G-Track Pro

I was looking for a good microphone for the PC which would work for both streaming, video work and for skype. I was considering a sennheiser SP-series desk mike, and then I thought about going upmarket even further. I've used a blue yeti, a Sennheiser SP-20 and a few other boom mikes as well as the mikes you get in logitech and microsoft webcams. I'll say that the mike you get in, say, the C910 / C920 webcams is almost as good as a professional quality mike now. There's so much processing in webcams nowadays that it's almost not worth going for a really expensive mike unless you're doing interview work, or laying down studio tracks. For skype and streaming, a modern webcam is all you need. So, why consider one of these Samson G-Track Pros? Well, the sound quality is very good. I've tested the sound of my voice and music through this and a few other mikes, and it's definitely the best quality mike I've got, and I'd say it edges out the blue yeti in some of the bass response. But it's not mind-blowingly better than the new Logitech webcam for most things. Where the Samson excels is in two areas: * Controls * Headphone jack. You see, this isn't just a microphone, it's also a sound card! Yep, let me say that again: When you plug the Samson G-Track Pro into your PC, it pops up not just as an audio input device, but also an audio OUTPUT device. And the reason why? Streaming and monitoring! When you're streaming, you often need to be able to hear the volume of your voice, and the game you're playing. However, the people watching will be able to hear the game through the desktop capture. So if you're playing sounds through the PC's speakers, the mike will pick it up and people watching will get echo. If you're monitoring your stream with a lag, say like what Twitch does, you can get horrible "ring-around" where you hear your own voice a few seconds after you say it, coming out of the Twitch dashboard, which then gets echoed a few seconds later.... until the whole thing is a squealing screaming mess. The Samson G-Track has a little headphone port on the back. You can pop in a couple of in-ear monitors or shielded headphones, and have the PC select the Samson as the speaker. Now, the game is being sent to your ears through your headphones. "Why not just use the headphone jack on the PC?" I hear you ask. Good Question... It's because the Samson also mixes the input from your microphone into the stream and plays it back into your ears LIVE. You can alter the volumes of the PC and microphone right there on the microphone itself, to get the right balance. Then, you can monitor yourself without the audience hearing an echo. The next bonus for streamers is a little LED on the front. Normally green, it flashes red when you get too loud and would cause distortion. This helps you set the volume nicely too.. If you can talk without the LED going red very often, you're nice and clear to the listeners. Now, moving away from streaming into the interviewing space, the microphone allows you to select from several pickup modes. Cardiod is good for streaming, omni is good for rooms full of people and noise, but Figure-8 is perferct for when you have two people either side of the microphone in an interview situation. You can also use the modes to alter the 'sound' of the microphone to suit your surroundings if, say, there's lots of echo, or if you move around a lot. Finally, for musicians, there's a guitar 3.5mm auxilliary input. Like the microphone, it lets you connect instruments into the mike directly, so when you're singing the computer doesn't pick up the sounds coming from an amp which may be behind or below the mike, and produce a muddy sound. The input is direct, and you can separate the track out for easier recording. OK, so I think it's pretty clear from this, don't buy this is you're expecting your voice to suddenly sound like Richard Burton. And don't expect this microphone to require you to do away with input EQ processing. You'll still need to do it, and you'll still sound like you. But it WILL be better than a condenser mic in a webcam (if only just). Where this mike excels is in how much easier and better it makes it for streamers, interviewers and musicians. Now, for the bad part. The mike is quite heavy. I was surprised by how solid it it, including the base. That makes it tricky to find a boom arm to fit it, most assume much lighter mikes, and you get a 'droop' when you use this in an anglepoise boom. Samson's own range of boom arms even claim compatibility but only some work. Similarly shock mounts are hit and miss. SP01 obscures the buttons, so go for the SP04. But those'll set you back another £100 or more for the two. And finally, I couldn't get this mike to work on my laptop. The port just couldn't provide enough juice I don't think. The mike would flash alternately green-orange-green-orange. When I plugged it into the PC, though, it worked fine. Given that I wanted it for the PC, that's not a problem for me, but if you have an older laptop, or a 'light' laptop, you might find it doesn't work properly. Of course Amazon's returns policy is excellent, so if it doesn't work it's not a problem.

