I'm glad someone made a video on this because people talk about this mic shows how good it sounds but don't show how it's supposed to be Eq to get the best use out of the sound
this helped a ton with the noise floor hiss I was having on my sm7b! I just adjusted around my compressor settings to be more in-line with what you did and it pulled out so much more rich sound with much less squashing. Was definitely over compressing a bit too far before due to just not knowing what I was doing. Thank you!!
This was exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much! All I heard was I needed to buy a CloudLifter so I am glad I found this video. My audio sounds a lot better now and I can actually hear my voice whereas before I couldn't hear anything.
Had always used Cloudlifter with my SM7b, switched to Soyuz Launcher, improved my sound immediately. Great video, wonderful command of audio principles and admirably clear presentation. Thank you!
Watching this 2 years after it was posted. Great content here. FYI- Sure just released the new SM7dB which has a Cloudlifter built in!! Check it out if you're in the market for a mic.
Yes, you don't necessarily need an inline boost. However, I don't like cranking my gain up nearly to max just to reach the proper recording peaks. I'm giving Cloud Lifter a try.
Same here, i own a focusrite clarett pre usb which i considered a decent interface but upon arrival of the microphone i noticed that i was only getting about -18dB of gain with my gain knob cranked out and the type of voice i have i would have to increase the gain of my recordings in my DAW which i hate doing since it brings more noise to the recording and loss of dynamic range. I bought a Dynamite DM2 yesterday and oh boy the difference is night and day and in my experience i didnt experience any noise floor in my recordings maybe because my room is about 70% acoustically treated. But whoever is buying this mic for vocal takes either get a really good interface like a RME or UAD apollo and if you cant afford those go for a cloudlifter it is a must trust me.
Yeah, I'm worried about recording a singer in a video where the mic is not supposed to appear in the frame. The room is poorly treated acoustically, so I don't want to use my large-diaphragm condenser. So he'll need to stand farther from the SM7B and there might not be enough signal even if I max my gain. I'm researching some cheaper alternatives to Cloudlifter.
Yes, you don't necessarily need an inline boost. However, I don't like cranking my gain up nearly to max just to reach the proper recording peaks. I'm giving Cloud Lifter a try. UPDATE: I love my Cloud Lifter. It works perfectly, does exactly what I wanted and expected.
@@LilJoe3 Since I am producing audiobooks, I am willing to spend the money for the better product. Remember, this device handles the signal producing the sound, and the less money you spend, the cheaper the recording sound (generally).
great video, and illustrative examples - just discovered this channel. Would be cool to see something like this but on the EV RE20, just to compare dynamic mics in different vocal performance situations.
Easily the best SM7B video I've seen on RU-vid. This is helping me resist the urge to blow a bunch of money on a higher end mic. Also I LOVED the MadTV reference.
Amazing info man, getting into write off time and picked up the sm7b with minimal knowledge of optimizing my audio and this was a massive help. Thanks a million!!
@@ThomasBoykin if you wanna step your videos up big time, tube lights would be such a great addition to your already solid lighting setup. Adds great soft, dynamic background lighting with an even spread and they’re super easy to use! Would definitely make your background pop like crazy!
you can do the same as from this video "for youtube video" by adding VST fabfilter directly to obs and set it up like that. Or through virtual cables and for example pedalboard2
I got an sm7b for music and content creation at home. My room isnt treated and it was a great option for me and my room, but im kinda thinking and seeing some condenser mics be like the earthworks ethos, be quite good in untreated rooms. My room is full of stuff ofc. But its probably bcuz im overthinking a bit xD Love the video btw!
First. It's a really good video. I am gonna get down on my EQ stuff later. Question: Is there a forum or any place where I can get feedback on my EQing? I am afraid my ears are not trained enough to understand what is good sound and not. So if there is a place where more experienced people could help me with my audio that would be amazing.
A forum would be a tricky place for that. You could have all sorts of people telling you different things. Try to find a local established engineer for that
Hey Thomas! Thanks for the video, again - everything just on point!:) your chanel is the only one (literaly) which has this youtube bell enabled:)) keep it going man!
