Photograph: Pete Cottell
M-Audio has packaged everything this person would need in a tidy little box with its M Track Duo HD producer pack. It includes a two-channel class-compliant audio interface, an M100 condenser mic, a pair of HD41 headphones, a mic clip, a USB-C cable to connect the interface to your computer or mobile device, and an XLR cable to connect the mic to the interface—all for the low price of $200. Aside from a mic stand (we love this desk clamp boom arm stand from Innogear) and the unearned confidence necessary to speak into a mic for hours about a wide variety of esoteric topics, you need nothing else than what’s in this box to get started. Plug a few things in, fire up OBS or your favorite DAW, adjust the gain on the mic preamp, and get to work.
The interface is a lightweight box of plastic that’s about the size of a VHS tape or a self-help book you’d buy at an airport bookstore. The front panel has two combo XLR quarter-inch input jacks, both of which have separate line and instrument level impedance selectors. A 48-volt switch enables phantom power for both inputs at once, which is essential to power the included condenser mic or a Cloudlifter if you decide to go full-on PodBro and upgrade to a dynamic mic. There’s also a single quarter-inch TRS headphone jack and a three-way selector that dictates whether a direct mono, direct stereo, or USB signal feeds the dual-mono quarter-inch tip-sleeve output jacks on the back of the box.
Each channel has its own gain knob on the top of the unit, with an indicator light below that flashes white when a signal is present and red when the signal is clipping. Each preamp has 55 dB of gain on tap, which is more than enough to turn even the meekest of Teams meeting NPCs into audible, active participants. The motion of the knob is smooth and jitter-free until you hit the last 10 percent of its sweep, at which point some ambient digital noise seemingly clicks on and off as if it were triggered with a switch. This is way too much gain for any practical application due to the amount of clipping it’s likely to cause, so this is not a major concern for anyone who’s spent 30 minutes or so dialing in their levels and getting a feel for the thing.
A Mic for the Masses
The included condenser mic pairs well with the preamp in the interface. It’s a unipolar large-diaphragm condenser mic, which in normie language means the metal grate that covers the front of the mic is where you’ll want to point your voice, instead of the back. Condenser mics are much more sensitive to ambient noise than a dynamic mic, which is both an upside and a downside. A condenser mic works well a bit farther from your face than a dynamic mic, but you’ll need to boost the gain to pick up your voice at a greater distance. This picks up more background noise as well, which can lead to some embarrassing moments on Zoom calls when, say, the small flock of fowl your neighbor is illegally housing in their garage starts clucking nervously when a garbage truck rattles down the block. Luckily, Zoom has decent built-in noise suppression tools, so this was easy to address without any extra plugins or hardware.
The mic handles a standard male speaking voice quite well. I’m not fully trained on pensive NPR-speak just yet, but my standard tech-guy patter broadcast as clear as a bell with the mic 6 inches from my face, and the gain knob turned up to around 3 o’clock. The mic does not have a high-pass filter switch to roll off low-end rumble from accidental bumps into the stand or the mic itself, so you’ll need to take care to avoid fumbles that cause loud thumping noises if you prefer higher gain and a bit more distance from your mouth to the mic.
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