Gator Frameworks Professional Desktop Broadcast/Podcast Microphone Boom Stand with On-Air Indicator Light, Blue,Violet, & Red (GFWMICBCBM4000)

Extremely durable and great for your mic home setup. I installed this during COVID and have been using it ever since. I run a Rode Podcaster mic through this arm connecting it from a Cloudlifter and it’s lasted me 4 years and counting.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Very durable and an easy setup!

I decided to upgrade my recording setup this month. As the investment kept rising I found it easy to justify a boom arm upgrade...I had one of the cheaper boom arms you could buy on Amazon, it came in at a little more than 1/3 the price of this one. And while it did the job, it felt and looked cheap and was extremely stiff. It was also a bit short.This Gator Frameworks 3000 remedies all of that. It looks great, operates almost effortlessly and smoothly. And if you are upgrading to a mic that needs an XLR cable like I did, it includes a nice and long XLR cable, saving you about $20. It's a great value even without the cable, this makes it a no-brainer.The cable runs through the inside of the boom arm. This makes for a nice clean look. But, as far as I can tell, to change out the cable you'd have to run a naked cable through a small hole in the bottom, disassemble the stand to run the cable through (not too difficult) and then solder/crimp/however-you-attach-an-XLR-connector. I show a pic of the only spot I found that would require the connector to be attached after assembling. I suppose you could Dremel the top of that hole off and you'd be able to run your cable with the connectors attached. Maybe. (Hole close up shown in pic.)All this cable talk leads me to the one little gripe I have about this unit. The whole unit is black. So why, oh why, did we have to use a silver XLR connector on this cable? The reason it bothers me is that when on video if I have the mic in real close, that silver connector jumps out and draws attention. Without it the whole unit would just blend in and be much less noticeable. Tiny gripe, I know. I'll be painting the outside of the connector and my trauma will soon be forgotten.*** Note about the desk mount: I'm using the desk mount from my old boom arm, the pins are the same size. The mounts that come with this unit are awesome though! Very robust. It comes with one that can be screwed to the desk top — I might end up using that one. The other one is a really solid desk clamp, it just won't fit where I have my unit located, in a small crack between the desk and a desk extension I have my phone on.

I've worked through several boom stands and this one finally holds position even when extended with a heavier mic (eg: Yeti). I could go on and on with details, but they all add up to "boom stand -- it just works" and, on that description alone it is Recommended.That said it does have two deficiencies -- one very minor and one a good bit larger depending on your needs. The minor one is the typical 'add unneeded differentiation feature and screw it up' so many manufacturers do nowadays. This one is the 'on air' light. It works, but its smallish, dimmish, and a bit hokey. If you need an on-air light, you need a bigger, brighter one than this with more obvious controls (so you're not forgetting which position you left it in - you know, cause the light is so small you won't notice its on/off). But you are buying this because its a solid stand, not for the on-air light so most can ignore this issue.The one problem I have is the base is too short. It barely raises the first elbow above standard monitor height -- and note that many of you with larger monitors already raised a few inches off your desktop need something taller than 'standard' to clear. I had to scavenge the base from my previous boom to get this arm high enough. So pay attention to that 18" back riser and make sure its enough for you. The base I mounted it on has a 10" extension and THAT makes this a really flexible boom stand indeed! (hint hint Gator).So a 5-star stand (with a sad little light) that I'm rating 4 stars because it was not fully usable (to me, at least) until I modified it to reach over my desktop monitor. So definitely recommended for quality and, if you don't need the reach, highly recommended.