Right now you're listening to me on the
Sennheiser MKH 50, which is a condenser microphone that I've been using as
my main microphone on pretty much all of my videos for the past two years. This might be my all time favorite
microphone, and I don't know of many other tools that I've introduced into my
workflow that have leveled up the quality as intensely and immensely as the MKH 50. The only downside to this
microphone is that it is $1,200. So while I think the microphone is
worth its price, I also understand not everyone, probably most people
don't want to or shouldn't even spend $1,200 on a microphone. So what if I told you that now you're
listening to me on a $250 microphone that's positioned in the exact same
place as the Sennheiser MKH 50. And I think even though it
sounds different, it also sounds absolutely excellent. This is one of the most underrated
shotgun microphones that I've ever used, and I feel bad that I
haven't made this video before. This is the Audio Technica AT897. So now you're listening to me
on the Audio Technica AT897, which after 897 tries, I finally
remembered the product name for it. This microphone has an MSRP of $249, and
it is a condenser shotgun microphone. And I think it's really one of the
underrated, just best overall values. I've been using these microphones since
2012, so well over 10 years at this point, and they're just incredibly solid. When I was a high school Digital Media
teacher, I set up several different programs at different schools where
we used a lot of these microphones. I think I've ordered something like
20 or 25 of them over that period of time that I was teaching, and
they're just: one, being used by high school students and not breaking. So that's a good sign of reliability,
but also delivering great results. It's also just an incredibly
versatile microphone and I think just a really good value. You do get this big box that comes
with it, and you get kind of everything you need, which is always nice. You get the microphone itself, you
do get this wind screen, which is very useful and important to use,
and it does help with plosives. So Peter Piper pitched a podcast. Peter Piper pitched a podcast. Of course, the way I'm using the
microphone right now, not really how it's designed to be used, but
I wanted you to see it on camera and hear what it sounds like. We'll test it out a
lot later, don't worry. But you also get a AA battery. You get a microphone mount, a five eighths
to three eighths adapter and these little rings because the one thing I really don't
like about Audio Technica shotgun mics is they're just skinnier than other mics, so
they don't fit in standard mic holders. For example, the, the handle of
my Sony FX3, it won't fit in here. If you put these rubber rings
around the microphone, then it will fit into holders like this. But it does come with its own proprietary,
properly sized microphone holder. Now I did mention that it
comes with a AA battery. This is a condenser microphone
that requires power, and you can do that one of two ways: you can either use that AA battery,
the microphone just unscrews and the battery goes right in here. There's no on or off
switch or anything though. Or you can run it off of phantom power. I prefer to run it off of Phantom Power. Like right now you're hearing it through
the Rodecaster Pro II with no processing and no effects, but yes, phantom power
and my gain is at 35 decibels on the Rodecaster Pro II to get this level. If I add in a little bit of
effects and processing now, that's what it kind of sounds like. It's sort of, it's a microphone that does
work well when you add EQ and processing to it, which is something you probably
should be doing in your audio workflow. But even if I take this off and
just go back to the original sound, I still think that this sounds
pretty good, just out of the box. It's a really great natural sounding
microphone, but if you don't have phantom power, most mixers
do, but not every camera does. So if you wanted to run this into
a camera that does not have phantom power, then you can just use a
battery and you don't have to worry about needing power from the camera. The microphone has only one physical
switch, which is a high pass filter or a low roll-off filter. So it will reduce some of those low
frequencies, which is really good if you're in an environment with lots of
rumbling like wind or air conditioners, or sometimes you're just recording
someone with a really, really deep voice. So this is the microphone, with
this is the full microphone sound. There's nothing cut off. And if I flip that little
switch now we have reduced some of those low end frequencies. I do have a couple fans on lights in
here and I do have an air conditioner going right now, so maybe some
of that got reduced a little bit. And we will be doing some more
side-by-side comparisons and sound comparisons in just a little bit. I'm going to put that back
with the full microphone sound for the rest of this video. I'm also going to put it back in the
stand because you might've noticed it's pretty susceptible to handling noise. Now this is a really versatile microphone
and I've used these in a lot of ways over the past 10, 11 ish years that
I've been working with them, including like this, because the very first
time that I put together a podcast recording setup, it was actually based
just around four of these microphones. Running into an old mixer and
then out into a Zoom H4n recorder. And the reason I use these is just because
they're what we had and we had no budget for new equipment to set up the podcast. And I think they sounded really good
because we were in this big echoey warehouse, non sound treated environment. And because these microphones
