How To Choose A USB Microphone: Element, Pattern And Connection

A USB microphone is easier to buy than it looks, because the decision that matters most is made in the first line of the specification sheet and most listings bury it. The element type decides how the microphone treats the room, and the room is the part of recording that people cannot control.

The two microphones in this catalogue are used here as worked examples. The Blue Yeti records a condenser element with four selectable pickup patterns. The Shure MV7 records a dynamic element with a single cardioid pattern and a USB and XLR connection. They are not ranked, and the decision order below is the point of the page.

The first decision: condenser or dynamic

Start here, because it constrains everything else.

A condenser element is more sensitive, which means it captures the room as well as the voice. That is what you want in a treated studio or a quiet closet, and it is what makes a condenser microphone the wrong choice in an untreated room. A dynamic element is less sensitive, so it forgives reflections and background noise. Both statements are readings of the recorded element type, and no sensitivity or self-noise figure is recorded for either microphone.

The Yeti records its element type as condenser, and its recorded intended user is someone who records in a quiet room. The MV7 records its element type as dynamic, and its recorded intended user is someone who wants a forgiving microphone. Those two recorded lines are the whole first decision, and they are worth reading before any pattern or connection is considered.

The second decision: pickup pattern

A pickup pattern decides which directions the microphone listens to. A cardioid pattern listens mostly to the front. A bidirectional pattern listens front and back. An omnidirectional pattern listens all round. A stereo pattern listens across the front as two separate channels.

The Yeti records all four of those: cardioid, bidirectional, omnidirectional and stereo, and switchable pickup patterns are in its recorded feature list. The MV7 records cardioid only, described as unidirectional. If you record one voice in one place, cardioid is enough and the extra patterns are options you may never use. If you plan to record two performers, a room, or a stereo source, the pattern list decides the purchase, and a single cardioid microphone cannot be reconfigured for it later.

The third decision: the connection path and monitoring

The last decisions are practical. How does the microphone reach the computer, and can you move to a better setup later?

The Yeti records a USB connection. The MV7 records USB and XLR, and XLR output appears in its recorded feature list, so it can be moved to an audio interface later without changing microphone. That is a path rather than a benefit today, and it matters if you expect to outgrow a USB microphone and want to keep the same one.

Monitoring is the part people forget. Both record headphone monitoring as built in, so neither needs a separate monitoring path to hear yourself while recording, and neither can be separated from the other on that basis. If you are choosing between these two, monitoring will not decide it.

What this catalogue does not settle

There is no recorded sensitivity, self-noise figure, frequency response, gain range or price for either microphone, and there is no measurement of how either one handles a noisy room. Those are the numbers that would settle a decision made on specifications alone. What the recorded data does settle is the shape of the choice. A condenser with switchable patterns in a quiet room, or a dynamic that forgives an untreated one. Choose the element type first and the rest of the list gets much shorter.