The 4 Best USB Microphones for Musicians and Podcasters in 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Freddy Gerngross and Brent Butterworth

The 512 Audio Tempest is our new top pick.

As more people become content creators—whether for gaming, podcasting, or music recording—the cheap microphones built into laptops no longer cut it. A USB microphone can dramatically improve the quality of the sounds you record, and it usually requires nothing more than a single connection to your computer.

The 512 Audio Tempest is our pick for the best USB microphone because it works great for podcasting, gaming, and music, and it comes with a lot of useful features and accessories.

This microphone ranked among the best in all our tests for voice, gaming, and music. It offers useful features and comes with two mounts.

This microphone’s great sound is appropriate for any recording purpose, but its features and design are best suited for music recording.

This USB microphone is pricey, but it offers outstanding voice quality and a design that’s perfect for desktop recording.

This full-fledged studio microphone offers professional sound quality but at a steep price.

A USB microphone can make high-quality recording simple—just one connection and no outboard gear required.

We concealed the identities of the microphones from our listening panel to eliminate bias due to brand or price.

We ran separate tests for voice reproduction (podcasts and gaming) and music recording.

We spent several hours with the most promising contenders to confirm that they had no annoying flaws.

This microphone ranked among the best in all our tests for voice, gaming, and music. It offers useful features and comes with two mounts.

In our brand-concealed tests, the 512 Audio Tempest delivered a clear, natural sound no matter whether we were recording a podcast or an acoustic guitar. It’s one of the few microphones that garnered consistent praise and no significant complaints about the sound. This microphone offers only a cardioid polar (or pickup) pattern, but that’s the one you need for voice recording and almost all music recording.

The front of the Tempest has a mute button, plus controls for input level and headphone volume. The microphone comes with two sturdy mounts: a simple, ring-shaped one and a shock mount that isolates the recording from accidental bumps. The package also includes a tabletop stand that’s sturdy enough for use with the ring-shaped mount, but the weight of the shock mount and microphone combined can easily tip it over.

The only downside is that the Tempest’s price is all over the place: Some retailers sell it for as high as $160, and that’s a lot more than you should pay. But as of our most recent update to this guide, this microphone has been available for nine months on Amazon for less than $50—and 512 Audio links to the same Amazon seller directly from its website, so we trust it.

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This microphone’s great sound is appropriate for any recording purpose, but its features and design are best suited for music recording.

The Mackie EM-91CU is a simple, great-sounding microphone that can be a workhorse in any recording situation, though in our brand-concealed tests it scored particularly well on music. We loved how accurately it reproduced our recordings, how durable and lightweight the build was, and how easy it was to set up and use.

Its primary shortcoming is its complete lack of features—it has neither onboard controls nor a headphone jack. Like our top pick, it offers only a cardioid polar pattern.

This USB microphone is pricey, but it offers outstanding voice quality and a design that’s perfect for desktop recording.

In all of our brand-concealed tests, the Røde PodMic USB consistently scored among the best in voice reproduction, for both female and male voices and at different distances. Its integrated pop filter eliminates worry about annoying “puh” sounds from plosives, and its tight cardioid polar pattern does a decent job of reducing noise and room reverb.

The design makes it easy to mount this microphone on a desktop swing-arm boom, and its relatively small profile won’t obscure much of your face on camera. The PodMic USB also has an XLR analog output, so it can connect to USB audio interfaces and analog mixing boards.

On the downside, it carries a high price tag and offers limited versatility—it’s designed specifically for voice pickup, not to do double duty as a musical-instrument microphone.

This full-fledged studio microphone offers professional sound quality but at a steep price.

The Røde NT1 5th Generation scored at or near the top in all of our spoken-word, vocal, and music testing, delivering exceptionally clear and detailed sound that impressed our listeners. It comes with lots of extras, including a pop filter, a high-quality shock mount with replacement bands, XLR and USB cables with Velcro straps, a bag to store the microphone in, and a link to Røde’s computer software.

