Testing the Zingyou BM-800 microphones! HUGE THANKS TO GEORGE FROM SOUND VISON STUDIO! soundvisionstu... Support me by becoming a Patron: / whiteseastudio Check the studio: whiteseastudio...
I'm using a BM-800 as a "backup mic" and for some specific situations. For those looking for a cheap solution for a home-recording setup it's a good option.
I actually kinda liked the cheap mics on drum overs. As stated they have a sound of their own and are not for everything but with the old Neumans the drums sounded more vintage which is good. Of course it doesn't say but the drums don't seem too new so I am gonna guess they are an 80's or 90's kit which means they are a vintage kit. The thing is I kinda liked how the cheap mics exaggerated the snappiness of the drums. To me it made them sound a little more modern.
@@K3v7L My only thing is I feel like we need to note. Those drums in that instance. As you change up various parameters it all works together to change the overall result. For instance what if we close mic`d the whole kit with lower cost (typically harsher but far more reactive) mics? The end result with these might be a very harsh drum kit. That is the thing about audio too smooth can often equal wimpy or lifeless, too harsh unlistenable, etc. It is all things in the right balance just like making your favorite spaghetti sauce.
@@ezion67 HMM. Show me a great recording made on a cassette multi-track with 57's and 58's that we can directly compare to say Dire Straights' Brothers In Arms as a recording. Actually let's do the 58/ 57 thing through the best multi-track and pres possible. There is no way you can arrive at anything remotely comparable in terms of sonic performance from a technical level and you are pretty limited in terms or art as well. In this case we are only swapping out a few mics out of the whole kit. Now in fairness in a recording that I am trying to achieve an acoustical sounding drum kit the overheads are a very significant part and a lot of detail is derived from them but cheap condenser mics now compared to cheap condenser mics of the 70's and 80's is night and day different. There are some serious mics available now for a mere few hundred dollars. Expensive mics now are more about flavor and now so much about dramatic performance differences anymore and if you aren't aware of that you really need to look around. It is truly a new world. You could build a pretty serious mic locker without ever spending more than a grand on any one mic. It used to be to get a good sounding vocal mic studios had no choice but to break the bank. That is not to say that cheaper mics sound the same as the ones we hail as the holy grailers because they do not but there are some very usable "other options". Of course as always it is buyer be ware. Be thorough in your tests and note what is different.
Could you maybe try to match-eq the mics on the grand piano? they did record the same performance after all.. I think it would be interesting to see how much difference is just the way these mics pick up frequency louder or quieter, and how much is something else
It really would be interesting to see how much adding some simple eq to the cheap tracks would narrow the gap. It would be fun to get to play around with the original tracks.
great idea for a follow-up video. I would love to see - not only how much closer he could get the quality, but how much work. Time is money, so for a busy studio obviously the value in not spending time in post pays for the quality mic. But this video wasn't for studios with that kind of budget, so money matters more than time. I am a hobbyist so these are perfect for my needs
I listened to this on my studio monitors - as I do with most of your videos. I also have subs connected. The most glaring difference I noticed is the cheap mics roll off bottom end. The U47s have a much wider dynamic range. So I would say if you're recording low end, give these a skip... Otherwise generally I thought they sounded alright. You can't beat the price!
I've gotta wonder if it's the cartridge, or cheap electronics in the mic. Cheap, off-spec resistors and caps could have that effect. I mention this because, if true, fixing it would be cheap and relatively easy for anyone proficient with a soldering iron.
Really great and informative review and also a nicely done video mate! Just to be informative to others who watch the vid: the BM800 (common name of the chinese mic you demonstrate) is a small diaphragm condenser and the U47 is a large diaphragm. The differences you mentioned mostly came because of this. No-one ever mention this in the reviews but it is really important and does affect the sound and the usability range of the microphone. Of course the price range matters as well.
