- You might be familiar
(swanky music) with some of the differences between a condenser microphone
and a dynamic microphone, but I've personally never
used a condenser microphone or at least not a real
condenser microphone. We'll talk about this a little bit later. So, today let's take a look at one of the most popular ones out there and see if I can condense
all that information into a review that NT-one can understand because it's the RØDE NT1. (intro music type beat) And before we get started, even though this is not a sponsored video, I'm gonna show RØDE a little bit of love because if you know my channel, you know I cover a lot of RØDE products. I use a lot of RØDE products and a couple of weeks
ago I was on Twitter, and I mentioned in some
conversation for some reason that I had never used
a condenser microphone, but I really wanted to get one. And I was thinking about the RØDE NT1 and then literally a few
days later at my doorstep, completely unknown and
unannounced, this showed up. RØDE sent me the NT1 entire kit. They didn't send this to me with any expectations
of me making a video. They don't get to look at the video before it comes out or anything. They literally just sent it as a gift. And this had been in my
shopping cart online for a while 'cause I was gonna buy
this exact microphone. So that worked out really well for me. And just to spoil the review a bit, the NT1 has been out for a while and it's a really popular
microphone and it has a reputation as being a great sounding microphone. So I'm not gonna bring anything
new to that conversation. It's a great microphone, it sounds great, it's reasonably priced,
and it's an awesome choice for a condenser microphone. But maybe we can still look
at it a little more closely, test it out, what it sounds
like in this environment with my "lovely" voice, and then also look at some competitors that are
a little more affordable, but also totally, I shouldn't say that, competitors that are...
...maybe not as...high quality. So just to start things off,
that kit is pretty cool. I was going to just buy
the microphone by itself, but the kit comes with the RØDE NT1, which is an incredibly
well-built microphone. This one's all matte
black, it's totally metal, you can see the giant
condenser capsule up in there, and then this ring is how you
connect it to the shock mount. It's designed and made in Australia. That's something I do
really love about RØDE and I didn't realize this. I know they're based in Australia, but it wasn't till a few months ago that I realized they actually
have their factory there too.
(that I want to visit) So they design and manufacture
everything right there, which is really cool. You get this really nifty shock mount. It can articulate a little bit and it's got a 5/8 inch
connector right here, but the kit does come with a 5/8 to 3/8, I think those are the
right numbers, 5/8, yeah. The big one to the kind of
medium-sized one adapter. So that way you could put
this directly on something like the PSA 1 boom
arm or a tabletop stand or anything else that uses
this size of a connector. You also get a super cool
metal mesh pop filter. This already has a metal grate
in here with several layers of a diffusion, but this
also then adds a few more. If you try to make plosives through it or blow into it, none
of the air gets through. The kit comes with a giant XLR cable, which is super nice quality. Comes with a gold tassel
pouch for the NT1. It looks like it's RØDE
Courvoisier or something. It also comes with this,
which is the RØDE AI-1, not their first-generation
of artificial intelligence, but their single channel audio interface, the Audio Interface One. And then also a USB type-A to type-C cable for the interface. So we will check out the mic
with this a little later, but we're gonna start out
with just the RØDECaster Pro. And that's everything
that comes in the kit. So that really is everything
you need to get started. And we've got this little tabletop stand that I can attach these shock mount to, angle it how I want. Now the NT1, like most
condenser microphones, is a side address microphone so you don't want to
speak into the top of it, you don't want to speak
into the back of it. It only picks up sounds from the front. And there is, as I'm tapping on it, there's a little bit
of a shock mount inside and you can actually feel the capsule kind of like moving a little bit. So there's built-in
stabilization to the microphone and then there's also
the shock mount here. The front of the microphone
is where the RØDE logo is and the gold dot so that's
the easy way to know, just speak towards the gold dot. And then you can just
connect your XLR cable and now your microphone is ready to go as long as the XLR cable is
actually running into something. In this case, I have it running
into the RØDECaster Pro. You're not listening
