USB vs. Analog Mic | Respective Voice quality

Flower · Post by **Flower** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:56 pm

Hiya all!

After today's Cadet Training Session I decided to buy a microphone tomorrow.

Why a Mic and not a Headset?I got fairly high quality circumaural Headphones... would be a waste not to use them.My earlobes react very negatively on supraural headphones. Guess what... almost all Headsets are Supraural.Well I took a look at my local computer shop (ordering would take more time and you know... if you want something you want it fast)

The following Mics seemed to be in stock and interesting. (Unidirectional, and some kind of wannabe noise surpression)

1.
labtec® desk mic versa 534
http://www.labtec.com/index.cfm/gear/detai...id=621,crid2=10
This mic seems to be identical in built to the analog version of the Logitech Desktop Mic.

2.
Logitech® USB Desktop Microphone
P/N: 980186-0403
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products...,CONTENTID=6776

So my question could be split in half:

a) Does anyone of you know one of these mics and can tell me about his experience with it?
and

What are the advantages or disadvantages of USB mics compared to Analog mics? (more CPU load?, better or worse Signal to Noise ratio?)

P.S.:
I have a Soundblaster PCI512 (a low end soundcard, but still better than the undedicated on-motherboard chips I guess)

Post by **TheBored** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 1:14 am

I could be wrong here, but I would avoid USB sound devices at all cost. Stick to analog, it wont crash on you for any reason. I also wouldnt worry about sound quality, you won't be able to notice much of a difference.

I highly reccomend a headset, but if you insist on buying the desktop model, make sure there is some button on your mouse that you can map to "Push to talk". If you dont have a push to talk button, you won't be able to talk when things get busy.

TB

Flower · Post by **Flower** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 1:40 am

_SRM_TheBored wrote:QUOTE (_SRM_TheBored @ Jul 13 2006, 03:14 AM) I could be wrong here, but I would avoid USB sound devices at all cost. Stick to analog, it wont crash on you for any reason. I also wouldnt worry about sound quality, you won't be able to notice much of a difference.

I highly reccomend a headset, but if you insist on buying the desktop model, make sure there is some button on your mouse that you can map to "Push to talk". If you dont have a push to talk button, you won't be able to talk when things get busy.

TB

Ahh good, so I will stick to an analog one (its cheaper anyway), SRM Psychosis recommended this as well.

Yes I would love to be able to wear headsets but I had enough negative (and quite painful) experience with supraaural headphones.
And there is no reason to believe that Headsets would suddenly cause the departure of this strange trait of my ears.

Paranova · Post by **Paranova** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:46 am

Mics from my experiance are a bit hit and miss, any branded ones like you've listed should be clear and audible. However, it might not actually sound like your real voice does. I've got a labtec headset around somewhere that I don't use anymore as it sounds nothing like my real voice, so if the desktop version is similar I wouldn't recommend it but it does work ok and it's cheap.

USB/Analog quality only really affects headsets and speakers, for mics I doubt there is any noticeable difference. USB would use more resources, but again theres no real noticeable difference from that and analog.

Personally I haven't used a logitech mic before but I would try and get the analog version of the logitech mic, if not then settle for the USB one. If your only going to use the mic on ts for alleg for the odd hour or two then you might want to go for the labtec one anyway. In the end, it just depends on how much your willing to pay and how much you'll actually use it.

Flower · Post by **Flower** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:35 am

Paranova wrote:QUOTE (Paranova @ Jul 13 2006, 04:46 AM) Personally I haven't used a logitech mic before but I would try and get the analog version of the logitech mic, if not then settle for the USB one. If your only going to use the mic on ts for alleg for the odd hour or two then you might want to go for the labtec one anyway. In the end, it just depends on how much your willing to pay and how much you'll actually use it.

I just found an article which claims that Logitech bought Labtec in order to get access to their Audio products.
Well fuess that explains why the Labtec mic is so similar to the Logitech one.

Logitech buys Labtec (Achtung Deutsch ;-) / Warning German Text ahead)

As to the voice sounding like your true one, I do not expect a microfone used for voice communication to copy my voice :-) (sound paradox aye?) Like with telephones the used codecs will anyway cut off the lower as well as the upper frequencies in order to gain a better bandwidth and concentrate on the signal to noise ratio. (Thats why female or pre-teenager sound sometimes bad when speaking in teamspeak... And why the son sounds like the father (or sister like mother) when speaking through the telephone :-)
(before learning about that I thought it is my inept hearing ;-)

saints1011 · Post by **saints1011** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:54 am

imo anything is better than what i got, i got a headset that is has no mic u can talk into it was made so u plug into a radio and listen /glare.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":glare:" border="0" alt="glare.gif" />

edit: forgot one side of the headset dont work the other side BARELY work /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> thats why i mute myself because my voice sounds non human iv heard lol /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

ImmortalZ · Post by **ImmortalZ** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:37 am

WTF is with USB these days... One day there will be kitchen sinks that you can plug into USB. /glare.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":glare:" border="0" alt="glare.gif" />

Don't go for the USB mic. It'll add another sound device to your computer = another part that might cause conflict. Go for the analog mic.

Jaeden · Post by **Jaeden** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:43 am

I have a USB Headset. A Gamecom Pro 1. The sound on it is great and my voice comes through just fine . Though on TS, most of the sound quality will come from the codex being allowed. As for sound devices, I don't really find it to be much of a problem. Since I don't have a sound card. If you do have a sound card then it might be a slight problem IF your headset has it's own sound processors. Like mine. Otherwise it's all just a matter of preference. Just keep in mind that if you like to play any PS2 or Xbox games that let you use a headset, you'll want the USB one.

ImmortalZ · Post by **ImmortalZ** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:34 pm

There is no IF on whether a USB headset contains a processor. It HAS to. Also, about consoles, I wonder how you connect the USB headset to whatever port on the console? (I know that the Xbox controller inputs are USB in disguise, X360's natively. But PS2?)

Post by **Raveen** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:38 pm

PS2 has a usb port as well as it's controller ports. I think it may have firewire too but I can't be bothered going and checking just now.