Modular USB Microphone System

Microphones / Miking

Published November 2023

Austrian Audio’s MiCreator is more than just a USB mic. It’s an entire family of mics!

Sooner or later, it seems, almost all professional microphone manufacturers succumb to the temptation to produce a USB microphone. Margins are slim and the competition cut‑throat, but the potential market is vast compared with recording studios, broadcast or live sound. Understandably, the resulting mic is often derived from an existing product. Audio‑Technica’s AT2020USB+, for example, is a version of their very popular AT2020 outfitted with a USB port, a built‑in preamp and a headphone socket.

Austrian Audio are the latest manufacturers to climb aboard the good ship USB, but they’ve taken a very different approach. MiCreator is not a single product but a modular system, and it bears no resemblance either visually or functionally to any existing Austrian Audio mics. (Whereas Austrian Audio’s high‑end mics use capsules manufactured at their Vienna HQ, the more affordable MiCreator range is made in China and uses third‑party capsules.)

Forward & Back

At launch, there are three principal MiCreator products, and the core of the system is the MiCreator Studio. Cosmetically, it’s a striking hybrid of ultra‑modern and ultra‑vintage; the headbasket design hints at the carbon button mics of the ’30s, but the overall vibe is unmistakably 21st Century. In practice, the ring‑shaped capsule mount offers effective built‑in shockmounting, and allows the capsule to be tilted through 30 degrees or so either side of vertical.

The body of the MiCreator Studio has roughly the proportions of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and is reassuringly weighty. It’s designed to stand upright on a table or desktop, but a 3/8‑inch socket in the base allows it to be attached directly to a mic stand. A 3/8‑ to 5/8‑inch adaptor is supplied, but there’s no easy way to attach it to a camera tripod, which might be a more valuable option for some of its target market. If the all‑black look is too solemn for you, it’s possible to switch out the front and rear faceplates for more colourful alternatives. Red plates are supplied as part of the System Set (see box), and it will also be possible to buy plain black and white ones that can be customised.

The MiCreator Studio is the hub of the system.

The faceplates are made of rigid plastic and attach magnetically. Holes and slots accommodate the MiCreator Studio’s various sockets and controls, of which there are more than you might expect. On what you soon discover is the rear panel, you’ll find a Type‑C USB port, along with mini‑jack sockets labelled ‘out’ and ‘in/out’. The former is, as you’d expect, a headphone socket, while the latter is the portal to the wider MiCreator ecosystem. It can serve as a second headphone port, but its primary role is for connecting a MiCreator Satellite, MiCreator Y‑Lav or guitar. (No additional outlay is needed in order to plug a guitar in, as a suitable cable is supplied.)

Turn to the front of the MiCreator Studio and you’ll see a three‑position sensitivity switch offering high gain, low gain and mute settings, plus a rotary control with a push action. In normal service, this governs the volume of the headphone output, which is reported visually using a strip of seven green LEDs. Give the rotary a confident push and the LEDs turn red, indicating that it is now controlling ‘balance’. Specifically, it adjusts the relative levels of the MiCreator Studio’s built‑in mic and whatever is plugged into the rear ‘in/out’ socket. Playback level from your DAW is fixed, so if you don’t have a second MiCreator source plugged in, you can use this mode to adjust the balance of input signal against playback. With a second source, you can only have more of one input at the expense of less of the other! Both inputs are always panned centrally, which probably represents a reasonable compromise in terms of ease of use.

The MiCreator Studio appears to your computer, phone or tablet as a class‑compliant USB device offering stereo input and output. There’s no control panel, and no drivers are needed on macOS or iOS. Sample rates of 44.1 and 48 kHz are supported.

Accessories bundled with the MiCreator Studio include a special cable for DI’ing a guitar.

The MiCreator Family

The MiCreator Satellite is designed to connect to the Studio, but can also be used standalone with devices that offer plug‑in power.The MiCreator Satellite is the MiCreator Studio’s little brother, sporting the same ring‑mounted capsule assembly atop a sawn‑off body. Again, there’s a 3/8‑inch standmount socket in the base, and both front and rear faceplates can be swapped out and customised, but there’s no volume control, just two mini‑jacks labelled ‘link’ and ‘out’. The former is used to connect the Satellite to the Studio, using a cable with TRRS plugs at either end, while the ‘out’ socket is once again intended for headphones. Once the two are connected, this duplicates what comes out of the headphone socket on the Studio, and is governed by its volume control. The gain of the Satellite or Y‑Lav is governed by a two‑position switch on the Studio’s rear panel, which simply offers high and low options — once connected, the secondary source can’t be muted. The Satellite can also be used outside the MiCreator ecosystem, as a standalone device with cameras, phones, laptops and other devices that can supply ‘plug‑in power’. A short splitter cable is supplied for use with cameras.