Among its drawbacks are its steep price, significant weight, and complete lack of onboard features, the last of which makes it less suitable for desktop use than some of our other picks. And it isn’t as rugged as our other picks, although that’s true of most high-quality condenser microphones.

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Freddy Gerngross tested the USB microphones for home-studio recording and gaming. He is a graduate student at NYU Stendhardt’s Music Technology Program, a recording engineer, a professional musician, and (far too often) a gamer.

Senior staff writer Brent Butterworth tested the USB microphones for podcasting. He has more than three decades of experience in testing and measuring audio gear, he co-hosts and engineers a biweekly podcast, and he recently rose as high as number three on the Roots Music Report jazz-radio play chart with his self-produced project Take2.

For this guide:

This guide is designed for the person who spends considerable time recording music, doing live video-game streams, podcasting, or making YouTube or TikTok videos—and wants to improve the sound without spending a lot of money on additional audio equipment.

If you’re looking to produce more ambitious recording projects, you’re likely to get better results if you invest in a USB audio interface and an analog microphone, which together offer more flexibility and potentially better sound quality. But you might want to check out our two upgrade picks here first.

If you’re serious about recording high-quality music or podcasts, a great USB audio interface—like Focusrite’s Scarlett 2i2 or Vocaster Two—is a vital tool.

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For this guide, we focused primarily on microphones that are suitable for podcasting, video streaming, gaming, and casual music recording. We scoured the internet to identify recently released USB microphones, noting which kinds of recording they’re designed for, any onboard features and included software, and the price.

USB microphone technology has improved quickly in recent years, so we made sure to test models from up-and-coming brands as well as those from popular, high-profile brands. We tested models priced from about $30 to $250.

To test each microphone’s sound quality with voices, we recorded female and male voices reading Harvard Sentences into measurement microphones, which have a more natural sound than microphones typically used for recording. We then played these recordings through a Brüel & Kjær Type 4227 Mouth Simulator and fed the sound into each USB microphone. By using this setup, we could ensure that every microphone received the exact same sound.

When feeding the sound into the microphones, we tested them in three positions: 2 inches away (for the best possible sound quality), 1 foot away (to judge the microphones’ ability to reject room echo and other noises), and 1 foot away with air conditioner noise playing from a speaker placed 6 feet to the side of the microphone.

We labeled the resulting recordings only by letter, so that we wouldn’t know which microphones we were hearing. We then listened to them and ranked them ourselves, after which we asked two other Wirecutter staffers to give us their rankings. We also included two analog microphones—a Shure SM57 and an Electro-Voice RE20, both connected through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen USB interface—as a reference.

To test each microphone’s effectiveness in a music-recording setting, we recorded 20 seconds of a musical performance using guitar with vocals, and then we repeated that test with different material using an acoustic bass, all within a decently sound-treated but realistically furnished bedroom. We re-created this performance for each microphone to the best of our abilities (we are human, after all), with the microphone placement exactly the same. We labeled and then listened to the recordings in the same brand-concealed manner as we did in our voice tests, including a Shure SM57 analog microphone through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface for comparison.

To test the microphones for gaming, we played Ready or Not, a highly cooperative online multiplayer game, to learn whether they worked well in both push-to-talk and open-mic modes. Push-to-talk requires you to press a key or button before any signal from your microphone transmits to other players. Some microphones have an issue where push-to-talk doesn’t trigger immediately, cutting off the beginning of your speech and affecting communication and reaction time. In open-mic mode, your microphone always sends sound to whoever is connected with you. We asked our teammates how each microphone sounded, tallied their positive or negative reactions, and swapped models for each round of play.

Here are the parameters we considered when evaluating these microphones:

Note that, with recording microphones, sound quality is a matter of opinion, and with a few exceptions we found little correlation between the prices of these microphones and our listeners’ opinions of their sound. Many professionals may disagree, but we suspect that few of them have conducted controlled comparisons in which the identities of the contenders were concealed. This excellent YouTube video explores the topic in more depth.

