More Mobile: Fun with Microphones (Premium)

When I’m at home, I use a professional podcasting rig that consists of a broadcast-quality microphone, a boom arm, and a USB audio interface. There’s a lot to like about this setup: it sounds great, and I never need to frig with the settings. But it has some downsides too. It’s expensive, for starters, though TWiT paid for it. And, more problematic, it’s big and bulky and not at all mobile, and it is thus not compatible with the more mobile lifestyle I see for the future.

In a way, this isn’t a new problem. I normally travel enough that I need to record many podcast episodes each year on the road, and I’ve spent much of the past 15 or so years packing various headsets and microphones for use on my trips. And while I’ve never found anything truly excellent, I could until now at least excuse that a way by the temporary nature of it: sure, I may be gone 4-5 weeks over the course of a year, but it’s OK if the podcasts I record then don’t sound perfect. That’s part of the charm.

The issue, going forward, is that I will almost certainly need a more mobile podcasting setup over a long period of time. The good news is that this need isn’t immediate: the very earliest we’ll sell our house and move is next year, and even then, we may temporarily be in a more fixed location for a while, which means I’ll be able to continue using my current setup. Regardless, I’ve been researching and experimenting with new (to me) and more mobile podcasting gear over the past few months. And the most important part of this setup, of course, is the microphone.

(Yes, the webcam is also important, but most podcast subscribers listen to the audio version, not the video version.)

Without getting into the technical weeds about the different types of microphones and interfaces, we can make this one simple: the most mobile setup possible is a smallish, travel-sized, USB-based microphone that simply plugs into whatever computer I’m using, just works, and works well (in the sense that it has good sound quality). And this shouldn’t be too complicated: just look at some reviews, try a few microphones, make a pick, and move on.

Unfortunately, it’s not proven so easy. As noted, I’ve never really found a truly excellent mobile podcasting setup, and so this year I’ve focused more on just finding a good standalone microphone. For example, before my trip to Mexico City this past August, I asked Leo for his advice and he recommended the Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB, which I promptly bought for about $100. It came with a small plastic tripod, and USB-A and USB-C cables, and it worked great when I tested it here at home, on my desktop PC. But when I got to Mexico, the quality was garbled garbage, on two different laptops. I had to scramble to find something that worked, and the Windows Weekly episodes I recorded from there sounded terrible.

When I got home, I exchanged the microphone, guessing that something might have happened to it in transit. But what I found was that it just didn’t work … on a laptop. And my guess, at the time, was that it was power-related: perhaps none of the laptops I tested it with, including a few others I tried when I got home, delivered enough power to the USB port(s) for this microphone to work well. So I returned both of them, considered some options recommended by readers, and brooded.

Since then, two things have changed. First, there’s a new trip coming up: this coming weekend, my wife and I are heading to Paris for our much delayed 30th-anniversary trip. And I’ve started my More Mobile push, and have switched from a desktop computer to a laptop, first connected via a Thunderbolt 3 dock and now via a USB-C hub that is more portable. The USB-C hub I bought features pass-through power, and so I wondered whether that microphone—or another similar microphone—will work normally when connected to the powered hub.

And so I went back to Amazon.com to (re)order that Audio-Technica microphone. For the third time. But while browsing the site, I discovered a slightly more expensive version, the Audio-Technica ATR2500x-USB, that has a better design (to my eyes) but features the same types of mini-tripod and cables. And so I purchased that one instead, intending to test it this week and then use it in Paris next week. You know, assuming it worked.

And it does. With one caveat.

First of all, my theory about the problem being power-related is wrong: I tested the new microphone with the same laptop I had brought to Mexico, both via an on-PC Thunderbolt/USB-C port and one on the attached (and powered) USB-C hub. And in both cases, I got the same garbled and unusable voice recording I had experienced in Mexico. Curious.

Then, I tested it with the Surface Pro 8 that I’ll be bringing to Paris this coming week. And that worked flawlessly, and despite the fact that the PC was on battery and not plugged in: the test recording sounded very good. Normal.

And one more test, this time with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon I’m also currently reviewing. Again, no issues: the test recording sounded fine. I also moved the ThinkPad X1 Carbon into my desktop setup, too, and I was able to test it with First Ring Daily this morning. Since that seemed to go well, the microphone is coming to Paris. And if/when that works out, maybe I’ve found my solution.

But what are we to make of all this? Well, as I noted, I had tested the previous microphone with multiple computers—at least three of them and probably more, I forget now—but I know that at least two of them were HP laptops. And so now I wonder if there is something specific to HP that is causing the problem. (And two of the HP laptops were damaged by water during that Mexico trip, as you may recall. Another clue/cause?)

I’m not entirely sure. But I am glad that the new microphone is working fine across a variety of newer review laptops, and I’ll keep testing it on others going forward.

And then I can turn my attention to the webcam. I’m not happy with the big and bulky Elgato Facecam I’m currently using—plus, it won’t retain the configuration I want and I have to manually re-apply it every time I use it—and I’m hoping that some future laptop(s) will have better, 1080p webcams that work well enough that I won’t need an external webcam.

And you know what? That Surface Pro 8 I’m bringing to Paris has such a webcam. So we’ll see how that works out next week.