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You're not entirely wrong but not entirely right either. 1. people will hire your studio at a premium because of reference mics 2. other recording scenarios will wield different results. Acoustic guitar, classical strings, vocals etc. will be more challenging for cheap mics because of lack of detail and self noise (condensers). I compared LCT140 to Schoeps CMC with a string quartet, you can get the Lewitts to sound similar with EQ but they can't match the details delivered by the Schoeps, almost but not quite. However, if in a broader mix, you'd need bionic ears to hear the difference. 3. in a live scenario, good drum mics sound good out of the box and need a lot less work and time than cheap mics, even if cheap mics can be made to work as you demonstrated. You can get lucky with cheap mics, I have a bunch of real SM58s and a few well selected clones, the clones sound so similar that I fail a blind test, but they have better feedback rejection than the originals. Very interesting video though, and I enjoyed the format !

Wow, I can‘t believe you only have 478 subscribers! This is an awesome video.

Love ittt HAHAHA! The see saw scene so wholesome 😂

Big question...are they still your best friends?

Very strong effort, great show of teamwork and perseverance from the boys, wonderfully edited. 2.5/10

I thought Gabriel was hot, and then Noé started speaking French. Amazing video I can’t wait for you to blow up!

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Guys what is the set up for audio interface and headphone mixer ?

Bro, put hard compression on sm58 and condenser mic - you will hear difference immediately. I understand that you an amateur but you misleading people with this false information. Sm58 will never sound as present and cut through the mix as neumann tlm 103. Eq it for weeks, you will not get the sound. As other people in comments already said it: if you can’t hear the difference - music is not for you

if you can not hear the difference between cheap and expensive mics, then audio recording is not for you.

I can’t hear much difference between the expensive and matched versions, but this video barely proves the point it was meant to. If you don’t have a recording of that drum in that particular position of the expensive microphone you’re trying to match with ozone eq, you’re pretty much done here, as you can’t go on with that eq profile for other applications. Other than that, how well it captures transients, how musically it compresses, what’s the noise floor and dynamic range. The saturation, which behaves in an unpredictable way and responds to different dynamics of the source differently. To say the least, the build quality and reliability. Also, beware the of dozens of counterfeit when getting a new mic from unauthorized dealers, if you decide to continue with your research. Cheers. I wish a budget mic sounded rich like u87, but it doesn’t😢 Neither the all-in-one mics with EQ model presets do capture sound like the genuine mic did. They are more like at “if I used that mics, it’d sound somewhat like that” level.

As usual with anything, if something is 10x more pricey it doesn't mean it's 10x better. Rarely even 2x better... Focus on recording techniques, microphone placement, room sound & treatment, phase, tuning of instruments and getting a good sound in a room... All those are 10x more important than gear.

Great video! Well done for debunking the myth that you need expensive mics to make great recordings. People can talk all they like about self noise, (doesn't matter with loud instruments) build quality, (doesn't matter if the mics are looked after in a studio) etc etc. I could barely hear the difference and if you're straining to hear it, it really isn't going to affect the impact of the music and that is what all this gear is supposed to be about. Well done again!

Very good video. I'm no audio expert, though many of my videos have audio quality aspects to them, so I have some experience. I think the key take away from this is not whether you are 100% correct in everything you say, but that cheap equipment can sound good, and if you understand it's limitations then you can make it sound as good as expensive stuff, at least for the puposes of making TH-cam videos, which is all I am doing. Thanks 👍 😀

The answer is, they sound different you just made them sound the same. Make the same without the reference EQ, then you are just mixing normally.

Also some musicians and live engineers that are 50+ YO are already so deaf that they turn up the highs just to be able to hear them. I once went home from a concert after 3 minutes because it was unbearable.

I only have live sound experience and there is a huge difference between sensitivity, distortion, dynamic range and sound.

I think you have done well. Now await the religious narratives in the comments. hehehe.

