Episode 124
Budget-Friendly Microphone Battle for Vocalists
It's a special day for me—my birthday! 🎉 And what better way to celebrate than combining two of my loves: music and microphones? So, join me on this little auditory adventure as we dive into some budget-friendly microphone options that are perfect for vocalists.
I've gathered a selection of XLR and USB microphones, a lineup that includes the SE DCM8, SE Neom, Rode NT USB Mini, Rode PodMic (in both USB and XLR formats), and the Shure MV7 (also in both formats). My goal? To sing a section of one of my unfinished songs and see which microphone captures my voice with the best clarity and tone.
00:00 Birthday Excitement and Favorite Gifts
00:41 Microphone Testing Plan
02:03 Microphone Lineup and Song Performance
03:40 Microphone Reviews and Impressions
09:52 Final Thoughts and Recommendations
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Transcript
It's my birthday!
Speaker:Happy birthday to me!
Speaker:Oh my goodness, I'm so excited
Speaker:for birthdays, I love birthdays,
Speaker:and there are two things that I
Speaker:like receiving on my birthday.
Speaker:Well, hang on, three.
Speaker:So the first thing is hugs.
Speaker:I just love hugs.
Speaker:Hugs are my favorite thing in the world.
Speaker:I love snuggling, I love
Speaker:that, and also Lego.
Speaker:So I love getting Lego for my birthday,
Speaker:the third thing that I like getting
Speaker:for my birthday is microphones micro.
Speaker:I have so many of them here in front
Speaker:of me, I have a lot of them, so
Speaker:I thought to celebrate my birthday
Speaker:because it makes me so happy.
Speaker:I'm going to do a little bit of a test
Speaker:of a bunch of different microphones
Speaker:together, and I'm gonna sing one of my
Speaker:own songs so that you can get a feel for.
Speaker:How will these sound
Speaker:and which one I prefer?
Speaker:I'm gonna use some XLR microphones.
Speaker:They are the ones with like
Speaker:the little three knobbies.
Speaker:They're like the highest quality and
Speaker:then we've got little USB So I've got a
Speaker:little Rode NT USB Mini, I've got an SE
Speaker:Neom, I've got the Rode PodMic XLR Combo
Speaker:USB, I've got this SE DCM8, which is XLR
Speaker:only, the Shure MV7, So not the plus,
Speaker:which is a combo, same as the pod mic's.
Speaker:We've got that one.
Speaker:I want you to listen to all of them.
Speaker:And I want you to tell me in the
Speaker:comments, what you think sounds the best.
Speaker:These range in prices as well.
Speaker:All within a realm that I think
Speaker:makes sense for a podcaster, for
Speaker:a songwriter, for someone that's
Speaker:starting out as a musician or a
Speaker:voiceover artist or anything like that.
Speaker:These microphones aren't ridiculous,
Speaker:like they're not stupidly priced.
Speaker:I wanted to Put all these
Speaker:together, sing a bit of a
Speaker:song, because it's my birthday.
Speaker:I want to listen to that.
Speaker:I've never done all of them together.
Speaker:You'll get my true reactions.
Speaker:So the song is called Company.
Speaker:this song isn't finished.
Speaker:This is just like a draft of
Speaker:this song, but I thought it
Speaker:would be a good one to test.
Speaker:So I'm going to sing the same section of
Speaker:that song with each of these microphones.
Speaker:And I'm going to then get you to
Speaker:weigh in, hmm, what sounds better?
Speaker:So to make sure that you get a good
Speaker:representation and it's not interrupting
Speaker:every time, I'm just going to tell you
Speaker:what the order is of the microphones.
Speaker:So if you want to write
Speaker:them down, you can.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So we're looking at the DCM8
Speaker:first, then the SE Neom.
Speaker:Then the N-T-U-S-B mini followed
Speaker:by the road pod mic in USB format.
Speaker:then the XLR format, then the Shure MV
Speaker:seven in the XLR format, then ending
Speaker:up with the MV seven in the USB format.
Speaker:that is the order of those microphones,
Speaker:and you'll hopefully be able to
Speaker:hear the differences between them.
Speaker:Didn't notice time moved on.
Speaker:Didn't notice time moved on.
Speaker:Didn't notice time.
Speaker:All I
Speaker:Didn't notice time moved on.
Speaker:Didn't notice time moved on.
Speaker:I Didn't notice This time moved on,
Speaker:didn't notice time moved on.
Speaker:Okay, so after reviewing all
Speaker:of those, what do you think?
Speaker:Could you tell the difference?
Speaker:It can be a little bit nuanced, but
Speaker:there are definitely some microphones
Speaker:in this list, just for vocalists,
Speaker:which feel like they fall short.
Speaker:Now, there's one thing I will say is
Speaker:that at the time that I recorded it,
Speaker:it's not like I gave the exact same
Speaker:performance with each microphone.
