From time to time, I'm asked to reveal my secret to making great-sounding voiceovers found within my marketing video tutorials… the secret is simple — use a studio USB microphone.

My current microphone is the Snowball USB microphone. I picked it up at the Apple Store for around $100. The Blue Snowball USB microphone was apparently designed to work with laptops because it hooks into the edge of a thin laptop display. Unfortunately, this sits a bit too far from me speaking, so it didn't work out of the box for me. Instead, I had to rig up a mic stand using a few pieces of wood — yep, not exactly pretty. That's because it's impossible to hook the microphone using a boom or mic stand.

The Snowball sounds good… not great. And having a slab of wood blocking the view of my computer monitor isn't the ideal solution for me.

But I've got my eye on a MUCH better microphone. It's the Samson G Track USB Microphone and Audio Interface. For about $25 more, you get everything you need to produce professional sounding podcasts, video voiceovers and even music (just plug your instrument right into the microphone itself).

The engineers at Samson really designed this microphone right. Everything from the sound to the design is well thought out.

Take a listen to the difference between a standard USB microphone and a Samson USB microphone:

As you can see, the Samson is by far the best USB microphone. The sound quality is superb for a microphone under $125. And it's compatible with both the PC and Mac as it's bundled with software.

This Samson microphone is the world's first USB condenser microphone with a built-in audio interface and mixer. Everything is controlled right at the microphone itself. The G Track ships with everything you need including a desktop mic stand, mic clip, USB and audio cable.

What's most impressive to me is the built-in monitor… allowing you to wear a headset and hear yourself in real time. (Unfortunately, most USB microphones have "latency" – and the sound going through your microphone is slightly delayed when you hear it — very annoying.)

The G-Track also includes an LED display that glows green until you overpower the mic (at which point it turns red). This is a nice benefit as it makes it easy to adjust and test the gain without having to record a long segment (only to later realize afterwards that the gain was too hot).

Typically, most microphones require you to buy a shockmount and popfilter to strain out unwanted sounds… but most who reviewed this microphone say it's unnecessary with this USB microphone.

So there you have it… the best USB microphone to connect directly with your computer is the Samson G Track USB Microphone.