No way this works across all mics. There is a clear difference when you upgrade.

Good video and I have made good recordings on Android devices.

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I wouldn't put way too much money into dynamic mics for miking up a drum kit. I haven't even heard of "Lewitts". What you can't do with standard mics like SM57, Sennheiser MD421, your bass drum mic of choice, that might as well be a Shure 91a PZM for board room meetings or a large Countryman thing - it depends on what drummer and his kit. Your favorite stereo pair of condensers, be it Neumann KM or Shure PG81 are very important, for high frequency transients and stereo image. Whether your vocal studio mic is a Neumann U87 or AKGC414 XLS - set it to omni pattern as an ambient mic, and pay attention to level-pads and characteristics. Higher dynamic range and ready EQ curve means less noise, and that's what we pay for ;)

Nice video man! You can tell a difference in mics, I could through out the whole video but for beginning bands, not so serious (fun) artists, and some decently serious, it's not a big deal to use cheaper vs more expensive. In the final mix, you can basically make a 50$ mic sound like a 400$ mic and so on. If the engineer knows what they're doing, that is. But in all, use what you can people! Create and share the work :D

My speakers are really nice. I did not tell a difference between the drum mics really.

A/B TEST RESULTS REVEAL: *please note there are 194 comments currently and not one person has guessed which is which - if I see a guess after this I will assume you have just read the answer haha :) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A was the Lewitts B was the Subzeros

I really like the B variant of the mix, which microphones are these?

i thought we are trying on vocals?

7 i-phones would cost much more than a £999 drum mic kit.

I might not have as much experience in music production, however bcuz i always have budget constraints i always find myself having to come up w ways to get a good sound without spending much money especially cuz i live in a country w a weak currency, so any "budget" gears out there still required me to give up my meals for a full yr, i learned smtg important from the very start N that is, the biggest difference between a cheap item/gear w an expensive one is convenience. If u have budget constraints, that means u need to put more effort to get a good sound, wether its post-processing or spending extra time browsing thru online shops to find the cheapest usable gear. Whilst more expensive gears tend to alr sound good from the start, n i guess this might just be my lack of experience but in the limited times i used more expensive gears (professional level mics, tube amps, drum kits w pro level mics, pro level audio interfaces n mixers, etc), it tends to not rly sound that good if i apply that same amount of processing that i have w cheaper gears, n its usually best to keep it as simple n linear as possible (which i know is the golden rule of mixing n mastering anw). And this video actually confirms my "theory" i guess u could call it that, n i guess its just a matter of which poison do u pick??? Do u wanna go that extra mile so u can save ur money for smtg else??? Or do u wanna instead spend that extra maybe 15-30 or maybe all the way to 100 bucks or so, just for the sake of convenience??? And ofc u also had to bear in mind which limitations u had, whether ur budget is limited or ur free time is limited n made a decision accordingly

💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯 Use what you can afford.

Sorry, don’t mean to be critical but, you need to sort out your audio quality!

I do hear a difference in higher end mics, but great preamps are almost more important than mics nowadays.

0:12 Hello, If companies are vague it is because the marketing people describe the characteristics of the microphones, not because they want to hide something from you. I can assure you that behind Shure, Sennheiser, Akg, DPA, Electro voice, Schoeps, etc., etc., there are many audio engineers who could talk for days about acoustic engineering, electronics and the differences between microphones. There is a lot of knowledge you can incorporate, don't choose the easy path of being like a flat earther. Good luck with your experiments and I hope you delve deeper into this beautiful profession that is audio engineering.

Interesting idea but no. Comparing an nt1a to a u47 is just ridiculous. I own both and it’s night and day.

Wow. Like going fishing for nasty comments from people who want to come across as experts , might not be wholly accurate , but however an interesting topic. Don’t let em grind you down !

