Samson – Satellite iOS/USB Broadcast Microphone

Great sound quality when talking. Singing is a little more difficult to get set right to get the best quality sound. Using regularly for choir, school recordings, and starting a podcast.

First impressions for myself and my son were the same, which is scary in and of itself. At a minimum it reflects my mental age still being that of a teen. We both looked at the Samson mic and said, “That looks like a light saber.”
The beauty of this mic is twofold. First and foremost is the quality of the recorded sound. It truly feels studio quality. I am very impressed with the recordings I have done. As a test of its sensitivity I listed over headphones attached to my work cell while my wife walked and talked in the other room. The mic was hooked up to my personal cell which I had called and I could hear her better thru the mic than I could with it muted.
The second biggie is the compact design of this mic. Competitors are much larger in design and in my mind quite bulky. This mic has a stand built into it that allows you to get creative in how you prop it up. I had it sitting at a 45 degree angle while using it and it was perfectly stable.
There are 3 modes: Omnidirectional, Bidirectional, Unidirectional. This is consistent with what most studio mics will provide. The mode you select is where you want to record from. Recording a group conversation is easily done with one mic in Omnidirectional. A two way conversation is easily recorded in Bidirectional. A single voice can be recorded with the Unidirectional mode.
You can connect headphones to the mic to have audio played back thru the mic connection. This is useful if using as a mic connected to a phone.
Now for the great unadvertised portion. This is advertised to work with Windows, Apple and iOS. It works fantastic with Android 10 even though it is not advertised. While a iPhone cable is included with the mic along with a micro-usb to USB A cable,. A USB A to C converter or cable is all that is needed for it to work with my phone.
IF you want to use a boom with the mic, it attaches like any other boom mic would.
Are there shortcomings? Unfortunately yes. Where the micro usb connects to the mic, that port seems like it could be slightly fragile. The mic is well built, but the way the cord connects the metal is visible and gives me pause. That is the only reason I drop a star. (I uploaded a picture to show the port.)

This Samson Satellite microphone has the classic look of a broadcast microphone but the plug-n-play of a modern USB device. On a Windows 10 device it was as simple as plug it in, open recording software and I was up and running. The audio was clear, sharp and 1000 times better than the built in microphone on my laptop. When I hooked it up to my desktop computer and used headphones to monitor, I ended up getting garbled sound and a flashing red light. However, the manual actually has three pages of a step by step guide on what this is and how to fix it and it was a mismatch in sample rates as described in the manual, Once that was cleared everything worked as intended.
The pickup patterns that can be switched on the front were surprisingly accurate. I was spinning the mic around just to confirm the patterns and anything not in that particular pattern was well dampened. Though convenient and prevents the noise of a switch, the mute button is touch sensitive, so changing the pattern usually meant accidentally changing the mute as well, so be mindful of the LED color, yellow is muted.
The legs give the ability to angle the microphone, but only to a point as it will begin to slip under its own weight. You also need fingernails or a tool to get them out as they fold away to give a slim profile, which is nice if you have a ⅝” boom to use instead.
As for sound, I compared this to a couple other microphones and the quality was pretty good. Background noise was minimal as the pickup patterns help reduce sounds not in that pattern, omni-directional gets the most as it is intended to get sound all around. The distance from the mic is really noticeable though. Up close, under a foot, voice was accurate, clear, loud. But, get out about arm’s length, 3ft, or the center of a table and everything sounded so distant. The Samson Satellite also picks up any bit of a breeze, so if you have a fan blowing on your or are a breathy talker, you will get a lot of popping.
If you want to get more complex with recording, MOTU Digital Performer Lite is available for download and registers using the serial number of the microphone. Like any editing software though, it can be a bit difficult to understand, but had a fair bit of options for a Lite version of the $499 software.