Second Chance RØDE NT-USB Mini

THE NT-USB mini simply sounds great. Noise is almost completely absent and the tapping of your keyboard transfers it flawlessly. The zero-latency monitoring is handy to fine-tune and perfectly doubles as an extra audio output for your PC or laptop, provided it has a relatively 'clean' power output over USB. The volume knob is also a handy extra. USB-C is always practical, and it also works as expected with other USB-C cables. By the way, I mainly use it for gaming and consultation, so I can't rate it as a musician.

That said, it's not necessarily recommended if you're just looking for a microphone in this price range. Personal preference is then more for an AT2020 or AT2035 (if you can get them in USB). Due to the form factor, you are always sitting at a desk too high to really transfer your voice to the microphone when it's right in front of you. As a result, the microphone sounds a bit hollower and further away, although still noiseless (Podcastage on Youtube has a good demonstration of that). Normally a good solution for this is a standard or an arm, but with that the advantage of the small form factor is gone, after all, you can carry such an extra arm or standard with you.

The lack of a mute button is a pity, but not more than that, after all, you buy a microphone without a mute button. For the rest, the built-in pop filter is not great, so buying a suitable pop filter is not a bad idea, although that is still quite difficult given the form factor. Mine is a bit over it at the moment, but it still works surprisingly well.

All in all I don't regret it. For about a hundred euros you just have a good USB microphone, without the need for a pre-amp and the whole other XLR ram. I'll eventually get a PSA1 to aim it a little closer to my face, so if you're not planning something like that and you don't necessarily want a small form factor - then look further.

The microphone is nice and small and when it's close to you, the sound is great. With a little more distance, you quickly get to hear more and more of the room around you.

A nice feature is, that it's not only a microphone, but a complete "sound card", you can also plug in your headphones and only have one USB connection to the computer or laptop to worry about.