to this microphone now, you're listening to the VideoMic NTG. We're gonna switch over
to this in just a second. And of course there is the pop filter which just slides in right here. Now, once this microphone
is in the shock mount with the pop filter, it's pretty large. So on screen, it's easy to kind of find yourself hiding behind it. And with a condenser microphone like this, you do need an XLR cable and it does need to go into
some sort of mixer or interface. And not only that, it needs
phantom power in order to work. Fortunately, basically every
XLR mixer, every interface, I literally can't think
of one at any price point that doesn't offer phantom power, it's a pretty standard thing, but that's what this microphone
needs in order to run. So I'm gonna pop on my headphones here. To start off with this, I'm actually gonna take off the pop filter just so we can hear the
microphone by itself. And now how far away am I? I am, I don't know, a fists
distance away from the NT1. So let's switch over to the NT1. Right now, you're listening
to the VideoMic NTG and now you're like
listening to the RØDE NT1 running into the RØDECaster Pro with no processing or effects
or anything like that. This is just the driest
microphone signal I can get. Couple of things to note here
though, which is pretty cool, I just happened to have a PodMic here, and if I switch over to the PodMic which is a dynamic
microphone, this is running into a Cloudlifter to boost the signal because dynamic microphones
tend to be a little quieter than condenser microphones. It's running into the RØDECaster
with the gain set to +35 and then the fader on channel
two is just above halfway and this is how loud that sounds. It's peaking right around 15 on the broadcast meters
on the RØDECaster pro. And now just for reference,
this is the NT1 running directly into the RØDECaster
with the gain set to 20, no processing, and the volume fader is below halfway and I'm still peaking at the same level I was with the PodMic. So what that means is not only
with a condenser microphone do you not need something
like a Cloudlifter or a Fethead, but you
actually can't use one because these need phantom power and so does a Cloudlifter or a Fethead so if you plug this into one of those, the power will not pass through
to power the microphone. This doesn't need it to begin with, but this needs to be plugged directly into your mixer or your interface so the power can come straight
here to this microphone. Now the RØDECaster Pro
does have an NT1 setting so I'm gonna turn that on right now. And this is the NT1 setting which turns on like the de-esser, the compressor, adds in a little bit of processing,
kind of changes the tone and the sound just a little
bit of the microphone. We'll leave that on for right now because this is how RØDE
thinks it should sound. I actually think that in this case, as much as I tend to leave processing off with my microphones, I think I like this. I like this a lot. And if I back up a little bit, now you can still hear me right here, which is a very comfortable distance with a condenser microphone. You can hear some of those plosives. Peter Piper pitched a podcast. If I pop on the pop filter,
Peter Piper pitched a podcast. That's crazy, like puh puh puh puh puh puh puh puh puh puh puh. This thing really, really reduces plosives to the point where you never
have to think about it anymore and that is pretty, pretty darn awesome. If I increase the volume, I can actually be a little further away and still talk pretty comfortably. I'm peaking at the same
level on the RØDECaster Pro, but now I'm probably closer to a foot away from the microphone. And speaking of a foot, do you know why your nose
can't be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot. (rimshot plays) All right. We can talk about the
directionality of this 'cause like I mentioned, you wanna speak directly in front of it. If I get off axis a little bit it's actually shockingly
consistent basically like in this, I don't know that I would say 180 degrees because if I go sideways, then
my voice starts to disappear and if I'm talking into
the back of the microphone, it just sounds bizarre. So this is definitely one where
you want it facing directly at you or your instrument
or whatever you're recording and that's gonna give you the best sound and the best quality. Let's bring back the PodMic and keep the PodMic at the same distance. This is where I think things start to look a little different. The PodMic's signal is significantly lower at least on the meters on the RØDECaster because I'm so far away. A dynamic microphone works much better the closer that you are to it. That's not to say you shouldn't be close to a condenser microphone, but it's nice that you don't have to be up on the microphone the whole time, you can be a little further away from it and still get a strong signal. The other thing though,
