For sibilant voices and neutral voices -> ETHOS. For dark voices -> Earthworks SR314 which we reviewed here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gS0qieB66e8.html
Since picking this up, it’s been almost exclusively used for podcasting. I just thought the slightly higher noise floor and more broadcast-style low-end made it a poor fit for natural sounding voice-over. But I tried it one day, took off the foam and did some dynamic EQ tweaking … and wow, was I wrong. I think this is a hidden gem for VO work.
Confused, you said this has a higher noise floor would make it bad for Podcasting, but the Shure SM7B has a silly high noise floor due to being dynamic. ????
@@RudeCanine Nope, not bad for podcasting. I said I worried the slightly higher noise floor - as in, higher than some other condenser mics - might make it bad for “natural-sounding voice-over,” as in pro VO. I don’t believe that to be the case, though.
New to mics and had the Earthworks Ethos first. Sold it only to return back to it after trying many others. Couldn't believe how well this mic handled my room's noise compared to others. Won't be getting rid of it again any time soon. Had to try many others to understand how good it was. Icon Pro is great also!!! Really enjoy the content. Great video.
Of course I picked up a Earthworks ETHOS a few weeks ago to see how it sounded over the Shure SM7B I had been using for years... and this video comes out. 🤣 As always, thanks for the review, and revisiting the common condensor vs. dynamic mic argument.
Generally speaking, I've never had a bad Earthworks mic. So I am using Ethos as well and it is great. I have never really like the SM7B but I have a lot of other Shure mics. As a consultant, I have 5 Mic's I take to customers to try out. The Ethos, the RE-20, the SR314, the Rode Procaster and the Pod Mic. We try every mic and then they pick (normally they let other people pick which is better) Now we record each mic and then play it back (all on the RCP2) so we're judging the full signal chain. When I need to do a quick Voice Over or Zoom call I use the Earthwork Icon mini-usb mic because I don't keep all my gear out.
This was fantastic Curtis! Whenever I have questions about a mic, I always check to see if you've done anything with it first. Just wanted to say thank you, and your hard work (your wife and daughter as well) is much appreciated. :)
I kept saying that dynamic mics are not better rejecting the room noise to people but they didn't believe. I've tested it and could not find the dynamic mic is better. But they didn't believe. Thanks for the test! Your test result should be easier to persuade than my personal test :)
I have 3 Earthworks mics, the Ethos, Icon Pro, and SR314. The Ethos is by far my favorite, followed by the SR314, then Icon. All 3 are incredible in their own right.
Attention, high risk of confusion. "Higher sensitivity" of condensers does not mean they are more sensitive to ambient noise. Mics have not built-in compressors (except of something like an Axino), so they act "linear" (well, the ear does not work linear but I hope you know what I mean). The sensitivity for noise or unwanted sound depends from construction (hum canceling through good isolation respectively a hum cancellation coil in dynamics) and from sensitivity dependent from the angle (which is roughly shown in a polar measurement pattern); the latter is especially related to the capsule design: omni vs. cardiod vs. shotgun, Variable-D with air channels etc.). And, as you stated, the distance from the mic is important, the nearer, the better the SNR that you can reach. I especially liked your ambient noise test! So, thanks! Oh, and you can buy noiseless fans for your tower pc.
The dynamic vs condenser ambient noise test was very interesting. Perhaps you will test some more microphones with various types of ambient noise in future videos.
8:45 finally someone that tests this myth. It actually performed better than the other ones but the narrower polar pattern might help, usually the difference is negligeable as background noise pickup can't be physically function of the mics technology. One thing is I wouldn't advice to pick a dyn mic in any case, even when very close as the ethos is made for this (hence the pop shield, which also actually make the mic capsule still pretty far from the mouth even when touching the foam) and has a way more natural and versatile frequency response. Getting closer you might go down to just 15 to 20dB of gain which is perfectly fine and isn't far from the sweet sport of most modern audio interfaces, where the preamp noise overpowers the converter noise. Doing so you'll also virtually get no mic self noise. All my clients using Ethos or Icon Pros have it right up their mouth and that works perfectly, and insanely better than a dynamic in every scenario in my experience, and it makes sense given the respective technologies performances.
