Watch my next video already on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/eposvox-this-usb-mic-wont-blow-your-mind-but-its-what-all-beginners-should-buy-neat-mics-bumblebee-ii-review Background music by Backing Track: backingtrack.gg/
Sitting on my desk is a MXL 009, which is a USB large condenser mic made like 10 years ago. Just wanted to note that this isn't the first. Keep making the great videos!
recently got this mic based on this and creator village's video, neither of the problems mentioned (headphone amp, wobbly buttons) are present on mine, and i'm happy with the mic. thanks for the review!
Can you turn down the monitoring and only listen to the audio coming from the pc ? Or its always there ? And how is your experience so far ? (Im a bit late after 2 months but i want to buy it so i wanted to hear your opinion)
@@hellofriend4941 Bought one yesterday, it's pretty sensitive so better have a not-so noisy AC and silent family members, but you can just mute the monitoring on playback settings and levels, just mute the "microphone" setting and that's it. Headphone amp is pretty good, sounds better than my iPhone 6 lol
Sounds smooth, but on the high end of USB microphones and really pushing the bottom end of the xlr and interface options. I think I might get a K688, so I get both dynamic and "broadcast" type microphone along with the ability to use it with USB and XLR since I have both use cases.
the WA 47 is an amazing replica to the legendary neuman U47 if you do any kind of vocal work or music, its a mic to keep around one thing to note is if you have a very live room (concrete, brick, tile, wood, etc.) it may be worth either buying or building some acoustic treatment especially with a condenser large diaphragms especially are much more sensitive mics than your average dynamic and it will pick up a lot more room noise and echo than the average dynamic will; some decent treatment will help deaden any excess ring you really should do this for any mic if you truly care about the best sound, but because dynamic mics are so insensitive, you can get away with them in live spaces a lot easier, hence why sm57's and sm58's are used on stage at concerts instead of botique condensers most of the time
I need a good usb mic for my portable podcast setup. I was looking at the Rode XDM 100. But I am loving this mic from 512. And that’s a good price for it too. This would be perfect with voicemeter.
An awesome video as per usual, Adam! 😄👍👍 As ever, I appreciate you for going into such a high level of detail with your mic reviews. 🗣🎙 Cheers to you, my man! 🥃🥃
There is no shortage of large diaphragm USB mics from major players. * CAD * Shure * Sennheiser * MXL * Yamaha * Audio-Technica and Rode, though these two are technically medium diaphragms. But they generally get used at large. (And sorry... I find myself unable to take On-Stage seriously...) What matters in these USB interfaces is the preamp, frankly, and the interface quality. Shure found that out a long time ago with their X2u. Great concept, but too much self noise. That it is large or small diaphragm is really not that much of a concern for most people. @EposVox has a legit voice characteristic that makes a large diaphragm condenser a good choice. Plus, he has the environment to make it usable. That's not true of everyone. Fit the mic to the person AND the venue. Of the mics I've listed, the one I would REALLY love to see a review of is the new Yamaha AG01. Yamaha makes fantastic preamps for decades, and they also make wonderful interfaces. They don't say eplicitly, but based on the body and sound, I'm pretty sure it's a large diaphragm. Not only that, it is a full function interface and a mixer; all built into the mic body.
Wonder how it compares to the new sennheiser one coming out. Don’t really want to use a interface, so the headphone amp is important to me. Unfortunately about the clipping issue though.
HUGE thankyou for activly saying - SEEK OTHER INPUT on your review - thats the most important thing. Get alternate sources of information to make that decision 'informed' - big plus
Yknow what is also annoying about usb mics? The usb plug eventually just falls out. My rode nt usb usually looks like its connected but the plug is just far enough out to make it not work. Also mine has tripped some "too many usb devices" protection on my pc a few times.