Speaker:So I don't feel like it's, it's an
Speaker:absolute great, the best comparison
Speaker:between them, because sometimes I had
Speaker:a little bit more breath in my voice
Speaker:just because I'd sung it quite a few
Speaker:times by that point, or I felt like I
Speaker:was a little bit pitchy on one or two
Speaker:of them in there as well, because I
Speaker:was struggling with headphone level.
Speaker:So, you know, it's not like
Speaker:the ultimate best comparison.
Speaker:I think that if I'd had all of the
Speaker:microphones plugged in at the same
Speaker:time, so that the delivery was all the
Speaker:same,, then that would be a better.
Speaker:comparison between them all, but I'm,
Speaker:I'm looking for overall tone and clarity.
Speaker:So I had to kind of nitpick a little
Speaker:bit with that and be okay with the
Speaker:fact that I didn't give the performance
Speaker:exactly the same way every time.
Speaker:And hopefully you will accept
Speaker:my apologies on that as well.
Speaker:There's one in particular that I
Speaker:absolutely loved that I think if you
Speaker:have a, not a huge budget, but you
Speaker:want to get something that's going to
Speaker:be good for you, for your vocals, and
Speaker:also can be used for other instances.
Speaker:The SE DCM8, it still wins for me.
Speaker:And I mean, I've put this microphone,
Speaker:I've battled it against others as well.
Speaker:Uh, and it, it, it really does win
Speaker:every time, which is pretty cool.
Speaker:I think they've done a very
Speaker:good job with this microphone.
Speaker:It does mean that you need more things.
Speaker:So you need it to have, you
Speaker:know, uh, like a preamp.
Speaker:It's an XLR only microphone.
Speaker:So you can't just plug it
Speaker:straight into your computer.
Speaker:You need some other equipment
Speaker:to make it work, but I really
Speaker:think it's worth it as far as the
Speaker:actual sound that comes out of it.
Speaker:The other one that I was
Speaker:pleasantly surprised with
Speaker:actually was the Rode NT USB mini.
Speaker:And I think pleasantly surprised
Speaker:with that one because it actually
Speaker:is a condenser microphone as well.
Speaker:So condenser microphones always
Speaker:give you a little bit more sparkle.
Speaker:They, are, Definitely preferable for
Speaker:treated rooms or rooms that don't
Speaker:have a lot of bounce, a lot of noise,
Speaker:a lot of reverb and things like that
Speaker:because they just pick up a lot more.
Speaker:And in the same way, condensers are
Speaker:really great for vocals because they pick
Speaker:up those kind of different frequencies
Speaker:and nuances in your voice that other
Speaker:microphones don't pick up as well.
Speaker:Like dynamic microphones, you know,
Speaker:not, not all are created equally,
Speaker:but dynamic microphones do have
Speaker:just not as much in that space.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I was really impressed with the
Speaker:NT USB Mini for that purpose.
Speaker:The problem with the NT USB Mini
Speaker:though is that you can't really
Speaker:control the volume very easily.
Speaker:So if you're a vocalist, uh,
Speaker:the, like you can't control the
Speaker:compression as it's coming in.
Speaker:So you really need to set the volume.
Speaker:On your computer at a level where
Speaker:you're not going to be peaking and
Speaker:you need to use microphone technique
Speaker:pretty substantially so that you're not
Speaker:like overdoing the microphone so that
Speaker:there's all the nuance still there.
Speaker:So that's not a use case that I
Speaker:think really is very useful for
Speaker:vocalists for a long term situation.
Speaker:But if you wanted just one microphone
Speaker:and you also wanted to use it for like
Speaker:guitars and other things like that, then
Speaker:the NT USB Mini actually really did work.
Speaker:Work pretty well if you want
Speaker:to keep it pretty lean and it's
Speaker:like 180 Australian dollars.
Speaker:So I was really quite impressed
Speaker:with how that one sounded.
Speaker:I didn't like the Rode
Speaker:PodMic USB or the XLR.
Speaker:The USB was a little bit better
Speaker:than the XLR version of that.
Speaker:It just feels a bit flat.
Speaker:There's not a lot of tone in
Speaker:there that, that is interesting.
Speaker:And that's before any post production.
Speaker:Like I didn't do any
Speaker:post production on these.
Speaker:It just came in a bit like,
Speaker:eh, you know, I don't know.
Speaker:It wasn't really a true indication
Speaker:of what my voice really sounds
Speaker:like with that microphone.
Speaker:So I felt like that
Speaker:fell flat a little bit.
Speaker:And also in the XLR only format,
Speaker:because the Rode PodMic is such a gain
Speaker:hungry microphone, you really have to
Speaker:turn it up a lot within your mixer.
Speaker:Can be a bit of a struggle
Speaker:to get that right.
