Gadgetory

the microphone you're listening to right now costs about 20 bucks on Amazon and in today's video we're gonna figure out whether or not it actually sounds like a $20 microphone although I'm sure you've probably already made up your mind so to cut straight to the point this microphone punches well above its weight class one of the many reasons why we bought it by the way I'm going to switch in between this scene in here and outside near a highway actually very close to a highway where it's very loud many cars passing every minute just seeing it a feel for how it sounds indoors as well as outdoors by the way I'm a pretty cheap person by nature I think Lisa will attest to that and the 20 large Tiger really enticed me so that was one of the reasons why I bought it I figured worst case it would be trash and I throw it away but honestly it's not bad at all let's start first with construction and features and then we'll dive into the sound test although this entire video is basically one big sound test in the box which was really nothing special you'll find the microphone a foam mutter an XLR to three-and-a-half millimeter cable a cold shoe mount and a three and half millimeter two quarter inch adapter it's really all you'll need for a setup like this the stock cable I should connect this microphone directly to most cameras with microphone jacks which is what we're doing right now with our Sony as7 2 and the adapter is good for sound boards and other audio interfaces with balanced outs and another thing in the fact that this microphone sports an XLR interface by default is a nice touch of this price point a battery is required if you intend on using the stock cable of course but I had no issues at all running this microphone directly as a pass-through with phantom power supplied from my soundboard this is actually contrary to what the seller on Amazon States in response to a question regarding this format just wanted to clear this up I do have first-person experience with this so it's certainly versatile and can be used in a numerous ways so I'm actually impressed thus far now the included XLR cable is very long I'm estimating about 20 feet or so I'm gonna cut to the outside clip right now singing an idea just how far away that actually is so this is about how far you can get from the camera yeah there you get an idea of how far you can move back from cameraman okay a woman in this case anyway on two more things in this video in a nutshell the subject should have plenty of room to breathe respect to the camera position build quality by the way is excellent as well there is absolutely no plastic anywhere along the exterior of the microphone save the toggle we'll discuss shortly it stretches to just under 28 centimeters without a cable connected meaning it has the capacity to reach the subject while remaining mostly out of frame the microphone is largely unbranded save the words unidirectional electret condenser microphone which denote the style of Mike this is unidirectional mics tend to exhibit a very hyper cardioid pickup pattern meaning the condenser is especially biased toward one can one direction in this case it's actually above the microphone meaning it's especially sensitive to those sounds it picks up from that direction this is perfect for say single speakers and casual interviews where the host can hold the microphone directly below his or her face unidirectional mics tend to exhibit a cardioid pickup pattern which is why we're out here I wanted to test that aspect of it to see how noise cancelling and is or how directional directionally biased the diaphragm is so right now standing next to a pretty major highway here in the city and it's fairly loud it's difficult to hear myself talk I'm gonna have to figure out what it sounds like in post and see if it is even usable audio I have no idea for all I know this could be just like the worst recording ever with our Sony a7 - we found that an audio recording level of 3 was ideal for this setup it's what I'm using right now and that's actually one negative aspect of this mic I'd like to address it Mike really has no volume toggle of any sort meaning you'll have to rely on your sound board or camera for any audio maintenance make sure you've calibrated this accordingly before attending any like major event for example this would be a pain to fix in post and if you're peaking in any of your footage you might as well refilm the entire scene because the audio is gonna be trash now in terms of tolerance microphone actually becomes increasingly sensitive at a rate of roughly 6 decibels per foot so if you hold this extremely close to your mouth which I did a few times outside it's not gonna sound so great I found that the optimal speaking distance it's stock was about 6 inches but this since the microphone is sensitive by default right any slight gesture closer toward your mouth can giraffe Stickley alter amplitude it's just that sensitive and that could create problems rated later on now as such holding the mic slightly further away and boosting everything in post was the easiest for us to manage especially in loud environments also be sure that the mic is held firmly when filming you don't want to knock it around because all that will be picked up when you record this is pretty typical of cheaper microphones nothing to be worried about by the way the mutter or the windscreen whatever you want to call this foam cover actually does come in handy we tested it outside several times like we are now it's actually kind of windy I can't really tell with my hair but Lisa's hair is kind of what do you say waving in the wind so yeah it's not dead silent out here the wind is it's picking up so this is when this would come in handy now let's discuss audio quality in a nutshell it's pretty darn good I mean for 20 bucks anyway it's not gonna be a shure or a Behringer but it gets the job done and for a heck of a lot cheaper than the former especially I'm gonna let you listen to some