Electro-Voice - RE320

It’s a little more expensive, but IMO the Re320 is the best budget broadcast mic out there. It may be out of your price range, but you can find one used on reverb for around 220$.

The RE20 is used by basically every radio station in the world but for some reason rarely gets mentioned in these discussions. I have the re320 which is essentially the same mic just made in china instead of the US so is a lot cheaper. Highly recommend. (Although I currently use a super55 black edition which sounds worse but looks hella cool)

EV RE320 in none podcasting applications. Great for vocals, guitar and cheaper than the RE20 but doesn't really sound worse, just different.

The best mic is the one you like. For example I love the clarity of the EV RE320. The Shure SM7B helps me say, "Hey look I spent more than $300 on a microphone!" But the one I use is the Rode Podmic USB. It's like having a Rodecaster Processing rack in my mic. I can dial in the clarity I like, and with the windscreen on I might have people thinking, "Holy Moly is he using the Joe Rogan microphone?" If you don't like your voice, try tweaking it in post. I can make a Samson Q2U sound like any microphone in post. So it boils down to how do YOU like the sound of your voice when you're recording. The more you like your voice, the more comfortable you are. The more comfortable you are, the more you can be yourself on the mic. In the end, the audience isn't tuning it because you're using the same mic as Leo Laporte, or Tim Ferris, they are tuning in because of your content. If a different microphone would make your comfortable, then swap it out, but just know: it's not the tech. It's the content. *Moderator Required full disclosure: I am the head of Podcasting at Podpage and the founder of the School of Podcasting.*

The dude knows nothing about audio. What he needs is good enough with minimal setup AND portable. Less friction is ideal. DJI Mic mini plugged straight into the laptop is my pick. If you can spare the space, though, then any fifine more than $40 is great too, maybe something like the AM8. Sounds damn good for how cheap it is even compared to something like my EV RE320.

I’m using an **Electro-Voice RE320** into a **RODECaster Duo** for gaming YouTube and Discord. I’m a very dynamic talker. normal talking > hype > full-on yelling, back and forth, and I’m trying to set this up so I can scream without clipping but still be clearly heard all the time. Right now my chain feels like a mess: * Mic: **RE320** * Interface: **RODECaster Duo** * Use case: gaming YouTube (recorded into OBS) + talking on Discord # What I’m doing now Because I yell a lot, I turned the mic preamp gain way down: * **Preamp gain:** 33 dB * If I go higher, my loudest yells have transient peaks that clip and sound crunchy To get the level back up, I’ve done this: * On the **RODECaster Duo compressor**: * Ratio: **4.5:1** (the max) * Threshold: literally at the lowest it can go so it even starts compressing my normal speech, because of how low my gain is * Makeup gain: +**9db** (the max) * Even with that, it still doesn’t feel loud enough. So I kept stacking more gain: * **Windows recording level** for the RODECaster: default was 54, I bumped it to 60 * In **OBS**, I added another **compressor with +10 dB of makeup gain** * For **Discord**, it’s still too quiet unless I let Discord use **auto gain / automatic input sensitivity** At this point I’ve got: * Low preamp to avoid clipping * Hardware compressor bottomed out, makeup maxed * Windows gain bumped * Extra compressor in OBS * Discord auto-gain on top It “sort of” works, but it feels completely convoluted and wrong. I'm not an audio engineer or anything close to it, I thought I knew a little bit about audio but I've quickly become overwhelmed lol. Any amount of help would be immensely appreciated. Because it just feels like I'm not doing this right.