Author: Peter

Rode Procaster Broadcast Dynamic Vocal Microphone Review

Rode Procaster Broadcast Dynamic Vocal Microphone Review
9.5/10

Rode Procaster is a relatively inexpensive broadcast microphone, which yet offers professional quality sound. It has a very smooth and manageable response, which makes it ideal for recording. At the same time, the mic rejects a lot of room noise and minimizes such effects as popping. Procaster is a very versatile mic that can handle literally any type of voice you throw at it. However some very basic EQ, particularly low cut is mandatory. Procaster…

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Sennheiser e965 Review – Switchable True Condenser

Sennheiser e965 Review – Switchable True Condenser
9.5/10
Editor's Choice

Sennheiser e965 is a premium large diaphragm vocal mic with a true condenser capsule, switchable between cardioid and supercardioid patterns. This mic has been out for some while remaining relatively unknown. The price was high in the beginning, it costed as much as Neumann and other high-end models, so those willing to try it out were few. But recently, the price has been significantly reduced, so we finally decided to give it a shot and…

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Shure Super 55 Deluxe – supercardioid prop mic review

Shure Super 55 Deluxe – supercardioid prop mic review
6/10

Shure Super 55 Deluxe is a supercardioid prop mic for live sound. It may certainly look cool on camera while sparing you from having to procure an expensive and delicate Neumann or some other signature microphone in order to impress your audience. You have to understand it doesn’t have anything to do with the old mic other than having the similarly styled body. Those times are long gone and we have a small cylinder-shaped capsule…

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Audio-Technica AT4053B hypercardioid condenser review

Audio-Technica AT4053B hypercardioid condenser review
7/10

Audio Technica AT4053b is another hypercardioid mic, commonly used by videographers indoors. Hypercardioids are supposed to have narrower pickup patterns than the supercardioids but this doesn’t seem to be the case with the AT4053b, which is among the widest pickups in its class and is even surpassed by the supercardioid MKH 50 from Sennheiser. Similarly to the latter, it offers lots of lows that make a rich sound but it just doesn’t sound as clean…

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Sennheiser MKH 8050 / MKH 50 – supercardioid indoor microphone

Sennheiser MKH 8050 / MKH 50 – supercardioid indoor microphone
9.6/10
Editor's Choice

Sennheiser MKH 8050 is a supercardioid microphone, an industry standard for miking dialogues indoors as well as spot miking. It has natural, well-rounded sound, distinctively rich and warm in character. It offers significantly more side rejection than a cardioid but less than an interference tube shotgun. Unlike shotgun however, MKH 8050 has very little off-axis coloration, sounds more natural and less susceptible to comb filtering, which is a common problem when interference tube mics are…

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Sennheiser MKH-8060 Review: extended reach short shotgun

Sennheiser MKH-8060 Review: extended reach short shotgun
9.1/10

Sennheiser MKH8060 is a professional short shotgun that features very low noise levels while being highly directional. It has distinctive switches for adjusting frequency response and offers an improved off-axis response at higher frequencies, which helps to reduce the unwanted comb filtering effects when operating in proximity to the walls. It is highly sensitive yet there is no audible distortion and the on-axis response is as neutral as it could possibly get even at 20 kHz….

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Sennheiser e845 review – budget supercardioid

Sennheiser e845 review – budget supercardioid
8.1/10

Sennheiser e845 is a budget version of the e945 supercardioid handheld with a less refined response and a slightly lower output. It is still as good in terms of gain before feedback and the supercardioid pattern it offers is as tight as ever. That is why this mic is well suited for noisy venues as well as back vocals where you want to keep the background noise to minimum. The higher end is as open…

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AKG Perception 220 – studio worthy budget LDC

AKG Perception 220 – studio worthy budget LDC
8.5/10

AKG Perception 220 is a budget recording LDC microphone used for vocal and instruments. The price of this mic is comparable to that of a USB, which is considered a trash tier as far as recording goes, and yet it is more than capable of a quality performance in a controlled studio setting. It can sound almost as good as 3-5 times more expensive mics with few nuances but usually good LDCs are always pricey….

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Sanken COS-11D Omni Lavalier Mic Review

Sanken COS-11D Omni Lavalier Mic Review
10/10

Sanken COS-11D is a top of the line omnidirectional lavalier widely used in professional broadcast. It is very small (only 4mm in diameter) and easily concealed under clothes. The three main advantages are the size, the most natural open sound and the fact that it produces the least handling noise when rubbing against the clothes. Sanken is a Japanese manufacturer with a long history and COS-11D is probably the most popular mic they’ve ever produced….