@@skorpers mine has that too. It is not the amount of ports that it the problem, its the usb controller being overloaded. As for devices: 1 for mouse 2 for keyboard 1 for webcam 2 for mic 2 or 3 for my monitors usb hub 1-2 depending on the cable for my external bluray drive 1 usb capture card 1 external hdd
@@misterjeffa2128 What's your motherboard? Each chipset has its own standard supply of ports as well as auxiliary ports that it officially supports. Then the USB standard, e.g 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 Have differing levels of bandwidth that can support being split up in certain ways. For example you would want to reserve the 3.O or higher ports for the high bandwidth devices and or hubs. But yeah if you for example used XLR mics on an interface with additional XLR ports it would clean the setup a little bit. A UMC404HD or on the extreme end a UMC1820 (scarlett 4i4 and 18i20 competitors)
@@misterjeffa2128 Okay so for that board specifically the USB ports in accordance to the spec page are as follows. AMD X470 chipset : 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 2 at mid-board) 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 front panel connector port(s) ASMedia® USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller : 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 port(s) (2 at back panel, red, Type-A) 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (4 at back panel, blue) 4 x USB 2.0 port(s) (4 at mid-board) So if you are utilizing the I/O connections on the board in addition to the ports on the back panel of the board, you should still be able to manage those devices with no issue. It may be a chipset driver issue if there is a problem at the software level.
I'm kinda curious what it's like compared to the Beacn Mic. That is honestly the only other mic that tempts me compared to the Wave 3 right now. But maybe this could be close.
BEACN is Only 48K in India, costlier than the SM7B by 7k I think that's enough to make one look for options when one can buy Maono PD400X K668 Sennheiser Profile or FDUCE SL40 together! Not kidding.
Any attempts at turning down the sound on your computer? Essentially the headphone jack becomes your computer sound card, as you mentioned, I'm wondering if they used a very inexpensive 3.5 mm 16-bit out?
When referring to the Elgato Wave mics the software often gets brought up. I had issues with high CPU usage especially when using Nvidia for noise suppression. Also, kept having to reset audio channels everytime. Anyone else ever deal with these things?
If you are talking about the EQ settings being reset or broken after restart. Yes I have that issue too. I may have found a work around. The issue seems to be related to restarting the pc while the wave being muted. So what I am doing now is using wave FX as my input in windows . If the wave app is not open than it produces no input at all so in affect it’s muted. When I need to talk than I open the wave app. For now 4 restart and it seems i have had no issues with any of the EQ breaking. On the noise suppression side, on my nvidia laptop it doesn’t work so good but you can try elgato NS instead. It’s base on a open source NS that is really good in my opinion and check your performance on that.
I wounder if there is an internal pot inside the mic so you can adjust the headphone clipping? Or have you tried another set of headphones with a different impedance rating.
Aren't LDC's in USB microphones... Like... Common... My first microphone for voice acting was a Samson c01u a USB version of their Samson c01 XLR mic. The MXL 990 had a USB version. I remember the Shure pg42 and a bunch of others. I distinctly remember them since when I got started in amateur VA in the halcion days there was conflicting opinion on when to get an interface. Specifically because USB versions existed of entry level LDC's and that way you weren't faffing around with drivers or with a second cable etc.
What is wild to me is that no matter what, if unless you have the streamdeck plus, any usb mic kinda isn't really worth getting aside from the wave3. That said, the option for a second mice like this sounds amazing
You can get quite far with software like voicemeeter. You can even buy an external mixer that controls the different tracks to replicate the streamdeck+'s nobs for a fraction of the price. Elgato Wave has everything nice in one place and I'm not knocking it, it's just that the wave experience is replicable with different software and hardware so it's silly to write off everything but the wave.
@@deldarel I did try voicemeter for a while but it's was super baggy for me and maybe it was because of the laptop I was running it on. My fiancé bought me the wave3 when it was on sale for 100 bucks. Over all I do see incredible value in other software or hardware (especially hardware since I like physical things) that do the same things that the wavelink software does.
Of all the different mics I have seen you test, the 512 (as you are testing) sounds terrible to me and literally hurts my ears on my air pods pro. Even at low volume. When processed, it hurts my ears even worse. As soon as you switch to the wave, it just sounds “normal”.
I went with the Shure SM7B using a Cosmos APU (bought for a different reason) that has a 60dB gain for the pre-amp on it, which will feed to the Cosmos ADC (also bought for a different reason). I'll use that until I get a Sony mirror-less camera to use, then I might feed it into that. But that is much more expensive than other setups when you have about $300 of supporting hardware for a $500 mic (currently on sell for $360 on Amazon). But it seems to be a popular microphone is why I went that way. Edit: also, I paid for the highest binned ADC which cost $220. That ADC for one step down costs $160, or two steps down is like $140. So you could do the APU plus the ADC from Cosmos for cheaper.