The Y‑Lav is the simplest of all the MiCreator devices. As the name suggests, it’s an omnidirectional lavalier mic, which attaches to clothing or other suitable targets using a sprung clip. A thin 2m cable is hardwired to the mic at one end and, at the other, to one side of a moulded plastic splitter. The other half of the split feeds a mini‑jack headphone socket, while a TRRS mini‑jack plug connects to the Studio’s ‘in/out’ socket. A removable foam windshield is included.

Quality‑wise, the Y‑Lav was probably the element of the MiCreator system that impressed me the least. I suppose making the cable non‑detachable eliminates one potential source of problems, but it means that if it fails, you’ll have to throw the entire thing away. And whilst the build quality is neat enough, it’s not as though Austrian Audio have used armoured cable or super‑duper strain relief. You’ll need to take good care of it if you want it to have a reasonable lifespan. The mic doesn’t rotate on its mount, which can make finding the optimum position harder, and although it works perfectly well, it’s neither the quietest nor the most sonically forgiving lav mic I’ve tried. Given the price, it would be unfair to expect the same quality you’d expect from a high‑end DPA or Sony model, but if you’re a regular user of such things, it’d be worth considering a more pro‑oriented option.

The MiCreator Y‑Lav is a lavalier mic with its own headphone socket.

Star Links

The Satellite, meanwhile, is sonically identical to the Studio, which means that it’s a cardioid small‑diaphragm electret capacitor mic. Some low‑end roll‑off is built in to compensate for the proximity effect, giving it a flat bass response in close‑up use. Along with the multi‑layered basket and integral shockmount, this makes the MiCreators relatively immune to thumps and plosives. Self‑noise is specified at 22dBA, which is higher than in a typical studio mic but not so high as to be problematic in close‑up use, and the two fixed sensitivity levels seem well chosen. I found that the higher of the two was about right for speech, quiet singing, lightly strummed acoustic guitars and so on, whilst the low sensitivity setting will accept SPLs of up to 130dB, so should cope adequately with small guitar amps.

Tonally, the Studio and Satellite are quite forward when used on‑axis, with a reasonably lively presence boost in the upper midrange. They aren’t as smooth as Austrian Audio’s own CC8 pencil mic, but given the price differential, that’s hardly surprising! Assuming the idea is to deliver a clear, ‘mix ready’ sound for streaming and voiceover work, I’d say the voicing is pretty well judged.

What makes this product unique is the versatility that the ‘in/out’ socket gives you.

Of course, if you just want to record or stream a single voice, there are a bazillion other USB mics out there, and quite a few of them are even more affordable than the MiCreator Studio. What makes this product unique is the versatility that the ‘in/out’ socket gives you. Right out of the box, you have the option to connect a second pair of headphones, or use the supplied instrument cable to record DI guitar along with your voice. Add one of the other MiCreator products and you open up a wide range of other possibilities. You could, for example, record the same voiceover artist simultaneously with both the MiCreator Studio and a Y‑Lav, and decide after the fact which one has delivered the best sound. Or you could bring in a second speaker and give them the Satellite or Y‑Lav, plus their own set of headphones. My favourite use case in a musical context, though, is stereo recording. The MiCreator System Set comes with a specially designed stereo bar called the Minibar that allows a Studio and a Satellite to be used as a spaced pair, and this arrangement gave me an excellent acoustic guitar recording with no fuss at all, nor any fiddling around with gain controls.

Verdict

Austrian Audio haven’t simply produced a me‑too USB mic because they feel they ought to have one in their range. Instead, they’ve applied some fresh thinking to the concept, and they’ve come up with an innovative modular system that can support a surprising number of applications. It’ll be interesting to see what else they have in store for future MiCreator products.

MiCreator Pricing

The three elements of the MiCreator system are available separately, or as part of the MiCreator System Set, which includes all three plus a Minibar stereo bar, cables, adaptors and the alternative red faceplates. Buying a MiCreator Studio or System Set also gives you a licence for Steinberg Cubase LE or WaveLab Cast. Prices include VAT.

MiCreator Studio: $199£179
MiCreator Satellite: $99£89
MiCreator Y‑Lav: $49£45
MiCreator System Set: $299£269

Pros

Much more versatile than most USB mics.
Easy to use.
Supports two pairs of headphones.
Satellite can be used standalone.

Cons

The low cost of the Y‑Lav is somewhat reflected in its design.

Summary

Austrian Audio have thought hard about what content creators might want from a USB mic, and they’ve come up with an innovative modular system that ticks a lot of boxes.