Thanks for this Video. I recently pimped the same Microphone, I even bought it for less than 22$. The Resonances of the housing and the grill are quite huge, but that's easy to fix. The capsule is mounted on a hard plastic saddle, glue Rubber under it and done. One quite big thing you didn't mention: it is in fact a small diyafram Capsul, like the Audio Technica AT2020. So the lack of body is in part also do to this fact. Greetings from Switzerland and thanks again. Liebe Grüsse Benno Kaiser
For what it's worth, it's also an electret condenser mic (as opposed to an externally-biased, or "true" condenser). I "pimped" a few of my own, but i basically only used them as body-donors :P Part 1 - khronscave.blogspot.com/2017/05/cheap-chinese-bm800-microphone-modding.html Part 2 - khronscave.blogspot.com/2017/10/16-bm800-modding-part-2-ck12-k47.html I got the idea over here - audioimprov.com/AudioImprov/Mics/Entries/2015/12/20_Modding_a_BM-800_Mic.html ~30$ for the replacement capsules, 10-20$ for the replacement circuit-boards (self-designed) and the parts... DIY FTW >;D
Hi Wytse, once in a while I like to watch your fun evaluations of all kinds of gear. I didn't watch a lot of them but I'm pretty sure this one ranks on top. I know and understand the efforts you had to go through for arranging the recording of this (btw beautiful) song and it made me appreciate the video very much. What really grabbed me was your demonstration of the difference in "depth" of both mics. It's in fact the first YT tutorial I see that makes this difference audible in such a way that people watching can understand exactly what is meant by "depth" (and other sound qualities of course). It helped also a lot that you put the mics in a complete set of recordings which gave an impressive insight in the end result difference. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. Kind regards, Patrick
thanks for the review. the cheap stuff is really quite amazing these days! (unless you're recording a piano!) i really appreciate the way you did this video! keep up the great work!
Brilliant presentation. Very informative and helpful. Just bought one of the cheap microphones for my home/hobby studio. Mainly for vocals but may use it to record my grand piano - maybe i'll buy another and do stereo!
Nice! We are so advanced so much in pro audio technology. Everything is pretty much ok under a certain dollar amount. You just have to creatively use it, you know. You can take a megaphone and make a pretty creative song, lol. I actually order a cheap amazon $20 neewer mic a few months back to compare it to my U87 Ai and TLM103. I will be dropping the video soon. Thank you for sharing.
Great Review, it's good that you gave a use for these mics . Their strength is in the mid , hi mid range so you can use them on a particular vocalist or an instrument in that band of frequencies.
I bought one of these after Christmas as a podcasting/voip microphone. With a good interface and some eq it definitely can sound good and it is definitely an improvement over anything in this price range(I'm pretty sure there are more expensive microphones that sound almost the same as this mic)
The feel and soul in the recording you are talking about is the bass and low mid harmonic that are conducted through your bones and soft tissues... I have 1 of these... They are super sensitive for everything except the bass. Worth the price...got them for around 18 to 20 dollar equivalent
I liked your video. Fun and good natured. Also a lot of work setting it up and presenting it. Good on ya! You might do one on how close you could get the sound of the two mics with some proper input EQ on the cheapy and correct impedance loading for the two products while recording a difficult source like a grand piano. Of course you can't make lead into gold but it would be cool to see if you could make lead into shiny gold tinted lead.
This a fair comparison. I was thinking to buy a cheaper mic to record some ideas while traveling thinking to get that. You clarified which one imma buy.
@Olav Viking measurements are not telling you nothing! Ears is what it is all about! If I need a lot of iq to a Mic input is needed it tells me the Mic is no good . ..
Honestly an incredibly unfair comparison. And that's perfect. It really lets you see the EXACT difference between this cheap mic and something way more expensive, rather than have you guessing the difference between mics of similar price points. It even showed how the cheap mic could be preferred in its own circumstances. Really great video
I don't see how the cheaper mic could be "preferred" in any way and in any circumstances if you HAD both. If you don't have both, then it's not a matter of preference right? The cheap has proven to be "usable" in certain cases, but that doesn't mean there was any scenario where it could be preferred :D I hope you get my point right, I'm not trying to argue, just face it, the U47 was a clear all-round winner (although not all the recordings were made with that as we saw!!). I am working with a multitude of mics from all price ranges (Neumann, Melodium, Audio Technica, Shure, even Thomann's t-bone or Behringer (sorry :D) and they all have their use-cases, true, but for any serious recording, having all of them, I will never prefer a t-bone over a Neumann... do you see my point?