are so directional and they were so close to the speakers, I
thought they sounded really good. In fact, a year later we were able to get
a grant for better podcasting equipment. And so of course I was like,
"We're getting SM7B's and boom arms, and all this stuff!" And the SM7B's sounded so much
worse because it, it wasn't the best microphone for that situation. We needed so much gain. The space wasn't sound treated. It was big, it was echoey and everything
just sounded kind of bad through the SM7B. The reason I tell you that story is
because even though these are not meant to be, you know, close up,
handheld spoken word microphones. They work pretty well that way, and it's a
really, it's just a versatile microphone. So especially if you're on a budget
and you need a microphone that can do more than one thing, this
could be a really great option. And again, the sound quality, I think
this sounds really great, but let's compare it to a more expensive option. So here is my Sennheiser MKH 50. This is my main microphone. This microphone really is not made
to be used close up like this. So if I switch over to it, Hello? Hello, hello. This is me on the Sennheiser MKH 50. A really lovely sounding microphone. But I'm still kind of far
away if I get close to it. It's really a microphone that's designed
to pick up sound from far away, and it's also very susceptible to plosives. So Peter Piper pitched a podcast. That's usually not an issue because
the microphone is far away and there's, you're not hitting it with
plosive air, but when you're close to it, that could be a problem. I definitely wouldn't recommend the MKH
50 for a close use application like this. So we'll do some far away tests in just
a second, but I want to talk about the directionality and the sound quality. So again, this is the Sennheiser MKH
50 a $1,200 microphone, and this is the Audio Technica, AT897, A $249 microphone. So in America, that's basically the
sales tax of the MKH 50 in some places. And in terms of directionality,
they're both very directional. I know they're not exactly the same thing. This is a shotgun mic, this is really more of a
pencil condenser microphone. But I'm making this video not for
a Hollywood production studio. Like if you are universal Pictures and
you're watching this to figure out how to run your audio, you need a lot more help. For normal human beings who just
want to get better audio in a home or a small office type setup, a lot of us just call these "shotgun
microphones" or "boom microphones." Any microphone that's on a boom
suddenly becomes a boom microphone. But I think for most people, when
they think of that, they think of sort of a longer microphone that's meant
to pick up sound from a distance and it's a bit more directional and reject
sound that's not pointed directly at. So without getting too audibly
technical about the Audio Technica here is some directionality. If I talk directly into the microphone,
this is what it sounds like. And as I turn the microphone away,
you can hear that my voice drops off really quick behind the microphone. It's hard to hear anything, and we come
back around at the other side and now pretty much from, what is this,
like less than 45 degrees to dead on to back over here, 30 degrees. It's a pretty narrow pickup range in
order for my voice to stand out the best. Now the MKH 50 is also an incredibly
directional microphone, so as I turn this microphone away, my
voice drops off pretty quick. Almost to nothing as I'm
behind the microphone. And then we go all the way around
and now my voice comes back. And that's one of the things I
really love about this microphone is how directional it is. Because even from a distance, It almost
feels like it just zeroes in on the source of the sound that you want. And going back over here to the
Audio Technica, it is also a really well-built microphone. It's entirely all metal. Like I said, these have stood
up to high school students using and sometimes unintentionally
or intentionally abusing them. For years upon years upon years,
and they just hold up really well. So the Audio Technica AT897
is not the newest microphone. It's not something that just came out
and has all this crazy cutting edge tech. It's just a solid, solid choice that
has been around for a really long time. But now while we're talking about how
these microphones reject noise, I have this very, very scientific device. It is a white noise machine. And this is great to have in
a guest room or to take with you on vacation, by the way. But if I turn this on, It just
makes white noise to help you sleep. It's, it's really wonderful. And let's just hear how this
not only rejects my voice, but also the white noise. So right here we have a lot of
white noise next to me, I think, I bet if I turn on the noise
gate on the Rodecaster, it might start going a little crazy here. Trying to cut. Out the white noise. So in theory, let's put
this over here on my desk. It's about an arm's length away. Now it's running fully and it's,
you know, not in the pickup pattern of the microphone, but
that's what it sounds like. If there was a source of white
noise in the room with me, and same thing with the Audio Technica AT897. This is what it sounds like with that
source of white noise in the room with me, but not in the directional
pickup pattern of the microphone. So now that we've looked at these two
microphones, as I mentioned before, they are not meant to be used this way. This is not their intended use. If it works, it works right? But they are not designed to be
held really close or used as like, you know, interview microphones. They are meant to be positioned
on a boom pole, out of frame, away from the source of the sound. So let's do that right now. And now you're listening to me on
