Elgato Wave 3 USB Mic Review / Test (Compared to Snowball, Yeti, Quadcast, Seiren X, & more)

greetings earthlings today I'm back with a review  of a brand new microphone / software mixer from El   Gato that microphone is the elgato wave 3 and if  you are interested in this USB microphone it will   cost you around 160 dollars like always I'll  throw some links down below and in the sake of   full disclosure I do need to let you know that  el gato sent me this microphone free of charge   for the sake of doing this review for this review  I have the microphone connected directly to my   Mac with the gain set at 40 percent or 3 dots  on the microphone and this is compatible with   both Windows and Mac I will not do any kind of  post-processing to the audio but I may have to   boost it in post so check the lower third or  the dooblydoo rather to see what I did Lee did   and now let's talk about what comes in the box  yeah that was a good one you will of course get   the microphone a desktop stand a USBC cable an  adapter which converts from quarter inch to 3/8   and 5/8 inch and a couple pieces of documentation  then as far as the build quality I am not terribly   impressed with it it is a little bit cheap feeling  and a little bit too plasticky for my liking the   body is made out of plastic and there is a metal  mesh grille with a tiny bit of give to it the   you bracket mounting system is also made out of  plastic but it does have some metal screws there   the base microphone stand that is provided is nice  and heavy and made out of metal and feels very   sturdy the adapter as I mentioned has both a 3/8  inch and 5/8 inch microphone threading for boom   arm or standard microphone stands amazing then on  the front of the microphone you have three lights   to indicate what setting you are adjusting whether  it be the microphones gain the headphone volume   or the mix level between computer playback and  zero latency monitoring then you have a series   of lights to indicate what level each of your  settings are set at and a dial / button which you   will press to switch between the settings your  adjusting and you'll turn the dial to a just a   level-4 whatever setting you are currently on on  the back of the microphone you will find a USB C   port to connect it to your computer you will also  find a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack which as I've   mentioned does allow for computer playback and a  zero latency monitoring and then on the top of the   microphone you will find a capacitive mute button  but as far as the specs this microphone does have   a cardioid polar pattern a frequency response of  70 Hertz to 20 kilohertz a sensitivity of around   negative 25 DB a max SPL of 120 DB a dynamic range  of 115 DB a bit depth of 24-bit and a sample rate   of 96 kilohertz and as far as the headphone amp  on this thing I was perfectly able to drive the   Sennheiser HD 650 s which are very difficult to  drive headphones now I am speaking into the wave 3   spinning around to 90 degrees so you can hear the  off-axis rejection and coloration we will continue   around the microphone to 180 degrees here's what  it sounds like from the rear continuing around   the microphone to the second 90 degree angle  and then we will rotate and end at the front   of the microphone now I have decreased my gain  to 20% and I am right on top of the microphone   to demonstrate the proximity effect about 3 inches  away from the microphone and here is how the audio   sounds about 1 foot away from the microphone 2  feet away from the microphone microphone next   to let's go ahead and test the plosive rejection  of this thing please bring Pizza pronto please   bring Pizza pronto please bring Pizza pronto  now I am typing on a keyboard with cherry MX   blues to see how much of my voice where's  how much of the keyboard it picks up and   for you leet gamers now I am typing on the sad  W key oh I'm so sad here is how the microphone   sounds in a well treated room and here is how the  microphone sounds in a completely untreated room now although a provided desktop stand is very  convenient I want to demonstrate why using a   desktop stand isn't necessarily the best right now  I have the wave 3 on a boom arm which allows me   to get the microphone much closer to my mouth and  just listen to the tone of my voice as well as how   much background and room noise there is and then I  will type on my keyboard so you can hear how much   of that is picked up with the microphone on a boom  arm now I have the wave 3 on the provided desktop   stand I will place it directly down in front of  me point it up at my mouth pay attention to how   much room noise there is and how much ambience  there is and the quality of my voice and then   God forbid I have to type on the keyboard listen  to how loud the keyboard is compared to my voice   it was much different and much better when  the microphone was on the boom arm and the   keyboard was much farther away now I am tapping  on the desk to see how well the microphone does   at rejecting that kind of noise and then I will go  ahead and tap the boom arm to see how much of that   the microphone can reject and if I am somebody  who has this on the desktop stand and I just   want to bump the desk for whatever reason here's  how much of that it would pick up now let's see   if the capacitive mute button causes any kind of  sound when you engage it I will continue to talk   and then press the button to mute if I press it  again hey you can hear me again I'll press it a   little bit more lightly so it appears that there  is no noise from actually muting the microphone   which is great to see and just for the sake of  being as thorough as possible let's go ahead   and press the button on the microphone to see  how much noise that generates