Snagged a $30 USB microphone on clearance and it randomly clicks during recordings

Picked up a clearance USB mic at the electronics shop downtown for cheap, but after three voice recordings for my podcast, there's a random clicking noise every 30 seconds or so. I tried swapping USB ports and turning off other devices running, but no luck. Anyone know if this is a driver issue or just the mic being a lemon?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_hall881mo ago

$30 mic on clearance, are you really that surprised?

julia_burns91mo ago

My cousin paid $200 for a "pro" condenser mic and it still picks up his cat purring like a jet engine, so honestly @jake_hall88 is partly right but not totally. The clicking thing is a specific problem I've seen before with cheap USB mics that don't have good shielding inside the cable or the circuit board. It could be electrical interference from your computer's internal components or just a bad solder joint that makes random contact. I'd try plugging it into a different computer or a powered USB hub to see if the noise goes away, because if it's still clicking then it's almost definitely a hardware defect. I grabbed a $25 webcam once that had this exact same clicking issue in the audio, and turning out the circuit board was literally touching the metal casing inside.