I use a USB mic, as I don't have room for a proper setup in my house. How can I make the recordings sound better?

[Aidan Thomas]

I made a post about Voicemeeter yesterday, as I can't get sound from it. 

I'm beginning to wonder though, is there any other way that I can make the recordings sound better without using Voicemeeter? Just using the mic as the input.

[Promidi]

Really, you need to get a proper audio interface (they don’t take up much room) and plug an XLR mic into that. 

[Conteloto]

The main difference between that mic and a non-USB mics is that the analog-to-digital converter is inside the body of the mic instead of being on the audio interface.

Of course, just like in non-USB mics, the quality of the mic plays a role in the quality optened.

Just follow the same tips when recording as if you were using an audio interface,  you can use acoustic shields, post-recording plugins that decrease reververences such as clarity etc

[mettelus]

15 minutes ago, Conteloto said:

The main difference between that mic and a non-USB mics is that the analog-to-digital converter is inside the body of the mic instead of being on the audio interface.

This is definitely a consideration, as the shielding inside of some USB mics is not the best and will also let the transformer bleed into the circuit. You mentioned a USB condenser mic in the other post, but I didn't see which model you are using?

A few high-level comments on USB mics in general (I bought both PreSonus Revelator versions last year because I wanted to check these firsthand):

1. A USB condenser must be treated like any condenser... it needs a shock mount or it will pick up vibration noise. Depending on your environment, this may be overwhelming. For condenser mics in particular, environmental noise in general is something to address as they also will pickup noise from things close depending on what polar patterns are available.
2. The transformer bleed requires a noise gate (at least on the Revelator condenser). The Revelators come with a software FX chain (pre-recording) which can deal with this, but it is still a balancing act to get them not to pump.
3. Plosives can be mitigated by rotating the mic roughly 30 degrees in addition to your distance from the mic (another balancing act).
4. As with any recording, the "balancing act" is to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio in your favor (cleanest signal to lowest noise floor you can get). The more distance you can get between the signal and noise, the easier follow-on FX chains or post-production becomes.

Addressing those will take a little time, but once you get into a comfort zone with them, keep your settings/setup consistent so that you get repeatable results.