the Sennheiser MKH 50 boomed overhead normally where I have it
positioned in most of my videos. So the audio for most of
my videos over the past two years has basically been this. It's an iFootage boom arm that's attached
directly to my tripod head, so that way the microphone is just about an arm's
length away, about maybe a meter away from me, and this is what that sounds like. You can definitely hear more
of the room tone than you could when it was right next to me. And then oftentimes what I'll do
in Final Cut Pro is add in just a little bit of voice isolation. So this is without any of that. And now this is what it sounds
like after I usually add in a little bit of voice isolation. Again, there's no effects
and no processing happening in the Rodecaster Pro II. This is all Final Cut. And back to just the raw
audio of the microphone. The "rawdio" of the microphone. This is the Sennheiser MKH 50 a
$1,200 microphone mounted out of frame, about one meter away, and this
is now the Audio Technica AT897, a $250 microphone mounted on the same,
mount, the same distance away from me. This is what that sounds like. Again, with no processing, no eq, but if
I add in a little voice isolation in Final Cut Pro,, this is what that sounds like. So again, when you're recording audio
with a microphone, keeping in mind that you probably might need to add a
little bit of EQ and things like voice isolation, just to make it pop in the
perfect way is something to be aware of. So this is the Audio Technica 8-9.... This is the Audio Technica microphone
now with nothing, no voice isolation. This is just how it sounds
directly into the road. Caster Pro two, and again, I am about
one meter away, but if I take off my headphones and I awkwardly move
over here, now I'm probably a good, I don't know, two or three meters ish
away is about as far as I can get. This is what it sounds like. This is way too far, but this is
what that sounds like, I guess. We could try adding some voice isolation. So this is what the Audio Technica
sounds like from way too far away, adding in some voice isolation. And this is now what the Sennheiser
MKH 50 sounds like from way too far away with no voice isolation. This is what it sounds like when I add
in voice isolation to the Sennheiser. Why am I? There's plenty of room for me to stand up. I guess I'm trying to
angle my voice over here. There's, this is what the
MKH 50 sounds like with voice isolation in Final Cut Pro. Take off the voice isolation, come back
over here and sit down like normal. A little closer to the microphone. This is the MKH 50, and this is the
Audio Technica, the Audio Technica mic without any voice isolation, just running
directly into the Rodecaster Pro II. Now another thing you might notice is
because these microphones are further away from me, there are no issues
with plosives on either of them. The Audio Technica, no explosive
problems and the Sennheiser no plosive problems because I'm so far away
from them that it's not an issue and that's how the microphones are
intended to be used is from a distance. So even though up close, they're
very susceptible to plosives. Far away they are not. And back to the Audio Technica AT897. Now as you can see, these microphones
do have very different sound qualities. They don't sound exactly the same,
but neither one is better or worse. They're just different. So which one you prefer is just
a matter of personal preference. And again, you can EQ mics
to suit different needs. The thing about microphones and
the same goes with camera reviews. We'll go back to the Sennheiser now. Is that sometimes what can happen is you
can compare things and go, look, this really cheap version can get the same
quality as this really expensive version. And that can be true, but a
big part of that is how easy it is to get that quality. And one thing with the Sennheiser MKH 50
is since I started using it, it has become so much easier to get high quality audio
in my videos than it ever was before. And normally I just run it into this
audio handle of the Sony FX3, so I don't even have to sync the audio or anything. It's a very, very easy workflow. Now over here on the Audio Technica
microphone, A big problem sometimes when you use the really cheap version of things
is that even though the end result can be fine, the road to get there, the "Rode" to get there is a nightmare
and it's like so much work and it's such a clunky workflow. That is not the case with the Audio
Technica AT897, and that's why I feel so bad that I just kind of took
it for granted and totally forgot about it as an option, which is why
I really wanted to make this video, to just point out that this is a
really awesome, really underrated option if you're looking for a good,
solid, versatile shotgun microphone. And while a microphone like the Sennheiser
MKH 50 is has been kind of one of the most revolutionary tools that I've introduced
into my workflow ever, and I think that it is worth every penny you pay for it. It's also a lot of, that's a lot of
pennies and maybe, maybe not everybody wants to spend that on a microphone. The Audio Technica AT897, that
super catchy name is just a really super solid choice. And speaking of things that are super
solid, thank you to everyone who helps support my channel through Patreon
and YouTube Channel Memberships. The perks are the same between them, so
if you'd like to support the channel, whatever's easiest, whatever you prefer,
if it's YouTube or if it's Patreon. You get the same perks. Either way it is GREATLY appreciated and
helps me to do more of what I love to do. And if you're interested in that
Sennheiser MKH 50, check out my full review along with the comparison of
the MKH 50 versus the Sennheiser MKH 416, another legendary microphone.
