Are youtubers getting microphones wrong?

[Riccardo Cagnasso]

I remember the old days of youtube when everyone was using some ambient, maybe camera, microphone and audio quality was horrible. A staple of that days was the youtuber renting his first studio and there was a lot of echo due to the empty room and the ambient mic. (as a sidenote, when people will finally learn that some heavy, curly, curtains are better than any absorbing panel? Just ask any theater. I'm looking at you James).

 

Now everybody has a decent studio mic shure sm7. Which is fine. Well it's more than fine, it's an amazing microphone and you can't say anything about audio quality. But I'm not sure I would go straight to a studio mic if I were to do things on youtube. Because you have this big thing on your desk that you need to mount on an arm and a suspended mount to isolate it from vibrations. Then, you have a lot of proximity effect, certalny from a dynamic mic like the sm7, but really from any cardiod pattern microphone. This is great if you are singing because you can exploit it, but it means you kinda have to learn how to use the mic, keeping your head and mouth quite close, at a constant distance and angle from the mic. Cfr. this video where Jay tells his experience with his new sm7

 

This problem is really well known by people doing live events. If you use a sm58 handheld microphone, you will instantly spot the trained speaker - e.g. a journalist - who will hold the mic correctly and the newbie who will keep moving it around. You can usually track the head movement of the speaker by sampling the swearing from the audio engineer trying to compensate it. This is not only about being trained to hold still in a correct position, but also being able to. If you have to do stuff, interact with people, show around, you will need to move and audio will be impacted.

 

The solution to all this is quite simple: use a lavalier or better an headset microphone. This is what everyone has always been doing on television and for good reasons. You get free hands, free movement and constant audio output. You can see Luis Rossman - who coincidentally has professional audio background - using exactly this solution most of the times. Also, if you need, you can plug it into a bodypack and get wireless. I mean, it's so much more convenient and it's exactly what you do on live events whenever it can be done (meaning whenever you don't have a lot of speakers in turns). Yes good quality headsets can be somewhat on the expensive side, but we are talking hundreds of dollars in a forum where video cards under 1000$ are looked at with disdain.

 

So, my two cents (pun intended) to youtubers out there: drop the studio mic and get yourself an headset. Yes it won't look so cool in the thumbnail, but your life will be better.

[FIXXX]

I'd take into consideration the "well, the top guys do it, guess that's the way" - reason. Not taking into consideration how often popular youtubers get sponsored by hardware companies with gear.

 

Definitely not the most common reason - but certainly a decent number of them are getting sponsored that way.

[Riccardo Cagnasso]

5 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

I'd take into consideration the "well, the top guys do it, guess that's the way" - reason. Not taking into consideration how often popular youtubers get sponsored by hardware companies with gear.

 

Definitely not the most common reason - but certainly a decent number of them are getting sponsored that way.

Well there are surely a lot of reasons. I think it boils down to:

- studio mic is a good design that optimizes audio quality

- the cool kids are using it

- they look cool

[ShearMe]

How will I do ASMR gum chewing with a lav mic tho

[The Flying Sloth]

I'm with you on the lav mic point, many lav mics are excellent butr as for headsets, by and large they suck ass.

Now, I'm spoiled in that I have access to a lot of studio audio gear andhave written out extensive guides / tips in the past here to explain why USB mics and/or headsets sick but the short answer is that nothing beats the quality of studio mics. Having said that, studio mics need not be expensive as the SM7B is, personally I daily drive a Behringer C2 despite owning mics 50x the price due to 1, it's size, 2, the sound quality and 3, the ease of use.

 

When it comes to complexity, well, take a look at the guide in my sig, you won't catch me saying that it's as simple as it is to just plug in a USB mic but that's just it, with that simplicity you lose options, you lose choice. In reality Jay's issue with the SM7B was down to a misunderstanding of the basic usage of the mic and the gain required to properly power it. 

Make of that what you will but I disagree strongly with many of your arguments.

[tikker]

Different strokes for different folks I'd say. Louis Rossman does nothing but talk about some topic without the need for dynamic range / interaction (not sure how to label it). His setup accomodates a headset well. A YouTube at their desk maybe wants the flexibility a boom-mounted mic gives. They want to move around and have the audio reflect that or get close occasionally for some nice proximity effect voice

. There is nothing wrong with having to learn how to use equipment properly.

On 11/7/2021 at 7:41 PM, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

This is great if you are singing because you can exploit it, but it means you kinda have to learn how to use the mic, keeping your head and mouth quite close, at a constant distance and angle from the mic.

Why is this a bad thing?

On 11/7/2021 at 7:41 PM, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

So, my two cents (pun intended) to youtubers out there: drop the studio mic and get yourself an headset. Yes it won't look so cool in the thumbnail, but your life will be better.