Iv owned most of the popular USB mic's commonly used by streamers, including the Yeti, Yeti Nano and Rode NT. All of these are great microphones but none were perfect. There were features from all of them that I loved but there was no single mic that rolled all those great features into a single unit, until now! I picked up the Samson G-Track Pro after a recommendation and I can confidently say it's the best USB mic I have personally ever used. It's a little on the pricey side but as an investment it's worth every single penny. Everything you need is on the mic with absolutely no need for software to controll settings. The front of the mic is where the magic happens with the following controlls: - 3 way polar pattern switch (figure 8, cardioid & omnidirectional). - Mono / stereo switch. - Mute button with LED alert. - Microphone volume (gain). - Instrument volume (¼" input). - Headphone volume. On the rear of the mic are the following: - Monitor on / off switch. - ⅛" headphone input. - ¼" instrument input. The body of both the microphone are entirely metal with a very premium feel. It is quite heavy at 1.6kg however I feel that weight is an important factor, especially for those who will be using it as a desktop microphone. The stand is nice,heavy and flat and will stay exactly where you put it which was the biggest issue with the Rode NT due to its plastic tripod style design. The stand also uses permanent grip hinges which allows full, secure adjustment without manually needing to adjust screw caps in order to rotate the mic into a preferable position. This makes quick adjustments much easier than the others which is very useful whilst in the middle of a stream. The buttons and potentiometers all feel perfect too. Some reviewer's have mentioned that they feel "sloppy" however I found the complete opposite. The pots all had lovely smooth movement making it very easy to make smaller adjustments unlike others which have much tighter pots. The mute button does not click when you turn it on or off which I preferred as click type buttons often require more pressure and can move the mic if you don't hold it whilst pressing. This is not an issue with the G-Track Pro, the button is nice and easy to push but not too easy that you would press it accidentally. The LED light above the button also changes colour to alert you that mute is enabled. The slide switches on the device are also perfect and sit firmly in their selected positions. One of the biggest issues I had with the Yeti Nano was that I would keep accidentally changing the polar pattern every time I tried to adjust its position. Specifications: - Dual back electret condenser. - 50Hz-60Hz frequency response. - 96kHz sample rate. - +6dB FS/PA sensitivity (all polar patterns). - 25mm diaghragm width, 3 micron diaphragm thickness. Another great thing to mention is the USB type B connection on the base of the mic. This nice and chunky connection in my opinion is far superior to the micro USB type connection found on the Yeti's. I can't even count the amount of times I have had power issues with the Yeti due to how loose and sloppy the micro USB would get after a while. There is no software included with this mic, everything you need is on the unit, making this really quick and easy to setup without needing to download and create accounts with softwares in order to access necessary features. Verdict: If you are looking for a premium quality mic, are willing to invest £150 and want something that can handle any job you need it for then look no further. Samson has taken everything good from all it's competitors, removed everything bad and mixed it all up into one perfect hybrid device. Buy it and never look back.

ottimo prodotto, molto performante. L'opzione panoramico e direzionale rende questo microfono un pregiato prodotto. Consigliato

I have bought two of these over the past 7 years. Great customer support. Manufacturers have updated a few things compared to the original release. Versatile in whatever you wish to produce from podcasts to music. The build is incredible solid and heavy for your desk. And if you use an arm to suspend in air it is still compatible. Recording quality is one of the best in this price range. Stand alone unit no need for preamp it connects directly to computer

Le pire produit jamais acheté sur Amazon

This is the best value & quality desktop mic on the market to date! I really hope that Samson doesn't change a thing about this product moving forward into the future. (except 'maybe' giving it 96K sample rate capabilities? but really NOT a big deal to not have it. 48K sample rates are MORE than adequate for recording & mixing) I already had a Blue Yeti mic, but I now have a home recording studio and I needed an audio interface for my instruments and a good vocal mic. I was already familiar with Samson's mic quality since I've used a Samson C01 mic in the past to record vocals for 2 songs I made a while back. That mic sounded great with my voice, so I decided I wanted a newer one. I was originally looking for an Audio interface to buy, & was going to by the new version of the C01 separately. But then I stumbled on to the Samson G-Track Pro by accident. An Audio Interface for instruments AND more than decent vocal mic in ONE device!?! for LESS than $300 bucks(CAD)!?! Unbelievable. And here's the Bonus: I'd been using the Blue Yeti as a gaming mic for the last several years, and of course it's been doing an amazing job for that. no complaints at all. But the Samson G-Track Pro sounds 100 times better than the yeti does for gaming, running it completely dry with no compression or gate on it whatsoever, straight into the game. When gaming with the Blue Yeti, I used to get asked once a week by other players if I was a streamer or youtuber (cause of how good the mic sounded). But now with the Samson G-Track Pro, I get asked that question while gaming literally EVERY DAY. It's kind of annoying now lol. Now where recording with it is concerned, I've been using this as an interface into Cakewalk by Bandlab (formerly known as Sonar 8 SE). I plug my guitar straight in, balance the gain so there's no clipping, hit the record button & lay my track. Sounds great. No artifacting, buzzing, popping, etc. Just a nice clean quality guitar track with tons of headroom left for further processing, editing, mixing, etc. within my DAW. And the vocals I get out of the mic are every bit as good, if not better, as what I got with the Samson C01. You just have to learn your dynamic distancing while singing. If you're going to sing very loudly, back of the mic a bit & you won't clip. For singing normally, give yourself about a foot (12 inches) of distance and of course, always adjust your gain on the mic itself so you don't clip. You'll get a nice crisp warm vocal track. (if you find it too 'warm' for your tastes, you can easily scoop out the related frequency in the DAW's EQ in less than a minute. Personally, I think the warmth it has is perfect. not too much. just enough to help your vocals cut through any mix.) This is hands down the best desktop mic on the market to date. I strongly recommend this to Podcasters, PC Gamers, Streamers, Youtubers, Vocalists, Home Studio Producers & Engineers, DJ's, Radio Broadcasters, and ALL of the above. Even if you only game on PC, you should still strongly consider investing in this mic. It's build quality is just as amazing as its audio quality & feature set. It's all solid metal, & really should last a lifetime. Hope this helps someone out there. Cheers.

I've been using this microphone daily for a couple years now and it is still excellent.