Thank you for this comparison. I particularly liked the part with the fan noise. I learned one thing: - I thought that these dynamic mics rejected more background noise. - the Ethos respects the sound of the fan - the Ethos gives a natural, balanced soundstage and the other two a disturbing background noise - to my taste this scene is more pleasant to hear with the Ethos because the fan noise sounds right !🙃 In a reverberant environment, using the Ethos must be difficult. It would be an interesting challenge to propose a selection of microphones for "voice podcasting" in a bedroom. Sorry for bad english
Now is the perfect time for your awesome hand model!!! You might want turn the heat up.. So you can ditch the puffer jacket… The review is awesome too! 😎👍🏻
@@curtisjudd Would a heater introduce noise into the space? maybe a ceramic heater would be quite enough, I don’t know but an interesting question… Please don’t put off your videos until spring! Just put on another layer of clothing!!! Thanks for your content, it is appreciated 😎👍🏻
Another fab review, Curtis, Thank you (as well as Dani & Emma) for featuring female voices in your reviews. Would love to see more of them. I have the Earthworks Icon USB, which I love, as well as the SM7B. I tried the RE20 but it wasn’t a good match for my voice. Might pull the trigger on the Ethos. Currently working my way through your course, ‘Production Sound Fundamentals’ 👍🏻👍🏻
I totally agree that the Ethos sounds best on your voice. I have been using the SM7B for a while now and I like it a lot on my voice. I tried the Ethos and whereas I certainly liked it, I just flat out preferred the sound of the SM7B on my voice…it just re-enforces for me what many reviewers have said, there is no “best” microphone for everyone, or every situation. I wish there was a way to “try” every great mic before having to buy them. Reviews like this are great, but they only get you so far.
Curtis, one more gem mic in this category. AEA KU5A Supercardioid Ribbon Microphone. It resembles SM7B but 3 times the price. The general sound would be very smooth, very close proximity may induce low rumble can be corrected with its high pass filter but overall it has excellent room tone rejection. I think it will sound great on your voice removing the sibilances plus giving it weight or heftiness. As always great video.
I finally found my ideal vocal mic for streaming and communication with this one. No other mic has produced an unprocessed tone that worked as well as the Ethos on my voice. Kind of a shame then, that mine started screeching loudly (audible on the Motu M4 and visible on the meter) after I powered it on out of the box w/ Phantom Power. It was an intermittent issue, and I did manage to record some tests. B&H agreed to exchange it, but the black model is unfortunately backordered for the time being with no ETA on a replacement. :( I hope the replacement works better when it arrives, and that this isn’t a widespread issue.
Great review, Curtis, as usual. In fact, they're getting better. Both more fluid and better structured. The Ethos wins on your voice. Easily. It gives it a velvety, nearly ribbony resonance. On Emma's voice, mh, that's not so clear-cut, but I'd say the RE20 performed best. (When you said you had a fan running behind you, I thought, "RUN, CURTIS, RUN!" Fans can be such dangerous people. 😈)
Listened on Beyerdynamic DT 1990’s via a Focusrite 4i4 3rd Generation. To my ears, I prefer the Electrovoice RE20. It has a very clear, forward sound that’s loud, but not distorted. I like the Shure the least. It sounds slightly muddy compared to the other two, but has presence. The Ethos seems to be a mixture of both mics. It’s very clear, but does have some low end power to it. It looks the nicest out of the three too. Just my opinion of course.
Love this comparison and the way the Ethos handles plosives! How do you find the ethos compares to the SM7b for mouth clicks and noise? Both our SM7b and RE20 have that issue about 6-8" away speaking slightly to the side on certain voices.
It does pretty well. I have the most problems with the RE20, then the SM7B, then the ETHOS. So, I'm definitely happy with the ETHOS as a livestream mic where I don't have a processor to manage mouth clicks and noise.
This mic sounds great on you, and in this video it sounds far less muffled than I've heard in other RU-vid reviews. Can I ask what processing you added to it this video and your livestreams? Thanks.