This 512, the Elgato Wave 3 or Sennheiser Profile? Small size equals weaker amp? If kept distance of 1 to 2 feet can the Sennheiser Profile pick up Voice Without ambient noise if gain raised? Or only for Distance used Curse Luck Get NT1-5th and a Cheap Boom Arm Stand! The smaller sized mics will serve my purpose though if there's no Audio Issues or Compromise on Functionalities. Headphones especially like you mentioned. The Maono PD400X overpriced in India! Only MV7 and its Clones Audio Array AM-C11, Donner UA-44. Otherwise FiFine AM8 vs K688 only USB&XLR with mixed Reviews available! M-Audio UBER AKG Lyra Ultra only USB or Maono AT-2040. Yep Still Researching what's available and what's not and will serve my purpose. MV7 MicroUSB and Finicky Touch Controls. As someone blasted by EMP and Frequency weapons day in and day out I prefer Physical controls. Or Best option would be go for Any of the mid budget close to MV7 USB XLR combo mics Based on Price and Controls and Mute button on mic! It's not mentioned clearly for some mic models if USB and XLR can Simultaneously Be used for Recording to Different Devices. Say USB to Mobile XLR to Audio Interface To Laptop/PC/Mac/Audio Recorder! NT1-5th Gen has the USB-C where the XLR is So NO use at same time option no controls no button nothing! People will have to choose between lower mid based on software provided along Shure Motiv Rode 3 Different Softwares according to model again not mentioned clearly!
Watch my next video already on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/eposvox-this-usb-mic-wont-blow-your-mind-but-its-what-all-beginners-should-buy-neat-mics-bumblebee-ii-review
Background music by Backing Track: backingtrack.gg/
Sitting on my desk is a MXL 009, which is a USB large condenser mic made like 10 years ago. Just wanted to note that this isn't the first.
Keep making the great videos!
What's the diameter of the diaphragm?
@@skorpers 32mm. I believe the effective size is more like 28 but that is from memory.
This mic has an amazing vintage sound to it i have been recording songs with it as well not just streaming
It's always neat to see whats going on in the world of USB mics, even if I don't normally use one (I love my vintage CAD E-100)
I really dig the Sega logo style font on it :)
recently got this mic based on this and creator village's video, neither of the problems mentioned (headphone amp, wobbly buttons) are present on mine, and i'm happy with the mic. thanks for the review!
Can you turn down the monitoring and only listen to the audio coming from the pc ? Or its always there ? And how is your experience so far ? (Im a bit late after 2 months but i want to buy it so i wanted to hear your opinion)
@@hellofriend4941 Bought one yesterday, it's pretty sensitive so better have a not-so noisy AC and silent family members, but you can just mute the monitoring on playback settings and levels, just mute the "microphone" setting and that's it. Headphone amp is pretty good, sounds better than my iPhone 6 lol
Sounds smooth, but on the high end of USB microphones and really pushing the bottom end of the xlr and interface options. I think I might get a K688, so I get both dynamic and "broadcast" type microphone along with the ability to use it with USB and XLR since I have both use cases.
the WA 47 is an amazing replica to the legendary neuman U47
if you do any kind of vocal work or music, its a mic to keep around
one thing to note is if you have a very live room (concrete, brick, tile, wood, etc.) it may be worth either buying or building some acoustic treatment especially with a condenser
large diaphragms especially are much more sensitive mics than your average dynamic and it will pick up a lot more room noise and echo than the average dynamic will; some decent treatment will help deaden any excess ring
you really should do this for any mic if you truly care about the best sound, but because dynamic mics are so insensitive, you can get away with them in live spaces a lot easier, hence why sm57's and sm58's are used on stage at concerts instead of botique condensers most of the time
Digging the dark contrast vibe of the A-Roll
I need a good usb mic for my portable podcast setup. I was looking at the Rode XDM 100. But I am loving this mic from 512. And that’s a good price for it too. This would be perfect with voicemeter.
An awesome video as per usual, Adam! 😄👍👍 As ever, I appreciate you for going into such a high level of detail with your mic reviews. 🗣🎙
Cheers to you, my man! 🥃🥃
Have I mentioned the vocaster system from focusrite
4:28 😻 made an appearance.
There is no shortage of large diaphragm USB mics from major players.
* CAD
* Shure
* Sennheiser
* MXL
* Yamaha
* Audio-Technica and Rode, though these two are technically medium diaphragms. But they generally get used at large.