as well although   you do not need to press this button when you're  live you can open up the wavelength software and   adjust all of the settings that you can adjust on  the microphone via software and avoid any of that   click enos of the button I am back right on top of  the microphone to really accentuate the proximity   effect so we can get a good understanding of  where the low-cut filter is enabled and how it   affects the sound so currently I do not have  the clip guard or the low-cut filter engaged   and here is how the audio is sounding and now  I have engaged at the enhanced low-cut filter   I am at the exact same distance exact same gain  setting still no clip guard engaged and here is   how the audio compares now let me go ahead and  demonstrate what the clip guard feature actually   does right now I have my gain set to 40% I do  not have clip guard engaged and then if I get   really excited oh my goodness gracious we are  clipping we are distorted it sounds absolutely   terrible I think we can all agree that sounds  bad and now I have engaged the clip guard feature   and if I stub my toe and say gosh darn it gee  willikers I hate when I stub my toe this hurts   so bad it doesn't clip it doesn't distort it just  essentially saves your audio especially if you're   gaming and you get excited and scream or some jerk  across the map shoot SIA makes it a lot easier to   listen to for your audience now I am going to  go ahead and throw the wave 3 in my box of doom   and we'll measure the noise floor and see how  quiet the preamp inside of this thing really is now I want to do a very quick comparison between  the elgato wave 3 and a bunch of other microphones   on the market so you can understand where this  fits into the bunch like always we'll start on   the wave 3 I am 6 inches off of this microphone  my gain is set at 40% I do not have the high-pass   filter or the clip guard engaged and here is  how the audio sounds now I am speaking into   the classic legendary infamous blue snowball I am  on the cardioid mode I am about 6 inches off of   the microphone the gain on my computer is set  to around 65 to 70% and here is how the audio   compares to the elgato wave 3 back on the elgato  wave 3 so you can hear how this microphone sounds   before we jump to another one now I'm speaking  into the audio-technica ATR 2100 USB which is a   USB dynamic microphone my gain on the computer is  set to 100% and here is how the audio compares to   the elgato back again on the elgato wave 3 so  you can hear the tone of this microphone before   we jump to another one and record that now I am  on the road and T USB mini my gain on the Mac   is set at around 45% and here is how the audio  compares to the what are the elgato wave 3 what   a shocker we are back on the elgato wave 3 listen  to the microphone because we're about to jump to   another one back to the feud I don't know here's  the microphone sound next I am about 6 inches away   from the blue Yeti nano I am on the cardioid mode  and the gain on my Mac is set to 25% and here is   how the audio compares to the wave 3 back on the  elgato wave 3 and I just want to say I am so happy   to see a USB microphone that doesn't have a bunch  of polar patterns that 99% of people will not use   now I am speaking into the samson c01u pro 6  inches off of the mic gain on my computer set   to around 50% this is just a cardioid microphone  and here is how it sounds compared to the wave   3 back on the elgato wave 3 here's how them her  phone sounds let's jump to another microphone and   compare it to that now I am speaking into the  infamous blue Yeti I am on the cardioid polar   pattern my gain on the microphone is set to around  three o'clock while the gain on my computer is set   to 75 percent and here is how the audio compares  to the elgato wave 3 who would have thunk it back   on the wave 3 here's how the microphone sounds 6  inches off gain at 40% no clip guard no high-pass   filter let's jump to another mic and compare it  to that next I'm about 6 inches away from the   HyperX quad cast the gain on my computer is set  to around 50% I am on the cardioid polar pattern   and here is how the audio compares to the elgato  back on the elgato wave 3 so you can hear how this   microphone sounds before we jump to another one  now I'm about 6 inches off of the razer seiren   x USB microphone the gain on my computer is set  to around 60% and here is how the audio compares   against the elgato wave 3 if you did not expect me  to be back on the wave 3 right now you are stupid   do not be stupid we are on the wave 3 let's jump  to another microphone I'm sorry I didn't mean to   call you stupid I got a little bit unnecessarily  aggressive there I apologize back on the wave 3   here's another microphone now I'm about 6 inches  off of the Bayer dynamic fox the gain switch on   the rear of the microphone is set to high and here  is how the audio compares to the elgato microphone   it's early in the morning so I am tired but this  is the oh god oh wave 3 listen to the microphone   let's jump to another one and compare it to that  now I'm about 6 inches off of the audio technica   at2020 running into the Focusrite 18 i 20 my  gain is set at around 2 o'clock and here is   how the audio compares to the elgato hey el gato  I'm back on your wave 3 microphone I didn't get   a sticker what gives no stickers let's let's jump  to another microphone next I am speaking into the   blue ember 6 inches off running into the 18 i-20  gained it 2 o'clock 48 volt phantom power on no   post-processing check the lower third though  to see if I boosted any of these microphones   differently in post but here is how the Ember  sounds compared to the wave 3 wave trace we are   on the elgato wave 3 6 inches off gain at 40%  no high-pass