Thing with background noise rejection or isolation is that there are indeed multiple factors. Take the Lauten LS 208 into account. Condenser that promises to have as good of an isolation as dynamics. There a couple methods they do this. First of all, you often only see the polar pattern in the spec sheet how it is measured at 1khz. Often Cardioid mics have an almost wide cardioid polar pattern in the low end like my Lewitt 440 DM, and more of a super cardioid ish pattern at 20khz. That means that my LS 208 has way better background noise performance. Another thing is if they leave some room for the capsule, like actual air/empty space. Look at the LS 208, or the Austrian Audio OD5 and OC7. All of them have empty space in between the capsule and electronics or just hollow space behind as with the Austrian Audio mics. Cinemas do this were you enter an empty room between each room because of isolation and similar things happen here. And for better or worse, the SM58 is an old mic design. I would argue that newer mics perform better within mentioned categories as long as they apply to the same use case. In case you read this thank you for your attention and great day to you Bandrew!
Agree with you about lack of exciting tech lately. I've noticed that too on my end. Just not much to talk about. I think the last time I was super excited was when they released the Zoom F3 about 2 years ago. Haven't seen anything that exciting since :D
I had to house/pet sit and the office area in in an attic A-frame style large open space. I brought my Zoom F6 to use as an audio interface and the SM58 with the shure shock mount and foam cover. Shocked at how great it sounds in this echo chamber. It was hot so i needed to turn on an oscillating fan and it doesnt pick it up either.
Danke! Well, you're right, I could do something else (not better) instead of watching your entertaining and helpful content. I regularly make the decision to watch your content, though. I will do something else, not instead but afterwards. During May I'm lucky to work on the Isle of Usedom in the Baltic see (the German part of it). Life could be much worse than working at a place where others spend their holidays.
Rainer, lucky you. Usedom is such a lovely island. I worked there for a year in 1999 and have fond memories of the beautiful landscape, architecture and beaches.
Thank you for talking about dynamic vs. condenser mics with regard to ambience pickup because I'm also curious about that topic! Another factor I suggest considering is polar pattern at different frequencies because reflections may get picked up at different angles at different levels. Some mics have a consistent pickup pattern across their frequency response, while some mics have varying pickup patterns depending on the frequencies. For example, the new Shure NXN8s use two mic capsules to achieve a consistent pickup pattern to get "less unwanted environmental noise" according to Shure (BTW I wonder how similarly or differently they perform against Austrian Audio OD505, which also uses two mic capsules for similar reasons I would assume. Maybe a good idea for next versus series episode??). If you look at the polar pattern diagrams of SM58, KMS105, and U87 Ai, you can tell U87 Ai has quite different pickup patterns between 125 and 16K Hz, while SM58 seems to have bit more consistent pickup pattern, and KMS105 has the most consistent pickup pattern of the three mics you tried. Also, I wonder if dynamic mics exhibit some sort of damping effect caused by a diaphragm much heavier than that of condenser mics. Perhaps slower transient response could cancel out some part of incoming sound wave?
Kinda shocked at how good the Neumann handheld was at rejection. I wonder if that's magic specific to Neumann or more commonto handheld condensers in general. Would love to see more detailed comparisons, and roping in other mic types and SDCs in particular - I've wondered for a while if they might just be the best audio quality per dollar, what with a little of great ones sneaking under $200.
Soooo. I just bought 2 MVX2us and updated both to the 1.2.0 firmware and I can confirm that there is this really nasty crackling sound not only when handling, but also and mainly when adjusting input gain in the software. For such a high priced item this is completely unacceptable. It is also not the noise constant hissing noise problem that you can clearly hear at the 6 minute mark on Leo Huang's video "Shure MVX2U Review - I want my money back" when he is speaking and also when he is silent. I have tested it on 2 PCs and also used the interface on an Android phone to record a sentence and you can hear it there, TOO. I tested with the Behringer SL75C and the SM7B. Will be sending these back if I don't hear anything from Shure soon.
