Samson Meteor Mic for Audio Recording

There are times when you misplace not one but two microphones. And the third microphone that I could find is really bad for recording audio narration. No amount of sound fixing is going to help a crappy microphone.

You might want to consider at a quality USB microphone. I was looking around and I purchased the Samson Meteor Mic which connects to my computer via a USB cable.

This microphone works on MacOs and WindowOS computers. There are photos on the Samson web site that show it can work with tablets. You can plug it into an iPad. I suspect that if an Android tablet has the full size USB connecting port you can record using one of the Android recording apps. 

Couple of reason why I went with the Meteor Mic:

• Small form factor, my desk does not have a lot of space. This rascal is compact and has a built-in tripod.
• I know that I am going to be doing more narration and sound recording.
• I needed something to put some ooomp in my voice.
• Really liked the design of it. Reminds me of those mics you see in old movies. 

 

 

Read the Installation Manual

This is a super simple microphone to use but you have to read the manual to make sure you set it up right.  It is almost a no-brainer but in fact you do have to use a quarter of your brain lobe to get it going.

Windows Vista and 7 Users

You plug in the provided USB cable to the microphone and the computer. The computer will check and install the device drivers.

So far, so good.

You should go to the Control Panel and click Sound. You will need to tell your computer that you only want the microphone to record audio. You can set it as the default recording device but you might not want Meteor Mic to be the default playback device. This is why you need to read the manual. Things will or will not happen if you don't.

Adjusting the Recording Level

When you start to use the microphone you might find that the recording level is too low. My lips were right on the grill and it still was too soft. I thought that I got a lemon of a mic until I re-read page 6.

Windows users will have to:

1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Select the Meteor Mic and then click the Properties button.
3. Locate the the Levels tab
4. You will see a slider, move it to the right in order to increase the recording level. 50% did it for me but you might have to go higher or lower.
5. Click OK to accept the changes.

It is a similar process to set up the playback levels.

Once set up you can use the microphone to record inside of your video editing program (if that feature is available) or to audio software like Audacity, Adobe Audition or other sound recording software.

Other Posts of Interest

• Fixing Audio is Sometimes Pure Dumb Luck
• Adding A Beep Tone to Mask a Cuss Word 
• Other Audio/Music Posts of Interest