(And sorry... I find myself unable to take On-Stage seriously...)
What matters in these USB interfaces is the preamp, frankly, and the interface quality. Shure found that out a long time ago with their X2u. Great concept, but too much self noise. That it is large or small diaphragm is really not that much of a concern for most people. @EposVox has a legit voice characteristic that makes a large diaphragm condenser a good choice. Plus, he has the environment to make it usable. That's not true of everyone. Fit the mic to the person AND the venue.
Of the mics I've listed, the one I would REALLY love to see a review of is the new Yamaha AG01. Yamaha makes fantastic preamps for decades, and they also make wonderful interfaces. They don't say eplicitly, but based on the body and sound, I'm pretty sure it's a large diaphragm. Not only that, it is a full function interface and a mixer; all built into the mic body.
Wonder how it compares to the new sennheiser one coming out. Don’t really want to use a interface, so the headphone amp is important to me. Unfortunately about the clipping issue though.
HUGE thankyou for activly saying - SEEK OTHER INPUT on your review - thats the most important thing. Get alternate sources of information to make that decision 'informed' - big plus
512 Limelight is only $40 on B&HPhoto right now, is that the actual value of this mic or would that be a steal?
Original price was much higher.
Yknow what is also annoying about usb mics?
The usb plug eventually just falls out. My rode nt usb usually looks like its connected but the plug is just far enough out to make it not work.
Also mine has tripped some "too many usb devices" protection on my pc a few times.
How many devices do you have connected? A typical PC easily has more than 10 USB ports nowadays.
@@skorpers mine has that too. It is not the amount of ports that it the problem, its the usb controller being overloaded.
As for devices:
1 for mouse
2 for keyboard
1 for webcam
2 for mic
2 or 3 for my monitors usb hub
1-2 depending on the cable for my external bluray drive
1 usb capture card
1 external hdd
@@misterjeffa2128 What's your motherboard?
Each chipset has its own standard supply of ports as well as auxiliary ports that it officially supports.
Then the USB standard, e.g 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2
Have differing levels of bandwidth that can support being split up in certain ways.
For example you would want to reserve the 3.O or higher ports for the high bandwidth devices and or hubs.
But yeah if you for example used XLR mics on an interface with additional XLR ports it would clean the setup a little bit. A UMC404HD or on the extreme end a UMC1820 (scarlett 4i4 and 18i20 competitors)
@@skorpers Asus strix x470f gaming
@@misterjeffa2128 Okay so for that board specifically the USB ports in accordance to the spec page are as follows.
AMD X470 chipset :
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 2 at mid-board)
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 front panel connector port(s)
ASMedia® USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller :
2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 port(s) (2 at back panel, red, Type-A)
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (4 at back panel, blue)
4 x USB 2.0 port(s) (4 at mid-board)
So if you are utilizing the I/O connections on the board in addition to the ports on the back panel of the board, you should still be able to manage those devices with no issue.
It may be a chipset driver issue if there is a problem at the software level.
I'm kinda curious what it's like compared to the Beacn Mic. That is honestly the only other mic that tempts me compared to the Wave 3 right now. But maybe this could be close.
BEACN is Only 48K in India, costlier than the SM7B by 7k I think that's enough to make one look for options when one can buy Maono PD400X K668 Sennheiser Profile or FDUCE SL40 together! Not kidding.
Any attempts at turning down the sound on your computer? Essentially the headphone jack becomes your computer sound card, as you mentioned, I'm wondering if they used a very inexpensive 3.5 mm 16-bit out?
How does the 512 compare so gaming mics like razer sairen x?
Mute button is kinda bad on this mic,when u pressed it there was some noise.
Virtually every usb mic mute button does this unfortunately
When referring to the Elgato Wave mics the software often gets brought up. I had issues with high CPU usage especially when using Nvidia for noise suppression. Also, kept having to reset audio channels everytime.
Anyone else ever deal with these things?
If you are talking about the EQ settings being reset or broken after restart. Yes I have that issue too. I may have found a work around. The issue seems to be related to restarting the pc while the wave being muted. So what I am doing now is using wave FX as my input in windows . If the wave app is not open than it produces no input at all so in affect it’s muted. When I need to talk than I open the wave app.
For now 4 restart and it seems i have had no issues with any of the EQ breaking.