How bad is your preamp, then? most interfaces out today, even the cheaper ones, have enough gain. This is demonstrably and objectively true. It has been tested. This guy has done tons of tests with the SM7B and various popular interfaces with real numbers and not just opinions.... ru-vid.comvideos
Means you should have spend more on your preamp. The money you lose buying a cheap interface+cloudlifter isn't worth just having an overall good interface
Love your channel, invaluable stuff in the dialogue editing videos. One comment for this video though, what about deessing?! People gonna have S laser beams with all those highs.
@@ThomasBoykin A lot of help indeed, I was too focused on the compression and saturation etc (Trying to find the sound I wanted to get out of it, but youre video made me stop and think) Ok let's go back to the EQ and start over and WOW! Made such a big difference.
@@ThomasBoykin EQ is one of the most subjective parts of the audio post process, but there are certainly good processes and practices to learn. I would love to see more on your EQ'ing process for sure. I remember when starting out I used to EQ way harder than I do now to try 'fix' badly placed mics. Techniques I learned from music production mostly. It tended to make things sound more harsh and unnatural in the end. These days I mostly notch out resonance and do light EQ aiming for natural clarity.
really good video ! Simple and with a dose of humor :)) Thank you man :) I just bought this mic and to be honest your advices qbout eq will help me alot for sure :) Before I had Rode NT usb so condencer mic and usb mic and I had to remove harshness from it in higher frequences but it started to be anoying since I sing in Polish and we got many sibilants and my voice is quite high pitch so I was really tired de essing and searching for harsh frequences so I decided to buy this one. And straight from the mic, raw audio its way way warmer and much less harshness. I will test the switches that u showed in the beginning :) Okay, Take care !
Yes some languages, especially Slavic ones or German can be better suited to warmer mics. In general I think there is too much high end in modern recordings. It doesn’t sound natural to me. Dynamics also help keep the room sound minimized which is great for home studios.
@@ThomasBoykin hey came back cuz got a question :) Like I said before i used Rode NT usb mic and it didn't have much white noise that hiss sound to remove it was pretty quiet. But now I got this sm7b, focusrite solo 3 and Klark teknik mic booster and I hear much noise even if I use noise remover(gain is about halfway) than I use paralell compression and its even worse. You know something about that maybe ?
This is great. Using these techniques for my vocals that I record with my Re-20. The boost in the high end paired with the SA2 made my nips tingle. I use UAD plugins when I record my podcast, what do you suggest for podcast compression settings when using the LA-2A or 1176?
@@ThomasBoykin hell no, 1176 into la2a, u can adjust the attack and release before putting it into the la2a and that’s the most classic way of doing it
Thanks for this video sir, starting my youtube channel and ive been having little issues with some mics that im trying to use, then im looking at my sm7b and …. Yeah i should just get that on a boom out of frame and use him 😆
Thank you for your videos! About this one, I noticed hiss in all the recordings, which happens to me with my Focusrite 2i2, but in your spoken word throughout the video there was no hiss or background noise. Is this because of some noise reduction plug-in or just the preamp levels?
the best video on mixing vocals in general thats the best philosophy , i had an issue cause i was mixing my vocals on the chorus then i would listen to the whole song and it would suck cause the verse would be kinda rap and intro outro spoken words(style podcast) so i had problem with the lows and highs wow now i would put my vocals in 3 different channels spoken/rap/sing and eq//comp differently then send em to all vocals channel WOW thanks dude you are awesome !!!!!
Great video! I am hesitating between Shure MV7+ AND SM7dB + interface shure MVX2U (to make it USB). Which one would you recommend? I have no gears and want to do video podcasting/ youtube interviews with remote guest. I want to keep it simple but with good sound. Thank you!
a stifler AND mad tv reference in a single video! Damn. I have a shure running through a dbx 286s (shocking I know) and a steinberg interface. Im noticing the mic picking up a TON of background noise. I unfortunately am not in a treated room, but I'm not running a ton of gain and was under the impression this mic is great for reducing background sounds. Im wondering if it could be a faulty xlr cable or something else internal, any suggestions or am I just stupid? great vid!