sound test here without any tweaking in post save maybe a bump in volume I kind of kind of normalized the tones but other than that I'm not going to change anything else so you guys get a feel for what this mic sounds like in the real world so I guess test number two you're sitting by a pool and it happens to have fountains and for some reason you see this is a fit space for an interview I guess this is that test so there's actually quite they going onto the background that water is extremely loud despite us being roughly 15 20 feet away from it I don't know what the heck I'm doing on a poolside in like the middle of winter but yeah here's that test can you hear the water now can you hear the water we'll find out you can hear that I'm back to my to my face opening a gate this gives Lisa a great time to practice her camera skills is that camera staying focused the whole time we have it on auto focus I'm sorry sorry what was sometimes it loses the focus and it's about to get very echoey so in a situation where you don't have the best acoustics for video basically this garage this is what it would sound like using this $20 microphone now I don't expect this mic is gonna be great at getting rid of especially River that's just something that most mics are gonna be victims of even thousand dollar mics so it really comes down to how well you insulate your room and dampen the walls but yeah I guess again we'll find out in post you guys can just let me know what you think in the comments all right and for the last test I'm standing right next to the TV we have Judge Judy on in judge Judy's she's she could be a loud woman at times I don't think she'll deny that I have the volume set to about the same volume as what you would expect from a normal human voice speaking about six or so feet away so we're testing basically the isolation properties of the mic with respect to other people other sounds that are human sounds hopefully you have an idea of the kinds of tolerances as mike has and different environments so I've got to say very impressed with this $20.00 setup it's so good in fact for the money that I'm perfectly comfortable using this for our CES 2019 coverage I do want to bring up an alternative to using a kind of shotgun and I guess handheld mic that is wired directly into the camera this right here is the rode mic Pro Plus and this is pretty much the best shotgun you know top camera mounted rode mic you can buy for about two to three hundred dollars it's got quite a number of settings at the back and it is something I'd used kind of on and off when I was out of the studio but honestly I would much rather hold a mic much closer to my face I just sounds a lot clearer the problem with these of courses that are mounted to the camera so you have to get super close to the camera for this thing to actually do its job very well it does an ok job canceling out background noise and even noise from the side to an extent but I really like the hyper-cardioid effect of the $20 mic I'm calling it the $20 mic cuz it really has no name which is another reason why I'm so surprised there's no brand behind this I mean they literally just call it a generic handheld microphone on Amazon so more power to it to be honest I've been using Wireless set up specifically for like CES and copy techs for quite a while and I'm just tired of dealing with interference from other setups I mean there's so many people around you using the same or basically on the same frequencies the constant cutting in and out during filming they need to replace battery so many times and recharge the packs I haven't really tested battery life on this thing yet I haven't had it for a long enough to really know but the website does say that one double-a battery will get you 26 hours worth of recording time so like it becomes anywhere close to 26 hours in the real world I'll be satisfied my only complaints or the in regards to the the volume toggle we don't have that that means the diaphragm is just inherently sensitive the fact that there was no battery included in the box probably a bit picky but I mean some people don't have random double A batteries laying around and also there's no light indicating whether or not the battery is running low on charge so if using uh I don't know using this for a full day or two full days you might be wondering at what point the mics gonna die what point the battery is gonna go dead and you're not really gonna know you're just gonna have to keep watching the camera and kind of guess roughly when that patter is gonna need replacing or have some tester on hand so you can swap it out and check so yeah maybe the lack of a light the fact that you can't toggle volume on the mic itself and the fact that no batteries included that's really that's really all I can pick this at I mean I feel like a 20 bucks so even those critiques are unfair because I mean 20 bucks like that's that's not cheap right it's not expensive scuse me at all for this microphone but maybe you're just wondering how good it is and you want to know all the pros and cons there they are honestly I'm perfectly comfortable taking this with me to CES I'm using it again using this a whole video in this scene here and also outside I am just so blown away by how great this sounds I kind of wish I'd known about this mic a lot sooner now for more on this particular unit I invite you guys to tune in to our CES coverage starting the second week of January that's coming up very soon I've affiliate lengthe SIG's act model its exact microphone down below for your viewing pleasure I appreciate the support let me know what you're currently sporting and your camera setup if you have one and if this is something you'd consider on a tight budget you guys like this video a thumbs up you know what to do thumbs down for the opposite or if you hate everything about life put that red subscribe button if you haven't already stay tuned for more content like this this is science studio thanks for listening with us