Episode 135
Shure MV7+ Microphone Review
Let's cut straight to the point: the Shure MV7 Plus positions itself as the Swiss Army knife of microphones. With both XLR and USB capabilities in one sleek package, it's targeting everyone from podcast beginners to audio professionals.
But after putting it through rigorous testing at Bamby Media's production studio, I can tell you exactly where it shines and where it falls short.
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Transcript
Today we're gonna do a review of the Sure MV seven Plus.
Speaker:This microphone is a dynamic microphone.
Speaker:It is in X, Excel R, and also USB.
Speaker:And what you're listening to right now is me in the USB position.
Speaker:Also noting that I have used the Motive mix app, So I've got my
Speaker:own little preferences dialed in.
Speaker:You're listening to it in the USB format.
Speaker:We're also gonna try it in the XLR format.
Speaker:We're gonna plug this microphone into my focus, right Claret, so
Speaker:you can hear what it sounds like based on whether you have an XLR.
Speaker:Situation or a USB situation.
Speaker:So let's get into some things.
Speaker:We're gonna test a few things today.
Speaker:We're gonna test, obviously, how it sounds when I'm talking into the microphone.
Speaker:We're gonna test it from far away and close to me.
Speaker:I'll also do a little bit of singing into the microphone as well, because that is
Speaker:an application that people often use.
Speaker:So when this microphone arrives, one of the great things that I like
Speaker:about Sure, uh, more recently is that they've really done away with
Speaker:a lot of the plastic packaging.
Speaker:So it's very minimal what you actually get.
Speaker:In the box, comes with a USB cable.
Speaker:It does not come with an XLR cable, so you'll have to get your own cable there.
Speaker:And it also has obviously the pop filter, the pop foam on top as well.
Speaker:You can take that off.
Speaker:I don't know why you would personally, but you can certainly take it off.
Speaker:As far as the build quality goes, it's a nice metal construction.
Speaker:Other than the pop phone that is not metal and it's feels sturdy, it's not too heavy.
Speaker:It's something that you could take with you pretty easily.
Speaker:Uh, it doesn't come with any stand, nothing like that.
Speaker:It just comes with the microphone itself there.
Speaker:So now that we've had a look at what it actually looks like in the
Speaker:box, getting out of the box, what cables it comes with, let's have a
Speaker:listen to how it actually sounds.
Speaker:You can hear it right now.
Speaker:I'm talking into this in the USB situation.
Speaker:I'm gonna do some popping, some popping the popcorn right now so
Speaker:that you can hear what kind of pop there is with this microphone.
Speaker:This is called Plosives.
Speaker:Some microphones reflect Plosives better than others.
Speaker:There's also a d. Plosive, uh, in the Motive Mix app, it actually has
Speaker:like a Papa stopper thing that you can actually just switch on in the
Speaker:USB format, but not the XLR format.
Speaker:I have the D plop, that's not the name.
Speaker:I have the popper stopper on, like switched on at the moment, so it's
Speaker:helping with that a little bit.
Speaker:But now I'm just gonna do some testing here.
Speaker:So, USB format.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn.
Speaker:Now we're gonna switch to the XLR format.
Speaker:Pop the popcorn popping the popcorn, popping the popcorn.
Speaker:And I was moving my mouth around the microphone there, just so that there
Speaker:was a little bit of, you know, was it more evident in one place to another
Speaker:that can help you sort of place the microphone where you think it will
Speaker:suit you best if you have a lot of p and b sounds in the way you speak.
Speaker:Some people are just really brutal with the way they say those so they can have
Speaker:problems with foam that isn't quite big enough, or pop filters that that don't
Speaker:quite, they're not quite thick enough.
Speaker:We're gonna head into the Sance test now.
Speaker:Sance is really just, if you talk kind of through your teeth, you are more likely
Speaker:to have a really prevalent s sort of sound that's in your actual recordings.
Speaker:Some microphones, again, handle that better than others, and also the EQ.
Speaker:Especially in USB microphones that you've adjusted via the DSP settings,
Speaker:they can adjust for that too.
Speaker:So if you feel like you're getting too much of the S sounds, you can
Speaker:bring the brightness down in the mode of mix app that will actually help
Speaker:you reduce some of that sibilance.
Speaker:You can also do it in post-production as well.