The frequency response and the reaction to transients are different, the U47 is more like LPF with a very wide low-end boost and the BM800 very flat on the top-end and light in very light in the low-end (but not in a bad way) ... This comparison perfectly present how mics are the colour of the picture and every element in that picture will need and benefit from different colour to make the finished overall full picture. For £48 (Amazon UK) this is a very nice to have. The quality is surprisingly clean and it's very different sounding from the regular guys such as 87 and 414..etc.etc.
1000% agree with you! it's a fine low budget mic, for demo sometimes i just need a bit eq before deliver it to my producer, and yeap it enough... i still use it, although i have another microphone, but i won't sell, destroy nor throw this mic to trashcan, i will still use it for backup!
greetings from WASHINGTON State.! thank you for the video and all the awesome indepth details!! i loled when you said "im not Glenn..."... im glad your sending them to people who need them! if i could start a review page where i just gave reviewed items awayi would... welll id need to pay rent and stuff but ya... i would... keep up the good work.. imlooking forward to getting to look through your library and learning a few things and hopefully some metal recording techniques and production tactics.lol ps. have you done anything with Mr. Warren Huart?
Would be interesting to hear a mix in-which you tried your best to make the cheap mic work. You would have to boost levels, compression, eq, etc but I bet in the hands of a skilled mixer like you those mics would work.
@@markshortall3384 On Californication, “Anthony always used an SM57 for his lead vocals ... used for guide vocals on Rumours and some final vocals on the song as well. ... How about a tribute to that other Shure diamond in the rough, the SM58.
Nice comparison video. Differences clearly audible--even for me and my ears are more lead than gold. perhaps boosting lows on the cheap mics could fake it some, and they might be useful for instruments with no low end like cymbals or tamborine. For the price they sound ok.
At just before 18:00 we can see in a brief instant the size of the capsule as it gets reflected through the gauze. We can see that it's a small diameter capsule in a body dimensioned for a large capsule. Not that I expected anything else for the price. Mics like the U47 have large diameter capsules, and that difference is going to have quite an effect already, apart from anything else - of which there are probably a lot. I tend to find the sig/noise ratio often lets down these cheap ones, so they can only be used for fairly high SPL stuff. But they can have their uses.
Well done video, thank you. I recorded my own solo acoustic grand piano album, I was happy about your note on the difficulty of recording this instrument, because it is.
Wow, normally I would listen these kinds of tests on my monitor speakers, but even on my MacBook pro build in speakers the difference in sound is very noticeable. Thanks for doing this amazing test Wytse. Groeten uit regio Eindhoven :).
Really interesting content, honest, funny and clever which is not easy, the A/B's translate very well on my poorly treated room using DYNAUDIO speakers, TOP audio engineering channel till now 100% congrats!!!! (Loving those sweet Equ's on your desk..)
The recording environment can also make or break a microphone. Record with a BM800 in a studio and it'll sound great especially if you perform great.\ Record with an U87 in a bathroom and no matter how great your performance is, its still going to sound like a boomy resonant reverby mess.
I bought a mic that looks exactly like that for about $22 via eBay a couple years ago. It's not bad. Probably the exact same mic. Thanks for the comparison and review! I have wondered since then how it would compare to a good (or great) mic. Much appreciated!
Good comparison. Of course u47 is beautiful mic . I wish I could afford one . What do you think of microphone parts modified 47 comparison to Neumann 47 . It would be interesting.
1: YES! Sign it! 2: I'm most curious to find out how it performs for voice over recordings, narration. 3: Is the U47 really that big or do you have very small hands (sorry, couldn't resist, LOL)? 4: Thank you for all your videos and showing us what you do and what goes into your work. Cheers.
