Best Vlogging Microphone? — Deity D4 Duo Review & Audio Test (Compared to RODE Video Micro)

if you've been looking to upgrade from recording audio directly into those built-in microphones on the front of your camera and you're ready to start using an external microphone this microphone that deity sent me that just came out is a solid option and it has a new feature that i've never seen before in a microphone that is especially great if you're recording vlogs or an interview where you want to record audio in front of and behind the camera so let's open the box look at it listen to it and do some tests here's what's included in the box you get the microphone capsule which is this part here and it comes also with a shock mount and you'll see that it has a front and a back there's actually a microphone on the front and back it comes with a dead cat for the front which is a little bit bigger and a dead cat wind reducing noise thing to go on the back as well and then you get the trs cable that goes from output into your camera the rear microphone is actually optimized to work best kind of at an arm's length distance when you're holding the camera in front of your face and it records at a little bit quieter value than the front microphone does at about negative 10 db less there is a toggle switch on top that lets you switch between the two different modes if you switch it forward you're only using the front microphone in a dual mono format if you switch it towards the back then both microphones are enabled recording to the left and right channels separately kind of in a stereo format so let's test it out to get it set up to test we're going to need our camera just like this and then we're going to screw this into the cold shoe so slide it in there tighten it down then we're going to take this we're going to plug it into the output jack on the microphone then into our mic jack on our camera and then one more tip is you're going to want to take this excess amount here and if you can tuck it into tuck it into there into the the screw it'll keep it from dangling around as much and there's no battery or on off switch to worry about you just want to worry about that toggle switch if you're using only the front mic flip it towards the front if you want to use both mics flip it towards the back then on your camera you're going to want to manually set your audio so change from automatic to manual and you're going to want to make it so it's peaking at around negative 12 db by changing the recording level so you would you would talk in front of the microphone watch the levels and then you would adjust up or down as necessary and then next before we do an audio test let's attach both of these furry wind screens we're going to put the small one on the back slides on pretty easy and then we'll put the bigger one on the front and we're good to go i put the d4 duo on a canon eos r the mic one's running directly into the camera threw it on switchbot here let's do some tests we'll test the front microphone the back microphone and we're going to switch from my 700 dollar rode ntg3 microphone to this 89 on camera mic so let's hit record here on the eos r and we'll switch the audio over so you're now listening to the d4 duo directly into the camera this is the front microphone and now the cool thing about this mic is if i wanted to flip this around now i'm actually talking to the rear part of the microphone so i can turn and i can point to things that i'm you know showing you the script or my laptop over here my overhead camera preview but now the microphone is on the back then when i flip it around and i keep talking i can switch the audio and post to that front microphone and i don't have to worry about flipping the mic forward and back that's the main selling feature the main benefit of this microphone and why you'd want to get it another feature of this thing that i want to talk about is kind of hidden under these windscreens so let's take them off so like i said before there was this output port that you plugged in into your camera but it also has a 3.5 millimeter input port so you can plug in another microphone or another audio source maybe a lavalier kit and that audio will be used instead of the rear microphone this would be a really handy feature if you do want to record two audio sources and see which sounds better in the edit it's always better to have more options in a case where there's maybe an issue with wind or who knows what so in this way you can have a very slim profile microphone plugged into this going into one channel and the front microphone as the other channel if you do end up recording with the front and the back microphone or the front microphone and something plugged into the input port this is how you would deal with those in the edit you would basically want to separate the tracks into left and right channels make both of those on let's say audio track 1 and audio track 2 dual mono and then you would adjust the volume up and down depending on which microphone you wanted to be using if you want to use this with a phone or a tablet you're going to need a way to adapt from trs to trrs and there are some options out there on the market road sells a couple of them they sell the sc4 which would be an adapter that you would attach onto the yellow cable they already give you or you can get the sc7 which would replace this cable entirely it would go from trs which is what the microphone has to trrs which is what a phone or a tablet needs to accept that microphone signal and then if your phone doesn't have a headphone jack you're also going to need the headphone to lightning adapter for example on an iphone but when using it this way it only accepts a mono signal so you're not going to get that front and back mic at the same time now i've heard that it might work directly from deity with the boya 35c to lightning or to usbc cable but i don't have one of those to test that theory out so maybe do some more research online if you really want the front and back microphone setup and you're going to plug it into a phone or a tablet now if you're looking at buying this microphone you're probably also considering this which is the rode video micro at the time of recording this video in august of 2020 this rode video micro is about 59 usd and the d4 duo is about 30 more at 89 us they both basically weigh the same they look the same the wind covers on the d4 duo are a little smaller so if you're using a gopro or something with a really wide angle the windscreen on the video micro might be a little too big for you but what it really comes down to is which of these do you think sounds better and are you going to be using that rear-facing microphone so let's take a listen both of these microphones facing away from us and facing towards us to see what you really get from having that rear-facing mic and spending a little bit more money so now you're listening to the d4 duo from dd this is the front-facing microphone and if we're going to go ahead and flip this around this is where you can get a test of the rear facing microphone so if you're showing something on screen or you're showing you know a vlog style like this and you're pointing the camera away from you it's going to be using that rear facing mic then when it's back towards you towards the front you can flip it in post to use just the front facing mic and that's where the versatility of this mic comes from so now let's listen to the rode video micro now you're listening to the rode video micro on top of the canon eos r and it might sound pretty close to the same when it's front facing like this but when you flip it around and you're going to be doing a vlog where you're talking about stuff that's in front of you or maybe you're having a conversation with someone you want to capture the audio behind the camera it's going to sound more muffled this way versus that d4 duo which has the microphone facing the back so that would be the main reason why you'd want to go with the d4 duo instead of a rode video micro like this in my opinion the d4 duo from deity is a great and versatile microphone for the price if you're not going to use the extra features and do the extra work when you're editing your video to separate the audio tracks and select okay i want the front mic now and i want the rear mic now this probably is too advanced for you and you should get a different microphone even though it is pretty versatile and it's not the best sounding on-camera microphone you can buy you're gonna have to spend two to three times as much to get a better on-camera microphone but for the price that you pay and the audio quality that it gives you it gets the job done so if you're looking for a microphone under a hundred dollars that has the option to record both towards the front of the camera and behind the camera this is the one i'd recommend i don't really know of another option that's even out and if you want to run a shotgun microphone on the top of your camera while also having that separate track to run maybe a wireless lavalier kit into the other audio channel this is a great way to do so special thanks to dede for sending me this engineering prototype sample before it went live so i could test it out links to everything mentioned are below this video including all those adapters there are affiliate links there help support the channel if you want to and if you want to learn more about what i do where i teach how to do better at video editing how to have better audio and lighting go to makebettervideos.com you can check out my courses there subscribe to youtube channel right here and here is a playlist of other audio gear as well as tutorials about how to capture better audio check out that playlist if you want to keep learning more i've been caleb wojcik thanks for watching the video see you in the next video cheers

Channel: Caleb Wojcik

Views: 2,908

Rating: 4.762712 out of 5

Keywords: caleb wojcik, video production, make better videos, dslr filmmaking, youtuber, vlogging, filmmaker, photography, photographer, deity d4 duo, deity d3, deity d4 duo review, on camera microphone, best vlogging mic, best vlogging microphone, best microphone for vlogging, deity microphone review, rode video micro, best microphone for youtube, rode videomicro, diy video guy caleb wojcik, diy video guy

Id: GNkI1W9_jsc

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 26 2020