(upbeat jazz music) - Last year, I compared the Rode PodMic to the Shure SM7B. The PodMic is a newer release and costs about $100, while the SM7B has a legendary, decade-long reputation and usually sells for about $400. And, oh boy, that video brought out some opinions. And I have found something for the PodMic that makes a world of difference. So if you're still not
Shure which Rode to go down, maybe this will help. And for this test, I have both microphones running directly into the Rodecaster pro with no effects and no special processing
turned on at all. They're both just set to the generic dynamic microphone setting. The only thing I've adjusted
are the gain levels. On the PodMic, I have the gain set to +35, which is where I normally have it when I use this mic all the time. And on the SM7B, I have the gain set to +40, because it does need just a bit more gain to be at an even level. Now, I do recognize both
of these microphones and especially the
Shure are probably going to deliver the best quality if you do use something like a cloud lifter or some kind of gain booster amplifier before sending the signal into your mixer. But personally, I don't care because I don't use any of those things, I don't want another thing in the chain. I just want my microphone
to go directly into my mixer and I want good results from that. I've been loving the
results from the PodMic that I've been getting over
the past year and a half that I've been using them. I actually have two of them. And even though this
works pretty well for me, 95% of the time, not using any kind of amplifier or anything like that, if there is ever a time
where I really wanna get rid of some of that background hiss, I've gotten really great results by just using Adobe Audition to analyze the noise floor by basically just double clicking on an audio clip and selecting
an area with no talking, which will allow me to
create a noise sample that I can then use to de-noise the clip. And while that does
work exceptionally well, I found that, for me, I really don't need to use it most of the time 'cause I am happy with the results I get
just from the PodMic directly into the Rodecaster. So I just wanted you to be aware of that before we jump into the test. But we can switch over
to the microphones now. So I'm gonna pop on my headphones and now this is the Rode
PodMic without any kind of wind screen, without any processing. This is basically the most
dry signal you'll ever get out of a PodMic. Just for reference though, if I do switch it to the PodMic settings, so this is the generic dynamic setting, and this is the PodMic setting. So this is the PodMic setting and this is the generic dynamic setting. It's up to you if you
feel like you can hear a difference or not. I don't hear a tremendous difference. One of the biggest sound
qualities I've noticed with the PodMic is it tends to have a lot more high end and not quite as much bass. And a lot of this, of course, depends on your personal preference and also your voice. As I said, personal preference, you might've noticed a
few of those plosives, and this is really where this whole video, this is the point of this whole video. The point of this whole
video is the PodMic is supposed to have a built-in pop filter, and it kind of does, but it doesn't work that great. So what you'll find
yourself doing is needing to improve your mic technique because these microphones do sound better if you're closer to them, but if you're too close to the PodMic and you're speaking directly into it, then you're gonna get a lot more of those plosive sounds. Whereas if you speak
kind of across the front of the microphone, then your breath is not
hitting the microphone directly and you kind of avoid that. I don't think it sounds quite as good and it's not really a hassle, but when you're trying
to record and trying to do a bunch of things and remembering the angle that you're speaking into the microphone, it can kind of be a
little bit frustrating. Let's switch over to the
Shure microphone now. So this is the Shure SM7B, again, with no processing at all. And you probably notice, right off the bat, a few things. One, it's not nearly as harsh with the plosives. So, you know, Peter
Pepper pitched a podcast. Peter Pepper pitched a podcast. I think this sounds better in terms of the plosives. I think the other biggest difference is the low end on this
right out of the box is significantly more noticeable. It just sort of sounds fuller and richer and smoother than the Podmic does where the Podmic really kind of leans towards the high end a lot more. Both microphones sound great and if you're not comparing
them side by side, I think you'd be happy with the sound from either of them, but it is important to
understand that difference, especially with the SM7B, that has a pretty large following that it has accumulated over many, many decades of being in use "in the industry," as they say. So to solve my Podmic plosive problem, I found for about $20, Rode sells the WS2 windscreen. And honestly, I don't know if this is specifically for the Podmic or not, but it does fit the
Podmic, very, very well. So, this is the Podmic
without the windscreen. Peter pepper pitched a podcast. And this is the Podmic with the windscreen. Peter pepper pitched a podcast. So what you can notice, now is I can actually speak directly into the front of the microphone and it still sounds fine. I can get really, really close to this
with the windscreen on. The only downside to the wind screen that I have found so far is that I don't like the
way the microphone looks as much with it, which sounds dumb, I know, but I really like the
design of the Podmic. I think it's a great looking mic. And if you ever use it for live streaming or anything that involves
a visual component, let's face it, you know, the visual, the looks kind
of do matter a little bit, but of course we are talking
about a microphone here. So it is all about the
sound that's most important. Another thing you might have noticed is when I put this on the microphone, it kind of edged off those
high ends just a little bit. So without changing anything else, all I did was put this $20 windscreen onto the Rode Podmic. This is how the Podmic
sounds with the windscreen. Podmic with the windscreen. And this is how the SM7B sounds with its windscreen right out of the box. And I think there's
definitely a difference, especially in terms of the bass response, at least listening over my headphones, but it doesn't necessarily mean better. It just comes down to