when you were talking about condenser versus dynamic microphones is how much of the
environment they pick up. So right now I'm in my room. You might know a little
bit about this room. It has some sound treatment,
I did recently invest in a couple of more like
professional level sound panels and there's carpet on
the floor so that helps and there's also a lot of stuff
in here so that helps too. But this is not really a
well sound treated room. I would honestly give it
like a C+, maybe a B-. So all of the dynamic
microphones that I normally use actually work pretty well in here because they just sort
of pick up the sound that's directly in front of the microphone and reject everything else. I live in the desert, it's hot, it's over a hundred degrees today. And the air conditioner
is on, I've got dogs, which sometimes you
hear in the background, and a condenser microphone in general is going to pick up more of
that environmental sounds. So you're gonna get
more of that room tone, you're gonna get the sounds
of other people talking and making noises, I dunno, snapping their fingers over here, you know, as people do. But you're also gonna
pick up more of, you know, I guess stuff like keyboards. Which I didn't think was a big deal until I was using this microphone on a live stream and I was
typing and then I realized, oh, that sound is is being picked up in the microphone pretty loudly. Whereas something like
a condenser microphone might be a little bit better
at rejecting that noise. It's not there. I don't type like this. Oh gosh, I ruined all
of my Ecamm settings. So that's just something to be aware of. Also in my case, this chair
that I'm in squeaks a lot and I'm very conscious of
that on podcasts and videos because it can be annoying, but also depending on how I do it, it can kind of sound
like a bodily function. And that could be embarrassing, especially if there's not a video component
to the thing I'm recording. So just being aware that
a condenser microphone is going to pick up a little
more of your environment is really really important,
but all in all the basic sounds of this microphone, I think
are really, really great. Now, I know that I'm running
it through the RØDECaster Pro which is a $600 mixer on the NT1 setting. Let's try the RØDE AI-1, which is one of the most affordable, simplest audio interfaces you can buy and see how it sounds here. So right now you're listening to the NT1 through the AI-1, into Adobe Audition. I have no effects or anything in Audition. I've got the gain on the
AI-1 set to about 12 o'clock and that's also where I'm
monitoring through my headphones and the AI-1 was super easy to set up. I'll do a whole separate video on this where I compare it to this
Scarlett Focusrite 2i2 which is the other interface that I have. But this was plug-and-play, connected it, it showed up right away. To turn on phantom power, you
just press in the gain button and then the red dot for
phantom power shows up and you can also monitor directly. And there's a little green indicator that will show when your level is good, when you're starting to clip, and then when you're clipping. So if you get this kit
and you take these things and connect them to your
computer and record, this is exactly what it will sound like. I'm actually even using the
XLR cable that came with it. I think that sounds amazing. Now another thing to be aware
of with condenser microphones since they do tend to
pick up a little more of the environmental sound is if you're using two of them
together and they're close, that's where you probably
gonna run into some mic bleed. You don't have that issue too
much with dynamic microphones. Like when Heather and I are
right next to each other because they're better at isolating sound. It might not be a problem, it's just something to be aware of. I don't have to condense
their microphones here to test that out with, otherwise I would. And I know you might
be thinking, "Hey Tom, isn't one of the most popular
videos on your channel all about the Neewer NW-800
condenser microphone?" And you would be correct. This microphone has
basically become a meme on my channel for how bad it sounds. And while I have seen other videos and heard things where people
have taken this microphone, this very inexpensive,
typically under $30 microphone, and EQ'd it to sound pretty decent, mine sounds like hot garbage. And I don't feel bad for saying that because this is also not
a condenser microphone. And what I mean by that is a few days ago, I was watching a video
by Angus at Maker's Muse, which is an amazing channel
that I've loved for many years, and he bought a very
inexpensive microphone at Kmart of all places. And he said that it looked like it was a rebranded, Neewer NW-700 which I don't know if Neewer
even manufacturers these or if they just buy them
and rebrand them themselves because I've seen similar microphones with other brand names on them. I just think Neewer is the most popular. And his microphone sounded