This microphone ranked among the best in all our tests for voice, gaming, and music. It offers useful features and comes with two mounts.

No matter the testing conditions, our listening panel always chose the 512 Audio Tempest as one of their favorites. This microphone’s clear, natural sound works great for voices, music, and gaming, and its convenient controls and two mounting options add versatility.

It performs well on every task. The Tempest consistently ranked among the top microphones in our listening tests, whether we were recording music or vocals. Listeners commented on the above-average clarity of the sound in comparison with most of the other microphones we tested.

The cardioid pickup pattern is tight enough to cut out some room echo, but not so tight that vocalists will have to pay a lot of attention to staying close to the microphone.

The Tempest records at resolutions up to 24-bit/48 kHz, which is commonly used in professional recording. It seemed to produce less low-level hiss than many of the other microphones, although we’re not sure if that was due to less internal noise or less tendency to pick up room noise.

Behind the protective front grille is a fine-pitch metal screen that does a good job of blocking pops and plosives the way a pop filter would.

Front controls make it convenient to use. The microphone-gain and headphone-level knobs are right on the front, where they’re easy to access. The Tempest also has a front headphone jack and a mute button. Like most microphone mute buttons, this one produces a thump that comes through onto the recording, but it’s useful when you’re gaming with open-mic comms, where your microphone is always on.

A blue LED illuminates the microphone element so that you can stay on-mic even in a dark room. It looks cool, too.

You don’t need to buy anything else to get started. We love that 512 Audio includes two mounts and a rudimentary stand with the Tempest, so you don’t need to buy anything extra to start recording. Just attach the desired mount to the included tripod stand and connect the USB-C cable, and you’re ready to record.

The included shock mount suspends the microphone using rubber O-rings. This mount is useful in minimizing the effects of footfalls on a wooden floor, taps on a desktop keyboard, or inadvertent thumps on the desk. You’ll still hear such sounds, but you’ll hear little or none of the annoying, bassy random thumping that pervades so many amateur podcasts. The shock mount also provides a wide range of positions, so you can point the microphone high or low as needed.

The Tempest lists compatibility with only Windows and Mac computers, but we also got it to work with a Samsung Galaxy S10 Android phone. We couldn’t get it to work with a Lightning-jack-equipped iPad and an Apple camera adapter, though.

The Tempest’s pricing is inconsistent. We were previously reluctant to make the Tempest a pick because depending on the retailer it sells at such a wide range of prices—from about $35 up to $160.

However, at this writing it has been consistently available for less than $50 on Amazon for at least nine months—and 512 Audio uses the same Amazon link for the buy option on its own website, so we feel safe recommending it.

The included stand is flimsy. The lightweight tripod stand is enough to get you started, but we recommend replacing it soon. If you use the shock mount, the microphone hangs out far beyond the included stand’s center of gravity, and the whole thing can fall over with just an accidental tap. We recommend getting a weighted desktop stand.

We’ve seen complaints about the mute button malfunctioning. Some Amazon reviewers report that the Tempest’s mute button stops working after a while. The button on our test unit still worked fine after more than 500 presses, but it might be wise to give yours a workout and confirm that you got a good one.

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This microphone’s great sound is appropriate for any recording purpose, but its features and design are best suited for music recording.

Although the Mackie EM-91CU works well for nearly any recording application, its performance and design make it especially suited for music. This is the perfect microphone for beginner or bedroom musicians, and with its durable build, it is a particularly good choice for children, who may not handle a microphone with the kind of care that an adult would.

It has a notably transparent sound quality. In our tests, this microphone barely added any coloration to instruments or voices. As a cardioid model, it picks up sound primarily from the front of the microphone. As our vocal and music tests showed, it performs better the closer you are to the microphone, which is typical for a cardioid polar pattern.

