Audio Technica ATR2100 Review for Podcasting

Key Takeaways

hey guys Ricky here with jim and today we're gonna be talking about the ATR 2100 microphone that's the microphone that i'm using right here and i guess we'll just dive right into it this is a we recommend this for any podcast yeah i mean whether you're beginner or whether you're trying to have a really professional sound it's just it really does the job and it doesn't yeah so my mic this is the rode pro the road procaster it costs like the four of these it's a lot more expensive it's not terribly expensive but it's more expensive I think by about four times and you can hear the audio quality between me and Ricky it's a practical standpoint it is not different yeah I mean if you're like a very very serious podcaster and you just have that golden ear you can hear the difference which is why I picked this but unless you're hearing I'm side by side you wouldn't even know and even when you are like we can both we can record a podcast together and nobody has ever said like what's up with Ricky's mic they sound the same you know the I guess here's one of the one of the benefits you might get out of having the procaster with this you know this cool setup is that um if you're if you're recording a podcast with video that one looks more professional and you can look like what you use in a radio studio just put this on a boom and you're such dick I know I know but I mean that the microphone itself other popular but normal people don't normal people won't even tell the difference and again like Jim just said put this on a boom it's gonna it's gonna be fantastic and it's still gonna look just as good and it's gonna sound just as good so okay so let's talk about a couple things to be aware of with the audio-technica ATR 2100 first take off your pop filter if you talk into it with no pop filter this is not a good mic yeah I mean it it's just like any other you know cheap cardioid type microphone out there yeah you pop your P's and scss it just it just doesn't sound that good so right now he has a really ugly zoom this is a big old fatty you don't have to use one that big but I mean that hey you want to stop your Peas that'll do it you know I use the same type of setup for my recordings and stuff at your house yeah at my house and you know I use the same type of pop filter and it is big but again nobody's it's not a go nobody's ever well it's audio and even when I record a video nobody's like hey what's up with your microphone right so huge yeah so so that so the big feature of this audio-technica ATR 2100 is that it has XLR and mini USB can you show it to that camera up there yep well show ya there you go now you can see it so he's plugin plugged in with XLR right now so that's got to go to a mixer but you can just analog sound I'm getting you know clear analog recording yeah and it's gonna sound just a hair just five percent better on XLR again unless you're hearing them side by side you're not really gonna know people on my podcast all the time I always recommend that the hosts get this ATR 2100 because you can just get a little USB cord and plug it in and suddenly it's a digital mic and you can plug it straight into your laptop anything so for podcasts that you know podcasters that want to do this on a budget it's like the ultimate solution because it's like 70 60 bucks and you're getting an analogue mic if you want to step up to a mixer or you can plug it straight into the computer and that's why I use this yeah that's why I use this mic every single day because I'm using this for my main podcast this mic but all the time I'm you know recording audio feedback for a client or something like that and I don't want to go through a mixer and all that hassle I'm just gonna plug it straight into the computer and that's what that mics for so is there anything else to say about no I mean although it's a good microphone for any level of podcaster again you have XLR you have USB so whether you're on a budget or whether you have a mixer and you want to step it up or maybe you want to step it up maybe down the road once you can some money it's a good option that can go sort of both ways and you know just put a decent pop filter on it and it's gonna sound as good as anything else out there yeah and I guess a couple tips if you're just getting in started in podcasting I have to tell this to new people on my shows like ten times before it really sinks in the mic can't be too close to your face that's right if you don't do it take if you take your mic and you put it out here even if I'm talking loud so you get the same volume it just sounds cruddy you can hear the room more it sounds more like you're in a bathroom when the mic is far from you and even if the volume is the same a little bit yeah yes so you do it from you so you can talk now okay so [Music] if I'm talking right here it's just it's clear and crisp and even if my lips are hitting the pop filter the pop filters blocking out the noise yeah that's how you know you're doing this correctly if every once in a while you bump into your pop filter the whole idea is to to give you a stronger signal to noise ratio so when we're dead silent if you're listening on good headphones you can hear just a little bit of you know sound from from the computer fan just sound just a little bit of noise because our gain might be too hot just you can just hear a room and when you're loud by being close to it then it you you're drowning out that noise floor and so it sounds super super clean when you're out like this unless you're in a perfect sound treated room it's just not gonna sound so good and that's why you see yeah excuse me you know like on Dave Letterman and stuff he doesn't have to be you know his mic doesn't have to be like this because it's a perfect sound treated area and they have mics they have a dude holding the mic pointing exactly Adam a shotgun mic so that it could gets the sound just right but but that's not how it works for podcasting you know you're gonna want it right up close to you so it sounds the very best so really that does it just we recommend the ATR 2100 it's the audio-technica ATR 2100 you can find a link to that you can just go to income school comm slash I think it's recommended setups let's pull up that link oh yeah just go to income school comm and then at the top recommended setups and then to the podcast yes you know we're gonna have information there on a lot of this stuff but the ATR 2100 is kind of in the second set of equipment the sort of the mid-level and again we recommend that no matter what level of podcasting you're at no matter how long you've been doing it it's just a good microphone awesome thanks everybody for joining us on this video hopefully it was helpful for you to see what we use as professional podcasters and good luck to you on your show bye