Help me choose a microphone

[TechGuruGames]

I am looking for a high quality microphone. I am going to use it for commentaries and narration. I do not think I need extra features as long as cardioid suits my needs but if there is a microphone you recommend and has more features then I will take that into consideration. I already have the Marantz Pod Pack 1, the Blue Snowball and the Audio Technica AT2020 in my wishlist. I want to buy a good mixer too. Recommend me one. Budget for Mic and Mixer combined is ~160

Thanks

 

[DJ_Rubino]

The AudioTechnica AT-2020 is a great mic for your use. The blue snowball is centere a little more towards the low-end and is mostly used by gamers for in-game communication while the AudioTechnica is focused more to the professional side which is i guess what you need / want.

For a mixer, one of the Behringer XENYX mixers are really good. For your purposes i think the XENYX 502 (around 40$) or 802 (Around 60$) is good enough.
It hasn't got USB though so if you want a USB solution i think the Alesis Multimix 4USB is good and in sort of the same budget and build quality as the Behringer XENYX (Of course you pay a little more for USB).

 

[TechGuruGames]

The AudioTechnica AT-2020 is a great mic for your use. The blue snowball is centere a little more towards the low-end and is mostly used by gamers for in-game communication while the AudioTechnica is focused more to the professional side which is i guess what you need / want.

For a mixer, one of the Behringer XENYX mixers are really good. For your purposes i think the XENYX 502 (around 40$) or 802 (Around 60$) is good enough.
It hasn't got USB though so if you want a USB solution i think the Alesis Multimix 4USB is good and in sort of the same budget and build quality as the Behringer XENYX (Of course you pay a little more for USB).

Thanks for the answer! i have one more question: will i have to buy anything else except for the mixer so that the mic can work on my pc? If so, what? What is the advantage of using usb? Dont modern day motherboards have slots for mixers? Thanks

 

[DJ_Rubino]

The AudioTechnica AT-2020 is a great mic for your use. The blue snowball is centere a little more towards the low-end and is mostly used by gamers for in-game communication while the AudioTechnica is focused more to the professional side which is i guess what you need / want.

For a mixer, one of the Behringer XENYX mixers are really good. For your purposes i think the XENYX 502 (around 40$) or 802 (Around 60$) is good enough.
It hasn't got USB though so if you want a USB solution i think the Alesis Multimix 4USB is good and in sort of the same budget and build quality as the Behringer XENYX (Of course you pay a little more for USB).

Thanks for the answer! i have one more question: will i have to buy anything else except for the mixer so that the mic can work on my pc? If so, what? What is the advantage of using usb? Dont modern day motherboards have slots for mixers? Thanks

If you get a mixer without USB, it will mix all the inputs and then give you an output. If you get a mixer with USB it will be able to send the mixed signal to your pc. So if you want to use it with your pc, you must buy a mixer with USB. then you will be good to go.

The advantage of USB is that you can hook it up directly to the PC. If you have a mixer without USB, you will need to get an external audio interface to translate the mixers output to USB if you wish to use it with you PC. The mixer with USB has that built in though so it's much less of a hassle with different components. For your purposes i recommend a mixer with USB. if you get that, you're pretty much good to go and don't need anything else. (Check if the mixer has +48V phantompower for condenser mics like the AudioTechnica AT2020) The reason mixers without USB exist is because they're used for live purposes where they have a lot of different sound sources coming in that go from the mixer directly to the PA system.

About mixer slots on the motherboard, I don't really know what you're talking about. the only slots on the motherboard for audio related stuff are the PCIe slots which can be used for soundcards, not mixers.

 

[TechGuruGames]

The AudioTechnica AT-2020 is a great mic for your use. The blue snowball is centere a little more towards the low-end and is mostly used by gamers for in-game communication while the AudioTechnica is focused more to the professional side which is i guess what you need / want.

For a mixer, one of the Behringer XENYX mixers are really good. For your purposes i think the XENYX 502 (around 40$) or 802 (Around 60$) is good enough.
It hasn't got USB though so if you want a USB solution i think the Alesis Multimix 4USB is good and in sort of the same budget and build quality as the Behringer XENYX (Of course you pay a little more for USB).

Thanks for all your great answers. I have found the Xenyx 302 USB for 55, the Xenyx Q502 USB for 62 and the Alesia MultiMix 4 USB for 87. Which one should i get?

Edit: Im going with the Alesia one. After some research I found out that the q502 usb doesnt support 48v but only 24v mics and the 302 doesnt have a lot of features. Thanks again for everything!