Gadgetory

what's going on everyone in this video we're gonna talk about some budget oriented hardware you might be interested in if you want to get into some form of content creation in this case we're gonna talk about a microphone that cost about 50 bucks that'll give you some pretty decent audio you're actually listening to it right now on my camera it's not the built-in microphone on the camera but it's a microphone the emails at the top of the camera that does not require a dedicated power source and just plug straight into your camera and boom there you go pretty crisp audio for the price and we're gonna talk about some of the things that this can do what it can't do how far away you need to be from the source in order to make your voice still sound pretty crisp and then of course we'll do some audio comparisons between this microphone the built-in camera microphone and then something like an XLR interface that should be our standard if you will so the microphone a question has been pretty popular lately on YouTube people are searching for left and right because they want to know what they're getting right for that fifty dollar investment when they buy a product from a company called Road which is very reputable in the audio space most people know road for their to $300 shot than mics that have dedicated power supplies you actually know power supplies um I mean just batteries that you would insert the microphones to give them that deeper condenser sound similar to what you would give to the next LR mic in this case though we're just powered straight up by the preamps and the camera and a lot of people want to know what you're getting right for that $50 investment is it worth buying a reputable product from Road but for only 50 bucks it seems to defeat the purpose so that's what this video will seek to do make your decision just a bit easier now I understand there are other competitors out there the tax star scg 598 I think is what it's called that's more of a traditional shotgun microphone and that is actually a bit cheaper than the video micro that might be another one you're considering I have it linked in the video description I've used it myself I recommend it if you don't want to spend more than about 30 bucks or so but if you can shell out 50 to 60 getting a rode micro is going to be a really safe bet and you're not gonna be disappointed with the sound quality McKown you're listening to it right now it almost sounds as though you're you're hearing this through an XLR interface the the lows are a bit absent we'll talk about that when we actually do the legit sound tests but for vlogging in general you know face to face contact with the camera you're not gonna be disappointed with that audio quality alright now i'm sure you want to get straight to the audio test is what we're gonna do is we'll be the bulk of this video it's kind of the point of this video to begin with so I'm gonna often switch between the XLR interface I'm using and the video micro pay attention to this section of the screen I will show you which one you're hearing currently my XLR setup is a b-1 berenger the microphone itself I have that wired into a Yamaha mixer it's the mg 10x CU and all this stuff by the way it's linked in the description if you want to copy what I'm doing here and then I'm using audacity as my recording software and syncing this up and post in Adobe Premiere with my video clip now a perk of going with a shot gun mounted mic that wires directly into the camera is that your workflow is expedited in the sense that you don't have to sync up audio and video clips later right what I'll do usually is just have my video clip with my sword audio file underneath it and then I'll light up my recorded audio with the interface afterwards I try to match the waveforms up as closely as I can and then delete the you know the audio that's linked to the video from the camera and there you go but that requires some time in this case nope not at all I just keep the video clip as is the audio is already synced perfectly here are a few things you have to think about when you're deciding between something like a shotgun mounted mic and an XLR mic the XLR mic is not going to be portable in the sense that you know unless you want to take all this with you and then set it up somewhere else in some other office or some of the locations this will require more time to set up it's not as portable because it's all very bulky but it will give you crisp audio so you take it with you maybe you have some Pelican cases or something that will be ideal but with the shotgun mounted mic it's very straightforward you just plug it in power it on if it has dedicated power and boom it's all synced up and post and it's gonna be you know it's just easier to take all that with you now the audio quality usually is a bit lower when it comes to chakra mounted mics because they're not typically using XLR interfaces unless you want to go with you know some Sennheiser XLR mic so you can mount to the top of the camera or have wirelessly transmitted to the camera to a receiver that's gonna cost you around a thousand bucks you know to get the same audio quality in a much smaller format that's what you're really paying for in this case there in most cases I would say that just a typical shotgun not to mic from Road or from tax star will be plenty for vlogs and just your typical travel again where these mics shine is as close as possible to the source so as close to my mouth as possible it's easier to do that with a shotgun mic because look I can get really close to the camera assume that it's gonna focus I don't have autofocus on