I have a BM-800 coming and perfect for what I need it for but in the vocal test the difference was like mono to stereo then the second part was like a Victrola (circa 1920) vs a Compact Disc to my ears.
There are many brand names of the "BM-800", I have several of these mics with different names, all of them are decent, some better than others, but absolutely worth $20 haha.
Hey! That d112 can be super handy for kicks or bass cabs with certain blues, jazz and rock bands. I would certainly shy away from it for more "modern" sounding recordings, but it's a very viable mic.
that was the best and most honest way to show why great mics cost alot... One feels the difference on critical Instruments and especially Vocals. great Video!!!
Great video , I have that very same mic and must say it works very well for what I use it for, really enjoyed seeing how it would stand next to a U87, yes it failed as we all knew it would but it failed well :)
very interesting...in other test it noticed BM800 hasn't a great mechanical resistance and it is sensible to vibration close to the mic, so it's more important to prevent contact during recording and to use damping support. It would be interesting to get an EQ curve e Comp program to try to minimize as more as possible the difference in sound quality comparing with the professional mic, also using a reverb or double delay to increment the depth. Of course considering cheap or free but good Vst (there is a world of sw arounf the web.. :-) ) Thans for your time and have a Great Music !
The only thing I really got away from it is that there is no reason to not make music anymore. A 20 euro (or 45 gulden if we are going to be historically accurate) mic a few decades ago sounded like speaking through a phone. Yes the expensive mics are worth it. But I get it that you don't want to start playing with audio with a few grand in debt. Great video!
@Nathan Avraham it's not even quite degraded, but if you look up how the LPC coding systems work in the GSM standard, it's (imvho) more accurate to say that the sound is taken apart into [pitch, formants, background noise type, residue] (or something like that) and ... re-synthesized on the other end :-) The LPC algorithm is in fact very similar to certain types of vocoders. Basically the GSM codecs intend to transmit voice to be as intelligible as possible in the least amount of kilobits per second. But it's not very well suited for transmitting music and other sounds. You can tell it's the encoding and not the phone mics, if you compare a regular call over GSM to a WhatsApp audio call over WiFi (which uses a different, more modern codec). The latter should sound much more transparent.
A few decades ago the environment in large parts of China wasn't completely destroyed as it is now. That's the price we all pay for cheap consumer stuff.
Wow I would blend both mics on the piano. Seems like one would be good for the top end and the other to get that beefy fatness. but it goes to show that each mic has its place. depends on what flavor you are looking to have in the end. But great video as always.
Is it possible to EQ yourself out of the shortcomings? Given the tempting low price of the mics and the availability of plugins, maybe a workable enhancement may be reached for home studios
Now I'm interested in one thing: if you were to match the eq of an expensive mic with that cheap mic, would it sound as good? Please give it a try if you have time!
Really enjoying your content. Knowing when you have to pay through the nose for that 3D sound experience is the challenge. It's about the music and performer in the end and everything else is secondary. Great music will sound good despite the gear, it'll just sound even more awesome with the best gear!
I'm at 9min in the video. I think they've only worked for the overheads so far. But on the OH I actually preferred them :) I don't like too much low end on OH mics and since they don't seem to pick up low's very well this can work. You can generally find some use for any piece of gear, even very cheap stuff. Back in high school we would run distorted guitars through the pre's on super cheap and shit Behringer mixers for a certain kind of rough metal tone we liked. Everything has a use. Rather have the U47 though obviously :) Edit: I watched the video in studio at 720p
a lot of the differences with the guitar can be fixed with some eq and some plugins right? 🤔 on a sidenote: could you be convinced to take a look at the MXL V67G mics? 😊
That was great. Gives us a chance to hear. U47 at least. I bought a Lauten Eden and used a U87 for my early recording years and also still have cheaper mics that compete or actually were preferred by 90% of my clients over the U87. The U87 I had was not vintage and that may have jaded me, as the U87 for the money had serious competition at a third of the price, but not at the $100 and below mark. I also agree with you that doing comparison videos is hard to please everyone, so you have to please yourself. Got that line from a song...smile. It would be fun to see how a $1000 - $3000 mic compares to the vintage U47, but I can see you put time and money in this video, so realize some comparisons don’t come without a cost. Thanks from all of us who just want a glimpse of audio and tech that we don’t have access to...smile.