Greater definition from the 999 mic, no 3d quality to the 215 er.. your ear develope..its how it makes you feel in the end

the kick on the phones file was proper grim

Ah, this will trigger so many ignorants, but I congratulate you on your courage to do this. And you are absolutely right about it, the frequency curve is the most important difference between different microphones, also there are a few other factors, but really negligeable.

not an audio expert, i bought a bunch of mics because it's something i like as a hobby. sensitivity, polar-pattern (& off-axis coloration), noise and just simple build quality are huge differences between mics. (also impedance requirements). and there is plenty others. but yeah, you don't need expensive mics to do music, it's been shown plenty of times. even cheap mics nowadays are really good.

goodness & thanks!! PREXENTS #prexents used 90's built-in mic cassette & digital voice recorders, built-in laptop mics, a flexible minikorg mic, camera mics, random cellphones & iphone voice recorders, Tascam DR40, MXL Combo, & SM57<3 Worked on their "Water Us Universe" album EQ turned out amazing & intimate; added a Blue mic & tried out SD1 for their "Fortune" album. some mics blow out the high, mids, or lows; prep/post eq is ideal if available, i suppose that's why we all are curious about the no eq perfect mics. Work with what you got, don't wait. -everyonexist & spaceoceans studios

A sounded better and B sounded like it had a boost in frequencies it could not recreate/capture. You can get mics to sound the same but it all comes down to the total amount of information coming from the mic and the cheaper mics seem to have more electricity and self noise that are boosted. (the mic cables are like the antenna for the signal and the mic is the magnetic field oscillator but if the resistance is too low the self noise is harsher when the cable will just pick up natural fields in the air and turn that into electric static onto the overall signal). The cymbals with the high-end frequency and sustain of the tail is sounding better in the A mic and shorter and more dense compressed electric and hard and almsot no tail in the B mic. That's my guess atleast. They sound the same "EQ wise" but it's all in the details that is different. An expensive microphone can have more detail like an 8K camera has more detail than a HD camera but the image from a distance has the exact same colors "sounding the same" but when you zoom in you see difference in framrate and image quality. etc. I could be all wrong who cares its all fun.

You cannot record a soprano on a Blue Yeti (non-Pro), 2013 edition. It's clipping on 10k+ frequencies. You bring down the gain as much as you want, it still clips because the capsule is not built for that. Growling rockers, yes, you can, but no sopranos.

Another point is, many cheap brands models are actually using the same parts as expensive ones, and just reduce costs on quality checks and looks. Some of them are actually getting out of the same manufacturies. Famous example is Behringer producinfg the circuits boards for Boss.

I like the skeptical thinking, definitely way to go in my opinion, nothing should stop you to make the best out of what you can do. But technically it's not just about tonal balance, it's more like capsule scheme and circuitry response, tonal and dynamic, it changes not only the frequency response, but noise floor, bleed and distortion. Is it subtle for the unexperienced? Yes, but when you stack 40 tracks of state-of-the-art mics against cheapies you feel it way stronger than you should, specially in music that has lots of silence, like classical/acoustics.

I'm not a sound fundi and my ears are not the greatest, but surely the acoustics of a room must have an influence on how a mic sounds. Any sound engineers care to enlighten us?