there we go I look a bit weird I have a wide-angle lens here so I can sit closer to the camera and not compromise on my audio quality very much but it does warp the image just a little bit and this is when you're gonna have the best audio from the video micro if I moved about 3 feet away it's gonna diminish a bit you know starting to hear that reverb and echo from elsewhere now with an XLR mic things are going to be a bit different depending on how you have it set up if you're using a mixer if you're just using a regular we know a 48 volt phantom power source one of those little boxes right they let you wire it in that's how you get your power and then from that box to a PC which is what I have done in the film room you do something like that and it it completely imposed but you're probably gonna have to tune up the audio right amplify the waveform in a software like audacity and on top of that you're probably gonna have to cut out some background noise if you don't have something like a low-pass filter built into the mic or into your mixer so a lot of editing in post with the XLR mic but again you do get that crisper sound with the shotgun mic I usually don't touch it at all this is these are both by the way completely unedited apart from matching the the volumes of each this is what each sounds like it's stock volume so both are pretty pretty quiet but the video micro is a bit louder right now because what I have done is I've basically boosted the volume in the camera and the preamps and the g85 aren't too bad you're not hearing too much static either so what you're hearing now is the stock g85 microphone or right is they're actually stereo speakers so you might be hearing I'm gonna be slightly louder on this side now or slightly louder on this side it really depends on the orientation as well but they're not too bad for what they are again more ideal for POV stuff because of the positioning of the mics but you could probably get away with something like this at least temporarily I still do think the video microphone 50 bucks is a heck of a value it'll drastically improve your audio a couple collections by the way that rode includes with the video micro you do get a dead cat which is useful for outdoor situations when it's pretty windy it'll block a lot of that win from peaking those waveforms and that's something that really it's really difficult and frustrating to deal with and post right because you have to basically drop the entire waveform in and even then it's still peaking right it's flatlining where otherwise would have peaked it wasn't adjusted so it's just a mess and having a dead cat which is actually what I've had on this entire time it won't affect really the indoor audio as much and my muffler just a tad but outside is really where it shines and it's nice that you get one included for around 50 or 60 bucks you also get that wrench snazzy red spiral or Road cable to connect to the microphone to the camera both ends are three-and-a-half millimeter jacks so it's you know it's something you could replace very easily nobody liked the stock one because it's not too long you don't have to worry about wrapping it around your microphone or your camera it just kind of sits there and doesn't really impede much of anything rode also includes a shock absorbing mount system with the video micro pretty sweet from around 50 bucks this has a typical you know Universal hot shoe at the virtually any camera and then up top you have a u-shaped shock absorber this is a pretty good job of mitigating on-one sounds from hitting the mic you know if you jolt the camera really fast now just so you guys get an idea of what goes on pretty much every day here this is the sexually an old mattress box this has all of my custom loop gear in it up you know it fittings radiators CPU blocks graphics card blocks reservoirs all that's in this box I should have more of it in the other room all my fittings are there some of them anyway so to sum things up one last time I think this microphone is a great value I don't regret purchasing this I bought it myself so lean on throats not telling me to say anything it's how it is with all reviews on this channel won't be told what to say and I won't receive payment for a review and and actually I think going out and buying it myself will leave me even more objective not because you know I feel like I got to justify what I spent but because if I don't like it I'll just return it and there you go there's my review in a nutshell I don't want to return this because I'm very satisfied with the purchase 50 to 60 bucks for this thing you can find it linked in the video description it's gonna give you a quality audio especially up close and even from far away I mean it's not too bad you can see it starts to diminished quality wise you hear the echoes starting to take over but it's still a much better choice than choosing the stock built-in microphones and most cameras and that's really what I want to point out in this video it's great for portability you can take it really anywhere you want because it's super small it packs down and hey it's from a reputable company like Road if you liked this video be sure let me know they give someone thumbs up I appreciate it thumbs down for the opposite or if you hate everything about life now you can click Subscribe but if you haven't already I'd appreciate that and the bail notification icon if you want to be notified with videos like these go live so you can watch it as soon as possible I might even respond to you because I stick around for an hour after the video publishes this is science video thanks for listening with us