pretty good actually, but when he took it apart, he realized that it wasn't
a true condenser microphone. So this is the RØDE NT1
running through the AI-1 into audition and this is the NW-800 running into the RØDECaster
Pro with no effects. This is how it sounds,
NOFX, great band. So there's a couple of things here, you could work with this
microphone to EQ it a little bit and then you've got yourself an inexpensive condenser microphone. However, this is what I mean when I say that this is not a true
condenser microphone. Take this microphone out. You can unscrew the bottom of this. The housing just comes right off. You can see the circuit board. Now I will say with this microphone, there are capacitors for phantom power. So it is actually functioning
off of phantom power which is a good thing if it's claiming to be
a condenser microphone, but when you heard it just now, no doubt you might've been... Wow, No Doubt, I've been
talking a lot about 90s bands. There's two little screws right here and then when you remove it, you can see that it's a very, very cheap, cheesy microphone capsule on top. And that's to be expected, it's a very inexpensive microphone. That's not shocking. Granted, I'm not an expert in this area. From what I know, this is
not a "true condenser". Yes, technically this is a
condenser microphone capsule, but this is an electret
condenser microphone which means that it works
a little bit differently. And if you're wondering why like, "Hey, this microphone sounds
kind of like a bad phone or a weird webcam camera or something." Yeah, it's because electret
condenser microphones can be very small, they
take very little power, and they're what's often used in small electronic devices
that need microphones, but they're not gonna be
broadcast quality microphones like the NT1. That's what you have here. So technically yes, it
is a condenser microphone when they list it on their sales page as a condenser microphone. Sure. But it's not the same as this. If you look, I'm not
gonna take the NT1 apart because this is just a
beautiful work of art, but if you look at the capsule in here, and I'll try to put some closeups so you can see what I'm talking about, it is an entirely different thing than this happy meal mess right here. And this is why that kind of upsets me as somebody who is diving into the world of condenser microphones
for the first time. If you're looking at microphones
and you look at this, even though it's very, fairly
priced at less than $300 That's still a lot of money, right? So then if you look at other options and you go type in condenser microphone and you see something popping
up online, that looks like, "Hey, this is sort of the
same kind of microphone. It says it has the same name and it's hundreds of dollars cheaper. I'll just get that one." And while you might be able
to work some magic and EQ it and then also from what I
know about this microphone, different copies have
different sound quality. Some do sound pretty decent and some sound pretty terrible like mine. That bothers me because it could mean that someone's not actually getting what they think that they're getting. "Here's a condenser microphone. Here's a less expensive
condenser microphone. I will save money and get
the less expensive one" and then you're gonna get that microphone and you're gonna go, "Oh, this doesn't really
sound that great." And you're probably gonna
feel disappointed in it and you're probably not gonna
be super excited about it. Whereas you could have invested more money in a higher quality microphone that's gonna last the rest of your life. It has a 10 year warranty. Hopefully your life is
longer than 10 years, but that's still a really long warranty and it's gonna sound great, work great, and cause you no problems. So that's my little spiel on
cheap "condenser microphones" versus a real condenser microphone
that sounds pretty good. So I love this microphone. I don't think you could
go wrong with the NT1. I think it's a very natural
sounding microphone. If you've never had the privilege of being in the same
room with me for real, this is pretty much
exactly what I sound like. It's not really coloring my voice at all. It's very natural and very accurate. And I liked that and I think that that's a great place to
start when you're recording, whether it's voice or
instruments or something else, which this microphone could
excel at all of those things, having that nice, natural,
accurate reproduction of sound is important because then you can choose how you want to EQ it, mix it,
polish it up as time goes on. So now, even though we've
talked about the NT1, if you're still not sure
if it's the one for you, I do have a whole bunch
of other mic review videos that you should review to find
the mic that's right for you. (please subscribe)