As someone else pointed out, it would be really interesting to have a video of you trying to take the best out of that cheap mic in post. I actually have one of those, altough a different brand (Neewer, but it's the same cheap mic), and I've found that during postprocessing I can get interesting results.
Haha - I got a condenser mic with gold top, shock mount and cable for £9.99 delivered. The cable works with my Rode NTG-2 on my Sony A7 and thast usually £8.50 cheapest so the mic was effectively £1.49. Oh it came with a foam wind shield / pop filter too so now the mic cost 50p and the shock mounts sell for £3 so now the mic is worth -£2.50! Constant white noise in the the thing, virtually unusable BUT! I decided to make my own valve mics (I build amps, preamps, DACs) so this should make a great guinnea pig to test on. Who knows, it might end up sounding great!!! XD
Pretty amazing comparison. Of course the 47 blossoms where it should - It's a tube mic and adds nice harmonics aswell as the M7 or K47 capsules in the U47 circuit being known for having this rich and lush body and bottom. So my guess is, that there are even expensive mics that are not that much different to that cheapo... But there will still be the difference in good and great - it's at the end about nuances that might not even be noticable on a youtube video...
Why don't you do a frequency response comparison? Then you might throw in an equalizer to get the low end up? Small plates on condensors won't handle low freqs like large plate condensor-mics do.
That would be too objective! ;) Some microphones have something called "presence boost" and attenuate different frequencies deliberately, e.g. Tony Andrews and a student discussing the non-flat frequency response of a Shure SM58 and how much one vocalists hates such things: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-swJYQyvE4DU.html&t=3847 Really though, frequency response sweeps are a start towards quantifiable science, something deeply needed in all audio, much more than price comparisons. ;)
If you were to do a recording like this using ... say ... an SM58 in all applicable positions would it sound better or worse than the budget mic you have there ?
Sound is 3D. It radiates in 3D, interacts in 3D, enters both ears, which are intricate 3D shapes. It's represented in a waveform in a very 1 dimensional way, but that only captures some essential details (not even Eq in any detail). I'm glad you made the comment that sound isn't 3D, it made me react :) I played with Binaural recording for quite a while. Definitely 3D, and stereo focuses on "2D" aspects.
I have the 47 fet but prefer the 67 depending on application of course , but bang for the buck has to be my most used and reasonably priced AKG C414 both the XLS and XLII again depending on application but very versatile, I’ve used 47, 67, C414 and sm58 on the same vocals and often times the 58 is the winner, I think my older metal 58s with the on/off switch were $50 in the 80s but the newer ones sound good to, a live bands best freind sm58 for vocals and 57s on amp cabs but I digress... you can rent the Neumanns they are pricey but if your making bread regularly and work pro you can justify the purchase.
@@furryz666 yeah there are many great sounding mics. Some are sleepers, that you can pick up for little money. It's just where and how to use them. ;-) Also... Preamps. That's equally important. (but easier to get right)
I know it was a lot of work, but I'd also like to see a comparison of something good quality but still cheap (but not $22 cheap) like the $70 MXL-990, or the $230 RODE NT1-A, or the $200 Blue Spark, or the $100 Behringer B-1. Two of these are under $200, and one even under $100, but all are considered pretty high quality mics. The MXL-990 is a highly revered mic and one that I use pretty regularly. It'd be nice to see how they stack up to an expensive, Professional mic like the Neumann U47.
Zou nice zijn als je de TLM 103 vergelijkt met de U47 ik kan je een sample sturen digitaal gemixed en als jij dat doet met die van jou met analog mixing ben ik best benieuwd welke beter gaat klinken als het ligt aan mixing skills of apparatuur.
