Walk into any top-end recording studio and ask to look inside their microphone cabinet. Without many exceptions, you’ll see an Audio-Technica AT4050 condenser mic. It has become an industry standard due to its virtues as a versatile, “workhorse” microphone.
As great as the AT4050 is, it’s aimed at pros with a price tag to match. This puts it out of reach for many hobbyists.
Although Audio-Technica is known for professional products they have come up with the AT2020 to meet the needs of podcasters and DIY recording musicians. In contrast to the 4050, the AT2020 is affordable and easy to get started with. You don’t need a fancy preamp, and audio interface to make USB mics sound good. This makes it a solid alternative to the popular Blue Yeti.
Design and Functionality
At this price, you come to expect a plasticky feel or cheap, roughly finished aluminum. Upon pulling it out of the box, this mic’s outstanding build quality was the first thing I noticed. I’m one of the old-fashioned types that associate weight with well-made gear. The AT2020 has just the right amount of weight to make me feel confident in its durability.
The AT2020 design is very utilitarian and similar to its big brothers, such as the AT4050. It is a simple cylinder shape with a grill so big that it spans half the length of the microphone. The USB cable plugs into the bottom just like traditional XLR mics. It draws its power from the USB port on your computer. To notify you that it’s powered up, the grill lights up blue thanks to an internal LED light.
In comparison, the knobs and switches can feel a little flimsy on Blue USB mics. This is because USB microphones are sold for so little, making cost-cutting an inevitable reality.
Features and Sound Quality
Audio-Technica’s decision to make the unit rock-solid, and leave out controls that can just as easily be controlled from your laptop was a smart one.
They’ve taken a different approach than Blue Microphones has. The Blue Yeti and Snowball have a switch that allows you to change up the input pattern of the mic. The AT2020 focuses on the most used pattern: cardioid. You’ll use the cardioid pattern the vast majority of the time as a podcaster or musician. Not many people will miss omnidirectional recording mode in a mic like this, but it can be fun to experiment with.
The AT2020USB+ is an upgraded version of the AT2020USB which includes a mix control so you can determine the right level of mic signal versus pre-recorded audio. Just like Blue’s Yeti, you can use the headphone jack to monitor your recordings without additional equipment.
Bit depth and sample rate meet the standard for current-gen USB mics: 16 bit/44.1 kHz.
Frequencies between 20Hz and 16kHz were captured in the earlier version of this model. This was somewhat of a disappointment because Blue’s Yeti has a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. Granted, we’re talking about super high frequencies that most adults cannot hear after the age of 30. The frequency response has been upgraded in the AT2020USB+. Like the Yeti, it captures audio from 20Hz to 20kHz.
Sound quality is very good as is expected from an Audio-Technica product. Tests with acoustic guitar and vocals yielded impressive results. The capsule is sensitive, perhaps too much at times so for the casual user. You’ll pick up a decent bit of background noise if you have a desktop computer powered on nearby, so positioning is everything.
You also may want to consider investing in a shock mount to avoid picking up noise. The included tripod stand is cute but if you bump into it even slightly during recording, you’ll hear it.
Review Verdict
Audio-Technica’s AT2020 doesn’t have any gimmicks to speak of. It does a good job of capturing voices or instruments coming from in front of the mic. After all, that is all most people will ever need. On-location interviewers and experimental musicians could benefit from the variety of input patterns found in competing mics.
This is an awesomely built device making it the most road-worthy USB microphone tested thus far. In that regard, it shares a lot in common with Audio-Technica’s XLR mics which have been around for decades. Overall the AT2020 is simple, strong, and effective at recording audio for streaming and social media.