Just imagine if the trendy creators had been captured by the SM5B instead of the SM7B, so much content would look even weirder than it currently does. It would be like when a dog does a snoopy into a camera. Bandrew's use of in ear headphones had the additional affect of allowing us to see his ears. There's not many podcasters online doing that. I thought hats and headphones were mandatory for success. That crackle could easily be a poor connection either on the plugs or inside on the soldering. Though it's odd that restarting fixed it, when it had been persistent like a physical fault. Unless during the restart you moved some or all of the connections. If not then it's a bit weird. That strange behaviour on the usb interface is almost as odd as your recent observation on the MV7+. Both seem too easy to reproduce for a product from an established quality manufacturer. We would hope. It's not like either are a curious edge case. Or say strange effects from overloading another part of the device, like say insufficient usb power, or headphones that draw too much current. Hmm, actually now I wonder if either device might be better behaved if using very different headphones/usb ports/usb powered hub? It is a known thing that for example usb3 ports play badly with some RF devices such a home automation radios (eg. Zigbee transceivers). And there's been a few (budget) combo mics where the noise from the usb side bleeds into the xlr, and I've wondered if thats also why the podmic usb doesn't allow you to use both outputs at once. Perhaps Rode couldn't get the fidelity they wanted so they disabled it.
Thanks for the great content, as always. Quick question... Why are you so keen on getting the Shure interface to work? If you’re looking for something small, portable, and can be an interface but can also record to an SD card in 32-bit float, try the Zoom F3. Unless I missed your reasons for particularly wanting to use the Shure. Have a great week Bandrew!
I own both. For a mono recording using your phone that you want to send without editing, you can't beat the Shure. It's the more convenient option for a handheld mic and/or smartphone connection e.g. no second/third cable and you don't need to worry about accidentally losing power because you forgot to change the batteries and then switched from recording to USB I/F mode (or that split second of your phone/tablet changing its USB connection mode). A very small plus is you can never accidentally nudge the off button on the MVX2U as it doesn't exist. Cost is also a factor. For a lot of other purposes, the F3 is excellent. Stereo. Great noise floor. No gain adjustment. Much more configurable, although the 4-button interface can be a bit tedious if you make constant changes. Can record without a smartphone as well as with a USB power bank. Still fairly compact although to go stealth you need a thick piece of tape over the LED and possibly remove the belt bars. (With anything like the DPA4060, you don't need the convenience of inline XLR.) If Shure had lower noise and an Android app, there would be very few reasons to choose the F3. (In contrast, if F3 implements a lot of wishes like low-quality proxy monitoring via the Bluetooth dongle, M-S recording, line out improvements like a safety channel for live audio or individual channel routing, a hardware X-Y bracket, etc. and especially if they lowered the price, there would be virtually no reason for the MVX2U.)
If you want to record into the mobile phone and don’t have all the plug ins in your mobile daw or want to publish right into the app, AND Want to use the build in DSP for various reasons, the shure is still a good choice.
Don't know if this is a stupid question but could I add a fethead and the mvx2u and would that lower some of the noise? I have a regular SM7B and a MVX2U
Creatives are a good target for AI because they generate and publish the very information needed to train AI. I fear that Spotify etc will push AI on their wide reaching “free” streams, which will make it seem popular and then it will be popular. I hope people will resist by paying for real artistry.
The removal of the like/dislike counts is a crime. Not only does it help you judge whether a video is worth your time, it also helps me avoid giving any view seconds to low-effort, bloated videos created purely to monetize. I can generally divide all the RU-vid videos I watch into two groups. 1. Stuff I subscribe to or see on the front page of RU-vid. This is entertainment. 2. Stuff I search for to learn something or answer a question. For type two, it is absolutely disgusting, abusive, exploitative, and reprehensible to *not* have the dislike ratio available before I reward some scumbag with view time.
RU-vid has become a weird place. I now have to swear at least once during a video to avoid having RU-vid classifying one of my videos as "Made for Kids", which makes me uncomfortable as I don't like needless swearing. But I guess in this case it's not needless as it serves a specific practical purpose? I make videos about Bluey and other cartoons, but for an adult audience. (Yes, adults can like cartoons as well.) RU-vid still has one of my videos set as "Made for Kids" where I show a clip from the gory nightmare sequence from the German movie Felidae, and drug usage in the Spanish film Bird Boy. This was before I started deliberately adding a swear to videos.
I used one of those when I was on the air on an AM radio station in the early 80s. It's stupid large and talking into it for four hours was just weird!
The dislike button was very handy for Contant that was clearly a hard joke or downright dangerous. Still better. In fact I ran across some thing that could've really used it but now. How else would I be able to tell that sudo rm -f / is going to erase my computer.
I don’t have a problem with the mv7, I have a problem with the mv7+ over usb. They’re different mics. And I said “if they resolved the issues of the mvx2u it’d be great for a travel setup because it’s so small.”
rename this the "splitting microfibres" podcast ..... all great mics and to most people on their computer soundsystems, they will sound exactly the same.
Does that email reply from Shure indicate a common mistake in calling you Andrew or is that your real name and Bandrew your stage name? Why do I care? You're a microphone celebrity!