This assumes that the YouTubers themselve are annoyed by and have issue with studio and mounted mics though. Is that the case?

[Derkoli]

On 11/7/2021 at 6:41 PM, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

and it's exactly what you do on live events whenever it can be done

No, it's not.

 

We only use wireless microphones if we absolutely have to. They're an absolute pain in the ass 100% of the time. Nothing beats a wired microphone plugged into a stage box.

[The Flying Sloth]

34 minutes ago, Derkoli said:

We only use wireless microphones if we absolutely have to. They're an absolute pain in the ass 100% of the time. Nothing beats a wired microphone plugged into a stage box.

Damn straight.
I've spent a lot of time at live shows as a performer, engineer and viewer.
As a lead I'd often have a headset mic or the equivalent for my instrument as well as an RF ears pack but whever I was static (whether that be on a band riser that moved around or on stage in one position) we were 100% going through a wired stage box.
If a set piece is pushed onto stage and people perform on it, probably has a snake / stage box in it.
Nobody likes RF packs and will avoid them as much as they can (unless it's absolutely necessary like it can be for leads.)

[Ahoy Hoy]

8 hours ago, Derkoli said:

No, it's not.

 

We only use wireless microphones if we absolutely have to. They're an absolute pain in the ass 100% of the time. Nothing beats a wired microphone plugged into a stage box.

 

8 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Damn straight.
I've spent a lot of time at live shows as a performer, engineer and viewer.
As a lead I'd often have a headset mic or the equivalent for my instrument as well as an RF ears pack but whever I was static (whether that be on a band riser that moved around or on stage in one position) we were 100% going through a wired stage box.
If a set piece is pushed onto stage and people perform on it, probably has a snake / stage box in it.
Nobody likes RF packs and will avoid them as much as they can (unless it's absolutely necessary like it can be for leads.)

Exact opposite. Grab the wireless mics every time over a wired.
Wired mic got to get a cable, run it across the stage plug it into the stage box, make sure its patched. May have to tape cables down if its over a walk area. TOO MUCH EFFORT
Wireless mic. Pick up one of the 20 with have parentally set up, turn it on, Done.

Dont have time to run 50 meters of cable just for a microphone going on a stand for guitars to say two lines as backing vocals. 

Only exception is Drums and Keys nearly always get a wired as they normally have a stage box ran just for them so its not a lot of effort to plug a wired cable in.

Getting digital RF is a game changer. Solves so many problems of frequencies being too close and increase range drastically. Digital from Mic capsule to Amp. God bless Dante.

[Riccardo Cagnasso]

6 hours ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

 

Exact opposite. Grab the wireless mics every time over a wired.
Wired mic got to get a cable, run it across the stage plug it into the stage box, make sure its patched. May have to tape cables down if its over a walk area. TOO MUCH EFFORT
Wireless mic. Pick up one of the 20 with have parentally set up, turn it on, Done.

Dont have time to run 50 meters of cable just for a microphone going on a stand for guitars to say two lines as backing vocals. 

Only exception is Drums and Keys nearly always get a wired as they normally have a stage box ran just for them so its not a lot of effort to plug a wired cable in.

Getting digital RF is a game changer. Solves so many problems of frequencies being too close and increase range drastically. Digital from Mic capsule to Amp. God bless Dante.

Yeah I agree. You always have a couple of xlr as a backup and a couple of sm58 ready but wireless is handy. Also headset / lavalier doesn't mean wireless necessarily. On television i think they still use wired lavalier a lot. It's uncommon on random events for simplicity sake but very viable for a youtuber. I'm quite sure it's what Louis uses.

[The Flying Sloth]

8 hours ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

Exact opposite. Grab the wireless mics every time over a wired.
Wired mic got to get a cable, run it across the stage plug it into the stage box, make sure its patched. May have to tape cables down if its over a walk area. TOO MUCH EFFORT
Wireless mic. Pick up one of the 20 with have parentally set up, turn it on, Done.

Dont have time to run 50 meters of cable just for a microphone going on a stand for guitars to say two lines as backing vocals. 

Yeah, no,

I live in a capital city and have spent more than a few years in the industry playing festivals and other shows in the area (among my other positions).
Any festival where performers are static is using digital stage boxes, nothing wireless except for maybe lead vocal if they want to go walkabout.
Any show with mobile performers uses wireless, sure, because they are mobile and need wireless but if a set piece is being used for BV or as a band riser it will have a stage box in it and mics on stands preset. Any set piece that is mobile and will have static performers on it will have a stage box in it and mics / stands preset, anyone with access to the right equirpment would far prefer stage boxes to dealing with the wonderful wonderful pain in the ass that is wireless.