The tonal balance is similar to what we heard from the 512 Audio Tempest but with a little less bass.

The no-nonsense design is ideal for music recording. This microphone has no buttons or lights, and it is not flashy or eye-catching. Many of the extra features that might be useful for streaming, podcasting, or gaming—such as a headphone jack and a gain knob—are missing, as the focus here is on affordable sound quality and durability. (Mackie also offers the more full-featured EM-91CU+ and EM-USB, but we haven’t tried them.)

The supplied shock mount protects against thumps. The shock mount will prevent any vibrations that travel through your stand or boom arm from affecting the microphone itself and is perfect for studio setups or crowded spaces. You can tilt it up or down to focus the microphone’s polar pattern where you want it.

Although the EM-91CU does not come with a tabletop stand, the package does include a 0.625-inch threaded universal shock-mount clip. You need to buy a stand to use with it; fortunately, many are available at a low cost on Amazon. Mackie sells a reasonably priced desktop boom arm, but we haven’t tried it.

Mackie lists the EM-91CU as compatible with Mac and Windows computers but not with mobile devices. This microphone does not have a dedicated app, but Mackie does include Waveform OEM digital audio workstation software and a variety of plug-in processing apps.

It uses an outdated USB-B connector. The EM-91CU has a USB Type-B connector, the kind found on many printers and older USB audio interfaces. If you lose the included cable, the odds that you might have another one lying around are getting lower each day.

You may need a pop filter. When we recorded voices with the EM-91CU, we heard plosives (or “puh” sounds). If you plan to use this model primarily as a voice microphone, you should add a pop filter; Mackie sells a pop screen that attaches directly to the EM-91CU.

Its maximum resolution is relatively low. The EM-91CU records in 16-bit/48-kilohertz resolution, which is fine for most uses. However, many other USB mics offer greater digital resolution.

This USB microphone is pricey, but it offers outstanding voice quality and a design that’s perfect for desktop recording.

For podcasters or gamers who want maximum sound quality and don’t want to mess with a separate USB audio interface, the Røde PodMic USB is the best choice. It’s pricey, but in our tests it regularly landed at or near the top in voice reproduction, and its design is perfectly suited for use with a swing-arm microphone boom.

It sounds terrific. The PodMic USB consistently ranked among the best in our brand-concealed tests. Our listeners agreed that, with all voices, it produced a full, natural sound with no noticeable sonic colorations or anomalies.

Its internal pop filter effectively blocked pops and plosives; we never felt the need to add an external pop filter, although one is available. It records at 24-bit/48-kilohertz digital resolution, which is fine for voice applications. (Note that we didn’t test the PodMic USB for music recording because it isn’t intended for that use.)

This microphone’s cardioid polar pattern focused on voices well, as long as the speaker was in front of the microphone. It did a better-than-average job of rejecting room reverberation and keyboard-click sounds from a computer on the desktop, although it still picked up a noticeable amount of those sounds.

The companion app is fairly useful. The Røde Central app (for Mac, PC, iOS, and Android) adds four sound-processing features: a noise gate, a compressor, the Aphex Aural Exciter, and a 60 Hz high-pass filter to block bumps and microphone-handling noises.

These features work reasonably well, although anyone who edits in a digital audio workstation can access plug-ins that are more effective and versatile. We did like the Big Bottom feature in the Aural Exciter, which made voices sound more resonant.

The design and features are podcaster-friendly. Brent has been using the PodMic USB to record his podcast for over six months, and it’s still sounding great and performing flawlessly. This microphone is designed to mount on a desktop swing-arm stand, which is standard in radio studios. It has a rear-mounted headphone jack and headphone volume control, both of which are easy to get to.

It also has an XLR analog output, so if you decide to add a separate USB audio interface or an analog mixer, you won’t have to get a new microphone. Because it has an all-metal chassis, it’s likely to survive the accidental knocks that audio-production gear often encounters.

