whats the Difference between usb mic and normal mic?

[emotionz22]

Ok this a newbie question...im not to big on microphones but i know the types of microphone and i have an idea on polar patterns but ive seen alot of usb mics on the market and i was wondering what the difference was when you record with one ..Ive had someone tell me to stick with a dynamic or condenser mic because USB sounds like crap...so my question is whats the difference and why can't you get a better signal out of the USB

[3dot...]

USB mics have the A/D converter built-in..
you should check the quality of that component as well when buying a USB mic

a regular mic doesn't have anything to do with the digital realm..

[invol]

There are high quality mics with built-in converters, but they are not USB (e.g., Neumann uses AES/EBU or S/PDIF).

"USB mic" does not refer to a method of transduction - dynamic, capacitor, ribbon - but the way you can connect a mic to your computer without additional converter and preamp.

For the most part, they use cheap condensers with not so great converters built in. Though, they are good for tutorials, podcasts, etc. The Blue Snowball is surprisingly good in those regards, and could easily be used for indie/lo-fi recordings.

[MartinOM28V]

The market for USB mics is changing so it's not a given that they are all using cheap parts or all sound inferior to normal mics. Some of the newer ones are much better than the first few iterations of USB mics. Apogee is coming out with one soon that will probably cost a lot but have excellent A/D conversion. In other words not accurate to equate USB with poor sound or cheap parts.

The best way to think of the difference between USB mic and normal mic is that with a normal mic you have an audio signal to work with, and you need an audio in/out device to translate that audio signal into a digital signal that your computer can use. So in order to use a normal mic with your computer you need one additional piece of equipment. For most of us that's no big deal since we use the audio in/out device to interface all sorts of instruments and microphones to the computer.

USB mics contain a processor that converts the audio (analog) signal to digital so that you just plug directly into your computer. This offers extra convenience if you don't play any other instruments, only need one mic, and the thought of using an audio in/out exhausts you. A friend of mine uses USB mic with laptop when traveling to quickly capture ideas.

Bear in mind a normal mic is asked to do one thing: reproduce sound accurately. All the attention goes into creating a great-sounding mic. A USB mic on the other hand must do two things well: reproduce sound accurately AND convert the audio signal to a digital signal (A/D conversion) without losing any of the sound quality or creating artifacts. And you are stuck with whatever conversion rate the USB mic ships with. This is what makes USB mics less of a good deal than an equivalent-cost normal mic, IMHO. You are trading off a good quality audio I/O device for the A/D converter that comes with the USB mic, just to gain a tiny bit of extra portability. A good compromise is to get a good portable audio I/O (like the Apogee Duet 2) and use a regular mic.