Amazing video, thank you so much for the clear explanation. I wanted to ask; What's the best way to manage volume levels, think Audio Interface, Windows Microphone Level, Gain before & After Compression. I've been tinkering with it for weeks and unfortunately I don't see anyone talk about these things. I'd love to know your thoughts, and if there are any dos or don't. (Off the top of my head, I remember reading don't increase the Microphone volume in windows to 100 and rather in between 80 - 90. And to keep the hardware related gain to push the microphone levels well into the green, not the yellow.)
@@ThomasBoykin Thank you for your response! Could I perhaps email you a clip and ask for your feedback / advice? I've been tinkering with my settings on the SM7B and I've hit a wall regarding an issue I'm facing. If not, I completely understand.
Great video bro, please I would love to make a special request for this type of video for microphones like Electrovox RE70, I would really appreciate it bro
21:17 Man, absolutely one of the best videos of this kind out there! Is there anyway you could devote a 10 minute video solely to EQing for singing vocals? Specifically, to add the warmth/fatness and remove the harshness of a vocal? I know you did that somewhat in this video, but I would love to see some real detail on what exactly you are doing in the EQ aspect. Again man, I've seen tons of these videos, and nothing even comes close to this one! Thanks!
Great tips and humor! Thanks....have some vocal harsh at 2-4K that I've dynamically (fabfilter eq) dipped about 4 db....maybe need to cut more. Waves C4 at master buss catching some more, but my voice cuts pretty strong. Perhaps i'm just too shy with cuts...
In case you need to record a voiceover for a film or a documentary, would you use this mic or would you go with a large diaphragm condenser one? I'd love to see your approach on that topic to understand what can be done with each type of mic and their limitations (probably with a large diaphrahm consender mic you'd get more detail and depth but less low end? not sure though). Thank you for taking the time to make these videos, they're all super helpful.
Does the process you went thru work for live streaming or can it only be used in post? Sorry if my question is too ignorant. I'm new to all of this and just bought the SM7B, but I can't hardly hear anything I record. I got a Motu M2 audio interface and I use a 1.6m hosa XLR cable. Thanks in advance! BTW your voice is not boring!
Do you have any videos on setting this mic up with an Goxlr mini and OBS? Your mic sounds amazing and that’s the quality I’ve been hoping for but can’t seem to ever get it right. I have my Shure SM7B running into my cloudlifter which then runs into my Goxlr. I tend to do the EQ on the Goxlr. I notice that my recordings sound harsh sometimes like I’m getting some RFI in my audio recordings I’m looking into getting the mogami cables and a A15RF rfi blocked to see if that will fix it.
I’m gonna try a different setting of using my Shure Flat and only using the Goxlr to power my mic no compression or noise gate to see if my voice sounds better I also wanted to know your thoughts on compression. I have a RU-vid channel and I want my voice recordings to sound crisp like yours but I also stream.
You should use some EQ and compression most likely. EMI needs to be fixed at the source. I had one studio that was close to a cell tower, most of my mics had bad emi. I had to built faraday cages for some equipment.
I'll mainly use the mic to record vocals, is the Elgato Wave XLR a good interface to use with it? Unlike the Focusrite Scarlett, it provides enough gain without having to max it out, removing the need for a cloud lifter.
So you recommend recording your audio in a separate audio mixing app? What about if I want to use my video editor Adobe Premiere Pro to mix the audio, can I get the same results ? I have the Shure SM7b with a cloud lifter and a focusrite scarlett 3rd gen pre amp.
Hey Thomas. Great tutorial especially as my sm7b will arrive next week mostly used for conferencing and podcasting. Is there any chance to get the same results just using obs?
Can anyone recommend a good preamp like he suggested? Ive seen other tutorials run the Focusrite Scarlett + Cloudlifter... Want to know which preamp i need to get so i don't need to buy the cloudlifter in this scenario. Also, not sure which is better- so any advice helps!! Thanks.
Hi, just a question. I record meditations and hypnosis for clients and youtube. Currently I use the blue yeti, but want to sound more professional. The sm7b sounds like a good upgrade right ?