You have found a very affordable replica sound of a 1960's vintage mic. I would have no problem using that mic to do vintage artistic tracks. I also would use it for doing voice tacks for a video game with a vintage look. Like Fallout 76 or some other post apocalyptic game. Very through test.😎👍
there seems to be some fixed high pass on the bm 800, once i also had one but can´t remember that extrem roll off - then the BM has some peak im the mids and roll off to the hights, you can fix it with eq
For $20 you can't even get aa suspension mount for most mics, and many of these including Zingyou started making these for smart phones! They had an xlr to stereo mini jack that came with them. You can eq a mic from the circuit board but you can't fix the diaphragm without expensive metal lathing gear made for mics manufacturing. If I was a young teen again (no way thanks! it almost killed me!) something like this would have been a real blessing, considering I started withi a Tasc am 244 cassette porta studio! So it does have more value than the price tag. The Apex 460 mics are about $300 here, and Brian Fox in Toronto has made mod kits for them that allow them to compete with 7K plus mics for about $800 to 1000 including the power supply mod. Neuman mics were the end goal and he did a great job in head to head comparisons so if you don't have that 7 grand, it's something to consider since they are actually out performing the high end mics in some cases. Just thought you would like to know, and you could do a video on that sometime. One mod is simply cutting two bad caps out of the circuit, then there is a couple replacement eq caps and then the total refab with new diaphragm replacement, transformer, tube replacement and circuit board mods/replacement. Here is the website. www.foxaudioresearch.ca/
Having listened in studio to a shoot out between $25 (Neewer), $250 (Lewitt) and $2500 (Manley), I agree with the gist of this review. There is a big difference between $25 dollar mics and the high end. What I was surprised to discover was how small the difference is between mid-range and high end. The three of us in the control room were surprised how little difference we heard between a $250 Lewitt and a $2500 Manley. We mic'ed acoustic guitar and male voice the same way- with the ends of the mic facing each other and forming an upside down "T" The musician couldn't hear the difference (too much time spent close to high SPL instruments). The owner and I could, but both of us thought it was really close. The Manley stood out on the acoustic guitar- warmer tone but still all the detail. I was greatly impressed with the Lewitt. I have a small studio- built for composing, not recording. For someone in my situation, I'd happily recommend the $250 option. It was very versatile, and tolerant when it comes to placement. For the rare occasion when i record an instrumental or vocal solo track, the Lewitt would easily handle the job. While I loved the Manley, I can't justify the price. If recording contributed more to my income, it would be a different matter.
well you could of removed proximity effect via EQ to make level playing field.but the cheap one had lots of distortion, even on the vocals, which isn't many dB... maybe a secret tip for punk rock, going through an overdriven Distrssor?
Thanks for the video. I've been watching budget USB mic reviews lately and here are my observations. These BM800 (also BM700, BM900 BM8000 and their NW clones for Neewer Chinese brand) are not bad at all. They are lacking in lower frequencies and sometimes some nasty digital noise creeps in when using them with a computer. But a cheap (10$) upgrade would be FiFine K669B - it's less noisy and better quality with a more or less trustworthy company behind their products. Go 20$ more, and you can get FiFine K670. 20$ more - Samson mics are a good choice there. All available on AliExpress and sometimes in some local shops also. Don't even look at Blue Snowball (both Ice and vanilla) - they are not worth their price in comparison with these FiFine models. Blue Yeti is a different thing though - really great, but also overpriced, IMHO.
Someone forgot mic in my studio, branded jts, for vocalists we have sm58 and sm58 beta. One day I needed record some peace for random idea, picked that "jts" mic. Wow, I was surprised, it sounded better than sm58, greater cancellation, narrower pickup pattern, more sensitive. Don't know if it can stand same loudness as shure ones, but it works. Never found owner, so kept using it along sm 58 for vocals. Don't know its price but, it's on the par with sm's. Have couple bm800, on low volume situations it works, mine are just too sensitive for anything, so they are lost in drawer. It's nice that they came with cradle and pop filters, use only that 😁