On the noise suppression side, on my nvidia laptop it doesn’t work so good but you can try elgato NS instead. It’s base on a open source NS that is really good in my opinion and check your performance on that.
I wounder if there is an internal pot inside the mic so you can adjust the headphone clipping? Or have you tried another set of headphones with a different impedance rating.
Aren't LDC's in USB microphones... Like... Common... My first microphone for voice acting was a Samson c01u a USB version of their Samson c01 XLR mic. The MXL 990 had a USB version. I remember the Shure pg42 and a bunch of others. I distinctly remember them since when I got started in amateur VA in the halcion days there was conflicting opinion on when to get an interface. Specifically because USB versions existed of entry level LDC's and that way you weren't faffing around with drivers or with a second cable etc.
What is wild to me is that no matter what, if unless you have the streamdeck plus, any usb mic kinda isn't really worth getting aside from the wave3. That said, the option for a second mice like this sounds amazing
Wdym the AT2020 USB models are great
@@BillyAltDel I think I'm just weird and like the wave software therefore it clouds my judgment lol
You can get quite far with software like voicemeeter. You can even buy an external mixer that controls the different tracks to replicate the streamdeck+'s nobs for a fraction of the price.
Elgato Wave has everything nice in one place and I'm not knocking it, it's just that the wave experience is replicable with different software and hardware so it's silly to write off everything but the wave.
@@deldarel I did try voicemeter for a while but it's was super baggy for me and maybe it was because of the laptop I was running it on. My fiancé bought me the wave3 when it was on sale for 100 bucks. Over all I do see incredible value in other software or hardware (especially hardware since I like physical things) that do the same things that the wavelink software does.
Of all the different mics I have seen you test, the 512 (as you are testing) sounds terrible to me and literally hurts my ears on my air pods pro. Even at low volume. When processed, it hurts my ears even worse. As soon as you switch to the wave, it just sounds “normal”.
That's what shitty ear buds that boost bass way too much do
I went with the Shure SM7B using a Cosmos APU (bought for a different reason) that has a 60dB gain for the pre-amp on it, which will feed to the Cosmos ADC (also bought for a different reason). I'll use that until I get a Sony mirror-less camera to use, then I might feed it into that. But that is much more expensive than other setups when you have about $300 of supporting hardware for a $500 mic (currently on sell for $360 on Amazon). But it seems to be a popular microphone is why I went that way.
Edit: also, I paid for the highest binned ADC which cost $220. That ADC for one step down costs $160, or two steps down is like $140. So you could do the APU plus the ADC from Cosmos for cheaper.
I wish it was Dynamic. :(
I mean, there’s plenty of usb dynamic mics now.
Not "cloning" vintage mics, more.. "recreating".
Valid
This 512, the Elgato Wave 3 or Sennheiser Profile? Small size equals weaker amp? If kept distance of 1 to 2 feet can the Sennheiser Profile pick up Voice Without ambient noise if gain raised? Or only for Distance used Curse Luck Get NT1-5th and a Cheap Boom Arm Stand! The smaller sized mics will serve my purpose though if there's no Audio Issues or Compromise on Functionalities. Headphones especially like you mentioned. The Maono PD400X overpriced in India! Only MV7 and its Clones Audio Array AM-C11, Donner UA-44.
Otherwise FiFine AM8 vs K688 only USB&XLR with mixed Reviews available!
M-Audio UBER AKG Lyra Ultra only USB or Maono AT-2040. Yep Still Researching what's available and what's not and will serve my purpose. MV7 MicroUSB and Finicky Touch Controls. As someone blasted by EMP and Frequency weapons day in and day out I prefer Physical controls.
Or Best option would be go for Any of the mid budget close to MV7 USB XLR combo mics Based on Price and Controls and Mute button on mic! It's not mentioned clearly for some mic models if USB and XLR can Simultaneously Be used for Recording to Different Devices. Say USB to Mobile XLR to Audio Interface To Laptop/PC/Mac/Audio Recorder!
NT1-5th Gen has the USB-C where the XLR is So NO use at same time option no controls no button nothing! People will have to choose between lower mid based on software provided along Shure Motiv Rode 3 Different Softwares according to model again not mentioned clearly!
This is kinda crazy 🤯
me using my microphone from a 2$ headset:
Very late comment for the algorithm