Speaker:So S sounds sibilance sizzling.
Speaker:The sausages sizzling.
Speaker:The sausages sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:That's the USB format.
Speaker:Now we're gonna switch to the XLR format of this test.
Speaker:Sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:I'm going to say the same phrase and we're gonna switch between
Speaker:USB and XLR so that you can hear what that sounds like as well.
Speaker:I love chocolate chip cookies.
Speaker:I also love chocolate chip ice cream.
Speaker:I like chocolate chip cookies.
Speaker:I also like chocolate chip ice cream.
Speaker:My name is Brianna and I run Bambi Media.
Speaker:My name is Brianna and I run the company Bambi Media.
Speaker:Now we're gonna do the singing test, so I'm just gonna sing the same song,
Speaker:same little bit of the song, so that you can get a feel for that as well.
Speaker:This is a song that I'm actually working on.
Speaker:It's one of my own songs at the moment.
Speaker:This one is called Timeline and we'll sing a little bit of that.
Speaker:It's not funny.
Speaker:Ready?
Speaker:When you feel ready.
Speaker:It's been on my mind.
Speaker:I've gotta.
Speaker:It's not funny how I've been red and for the clock to say the right time.
Speaker:When you feel ready.
Speaker:It's been on my mind.
Speaker:I've gotta let you go.
Speaker:I have my headphones on here now because I just went and listened
Speaker:to all of those tests so that I could give you a recommendation for
Speaker:what I think of this microphone.
Speaker:Could you hear the difference between the USB and the XLR?
Speaker:Input versions.
Speaker:I hope that you could, because there definitely was a difference.
Speaker:Now, if you couldn't hear a difference, maybe put your headphones
Speaker:on so that you can really hear.
Speaker:Now, what I noticed in the USB format, it is a lot brighter.
Speaker:That is though probably because I have the brightness.
Speaker:10% in the mode mix application.
Speaker:So I've already made a few little adjustments in the USB format to get that
Speaker:microphone sounding probably where I would like it to sound best in the XLR format.
Speaker:You can't do that.
Speaker:You are just given the microphone clean as it is, and then you have to make
Speaker:those adjustments through the, uh, if you have like a, a rack EQ rack compression.
Speaker:If you dunno what those things mean, then you probably don't have them.
Speaker:Otherwise, you can do post-production.
Speaker:Editing and EQing and compression with the XLR.
Speaker:As far as the actual brightness, the tonality goes, it's probably not so much
Speaker:of a fair comparison between the USB and the XLR because the USBI already
Speaker:have a few little adjustments made.
Speaker:What that does tell me though is that it functions really well in both ways, right?
Speaker:You can have it in XLR and you can have it in USB from a like
Speaker:out of the box situation, the.
Speaker:XLR sounds more, um, organic, more warm.
Speaker:Whereas the USB it does sound a little bit more digitized.
Speaker:The sound doesn't sound as full, uh, in the frequencies than
Speaker:the actual XLR version does.
Speaker:So if you like something that's a little bit warmer in tone and, and it's not quite
Speaker:as digital sounding, it's, it's got a.
Speaker:A broader sound, then the X LR format is going to be for you more
Speaker:than the actual USB version is.
Speaker:In saying that with the USB, you can actually.
Speaker:Adjust the tonality to have more of those basey darker tones, but it
Speaker:doesn't do that good of a job because it's kind of like an eq, right?
Speaker:So it's not sounding the same as it would if it was completely flat
Speaker:on both the XLR and the USB format.
Speaker:This has definitely got a, a fuller sound in my ear versus the USB
Speaker:version sounds a little bit more.
Speaker:Tinny a little bit, digitized, a little bit, you know, flatter.
Speaker:I suppose overall in the spectrum of the actual sound from the microphone,
Speaker:both ways are gonna work for you, depending on what your actual process
Speaker:is, what your recording studio situation is like, and I was actually
Speaker:impressed with how they both sounded.
Speaker:The pop foam on this MV seven Plus I still think has a little bit of a ways to go.
Speaker:It is better than the MV seven, which is the first iteration of this.
Speaker:Type of microphone, but it's still not quite there for me.
Speaker:It still feels a little bit flimsy, uh, and it doesn't stop as much of the popping
Speaker:as I would want it to actually stop.
