MXL Studio 24: An Incredible USB Microphone

Almost everybody at one point will use a microphone. It could be to call long distance relatives on Skype or to record your first ever Podcast. A bad microphone makes communication over the internet difficult or sometimes impossible! Luckily MXL has brought out an incredible, studio quality microphone which isn’t going to break the bank. I’ve had an incredible experience with the Studio 24, read on to find out why.

Design:

The Studio 24 is a beautifully designed microphone. It doesn’t look cheap and looks very attractive on the supplied desktop stand. The microphone itself has a nice, metallic look to it which looks great on any desk. On the side of the microphone there are separate controls for microphone gain as well as a headphone jack for latency-free monitoring.

The microphone comes with a beautiful carrying case that has a bunch of compartments for everything such as cables and small desktop stands. It also comes with it’s own desktop stand a USB cable and MixCraft LE for recording. One thing I’d love the Studio 24 to come with is it’s own pop filter however you can pick these up pretty cheaply on Amazon for about $15.

A feature that I thought was extremely practical was the red LED inside of the microphone. Not only does this show the user when the microphone is turned on but it also signifies what side of the microphone to talk into. This may seem simple to some people, but for people who have never used a professional microphone before, this is something that will help you out immensely.

Setting up the Studio 24 could not have been simpler, just plug your microphone in, change your sound preferences so it is the default input and you’re ready to go!

Sound Quality:

The Studio 24 records sound in 24 bit, a quality that’s used by professional recording studios everywhere. For a microphone of this price range, this is practically unheard of. Most USB microphones out on the market at the moment record at 16 bit and sometimes come in at double the price. I’ve got to give credit to MXL for somehow making this possible.

The Studio 24 records in mono. This means that it only records to one channel, when I tried to do a screen-cast with Quicktime I noticed that the signal only played back in earphone. This isn’t a huge problem with software like ScreenFlow and Garageband which caters for mono USB microphones by including a ‘mono to stereo’ option, however for software like Quicktime, you wont be so lucky. This is pretty unfortunate as it limits some of the software you can use the microphone with.

Overall:

The Studio 24 USB Microphone is one of the best USB mics I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying out. It’s robust, good looking, sounds great and comes with a bunch of really cool accessories, however the only things letting it down is it’s lack of stereo support and absense of a pop filter, however these don’t really take away from the fact that this microphone sounds incredible.

I am going to give the MXL Studio 24 Microphone an impressive 4.5/5 stars![rating:4.5]

You can pick up the MXL Studio 24 USB Microphone here.

Pros:

• Beautiful yet sturdy design
• Great value for money, a lot of features for around $150!
• Incredible sound quality compared to other microphones in a similar price range
• Ideal for podcasting, music production and video calls.
• Software and Hardware work perfectly together
• Comes with recording software if you don’t already own it.
• Also comes with desktop stand, carrying case and USB lead.
• Simple to set up, just plug in and you’re ready to go!
• MXL offers great customer support.

Cons:

• No stereo support just yet.
• Does not come with a pop filter.