Røde says that the PodMic USB is compatible with iOS and Android devices, in addition to PC and Mac computers. We used it to record and monitor audio from a Samsung Galaxy S10 phone. When we tried connecting it to a Lightning-jack-equipped iPad using an Apple camera adapter, we could do voice recordings with the microphone but couldn’t monitor them through the headphone jack.

It’s pricey for a USB microphone. For the price of the PodMic USB, you can get the standard, analog Røde PodMic and an inexpensive, single-channel USB interface, which together may offer more convenience, flexibility, and features.

It may be a little heavy for some stands. At 1.9 pounds, it might cause a flimsy stand to tip over easily. It’s also heavy enough that we’d think twice about lugging it along for a mobile recording session.

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This full-fledged studio microphone offers professional sound quality but at a steep price.

If you want a microphone to record music at a professional level, but you are dead set against using a separate USB audio interface, the Røde NT1 5th Generation is the best choice. This microphone—a USB version of a pro model that has been popular for decades—delivered the most consistently clear and full sound of all the models we tested.

It offers true professional quality for any kind of recording. In our brand-concealed tests, the NT1 5th Generation consistently ranked at or near the top in every category. Our listeners praised its clear treble, detailed midrange, and strong, deep bass response.

It includes an analog XLR output for recording into a mixer or a USB audio interface. The sound quality was excellent either way; we couldn’t hear a difference between the sound from the USB output and the sound from the XLR output feeding a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface. Thanks to this included feature, if you don’t have an interface or mixer currently but plan on getting one in the future, you can purchase and use the NT1 now and continue using it even after you’ve added that equipment.

This microphone works with the same Røde Central app (for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android) as the company’s PodMic USB does. The app offers access to various sound-processing functions, but if you’re serious enough about recording to spend the money for the NT1, you probably already have digital audio workstation software with similar functions.

It offers a rare, high-tech twist. The NT1 5th Generation can record in 32-bit float, which eliminates any concern about clipping, the distortion caused by setting the microphone gain too high. If the performance becomes so loud that it overloads the microphone, you can adjust the recording later so it no longer does that.

Whether you can take advantage of this feature depends on your digital audio workstation setup. To verify that your machine is compatible with 32-bit float and to learn how to record using it, refer to these software and hardware guides from Røde.

Even in a standard configuration, the NT1 5th Generation can record in 24-bit/192-kilohertz resolution, which is very high for a USB microphone. Røde lists it as compatible with Mac and Windows computers but not with mobile devices.

All you need to add is a stand. The NT1 5th Generation comes bundled with some awesome extras, namely a heavy-duty, high-quality shock mount, a fabric pop filter, high-quality XLR and USB cables, and a bag.

It isn’t well suited for casual use. Unfortunately, the microphone, its mount, and its filter are too heavy for most boom arms, and the microphone has neither onboard controls nor a headphone jack, all of which add up to a cumbersome desktop experience.

You might encounter some hiss, although it shouldn’t be a problem. When using the USB connection, Freddy encountered a faint hiss while monitoring the recording in real time. Fortunately, that hiss was not present when he played the recording back. Brent didn’t notice this problem during the voice-recording tests.

If you want a high-tech model for podcasting: The Shure MV7+ incorporates a touch-sensitive mute control on top; it’s one of the few microphone mute buttons we’ve found that don’t create audible clicks in the recording. Shure’s Motiv Mix app includes a very effective noise-reduction option, a tone control, adjustable reverb, and a digital pop-filter function that didn’t seem to work at all. The microphone comes with a tabletop stand that can attach to a boom arm or microphone stand. One plus is that the MV7+ resembles Shure’s SM7B, which has for decades been a standard for broadcasting. With all the controls in the app set to zero, the MV7+ sounded very good in our tests, but our listening panel preferred the slightly smoother sound of the less-costly Røde PodMic USB.