I've been involved with shows with single digit to 4 digit cast and crew numbers and my experience is quite different to yours. I've seen and been involved with shows using massive amounts of wireless but it's almost always because they don't have access to the gear they would otherwise need and they're just handing off the wireless between performers. Whenever the money / gear is available the stage boxes are in use.

[Elijah Kamski]

On 11/8/2021 at 5:41 AM, Riccardo Cagnasso said:

I remember the old days of youtube when everyone was using some ambient, maybe camera, microphone and audio quality was horrible. A staple of that days was the youtuber renting his first studio and there was a lot of echo due to the empty room and the ambient mic. (as a sidenote, when people will finally learn that some heavy, curly, curtains are better than any absorbing panel? Just ask any theater. I'm looking at you James).

 

Now everybody has a decent studio mic shure sm7. Which is fine. Well it's more than fine, it's an amazing microphone and you can't say anything about audio quality. But I'm not sure I would go straight to a studio mic if I were to do things on youtube. Because you have this big thing on your desk that you need to mount on an arm and a suspended mount to isolate it from vibrations. Then, you have a lot of proximity effect, certalny from a dynamic mic like the sm7, but really from any cardiod pattern microphone. This is great if you are singing because you can exploit it, but it means you kinda have to learn how to use the mic, keeping your head and mouth quite close, at a constant distance and angle from the mic. Cfr. this video where Jay tells his experience with his new sm7

 

This problem is really well known by people doing live events. If you use a sm58 handheld microphone, you will instantly spot the trained speaker - e.g. a journalist - who will hold the mic correctly and the newbie who will keep moving it around. You can usually track the head movement of the speaker by sampling the swearing from the audio engineer trying to compensate it. This is not only about being trained to hold still in a correct position, but also being able to. If you have to do stuff, interact with people, show around, you will need to move and audio will be impacted.

 

The solution to all this is quite simple: use a lavalier or better an headset microphone. This is what everyone has always been doing on television and for good reasons. You get free hands, free movement and constant audio output. You can see Luis Rossman - who coincidentally has professional audio background - using exactly this solution most of the times. Also, if you need, you can plug it into a bodypack and get wireless. I mean, it's so much more convenient and it's exactly what you do on live events whenever it can be done (meaning whenever you don't have a lot of speakers in turns). Yes good quality headsets can be somewhat on the expensive side, but we are talking hundreds of dollars in a forum where video cards under 1000$ are looked at with disdain.

 

So, my two cents (pun intended) to youtubers out there: drop the studio mic and get yourself an headset. Yes it won't look so cool in the thumbnail, but your life will be better.

Not really sure about headsets, lavs yes, but headsets sound too tingy, basically not enough depth and I personally find it draining over a long period of time.

[HenrySalayne]

On 11/10/2021 at 10:27 PM, The Flying Sloth said:

Whenever the money / gear is available the stage boxes are in use.

The rental cost of a single channel of wireless is more than 5 times the cost of a microphone with an XLR cable. Nobody in their right mind uses a wireless system to save money.

On 11/10/2021 at 4:53 AM, Derkoli said:

We only use wireless microphones if we absolutely have to. They're an absolute pain in the ass 100% of the time. Nothing beats a wired microphone plugged into a stage box.

This is not meant to be offensive, but it especially applies to wireless: a fool with a tool is still a fool.

Professional wireless systems take some work to set up but cable runs will take more time. I only ever had trouble with really cheap or outdated wireless systems. If you have the money to use professional gear and the know-how to set it up correctly, you will rarely have any trouble. The likelihood of a wireless system not working properly is comparable to the likelihood of defective cables. But for the same budget, wired will always be the better option.

[The Flying Sloth]

13 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

The rental cost of a single channel of wireless is more than 5 times the cost of a microphone with an XLR cable. Nobody in their right mind uses a wireless system to save money.

The rental cost of one wireless channel being passed between 10 performers is far below that of having wired connections at each mark and placing stage boxes in set pieces, it's not comparable and people absolutely use wireless to save money. The cost of rental on summing mixers alone for all the extra wired channels, well, I shouldn't even have to go further.

That being said, this is entirely unhelpful to the OPs question.
While Lav mics or Headsets are great for some applications they are not as versatile as solutions utilising studio gear
 

[HenrySalayne]

31 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

The rental cost of one wireless channel being passed between 10 performers is far below that of having wired connections at each mark and placing stage boxes in set pieces, it's not comparable and people absolutely use wireless to save money. The cost of rental on summing mixers alone for all the extra wired channels, well, I shouldn't even have to go further.

Several performers can share a wired microphone as well.

And I don't know why you would use a weird edge-case scenario in which wireless would be cheaper as a generalization for "wireless is to save money". It's not. At 999 out of 1000 events wireless would be more expensive.