Speaker:So not loving the pop filter on this, but it is better than the MV seven on its own.
Speaker:Even though the MV seven plus has that USB option where you can depop, so it's like
Speaker:the pop a stopper, you can switch that on.
Speaker:I actually found that the popping was more prevalent in the USB format even than
Speaker:the XLR format, same exact microphone, but for whatever reason, with the same
Speaker:foam, even with the popping filter on the USB, it actually popped more for me.
Speaker:In my ear than the XLR version.
Speaker:Something I will absolutely note about the XLR version of this
Speaker:microphone is that it is gain hungry.
Speaker:I have a very good preamp here.
Speaker:The focus right Claret, it's a fantastic piece of kit, and even with that.
Speaker:I had to turn the level up on this to get it like almost to its absolute
Speaker:max for me to get this volume at a volume that was actually workable.
Speaker:I don't like it when I have to completely max out the level to get a
Speaker:microphone to where I want it to sit.
Speaker:It always makes me a little bit, uh, because that.
Speaker:Normally introduces some sort of noise into the microphone, so the noise floor
Speaker:that you hear people, uh, talk about.
Speaker:I didn't find that to be the case too much though with this microphone.
Speaker:Even with it being almost at its max, like I would say it would
Speaker:be 95 out of a hundred on the actual, uh, gain level there.
Speaker:I still didn't find that it had a lot of noise at its base, so
Speaker:that hasn't been a huge problem.
Speaker:But do note that if you have a lower quality preamp, maybe not a very expensive
Speaker:one, for example, you might not be able to get the amount of gain that you actually
Speaker:need to have this sound really good in an XLR format, I would probably recommend
Speaker:that you get a dynamite se dynamite, which just gives you that extra gain really.
Speaker:So you can attach this to the XLR microphone and then
Speaker:it will give you more gain.
Speaker:So that is something that you could potentially do if you have a lower
Speaker:quality preamp, you're, you're pulling the game all the way to the top and
Speaker:it's still not doing anything for you.
Speaker:Get one of these and that will boost that for you.
Speaker:Thanks to se uh, for actually sending me one of these sound
Speaker:and music sent me this se DM one.
Speaker:So that's the one thing that I will say that's definitely a little bit of a downer
Speaker:for me here, is that if you have a preamp that is lower quality, you will need to
Speaker:boost the gain potentially in other ways to get it to where you want it to sit.
Speaker:Now, if we move to the price point, so this microphone in Australian dollars is
Speaker:around $500, so I've seen it as low as.
Speaker:4 99 all the way up to 5 89 on Amazon.
Speaker:That to me, is quite an expensive, uh, X-L-R-U-S-B combo.
Speaker:There are much cheaper X-L-R-U-S-B combos out there.
Speaker:And in fact, I will do some battles with this microphone and a couple
Speaker:of the others that are in a.
Speaker:Similar space.
Speaker:This is a dynamic microphone.
Speaker:It will handle situations where you have potentially not as much acoustic treatment
Speaker:where you are not in a studio where you are just kind of recording where you are.
Speaker:Dynamic microphones do handle that better in that way, you know, a
Speaker:dynamic microphone is pretty good for podcasters, especially because you,
Speaker:you are often just in your house.
Speaker:You don't have a lot of treatment going on.
Speaker:It also reflects.
Speaker:Pretty well, like the other sounds in the room.
Speaker:I'm not hearing a lot of re reverb echo from the room.
Speaker:This room is small, but it does have a lot of hard surfaces, so
Speaker:it has handled that pretty well.
Speaker:I do find that I need to be nice and close, like I often say in
Speaker:basically all my videos when I'm talking about microphones.
Speaker:The placement is important.
Speaker:So even though in your shot you would prefer not to have a microphone, like if
Speaker:you're doing a YouTube video, you would prefer not to have a microphone just here.
Speaker:You kind of want it here.
Speaker:It will still perform okay down there, and you might want it even at a shot, right?
Speaker:More.
Speaker:It is gonna perform okay down there, but can you hear the difference?
Speaker:It's, it's definitely nowhere near as good, but I mean, now I'm in
Speaker:the shot really well, I can move my arms around and the microphone's not
Speaker:really doing too much, but I just find it's way too far away from my.
