Episode 98
Microphone Battle: Shure SM7B vs sE DynaCaster DCM8
Alright podcasters and vocalists alike, it's time to settle a score! Today, we're throwing down in a microphone brawl between two titans: the legendary Shure SM7B and the lesser-known but highly regarded sE Dynacaster DCM8.
By the end of this rumble, you'll know which microphone I prefer for females with similar vocal tones to my own, as well as vocalists looking for that extra bit of sparkle.
To set the scene, we’ve recorded this battle at Gasworks studio in Fortitude Valley with both mics plugged into a top-notch John Hardy M2 preamp. We're keeping things raw with no post-production on the sound, so you hear exactly how these microphones perform. All we’ve done is boosted the levels to ensure they’re the same.
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Transcript
Today I'm doing a battle, a battle I've
Speaker:been wanting to do for quite some time.
Speaker:It is a battle between the Shure
Speaker:SM7B and the SE Dynacaster DCM8.
Speaker:I have already done a review
Speaker:of the SE Dynacaster DCM8 on
Speaker:the channel just by itself.
Speaker:And I wanted to trial it up against
Speaker:a few things that I think are in
Speaker:a similar space for podcasters.
Speaker:More specifically.
Speaker:So what I'm going to do is I'm going
Speaker:to run through a bunch of different
Speaker:use cases, different sounds so that you
Speaker:can decide what microphone may be best
Speaker:for you, depending on your use case.
Speaker:I'm going to test the
Speaker:Sibilance, the poppiness.
Speaker:So how it handles the pops, the
Speaker:plosives, as they say, both of them have
Speaker:pretty substantial pop foam on here.
Speaker:So I would imagine that they will
Speaker:both handle that very easily.
Speaker:And then I'm going to also sing into
Speaker:the microphone so that if you're
Speaker:a vocalist and you're looking at,
Speaker:uh, doing some just singing into
Speaker:the microphone, then you will be
Speaker:able to test what that sounds like.
Speaker:I'm also going to test this
Speaker:microphone with a male voice.
Speaker:We're going to have Alex pop in here
Speaker:and tell you what he wants to have
Speaker:for lunch so that you can hear what
Speaker:a male voice sounds like as well.
Speaker:Make sure you have your headphones
Speaker:on so that you are hearing true.
Speaker:What it is going to be.
Speaker:Both of these microphones are
Speaker:plugged into a John Hardy M2 preamp.
Speaker:We are keeping them very flat as in
Speaker:there will be no post production.
Speaker:We may do a little bit of compression
Speaker:or limiting in the backend.
Speaker:That's as much as we're going to do
Speaker:from a post production standpoint,
Speaker:because I want you to hear exactly
Speaker:what these microphones sound like.
Speaker:Now I am in a fancy studio.
Speaker:I am at Gas Work Studio here in
Speaker:Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.
Speaker:And so this is a completely dead studio.
Speaker:Basically room.
Speaker:So you may not have the kind
Speaker:of acoustic treatment that a
Speaker:studio has in your home studio.
Speaker:So do keep that in mind.
Speaker:You may have a little bit more
Speaker:background noise to deal with
Speaker:reflections and things like that.
Speaker:Uh, but this is just the, the
Speaker:nicest space for me to record
Speaker:some podcasting reviews here.
Speaker:We have the gain set at 57 dB for the
Speaker:Shure SM7B, and we have the gain set
Speaker:at 30 dB for the SE Dynacaster DCM8.
Speaker:So straight off the bat,
Speaker:that is what you are hearing.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Let's get into the tests.
Speaker:First up, we're going to do a sibilance
Speaker:test where I'm going to help you
Speaker:understand how these microphones
Speaker:perform those kind of sounds.
Speaker:If you speak using your teeth a lot, you
Speaker:won't know that you're doing it, but,
Speaker:uh, generally people that speak with
Speaker:their teeth a little bit more and they
Speaker:have the breath kind of coming through
Speaker:that way, you may have more sibilance.
Speaker:You can also have more or less sibilance.
Speaker:Sibilance, depending on what side of your
Speaker:mouth you're actually talking out of.
Speaker:So as you move your head around a
Speaker:microphone, you can actually start
Speaker:to hear where you sound the best.
Speaker:And so then that will help you ascertain
Speaker:where you should actually position the
Speaker:microphone for the best sound for you.
Speaker:Sibilance test.
Speaker:We're going to start with
Speaker:the S E Dynacaster DCM8.
Speaker:If Moses supposes his toses are roses,
Speaker:then Moses supposes erroneously.
Speaker:If Moses supposes his toes are roses,
Speaker:then Moses supposes erroneously.
Speaker:SM7B If Moses supposes his toes are
Speaker:roses, then Moses supposes erroneously.
Speaker:If Moses supposes his toes are
Speaker:roses, then Moses supposes.
Speaker:Erroneously.
Speaker:Now we're going to get into the plosive
Speaker:test, the poppy pop pop pop test.
Speaker:DCM8.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:SM7B Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:Okay, now I'm going to do
Speaker:a little bit of singing.
Speaker:DCM8.
Speaker:Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high.
Speaker:There's a land that I
Speaker:heard of once in a lullaby.
Speaker:SM7B Somewhere over the
Speaker:rainbow, way up high.