Hi there! This is based off of the information at 0:50. No processing other than normalizing to -23 LUFS. As for livestreams, he will actually have a live today about livestreams. You can find it on his livestream channel "Curtis Judd Audio" or navigate to the "Channels" section on this channel and click on the channel I mentioned. He will go live on Sunday, 12 February at 12:00 PM MST (UTC -07:00). When you click on the live, it will tell you the time in your timezone. The lives last for an hour and questions are answered towards the end. Hope that helps.
The raw samples in this video were all normalized to -23 LUFS but there was absolutely NO other processing. For the rest of the video, it was also normalized to -23 LUFS, the breaths were reduced manually, and a handful of mouth noise moments were processed with RX Mouth De-click. For my livestreams, I just apply a mild compressor.
@@curtisjudd I just bought one! I've been hesitating for a few weeks, but your review helped me pull the trigger. I hope @Earthworksaudio send you some love (in the form of free mics to review).
Great video ,as always I enjoy your reviews and content. Quick question in a small room which would be a better choice for microphone sennheiser mke 600 or sennheiser E614 . Whats your opinion on these two ?
Hmm, not sure which would be better, but I did review the MKE 600 here if you're interested. I haven't used the e614. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EXs-1R8LCg0.html
Hi Curtis, please consider wearing something other than a dark black top when you're placing a dark black mic (or windscreen) in front you. It's difficult to see what mic you're using and at what angle and distance.
Great Review Curtis. One question I've always had about this mic is how it would handle the rejection of other voices in a multi-person podcast situation vs something like a dynamic mic. Any thoughts on this?
@@chrisogrady28 Earthworks only designs microphones with diaphragms that are smaller than the traditional 1" large diaphragm. I believe their design philosophy relies on the smaller diaphragm to achieve the faster transient response and higher frequency capture they pride themselves on.
@@LearnLightAndSoundSessions oh cool that's interesting. I'm primarily a photographer (and ex-physicist) so I'm still stuck in the notion of diaphragm size being analogous to sensor size or lens aperture, the bigger the better/more light. I've watched your videos about small diaphragm condensers for booming and found the notes about transience interesting. It seems like more an issue of diaphragm mass than size, so I wonder if a large super low mass capsule could give the best of both worlds. The best overall sounding mics I've heard are still large capsule after all, such as the Lewitt 1040
Hi Curtis, do you think the DMW-XLR1 has a good enough preamp noise floor with the ETHOS or the Blue Sona or do you have any other suggestions? My aim is a sit-down monolog with the mic in the frame but not to close to cover my face, recording to a GH5. FYI I do not have the DMW-XLR1, but am considering it, if it would make my life easier. Or a simple usb-c mike to an iPad (no PC where I plan to record). The Rode NT1 is too obtrusive for me. Your expertise would be appreciated.
@@curtisjudd Thank you for the advice. Can you get high quality (or decent) from the F3 into the Panasonic or an iPad (not PC), or just externally. Thank you.
@@curtisjudd I'm surprised that Lauten have yet to send you one. It's very sibilant on the flat mode, but with the 10k roll off, I think you will really really love it.
Are you sure you haven’t labeled the re 20 with the sm7b because in these recordings the sm7b sounds much harsher than I’m used to and the re20 much warmer?
Curtis Judd, in all your mic and recorder tests you never mention which XLR cables you rely on. Surely not all cable brands are alike. Mogami or amazon basics?
I bought Shure sm7b in local market of Iraq and now I know it’s fake and he didn’t accept returning it, I know there is capsule RPM 106 that i can change, but the switch part behind is still fake, my question for everyone is , if I buy the capsule and replace it my sound would be good or i need to change switch part too? Unfortunately i didn’t fine switch part anywhere on internet. Can anyone help me out? Or i need to buy new microphone? My choice would be rode nt1 vs aston origin and mke 600 , or only buying mkh416 for both interview and voice over
I suppose it depends on how much you enjoy DIY projects. Personally, I've messed up several electronics items so I'd buy a genuine microphone from an authorized dealer.
@@curtisjudd I don’t do it myself, professionally they will do it for five USD in Iraq. Sennheiser mke 600 is 200$ and MKH416 is 680$ from authorized dealer in Iraq, a little suspicious but it’s only dealer in Iraq. Dose the difference that much or you can get 416 result from 600 just by little EQ?