Speaker:So again, for vocalists, I wouldn't
Speaker:really recommend that microphone
Speaker:as the one to get for that purpose.
Speaker:Great for podcasting.
Speaker:And it's won a lot of battles in
Speaker:the podcasting space that I've done.
Speaker:But for vocalists, I think there
Speaker:are better options, especially XLR.
Speaker:I would just be getting the sE DCM8.
Speaker:And then with the Shure, uh, It's
Speaker:called MV7, both in XLR and USB.
Speaker:That one is okay.
Speaker:I felt like, again, it was a little
Speaker:bit muffled, so it has a little
Speaker:bit more of those muffly tones,
Speaker:which for my voice isn't very nice.
Speaker:That's not really something
Speaker:that I'm looking for when
Speaker:I'm trying to track vocals.
Speaker:Also the pop filter, and I've
Speaker:mentioned this before, is problematic.
Speaker:Definitely in the format as well.
Speaker:There's a lot of breath.
Speaker:That you can hear a lot of extra breath
Speaker:and noises that you don't really want
Speaker:to hear when you're tracking vocals.
Speaker:So the MV7 for me fell
Speaker:flat with that as well.
Speaker:And then the last one was the SE
Speaker:Neom, which is a USB microphone.
Speaker:And I was expecting better things from
Speaker:this one because it is just a lovely.
Speaker:It's a really great
Speaker:podcasting microphone.
Speaker:It's very good for speaking.
Speaker:It's probably, I haven't used it
Speaker:for voiceovers, but it probably
Speaker:would work well in that format too.
Speaker:But the S E Neom I found was just
Speaker:hard to manage as far as the control.
Speaker:Again, the levels on that, whatever
Speaker:they've done in the actual
Speaker:processing within that microphone.
Speaker:It doesn't behave itself.
Speaker:As well and managing it with the
Speaker:headphones as well, getting the level
Speaker:right on the headphones so that it's
Speaker:not too loud on your headphones.
Speaker:Uh, on the video version of this episode,
Speaker:you can actually see me trying to on
Speaker:the fly control what's happening with
Speaker:the knobs because I couldn't get it to
Speaker:sound the way I really wanted it, but.
Speaker:To sound and it was peaking
Speaker:more than I wanted it to there.
Speaker:So I found like that one was a little
Speaker:bit too challenging for this format.
Speaker:Great for podcasting,
Speaker:not great for vocalists.
Speaker:But then when I listened to
Speaker:the SEDCM8, it's a strong,
Speaker:solid choice for vocalists.
Speaker:It gives you a lot of depth.
Speaker:It gives you a lot of clarity.
Speaker:It gives you some low bottom end.
Speaker:It gives you that extra sparkle,
Speaker:gives you the things that for
Speaker:one microphone can then do a
Speaker:lot of different things as well.
Speaker:And I feel like it's just behaved
Speaker:really quite tremendously.
Speaker:And I find that interesting because
Speaker:actually the Dynacaster DCM8 from sE is
Speaker:a dynamic studio microphone so it isn't
Speaker:a condenser microphone and I expected
Speaker:it maybe to not give me as much of the
Speaker:tone as I like but it did perform very
Speaker:well in that format and it gave me a
Speaker:little bit of that like didn't notice.
Speaker:You know, there's, there's little
Speaker:higher sparkly bits that are, that
Speaker:are quintessential for my voice.
Speaker:It really highlighted them quite well.
Speaker:It's still not going to be my first
Speaker:choice overall for vocalists, but for
Speaker:this purpose of this battle with the
Speaker:microphones that I had with me, I think
Speaker:that this one definitely takes the cake.
Speaker:I hope that was interesting for you.
Speaker:Even if you're not in the market for a
Speaker:vocal microphone, sometimes it's just
Speaker:nice to listen to someone talk about
Speaker:something that they know a lot about.
Speaker:And for me, that is audio, that is
Speaker:microphones, that is frequencies
Speaker:and nuances in voices and, you
Speaker:know, post production on that to
Speaker:make you sound as good as possible.
Speaker:That's what I do all day.
Speaker:Basically every day.
Speaker:So it was, I found it really just a fun
Speaker:thing to do on my birthday and it was
Speaker:something I really just felt like doing.
Speaker:So I hope you enjoyed it too.
Speaker:If you have any comments that you want
Speaker:to leave, you can leave them on Spotify.
Speaker:You can't leave them on Apple yet.
Speaker:They don't have a comments feature.
Speaker:Hopefully that's coming at some
Speaker:point, but Spotify is where you
Speaker:would leave the comments or you
Speaker:can reach out to me on YouTube,
Speaker:leave a comment in there as well.
Speaker:Or over on LinkedIn is the other
Speaker:place I hang out quite a lot.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I hope you have a lovely day and
Speaker:I will speak to you again soon.