If you do live streaming: Our listeners said the Elgato Wave3 sounded good but a little duller than our favorites. However, live-streamers may be happy to compromise on sound quality considering that the Wave3 is built specifically for them. It comes bundled with Wave Link, audio-mixing software that allows you to mix up to eight audio sources and your microphone for monitoring and recording. Additionally, the Wave3 is designed to work seamlessly with Elgato’s Stream Deck, which provides one-touch, instantaneous control of microphone functions, lights, apps, and other things important to streamers.

If you’re recording voices in a noisy environment: The Logitech Yeti GX won no raves for sound quality—in our tests, it made voices sound a little thin—but it did an impressive job of rejecting loud air-conditioner noise, a test that almost all the other microphones flunked. It eliminated most of the air-conditioner noise while voices were present, and it gated out the noise completely when we stopped speaking. (Note that digital audio workstation plug-ins, as well as online recording services such as Zoom and Riverside FM, can perform similar functions.) The Yeti GX also sports cool LED lighting, which is great for gaming streamers. But we found its onboard controls—which are on top when you turn the microphone toward you—difficult to use.

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Below are some other noteworthy USB microphones we tested in our most recent round. For more, see our running list of all the USB microphones we’ve tried.

The AKG Ara offers a sturdy build as well as cardioid and bidirectional polar-pattern settings, and it can record in high resolution at 96 kHz. However, in our brand-concealed tests, it commonly ranked in the middle of the pack or lower. The same goes for the AKG Lyra, which has higher resolution and more features.

The Audio Pro X5 USB Microphone held up well in our brand-concealed tests. It’s affordable and cool-looking, too. Unfortunately, on multiple occasions this model failed to connect to our computer or disconnected randomly.

The affordably priced JLab Epic Talk has a desktop-friendly design and features multiple polar patterns. Our panelists liked its clear sound, but some complained that it picked up more room reverberation than they preferred.

The Logitech Blue Yeti Classic is a former top pick that remains a versatile microphone for the price, but its bulky design is now dated, and these days many competitors surpass it in sound quality. In our latest round of tests, it never ranked above the middle of the pack.

The Maono PD400X is similar to the Røde PodMic USB, as it offers USB and analog XLR outputs, but it does so for a considerably lower price. However, our listeners said it sounded a little coarse in comparison with our picks.

The Monoprice Dark Matter Sentry is our former top pick, but it has been discontinued.

The PreSonus Revelator is a cool, high-tech microphone with multiple features and polar patterns, plus numerous included software plugins and the PreSonus Studio One Artist digital audio workstation software. But both Freddy and Brent had problems getting it to work, and it sometimes produced blank files or annoying distortion. We had similar problems with the PreSonus Revelator Dynamic.

The Sennheiser Profile had a clear, natural sound with voices in our tests, and its front controls make it well suited for voice work. However, it didn’t exhibit any substantial sonic advantage over several less-expensive models.

Although the Shure MV5C sounded pretty good, a couple of listeners complained that its treble seemed a bit soft. The desktop-stand design limits its utility; it can’t, for example, work with a swing-arm stand.

The Tonor TD510 has an amazingly low price for a microphone with USB and analog XLR outputs. For the most part, our panelists didn’t favor its bassy, somewhat bloated sound, but for some voices it might work well.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.

Freddy Gerngross

Freddy Gerngross is a freelance writer working with the audio team at Wirecutter. He currently studies in NYU’s Music Technology graduate program, works as a studio technician, and holds a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies from Temple University. Before moving to New York, Freddy taught pre-K to eighth-grade music for four years.

Brent Butterworth

I test and write about a wide variety of audio devices, such as speakers, soundbars, amplifiers, and subwoofers. I also test musical instruments and recording gear, including USB interfaces and microphones, and I perform audio measurements for many other guides, such as our headphone and earplug guides.

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