your personal preference and what works well with your voice. What I can say as I
really prefer the sound of the Podmic with the windscreen on, and I actually do, for my voice, prefer the Podmic over the SM7B, one because yeah, maybe I am a little more used to it, but also because I feel
like this setup right here gives me the most like balanced sound. There's not too much lows or not too much highs. It feels like the most natural sound. And I really enjoy that. I like the way that that
sounds with my voice. I also really like the
way that the SM7B sounds because it's a very
smooth and rich and warm. There's a reason that it's
a legendary microphone, but it also does have a lot of bass. And sometimes I feel like
maybe a little bit too much. And again, you could
equalize all this out, especially if you're using
a more traditional mixer that gives you those fine controls, or you throw this audio recording into some editing software to make those adjustments. But this is just what it
sounds like, you know, straight out of the box. So my whole point in doing this comparison is this is a $400 microphone. This is a $100 microphone with a $20 windscreen. So for $120, you can get this sound and for $400 you can get this sound. Now let's take it a step further. What if I actually did want to EQ these? What if, for example, you have spent $400 on the Shure SM7B and that's your main microphone. You host the podcast, you
do streaming, whatever. This is your main microphone, but now you want a second one because maybe you have a guest or something sometimes, but not all the time. Do you want to spend another $400, or for $120 you get the
Podmic with the windscreen, but now you want to
match these microphones together a little bit. So let's see if we can do that right now. I'm going to go into the Podmic setting. If I switch it to the Podmic default, this is what it sounds like now. And then I think, just going to do this live in the video, with what the Rodecaster has, which is very basic equalization. I'm going to go into processing. So I'm going to add some of the big bottom processing, which basically is bass boost. Basically, it's a bass
boost in the Rodecaster Pro. So this is with the bass boost. And then this is without the bass boost. Now, I don't know that I
would actually normally want this much bass in my recording, but I think that that does bring it much more in line with the Shure SM7B. And I guess you could take down some of the low end in this to match the Podmic. So, I don't think you
would really have a problem finding a way to EQ these mics in a way that's going to work together, where you have two people in a conversation back and forth, and it doesn't sound distracting. Let's see if I can play around with it just a little bit more. So I spent maybe like 30 seconds trying to match them up a little bit. And the only thing I
have turned on the Podmic is the big bottom. I have it tuned to 117
Hertz with the drive at 76 and the mix at 43. I think, no matter what
mixer you're using, it's not impossible to make
these microphones match pretty nicely, actually, overall. So here's the thing. I don't own a Shure SM7B because it is very expensive and while it could be worth it. I'm super happy with
the Podmic personally. However, I've purchased
something like 12 of them over the years for work. So I use the microphone
pretty extensively, just not at home for my own stuff. And it is a great microphone. What you might not know, since typically when you see an SM7B, it looks like this, which is a very sleek design, is it actually comes with
a big, fluffy windscreen. So your $400 gets you the microphone, this little windscreen, and this big puffy one, which looks really similar to the one that I bought for the Rode mic. Let's just see how that compares. So, just take off the windscreen. It just pulls off. And then you just slide the
really puffy windscreen on, which actually is the one
that I like to use the most. Because again, just like this, it requires like zero mic technique. Anybody can just talk to the microphone and it's going to sound pretty great. So with all that being said, this is the Rode Podmic, with the big, fat windscreen on it, on the dynamic setting with a little bit of the bass boost. And this is the Shure SM7B on the generic dynamic setting with no additional processing and the big fluffy, poofy windscreen. So the Shure SM7B and the
Rode Podmic side by side. And ever since I've been using it with this wind screen, I feel like I like it even more because this windscreen itself just automatically EQs the mic in a way that I like with my specific dorky voice. And I hope it goes without saying that this video is not sponsored. I love both of these microphones and the Shure, right now, the Shure sounding
really good to my voice, but obviously I'm a pretty
big fan of Rode's stuff, even though like I've purchased all this, I didn't get it sent to me for free, but Rode did send me something for free. That's right. It is an official Rode baseball hat. And actually they didn't send this to me as like a bribe or anything. Every year Rode hosts the, My Podcast, My Rodecast Podcast Competition. And this year as like
the consolation prize for people like me, who didn't win, they sent this hat out,
which is kind of cool. I love that it comes in a box that makes it look like
a regular Rode product. Like, "Oh yes, I need the
Rodecaster Pro and the Podmic, "and of course the baseball hat." All of the things that you
need to look super cool. This is actually a very nice hat though. The thing is though, I'm more used to wearing, I guess we would call like
a dad hat, traditionally. This is like a cool guy hat. It's like a flat brim. It does have the logo embroidered, embrodered on it, but I'm just like, I don't know hats. I'm not much of a, normally a hat guy other than just like the dorky dad hat. I feel like my wife right now. if you ever watch my
wife's channel, she, Oh, she can wear a hat cool. Like she wears the sideways backwards hat. Actually, I feel like, all right, so if I put
this purple hair on, now, you can't tell the difference between me and my wife. And speaking of my wife, Heather, it was her idea to do the blindfolded
microphone comparison video, where we took four microphones, I was blindfolded, and I tried to guess which one was which. So check out that video right there, subscribe to my channel,
Heather Just Create, on YouTube and I'll see you in the next video. (upbeat jazz music)
