MAONOMaonoCaster Lite AU-AM200-S1 All-in-One Podcast Equipment Set with 3.5mm Microphone for Live Streaming, Podcast Recording, PC, Smartphone

The media could not be loaded. The AM200-S1 is essentially both a mixer and audio interface in one, much like TC Helicon’s GO XLR, but at a much lower price point than both the GO XLR and GO XLR Mini.The AM200-S1 looks great, and is a little larger than I expected, but feels very robust and premium. The front of the device is taken up by all the various dials, faders and buttons, and definitely looks the part.The faders and dials feel really good, with a good amount of weight to them, so it doesn’t feel like you’re pushing thin air – they actually feel like they’re doing something, which isn’t always the case with faders.There are 12 buttons in the center, 8 of these are pre-loaded sound effects (applause, laughter etc) and the bottom four are available as custom sound effects.To the right of these you’ll find your effect/action buttons: Effect, Pitch, Music Only, Denoise, Loop Back and Side ChainThese perform as you would expect, pitch changes the tone of your voice, from a female, to a male, to a baby, to a robot and so on, whilst effect changes the output style, and denoise removes any unwanted extra sound in the room. And for the most part, these work really well, and are fun little additions to the setup, but switching between them can be a little cumbersome – you press the button until the desired effect loads up, which is fast, but having to press a button four times to get back to the one you want is a little finicky.Above the center buttons you’ll see a touch sensitive panel, that allows you to play around in octaves and give yourself the auto-tune voice all the Tik-Tok kids love – it’s not for everyone, but it’s good fun.The bundled microphone sounds great, much better than I would expect a bundled mic to be and I would be more than happy to record a podcast with it.There is no XLR support on the AM200-S1, and whilst you are able to connect your own using the supplied cable, bare in mind that any microphones that require phantom power to function wont get the juice from the AM200, so you’ll need to supply your own.Moving back to the front of the device, the big eye catching dials fill out the sides of the panel, the left for your microphone, and the right for controlling music, with the four small dials in the middle taking care of highs, lows and mids, and a separate dial to control recording volume.These are all great and feel really good to use, with a satisfying bit of heft to them, and under these are the three LED bars that allow you to monitor sound, and see any clippings going on.A really neat feature for a portable podcast studio, is the ability to connect devices via bluetooth or 3.5mm jacks, and bring music into the mix. The large dial on the top right allows you to control the volume of the music, and it's a really cool way to keep your production high on the go.I really genuinely love the AM200-S1 - it's a fun and easy to use addition to any podcast set-up, and if I was to add anything, it would be full XLR support (and phantom power), and the ability to control two microphone independently.But these are fairly minor gripes for an otherwise excellent product.

A nice looking monocaster and works brilliantly, would recommend.

Mic is not the highest quality, and preferably requires a boom-arm to utilize it to the maximum of abilities. With it it can perform very good!Highly recommended as a starting audio kit!

I thought I would try this for prerecording internet radio programmes.Works excellently with laptop/computer or iPhone on both Mac or windows.I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of sound produced by the microphone and the unit itself, that comes complete with most of the necessary leads you will need etc.It far exceeded my expectations and does an excellent job , lots of flexibility with some good features with mic effects and tone controls etc , some pre recorded effects are fine for those doing podcasts maybe, but I will never personally use them , but it also has 4 buttons in that section where you can record your own effects or jingles and links which is very useful.All in all a very nice little unit at a very reasonable price.Clearly not intended for the professional but having said that with good recording software does an excellent job.I would recommend a boom mic stand for the excellent microphone provided which helps to eliminate vibration from your desktop.Highly recommended. !

From the moment I started using this I was disappointed. The mic is horrific. You’d have to have the volume on max constantly and the mic within an inch of your mouth to be able to get sufficient, usable audio. Sat it on the desk a foot away from me and it was barely registering 3 bars on max volume and sounded like I was in a tunnel when recorded.No ability to lower the volume of the (being honest) tacky preprogrammed sound bites so they’re ridiculously loud compared to the audio the mic is capable of picking up. Recording sounds to the programmable buttons was awful. The volume was showing as nice and loud when recording and the on playback it was barely audible.I didn’t expect a great deal from this to be honest because it’s a pretty cheap bit of kit but I expected a lot more than this!Not to mention it crackles and even screeched at me a number of times whilst using it. I wouldn’t recommend at all.

The microphone supplied is totally unsuitable as a desk mount. To get any output at all it needs to be no more than a couple of inches from your mouth. Totally impracticable without further expensive amplification. I tested the unit with a 30 year old stick on a wire microphone that gave harsh if acceptable levels positioned 2 feet away. No chance of that with the supplied mic.There is a lack of any processing of overall output levels so the mic level and loud pre-programmed sounds cannot be modified except with a lot of post audio editing.Audacity on a Mac often produces error when attempting to record if you change audio i/o and needs a restart to get it to work. Sound recorder notes works better.All in all the kit looks good and almost works but the whole package doesn't gel together. Very disappointing.