filter no clip guard here's how   the microphone sounds here is another microphone  starting in 3 2 1 go and now I am speaking into   the shure sm7b at 6 inches away even though  nobody should be speaking into this microphone   from 6 inches away it's connected to the 18 I  20 gain at 100% no filters on the microphone   are engaged and here is how the audio from this  microphone sounds like compared to the wave 3 yep   ok we are back on the elgato wave 3 I pray to the  few things left good and holy in this world that   this is the last one here's how the microphone  sounds let's let's do it and lastly I'm about 6   inches off of the noi menu 67 on the cardioid mode  running into the universal audio x8 and here is   how the audio compares against the elgato wave  3 next as far as latency with a sample rate of   48 kilohertz and an i/o buffer size of 64 samples  we have a resulting latency of nine milliseconds   round-trip and four and 1/2 milliseconds output  when we jump up to 128 samples we have 11 and   1/2 milliseconds round-trip or 5.7 milliseconds  output and when we jump up to 256 samples we have   a 17 millisecond round-trip or eight-and-a-half  millisecond then with a sample rate set to 96   kilohertz and the i/o buffer size at 64 samples  we have a latency of 7.6 milliseconds round-trip   or three point seven milliseconds output when  we jump up to 128 samples we have a 9-mil a   second round trip or 4.3 millisecond output  and when we jump up to 256 samples we have   eleven point six milliseconds round-trip  or five points seven milliseconds output do you really wanna know how all the  microphones sound do you really care   about them all do you really have  a question about how to set it up at all just asking I'm sure you do of course you do I  would never question you of course you care of   course you do you're the best you're the best  once you've installed the app and you are ready   to set up your stream mix on Mac in the tool  bar you will have to open up the wave link app   you'll click on the icon that looks like a little  wave and you will click configure wave link this   opens up the wave link mixer and you can see that  we have six tracks available at our disposal the   first thing that I want to point out is that  you have two separate outputs one for your   monitor mix and the other for your stream mix  you'll set those mixes by adjusting the fader   in each of the sound sources the left one with the  headphone being the monitor mix and the right one   with the triangle the broadcast sine I guess is  going to be the amount going to the stream mix to   demonstrate this while I'm talking I will go ahead  and decrease the amount of the microphone that is   being sent to the stream mix and you should  hear my volume decrease all the way down to   now as I bring it back up you should hear me  getting louder and more pronounced and that   is because we are increasing the amount of the  microphone signal being sent to the stream also   with the microphone input you're able to adjust  all of your settings directly from the computer   so I will click this down arrow to open up the  settings we can change the name of the microphone   if we want to you're able to adjust your gain the  output volume to the headphones the mix between   the computer and your zero latency monitoring  and then you are able to add a high-pass filter   or a low-cut filter and the really cool thing  about this software is that it allows you to   add a bunch of different sound sources and act as  a mixer to send those sound sources to your stream   I will go ahead and hover over channel 2 I will  click add audio input and I will select Google   Chrome now I have Google Chrome's set as an audio  input source for my stream mix I will go ahead and   jump over to Chrome and I will play a song that  I wrote back in 2016 here is that and then I will   talk I'm guessing that my voice is too low so I  can go ahead and decrease the amount of the song   that is being sent to the stream mix so my voice  should be much more prominent over the music now   really simple to do that really simple to add new  sound sources to your stream really really useful   feature is there a common issue that I hear people  complain about is the fact that what they are   monitoring in their headphones doesn't sound how  their stream sounds and that's because they have   no way to monitor what they're actually outputting  to the stream short of going to twitch or YouTube   wherever they're streaming and listening back  to the stream here in the software down by the   outputs you see that we have little ears next to  the monitor mix and the stream mix so I will go   ahead and play my music and I don't think you'll  be able to tell this but right now I am monitoring   the monitor mix but if I wanted to hear what was  being output to my stream would click on the ear   and now I hear my voice and the music playing back  so I can make sure everything is set appropriately   really cool really useful I love that and I think  that's actually all for the software so there you   go alright el gato I see you now this is how  you're supposed to make a USB microphone but   first up in terms of pros the software that comes  with this thing it is insanely intuitive it is   very versatile it allows you to turn off the clip  guard it allows you to add a high-pass filter it   allows you to set the gain it allows you to have  five additional sound sources and mix them it   has multiple outputs it is incredible you also do  not clip when you get excited so cool oh my gosh   sorry about that I just get really excited about  these features you're also able to mix between   zero latency monitoring and computer playback the  mounting system has five eight and three eighths   inch mounting options additionally