Speaker:Face, especially if I'm also a podcaster at the same time.
Speaker:It needs to be nice and close, so no matter what microphone you use,
Speaker:really it, the best location for it is going to be as close to your mouth
Speaker:as possible without it obscuring your mouth so that the person actually
Speaker:watching you can see your mouth moving.
Speaker:So it's quite disconcerting if they can't see your mouth.
Speaker:Another good thing about this microphone in the USB format, which
Speaker:is common for all the USB microphones, is that you can plug the headphones
Speaker:straight into the microphone.
Speaker:You can hear yourself and you can also decide to hear what's
Speaker:going on on your computer too.
Speaker:So if you're a gamer or a streamer and you are using this as your USB microphone,
Speaker:you can set your level so that you can hear some of yourself and you can also
Speaker:hear the game that you're playing.
Speaker:Or you know, if you are singing over some music and you wanna be able
Speaker:to hear the music and also your.
Speaker:Self.
Speaker:That's fantastic.
Speaker:It really should be a no brainer for any USB microphone at this point,
Speaker:to have that feature so that you can hear both yourself and the playback.
Speaker:So who is this microphone for?
Speaker:Well, I've kind of touched on it.
Speaker:I really think that it's suited to podcasters who are not in spaces
Speaker:that they can do much about.
Speaker:So if you're in your house, if it's a home studio, you have some hard surfaces, you
Speaker:have some things that you know might make.
Speaker:The sound a bit more bouncy, then this microphone will suit you.
Speaker:Well, I love that it's an XLR and A USB format microphone.
Speaker:It means that it will grow with you.
Speaker:So even though the price point is $500, uh, and that might seem
Speaker:like a lot for people starting out, you can start with USB.
Speaker:Then as you grow and you get maybe a, a rack and you get a preamp that's really
Speaker:good, and you get a compressor like I have here, and you have these little
Speaker:added additions to make your sound even sweeter and fuller and warmer,
Speaker:you can do those things as your podcast and your application grows for it.
Speaker:The XLR format is also really good if you're wanting to be further
Speaker:away from your recording source.
Speaker:And again, I have a video that explains the real reason and
Speaker:difference between the XLR and USB.
Speaker:So maybe you could go and watch that one after this one.
Speaker:I think that for a vocalist, so singing into this microphone, it's a dynamic
Speaker:microphone, so it's never gonna be as good as a condenser microphone.
Speaker:From a vocalist point of view, it does a, a pretty good job.
Speaker:It doesn't give you the presence.
Speaker:That a condenser microphone does.
Speaker:That's always my feedback on condenser versus dynamics.
Speaker:So if you are only doing vocals, then this would not be the microphone that
Speaker:I would recommend for you because there are plenty of good options for condenser
Speaker:microphones that will give you a richer, fuller, warmer tone than a dynamic
Speaker:microphone could ever really give you.
Speaker:When I did the singing test, it still sounded nice, but I'm looking for some.
Speaker:Extra sparkle in there.
Speaker:That dynamic microphones don't really give me overall.
Speaker:If you're gonna be doing both, if you're gonna be doing voiceover work
Speaker:and you're going to be doing podcasting, then this is a great choice for you.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:It shouldn't fail you.
Speaker:But if you are a vocalist or an instrumentalist, I would recommend
Speaker:other microphones over this one.
Speaker:I hope that was really helpful.
Speaker:I. Think overall this is a great Mike.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:You know, they've done a lot of improvements from the MV
Speaker:seven to the MV seven plus.
Speaker:It's kind of sitting now in the middle between their lower end products and
Speaker:then their higher end SM seven db.
Speaker:So this is kind of still sitting in the shore family, but not
Speaker:quite as expensive as the other one, which is good for people.
Speaker:And obviously there's a, there's a market for it there.
Speaker:If you love this kind of thing, please let me know in the comments.
Speaker:What did you like about this microphone?
Speaker:Have you got this microphone or are you trying to decide between
Speaker:this one and something else?
Speaker:I'm going to do some battles, this one and some others, like the road
Speaker:pod mic, which has the exact same USB and XLR applications as well.
Speaker:We're gonna try a few different mics so that you can get a
Speaker:real feel for what might work.
Speaker:Best with your voice.
Speaker:And I hope you have a wonderful day.
