The AT2020 is a nice microphone that should really be a couple hundred dollars more expensive. This microphone was my first one that I bought. It is built very solid and it has a nice paint finish as well. The sound of the AT2020 is very transparent and can often sound thin and hi-fi. It definately does not sound like a vintage micropone and does not have a defining characteristic about it.
It does have its own sound but its more like a bright sounding microphone. Pairing it with different preamps is where you can get different colors. I have herd many people use it for overheads as well. The sound of the AT2020 is also very detailed like many of the Audio Technica microphones. Very modern sounding.
Overall if you are looking for a high quality clean sound, this is the mic to get.
For a hundred dollars it is really good especially if you are just starting to get serious about recording.

I own it. It never gets used.

I know what the frequency chart says on it, but it just always sounds extra hyped on the high freqs to me. I suppose under the right situation I'd use it here and there, but not on Vox. MAYBE on acoustic guitar. Maybe as a room mic on an electric guitar.

Just could never find my way around the high freq hype. Couldn't get vocals sounding right with it.

Overall, still, not a bad deal for less than a hundred dollars, just not my thing.

First LDC mic I bought many years ago. Hasn't left the drawer for several years. Noisy and harsh on the high end. Build quality is okay, but I just can't think of anything it would sound good on. Maybe I'll try it again when I'm in an exprimenting mood, but for now I get no use out of it.

I'm very impressed with this mic overall. It captures my girlfriends voice very accurately, doesn't seem to add any color or take anything away from her voice. Proximity effect isn't anything like my sm57 and of course this is a whole different kind of beast. Also, we have not had a problem at all with any sibilance.
I can't tell yet if the noise floor is a little high or if it's the noise from my computer, hard drive or family I'll have to get to the bottom of that one. It would be nice if it came with a shock mount and pop filter, but you can pick one of those up from a different company for a reasonable price.
The microphone does pick up reflections rather easily, But at the same time I have a bad room that is almost square and very small.
One nice thing about this mic is you can move back from it, without the need to turn up the gain. Also, with some careful placement you can get a useable recording of an acoustic guitar.
Build quality is O.K, at least as good as what you would expect. I recommend that you add this no brainer to your mic locker or at least give it a listen.

Using this microphone for a while now! Initially I was skeptical about purchasing it (thinking it's a cheap mic) but I wish I hadn't wasted all that time..
I use the mic mostly to record female vocals and acoustic guitar! The Mic has a slight presence boost, but it doesn't color the tone in any negative way! In fact, it really helps vocals cut through a mix.Build quality is pretty good! I 've used it to record a few tracks on my album, so if you people like, you can check it out.
Here's the link : stereo buddha

Tracks 2, 5, 6 & 7 - vocals recorded with AT2020 going into Mbox3
Track 1 & 8 recorded using Brauner Phantom Basic going to Manley Voxbox

I needed a simple microphone for vocal recordings so i visited the music store nearby and i planned to blindly test some of them. I brought a female singer with me so i could listen while she was singing.
After like 60 minutes and 30 microphones i made a list of the best 3 microphones. The AT2020 was placed second on my list. an AKG was placed on the first place and i can't even remember what was placed thirt
The second step was looking to the prices and the AT2020 was the cheapest microphone with €80. The AKG was around €450. So i bought the AT2020

I now use the AT2020 as a allround microphone for acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals and percussion. The sound is awesome and has a nice detail and sounds bright. One of the (big) downsides is the amount of noise.

Used it with the motu 828 mk2 preamp, symetrix sx202, hercules 1612fw preamp. The sx202 sounded best with the at2020.


i'm still happy i bought it, good microphone to start with.

this was my first mic i bought for a small home studio i used this mic for over 4 years recording vocals i love the sound its very full the highs do tend to pop but its helps with the mix it cuts threw very well for the price this mic is well worth it paired with a good pre u can get a clear sound

First LDC I bought a few years ago. For the price it is a very decent microphone. You can get a viable acoustic guitar sound and it works on some vocals, but that's if you don't have anything else of better quality. If all you want is making demos of your songs at home for very little money, that's a good tool that will get the job done. With a bit of technique, it's a surprising mic given it's about a hundred bucks.

However, if you aspire at upgrading later and make something more serious with it... Well, looking back at things, I would have saved my money for little longer and bought something in a higher price bracket. If you feel that you could end up in that situation, I'd recommend you to wait and to get something in the 300-500$ range that might still get used when you have more stuff in the mic closet. Let's say that my 2020 have not received a 48v charge in quite a while.

Bought this mic a couple of years ago as I needed to record some vocals for a project. Not too many features about it, it is a condenser microphone with a cardioid pattern. There are no pad switches or low cut filters on it so take that in consideration. I have used it exclusively for recording vocals and acoustic guitars, and it performed good; not anything spectacular but I got quite usable results without too much noise.

It is a very bright microphone, the high frequencies really ring out, while the bass is more subdued. Depending on how good are you with positioning you can get good results with it, you just have to be careful and EQ later. I like to position it behind the body of the guitar when recording. I also recorded vocal tracks for a film project with it, and even without using the pop filter, I was pleased with the results.

All in all, quite a decent microphone in this price range for a home studio and the like, although I would not use it in a more professional setting. Also, I am not a fan of the holding mechanism - a regular shockmount would preferable (imo).

IMO, this mic is only good for a usb mic, therefore if you have a soundcard this mic is useless...
The quality isn't that good... it has a warm sound though so if you have very strong plug-ins you might be able to get something out of it

If I buy another microphone in my life, it'll be because:

- This gets damaged or broke
- I will have so much money that I start to collect mics.

I also owned a 2035 and a 4040, and used a few more expensive mics in other people's studios.

The AT2020USB+ is my choice. If you can not make a world-class recording with this, you can be sure you have a lot to learn.

The USB, the monitoring and the mixing capability between sound from computer and the mic (no-latency monitoring to your ear through the headphone jack) makes it super easy to use.

The volume is great and the quality it produces on loud volumes also great. (Talking about the in-ear monitoring here)

I love the sound of it. I usually only cut low end and compress. Everytime I started to use my favourite VST EQs on it (Waves API, UAD Neve), it sounded good but I ended up using the dry sound of the mic.

Simply: could not love it more. Thank you AT!