In a recent post I referred to a professional quality mic with a USB interface. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of these just before Christmas, the Samson G-Track USB.

Installation is very simple; it is a standard USB sound device so no extra drivers are required for Windows and it can be used with any music software. I tried it with both Audacity and Magix Music Studio. The sound quality was very good, both from the mic itself and the extra instrument input. One point on the picture, the spider mounting isn't supplied in the box.

It also has a solution to the problem of latency. This is the delay between the computer receiving the audio signal and it being played back through the monitor speakers. Even though there is plenty that goes on in this time, it is very distracting. The G-Track headphone socket can be used to monitor both inputs as they are sent to the computer, so there is no latency at all.

If the recording is being made along to a backing track the G-Track can also work as a standard audio output device as well, although the problem of latency raises its ugly head again.

It's a little pricey at £130 but it would be hard to find a condenser mic and preamp for a similar price. For example the M-Audio Mobile Pre preamp is £120 on its own (still very good though)

You can find the video review here on Computeractive TV.