While I enjoyed the premise, but I'm sorry to say this, but i hear a few issues with this test. For one, the raw drums already don't sound great to start with so that's likely not gonna bring out the differences as much, which imo is more in the room tone, drum tone nuance, and as you mentioned, bleed. All of these things make a HUGE difference after processing. Also lewitt mics are great at hitting above their price point in general, BUT they are hardly a quality setup. 1k for 7 mics is really not gonna net a great setup. I know they're overall a great value. I recently recommended someone just get any set of mics and use the Lewitt overheads, since that matters a lot more than close mics imo for a solid drum recording. Regardless, the close tom mics I started with SM57s and then went to e604s and finally 421s. i noticed serious jumps in quality with each of those jumps. that being said i feel that both of these kits are lower quality products in general. often where i noticed the difference in mic kits were with in the kick and overheads when i was shopping around (for friends and myself). lewitt gave great on both of these ends, but even so it's not the be all end all. the 'in a mix' involves post processing and how the mics handle that. The big differences i noticed on the toms were that the low end became more focused as i went up levels. the 57s were more boxy and hard to place, while the 421s are easy to setup and get to sound great easily without any need for post processing or tone shaping. the e604s were somewhere in the middle, but the main reason for them was a fast setup when i got 57s in the right spot and some basic EQ they weren't too different, the raw tracks with the e604s were more focused and less boxy. the jump to 421s were very much worth it though. now i'm not saying you can get decent results on a budget. i've seen people do amazing stuff with nady or cad mics (known as some of the worst mics on the market for drums). put enough EQ in and it'll sound passable. and that's where i think both of these mic kits are. with enough time in the mix it'll sound similar since they're not a huge difference in quality, but they definitely are a difference in quality. it's just subtle in your tests. both are passable though, which speaks volumes to the subzero stuff. but once again tech has come a long way in the cheap market. As far as the multitracks, having them as MP3s isn't exactly helpful to analyze things. I am curious if you put this stuff up against more traditional mics how big the difference would be. The reason to get good mics is because it mixes itself more or less. no need to EQ match, no need to deal with wimpy transients, no need to deal with weird off axis response (see hihat in snare), how much mic placement effects the tone, or just super harsh and brittle on the high end (sorry this can't easily be fixed with EQ). Your methodology focuses on one key difference, one that i've mostly stopped looking for in mics. but yeah comparing a low end to a low mid tier isn't gonna make much of a difference. what you are paying for is better quality overheads in the lewitt (though to be fair the OH mics they paired with it alone aren't that expensive). So what I'd recommend is getting a cheap set that sounds good like the sub zero and buying some good overheads and leaning on them until you can afford quality mics. or get a good kick mic, grab an SM57, good overheads, and use the subzero mics for toms. I appreciate the effort in this video and the blind tests. Keep at it! You are way better in testing than some other youtubers who deem themselves "professionals." I think you are on the right track, but gotta have the quality too. The first few vids I did on another channel suucked (i mostly do live streaming on twitch now and will resume as soon as renovations in my new place are complete), so glad you are giving it a shot! I don't want to discourage you, just some pointers to improve.

yes i can you said it in a different intonation so obviously there is a difference, if you wanted to be honest you sould have the same clip played twice btw: i think it makes sense for large studios to have a wide mic variety, but regular users can just get the cheap beringher mics and it's gonna be perfectly adequate

There is a difference in regards to the quality of the mics. But with that caveat you're right most Mike's sound almost the same. But the difference comes to play with different sound pressure levels differences in frequency responses at least this is what I found with different mics. True I don't think it's necessary to buy a 3000 or 10,000 microphone but I think that there's a lot of microphones in the sub 100 and maybe the 500 dollar range that sounds outstanding

Bro i’m about to but one mic this month and when i saw the reviews i thougth the same ahahahah one is more crispy and other is more low end but the expensive one really have diference, like u can understand mumble in 10k microfone

Honestly, give the guy a break (I’m talking to you, nasty “experts”, who obviously have nothing better to do than be rude). I disagree with your conclusion and premise but nonetheless, you do show how easily our brains deceive us about what we think were hearing. Just last night, I made a nice eq move, only to realise the plug in was turned off so in fact there could have been no difference. BUT cheap mics have all sorts of other limitations - weird resonances, problems with transients, noise, reliability over time, etc. Aside from this, the other issue I have with your video is the conclusion that we are being lied to. Learning good audio skills is a very long game. Some suppliers are certainly milking their reputation, as do car manufacturers, for example, but then again they have stood the test of time and there are usually very sound, if not entirely definable reasons for this. Keep making great videos and testing ideas but watch the claims you make.