Speaker:There's a land that I heard
Speaker:of once in a lullaby DCM8.
Speaker:Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake
Speaker:up where the clouds are far behind
Speaker:me SM7B Where troubles smell like
Speaker:lemon drops way up of the chimney tops.
Speaker:That's where you find me.
Speaker:Okay, now we're gonna get Alex in here to
Speaker:tell you what he wants to have for lunch.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Starting with the diner caster.
Speaker:Welcome back to what
Speaker:I desire to eat Today.
Speaker:I think a nice red curry
Speaker:tofu would be delicious.
Speaker:And now the SM7B.
Speaker:So my lunch order today would be a red
Speaker:curry tofu with some pelosive peas.
Speaker:Is red curry the spicy one?
Speaker:I don't want a spicy one.
Speaker:I don't like spicy.
Speaker:Do you like spicy?
Speaker:I don't really like spicy.
Speaker:I like a little bit of spice.
Speaker:I like enough to be like, ooh,
Speaker:but you know, not too much.
Speaker:White person medium.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So that is the tests.
Speaker:So if I had to choose between
Speaker:the SM7B and the SE DC M8, S E D
Speaker:C M 8 is going to be my winner.
Speaker:Firstly, the sound.
Speaker:So, the DC M8, if you have your
Speaker:headphones on, I want you to just
Speaker:really listen, maybe turn it up a
Speaker:little bit, so that you can hear
Speaker:what's going on with this DC M8.
Speaker:It has a really nice bottom,
Speaker:like, low depth to it, a warmth
Speaker:to it, without the muddy sound.
Speaker:There is almost no muddy
Speaker:to this microphone at all.
Speaker:So, it's getting a nice, um, like
Speaker:frequency response without introducing
Speaker:something that I don't want.
Speaker:And then it also handles the sibilance,
Speaker:the high end frequencies really well.
Speaker:It doesn't have a lot of sibilance
Speaker:and it doesn't seem to really
Speaker:matter where I put my mouth.
Speaker:It's still giving me what I need.
Speaker:So for that reason, it's got that
Speaker:nice clarity, that high end sparkle.
Speaker:It sounds really good with vocals,
Speaker:just singing into it as well.
Speaker:And it doesn't require
Speaker:the amount of gain.
Speaker:That the SM7B does.
Speaker:Let's get into that.
Speaker:So the SEDC M8 has a dynamite
Speaker:boost inside of the microphone.
Speaker:I did a specific review of
Speaker:this microphone by itself
Speaker:which I'll link as well.
Speaker:It's got this boost already inside
Speaker:of it, which means that you don't
Speaker:need to gain as much on your preamp.
Speaker:because it's already in there.
Speaker:Whereas the Shure SM7B doesn't have that.
Speaker:It doesn't have a boost, which means that
Speaker:the gain that it needs is a lot more.
Speaker:So we've had to pump this up to
Speaker:57 dB to get it to the level that
Speaker:can compete with the SE DCM8.
Speaker:Now that is a problem.
Speaker:If you don't have a preamp that can
Speaker:support that kind of gain, it's going
Speaker:to be hard for you to be able to get
Speaker:the sound that you want out of this
Speaker:without introducing a dynamite boost,
Speaker:maybe from SE or a cloud lifter,
Speaker:uh, to get the gain that you want.
Speaker:Shure negated that by then now
Speaker:introducing the Shure SM7DB, which
Speaker:means it now has a boost inside.
Speaker:The SE DCM8 already has that, and
Speaker:it's a lot less expensive as well.
Speaker:This one is about 450, the SE,
Speaker:whereas this one is about 380.
Speaker:850 for the Shure SM7B.
Speaker:The Shure SM7B, although it is an
Speaker:industry standard microphone, it
Speaker:introduces a lot more muddy sounds to me.
Speaker:But it feels like it needs more work
Speaker:in the actual post production phase for
Speaker:it to sound like you want it to sound.
Speaker:It doesn't have as much
Speaker:clarity as this one does.
Speaker:It definitely feels a
Speaker:little bit more, uh, bland.
Speaker:And requiring more energy for you
Speaker:to get it to where it needs to be.
Speaker:Also from a video standpoint, I think
Speaker:that the DCM8 just looks better.
Speaker:See how the SM7B has this like
Speaker:cable thing that runs through here.
Speaker:And I think it pulls focus more.
Speaker:Uh, whereas the DCM8,
Speaker:everything's encased inside of it.
Speaker:And it just looks a lot nicer on camera.
Speaker:And to me, that is a pretty big deal.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:There's that.
Speaker:For the price point, this wins.
Speaker:DC M8 for the sound quality, this wins.
Speaker:The build quality is similar.
Speaker:They're both having really
Speaker:good quality builds.
Speaker:There's no plastic terribleness.
Speaker:They're both XLR microphones.
Speaker:That's kind of on par, but
Speaker:the DC M8, it's just Uh, it
Speaker:just wins, just wins for me.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:What actually sounds the best for you,
Speaker:uh, based on what you've heard today?
Speaker:Did something sound
Speaker:better singing into it?
Speaker:Did you like it better for Alex's voice?
Speaker:I'd love to know what you think and what
Speaker:you're thinking of getting for yourself.
Speaker:If you have any questions,
Speaker:pop them in the comments and
Speaker:thanks so much for being here.
