Gadgetory

hey guys johnathan here with TLD with my review and demo of the mic by Apogee which not only functions as a studio quality microphone for your iPhone iPod Touch or iPad but it also double functions as a straight-up USB microphone they can go directly into your Mac via USB and then record into GarageBand or even something like Logic Pro now in the box you get the mic itself 1/2 meter 30 pin connector for your iOS device but if you do happen to be rocking something with a lightning connector like the iPhone 5 don't freak out because I have used Apple's adapter and it works flawlessly with the mic next up we get a 1 meter USB cable and this is what you'd use to go directly from the mic to your Mac and then record in something like GarageBand beyond that you get a Quick Start Guide which will give you a rundown of everything you need to know on how to record with the mic and they also throw in some tips on mic placement so you get the most out of your recording on both vocals and instruments and then lastly they do include a desktop tripod which mounts to the back of the mic into the threaded input and with that a slide for maybe a pop filter if everything you need to record right out of the box now the mic is completely bus powered so there is no external power or batteries needed and being built in the USA the build quality really stands out at the top there's a cardioid condenser capsule that is surrounded by a silver aluminum mesh like enclosure typical of what you'd find on most condenser microphones then these solid construction continues all the way down the mic with the entire unit being made at a metal right below the mic logo there's an LED indicator and that's going to give you an easy readout of the status of the mic so if it's blue that means it's connected but there is no engagement with any audio software if it's dim green that means it's working with the audio software but there is no audio level now when you see bright green that means the audio level is present if you happen to see orange you are approaching the maximum input level and finally if you hit red that is he mic telling you what II it is too loud turn down the game because I'm going to clip or distort now you're able to adjust the input levels with the gain control knob right there on the side that's going to give you up to 40 decibels of gain they can precisely control and dial in the exact amount that you need that is made possible with the built-in mic preamp which is not something that you notice or see on the outside but it's extremely important because it's going to give you the maximum amount of gain or input level with the lowest amount of noise so altogether you the microphone capsule followed by the mic preamp then lastly you have Apogee is analog to digital converters which is also really important because that's going to take the analog signal and then give you a clean conversion into digital going into your iPhone or to your Mac so you combine all those things with 24-bit recording and that should separate the mic from other microphones on the market but no specs though features mean anything unless the mic sounds good now up to this point for the entire review everything you've heard thus far is being recorded directly with the mic into my iMac and de Logic Pro and just for reference here is what it sounds like with the built in iMac microphone so we are now recording with the built in iMac microphone and holy hell you can see that does not sound good it's thin its tinny let's go back to the mic so you can see there is a huge difference I think it's safe to say that for vocals for podcast and just overall for a USB microphone this thing sounds damn good so now that we can see it works fantastic as a USB mic and it sounds great for vocals we're going to go and try out recording acoustic guitar directly into an iPhone 5 using GarageBand for iOS Oh you you so what did you guys think let me know with a comment down below that it sound good great bad terrible or just okay I'd love to hear you guys opinion and I felt even though this is geared primarily as an iOS microphone for the money I think it's the best sounding USB microphone on the market at almost go as far as saying that it rivals microphones at twice the price but then you add in the fact that the interface is built-in you get a fantastic microphone preamp and Apogee digital converters that's what makes it a standout product if I had any complaints or anything negative to say about it I really wish they would have included a headphone jack or something to monitor yourself and really take advantage of those a 2d converters but aside from that it is a fantastic microphone and if you're looking to step up and really step up your audio production I can wholeheartedly recommend checking out the mic aside from that thank you guys for watching the video if you did enjoy its make sure to hit that like button as it does help the channel out if you have not subscribed make sure you do so so a time as any future tech content if you guys are interested in picking one of these up I'll pricing availability and where to get one down in the description below as well as a couple more mic options just in case is a little too expensive for you of some cheaper options that still do a fantastic job linked right next to the mic down in the description below again thank you guys for watching if you have any tech questions you can hit me up on Twitter Facebook or Google+ those are linked down below along with what gear I use to make my videos and I will see you guys later