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Sennheiser MKH416 Review – Video Production and Voice-overs

Sennheiser MKH416 Review – Video Production and Voice-overs
10/10
Editor's Choice

Sennheiser MKH416 is a professional shotgun microphone, which is also a renowned industry standard for filmmaking, documentary, television and voiceovers. It uses a true condenser, externally polarized capsule of a high quality that can tolerate harsh conditions very well. Featuring a fantastic rich and natural, clean tone it requires little to no postproduction at all. The amount of rejection is not too tight, it is also one of the few shotguns that works well for…

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HyperX QuadCast – Gaming USB mic /w Shock Mount review

HyperX QuadCast – Gaming USB mic /w Shock Mount review
9.7/10
Editor's Choice

HyperX QuadCast is a multifunctional USB microphone mainly designed for gamers and streamers. It has a variable pickup pattern control, a gain knob and a headphone jack for monitoring. Right on top of the mic there is a handy touch-activated mute button. It even includes an internal pop filter, which does an okay job and outperforms Blue Yeti without a pop filter. All those features can already ease life for a user, but the most…

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Electro-Voice RE320 Review – Dynamic Recording Mic

Electro-Voice RE320 Review – Dynamic Recording Mic
9/10

Electro-Voice RE320 is a large diaphragm cardiod dynamic microphone widely used for radio recording and broadcasting. This mic is fairly sensitive and requires a quieter or moderately treated room in order to be effective. It is great for spoken word and singing when you want to capture all the detail and nuances while giving it a touch of silkiness and smoothness of a dynamic. RE320 is hotter than Shure SM7B and other broadcaster mics like…

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Telefunken M80 Dynamic Microphone Review

Telefunken M80 Dynamic Microphone Review
8.6/10

Telefunken M80 is a rugged dynamic cardiod mic for live vocals. It reminds of the well-known SM58, with a similar sound except for a better-balanced low-end response that helps it cut through the mix better. In terms of gain before feedback, there isn’t much of a difference either (when both are adjusted to the same levels) although it appears that M80 requires less gain despite the specs actually saying it has a lower sensitivity. Telefunken…

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Audix ADX51 Overhead SDC microphone review

Audix ADX51 Overhead SDC microphone review
8/10

Audix ADX51 is a very bright small cardiod condenser mainly used as overheads and not without success. The unit is known for being included in Audix drum kits; however, some drummers realized they actually like the ‘sound’ of ADX51 overheads better, and began using them outside the kits in custom setups, sometimes even grabbing them over higher-end and more expensive SDCs with technically better specs. The thing about this mic is it sounds great out…

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Audio-Technica ATM450 instrument cardioid SDC review

Audio-Technica ATM450 instrument cardioid SDC review
9/10

Audio-Technica ATM450 is a low profile side-address cardiod condenser, which can be used for miking a wide range of instruments and percussions. Though unsuitable for vocals… it offers a small footprint and has a situational placement advantage over more common front-address instrument mics without sacrificing a bit of quality. On contrary, this mid-range model sounds surprisingly smooth for a small diaphragm condenser: despite adding a noticeable amount of presence, it just cannot be described as…

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Heil Sound PR35 – Cardioid Dynamic Review

Heil Sound PR35 – Cardioid Dynamic Review
8.8/10

Heil Sound PR35 is a high quality, recording-grade dynamic handheld with an emphasis on presence and a rich, extended low end. This mic sounds very smooth, the highs are clean and there is almost zero harshness. It can be used for high quality live recordings while being stage-worthy and this is a great advantage. On the other hand, in the hands of an unskilled sound engineer and a mediocre quality PA, it may actually sound…

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Shure MV51 – Condenser USB microphone review

Shure MV51 – Condenser USB microphone review
7.5/10

Shure MV51 is a feature-rich USB mic with a good low frequency response. It works for all platforms, however only iOS users are given the option to access the mic’s advanced settings, as this requires downloading Shure Motiv™ application, which is only found in the Apple Store. Despite an array of features, Shure MV51 fails to satisfy the expectations of most users. The offered advantages are narrow and they come at a cost! No matter…

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Blue Snowball iCE – budget USB mic review

Blue Snowball iCE – budget USB mic review
6/10

Blue Snowball iCE is a stylish, entry USB mic with an attractive price tag. Unlike the similar-shaped Samson Meteorite, it is not as blatantly hot and it has a detachable USB cable with a solid Type B connector. The midrange is by far superior and technically, it produces a much more accurate sound than the former. However, there is literally nothing but midrange. It sounds thin and dark at the same time, and it also…

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Cyber Acoustics CVL-2004 Rainier USB mic review

Cyber Acoustics CVL-2004 Rainier USB mic review
6.8/10

CVL-2004 from Cyber Acoustics is a fresh and valuable addition to the USB microphone market. Reminding a lot of Blue Yeti, it offers similar features and performance with one major difference – price. At the time of writing, CVL-2004 is considerably cheaper, and despite certain shortcomings, the value for money is just excellent. To name some of the features, this mic provides zero-latency monitoring via 3.5mm headphone socket, flexible volume and gain controls and switchable…

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Sony ECM-44 Condenser Omni Lavalier Review

Sony ECM-44 Condenser Omni Lavalier Review
7/10

Sony ECM-44 is a decent quality wired lavalier with a standard XLR output, which can be powered by either phantom power or a single AA battery. It has a bright response with an overall balanced sound and even if it’s not devoid of certain flaws, there is nothing particularly bothersome about it. Except two things – a very low output and a high self-noise. This produces an obscene level of static hiss, which is difficult…

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