I love that Oh  godoh was smart enough to not just design this in   house with non audio experts they brought LeWitt  onto the team to help design the microphone and   it really shows it is a great sounding microphone  for what it is and this is kind of a joke but not   really there's no RGB there's no RTP I love it  but then in terms of cons given the price tag of   this mic and the features that they were able to  pack into it it's hard to fault it for too much   but the main thing that sticks out to me is the  build quality it does just feel a little bit to   plasticky for me and a little bit weak and cheap  feeling but everything else I really love how they   have implemented it it is very well thought-out  and really well done so now what are my overall   thoughts and opinions on this microphone on  the electric guitar I have to say I was pretty   shocked I was expecting to throw this in front  of the amp and actually hate it but I came out   quite impressed the top end of this microphone  was smooth and non fatiguing when I got to the   upper register of the guitar the mid section was  nice and controlled but then when we got to the   lower frequencies it did get a little bit loose  or undefined and I wasn't terribly impressed with   the sound quality and the lower bass frequencies  then for acoustic guitar what I heard was a very   punchy mid section the top end was nice and  articulate but again not too fatiguing but   then when we get down to the lower frequencies to  sound a little bit repetitive it gets a little bit   loose sounding and a little undefined but overall  pretty good on the acoustic then for singing the   mid section was very smooth and refined the  top end was clear but it wasn't overly bright   or brittle or harsh or shrill and the low end was  nice and controlled when you get right on top of   it it doesn't get overly boomy but they do have  that low-cut filter or high-pass filter if you do   want to eat the microphone and lastly for spoken  word out of all of the USB microphones that I   compared it against I think it came across as the  most balanced the top end was not overly boosted   it wasn't sibling it wasn't sharp the mid section  wasn't overly nasally I guess it didn't have any   of those frequencies the lower frequencies were  not muddy although it does seem like there's a   pretty aggressive high-pass filter below 100 Hertz  so you can't really get that really authoritative   voice so if that's what you're looking for if you  want that really bass heavy voice you're not gonna   get it out of this microphone but as a spoken-word  microphone for streaming I think it comes across   rather balanced and unoffensive which is pretty  important if you're doing really long streams and   you don't want your viewers and listeners to say  oh my god that hurts my ears it's not gonna cause   that so what I recommend at the elgato Wave 3 yes  I would I think that this is one of the most well   thought-out USB microphones that has come out  in quite some time and this microphone embodies   everything that I have been screaming about for  the last couple of years instead of a company   investing all of their money and cramming a bunch  of features and capsules and polar patterns that   the majority of their customers do not need  use that money to develop a single really nice   sounding polar pattern and a feature set that is  designed specifically for your customer and for   streamers it seems like Elgato sat down and said  huh what do streamers need okay let's do that   let's not do a bunch of other unnecessary crap  it really is amazing what you can do if you know   what your customers want I'm truly impressed with  the feature set that they have here really really   well done but also I was quite impressed with how  good this thing sounded on the electric guitar the   acoustic guitar and for singing now it wouldn't  be my first option or first microphone pick out   of all of the gear that I have but if you're a  streamer and you're getting this do stream with   and you also want to record some music at home  I think it's a perfectly fine option and you can   get some pretty good results so there you have  it I think that's gonna wrap up for today but   like I always ask I want to hear from you which  of the microphones that I compared it against did   you like the best do you agree that the elgato  wave 3 is a really nice sounding microphone or   do you prefer the blue Yeti or the sm7b or the  q9 you that's not out yet what's the one the   ATR 2100 USB let me know in the comments down  below if you found this video fun interesting   or helpful go ahead and give me a thumbs up if  you hated it give me a big ol thumbs down if   you want more videos go ahead and subscribe logo  down beneath me and if you want to support the   channel and become one of these amazing people  over here you can do so by clicking that joint   button and joining it the $5 tier or higher it  really does help me continue to bring you these   videos I had to scream because I can't clip it  sorry about that I couldn't help myself thank   you so much for stopping by thank you so much  for listening I will talk to you next week bye

Channel: Podcastage

Views: 293,104

Keywords: podcastage, microphone, review, sound, test, elgato wave 3 mic test, elgato wave 3, usb microphone review, best usb microphone, usb mic, elgato wave:3, razer seiren x, blue snowball, blue yeti, blue yeti nano, beyerdynamic fox, hyperx quadcast, audio technica at2020, blue ember microphone, shure sm7b, neumann u67 reissue, streaming mic, best streaming mic, live stream mic, usb microphone, best usb mic, wave:3 review, elgato wave 3 review, elgato wave, best mic for streaming

Id: _mLyLh7cN2s

Length: 26min 31sec (1591 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020