't included.For a low cost mic, it's great value and might be suitable for a home studio or even a professional voiceover booth on a tight budget.

I did a lot of research before buying this mic. It came out time and again as by far the best option at its price point. Amazon reviewers, bloggers and audio magazine reviewers all give it their endorsement.Took the plunge and gotta say I have not been disappointed.I plug it directly into my iMac to Garageband. Then I add the results to give quality sound to videos I make of myself singing with acoustic guitar. With a little careful placement you can record both guitar and voice at good relative levels. Recording just guitar or just voice is certainly very easy indeed. For acoustic guitar it picks up wonderfully from between 6 and 12 inches away. Experiment by pointing it at the neck join, the soundhole or behind the bridge for differing tones. Positioned just above the guitar body and tilting down slightly is a good spot to record guitar and vocal together.I've been a gigging musician so I have proper mic stands which is what I use it with. The little tripod stand it comes with seems good though, especially if you are going to put it on a desk to speak into. Put it on a chair and its fine for picking up a guitar, but obviously life is easier with a full size mic stand.I'm using it at home in a non-soundproofed room. Cars go by outside, dogs bark in the distance etc. So I find it especially useful that it picks up whats going on from a few inches to a few fee away, but does not pick up too much background noise. I often use it in a room with an aquarium whose filter makes a small tinkling sound. The mic doesn't pick this up but captures whatever I am doing within its orbit quite beautifully.There is the option to buy accessories such as a pop screen and an anti-vibration stand but I have really not found these to be necessary.It feels and looks good. Sounds shallow to say it but the mic is visible in some of my vids and looks proper. Some other mics can look a bit gimmicky.Just about the only bad thing I can think of to say about this microphine is that the supplied lead could be a bit longer to give a bit more flexibility. But a cheap extention cable solves that.Yes there are better mics out there, but they cost a lot more. The market is getting very crowded in the sub £75 zone. I think this model totally dominates that territory and anyone looking to spend that kinda cash should be giving it serious consideration.

For the price it's a great entry level microphone. You really need to mess about with though to get the perfect sound quality. I bought it because I needed a semi-professional microphone for recording commentary over gameplay videos and I eventually chose this one over what seems like the gamers choice - the blue snowball.First off it's really heavy and big, the small stand it comes with can barely support it's weight and is prone to falling over. I've recently just bought the matching shock mount and a boom stand for it so I be able to see if they help with the recording quality.This microphone really does pick up everything and more often than not there is always that annoying white noise/hiss in the background, however I've recently just discovered noise-gating. In most audio editing programs (I use Adobe Audition) you will be able to set a 'gate' which will block out sounds below a certain decibel. Now I no longer have that background noise and it's crystal clean.I will say that it records voices rather quiet. Or maybe I just talk to quiet. I haven't found a way yet to increase the loudness at which it records but, I can always just increase it afterwards so It's not really a problem. It picks up vibrations off the desk or whatever surface you have it on really easily as well. Also, regardless of what it says in the description, this picks up noise in all directions. I live on a busy road and my desk is right next to the window. Even with double glazing this microphone still picks up the cars from outside.Overall though I am happy with it, the matching Pop filter advertised for it is a bit useless as the pops still come through but I'm planning on buy a professional one anyway.