Hi Aaron,
I recently switched from slide programs to HD video and put on wildlife shows for the public and people wanted me to do voice narration and I was refusing because I was unhappy with the sound of my voice and the quality from cheap mics. I was getting very confused as you know you can spend $10 for a PC mic or several hundred dollars.
So I talked to the professionals at Musician's Friend and told them what I needed to do, so they recommended the AT2020.
Yes the cardioid condenser and also the fact that you need a large diameter diaphragm which most mics don't have for voice recording versus voice speaking.
Now I am very pleased with the sound and quality of my voice. I also capture wildlife sounds or other sounds from the PC speakers and capturing with the AT2020.
Yes it is a USB-2 mic and as Dafydd mentions, you have to follow the setup in PD each time, in my case selecting the AT2020 under device, and under profile, select the CD quality 44,100 kHz 16 Bit Stero 172 kb/sec for the best recording and adjust the desired recording level.
George
Dell Studio XPS 9100
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 960 @ 3.20GHz
64 Bit Operating Sytem
12 GB DDR3 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 1248 MB Memory
Canon HF S21 & Canon HG21