Testing Out A $10 Microphone // Improve Your Videos on the Cheap
Hi Friends!
There are a lot of factors that go into making a good video - but one of THE most important things is audio quality! If the audio in your videos is crackly or echoey - it will be really hard for people to watch all the way through.
A mic is oftentimes one of the most expensive pieces of gear though. The mic that I usualy use is the $300 Apogee Mic. If you are just getting started in vlogging, or spending that much on a mic is not in the budget - then finding a cheaper alternative can be a good hack to improving your videos on the cheap.
3 Different Tests
In this video, I test the following three filming scenarios - both with and without the Lav Mic.
- Filming indoors where you won't have much background noise
- Filming outdoors where you have a lot of background noise
- Filming on a laptop for live streaming, screen share videos, zoom/skype interviews etc.
Click HERE if you want to see the exact mic I bought. It says $11.99 on amazon - but when I added it to my cart, there was a coupon that brought it down another dollar. Full disclaimer - I didn't do a ton of research on "the best" $10 mic. This one just popped up on Amazon with good reviews and I went for it.
Thoughts?
WOW, I can't believe how good this mic sounded for only $10!! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the different tests too though. The one thing that kind of surprised me was in the final test on my laptop. I actually tested it 3 ways - no mic, apple headphones mic, and the lav mic. The lav mic definitely sounded better than the apple headphones - but it wasn't drastic. I didn't realize the apple headphone mic was that decent!
I really hope you guys enjoyed this video and found it helpful! If you have any questions on things I covered - please let me know.
I hope you all have an awesome Saturday! I'm heading out the door to attend a huge Arts Festival down by the water! <3
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Great video @coruscate. I do video production actually for a living so we always use very expensive mics. haha. It is so true good sound quality is huge! That 10 dollar mic is pretty cool. Although, it sounded like it was peaking something fierce at times. Just need to adjust the levels in your editing program, and if it is blowing out while filming you would want to adjust the gain on your camera so it isn't clipping. Which would make it sound even better. I personally liked the sound of not using the mic in the outside shot, but that is my personal preference. And of course your Apogee in your sound controlled studio is the best choice. haha If people want a similar style mic, the Blue Yeti is a popular choice and sounds very good. But again those are like 130 on Amazon. I use shotgun mics, a video mic pro with a mixer on my DSLR camera, or a Rode NTG-3 in the studio. I wish my home studio, which is my kitchen and dining room, was better sound controlled. haha, and one of my lights is a tungsten Halogen, so it is fairly loud, someday I will buy new lights. haha.
Wow giving this comment a bigger vote than usual because it is so freaking helpful and I want everyone who visits this post to see it! Thanks so much for lending us your expertise and detailing some info on all these different mics and applications.
Yeah it's hard to control the sound in such a large room. That's part of why I recently switched from filming in my living room to this little space. I liked the backdrop in my living room - but it sounded too echoey. For your food videos though - it makes sense you need to be in the kitchen! :)
Well thank you very much! And you are welcome, my pleasure. I am glad I could help you out. :) Someday I will start a little Video Production 101 series here on Steemit/DTube. Maybe it will help people improve their video projects. Still don't know how I want to do it, but I think it would be fun to do.
I think that's a great idea!! I know a lot of people (myself included) would find a series like that helpful. I just self-teach myself on the fly with YouTube videos and always love it when I can pick up tips from some of the more professional content producers here on the platform. :)
Well thanks! I will have to develop it then and put together a plan. And start making videos for that series. I figure I could do one a week. right now I do Gardening or Kitchen Vlog on Mondays, random Tuesdays, random on Wednesdays, Cooking on Thursdays, Creative Date Idea "Date Night" Fridays, and Cryptocurrency Saturdays. Sunday is my day off. lol :) So I could pick maybe the Tuesday or Wednesday for the day for The Video Production posts, and leave the other day for my random steemit/Dtube style posts, or like my coin collection post, I also have another collection I want to make a video about "My Star Wars" one. lol. And I want to do board game reviews as well. So many interests and fun things to talk about. I like having a variety show. haha
3:30 if no microphone is used in the test, how can I hear you? 😂
Anyway, I have a more expensive (but still cheap) $20 mic which I think is worth the extra $10. It appears that this $10 mic is not compatible with DSLRs, however the $20 one I have is fully compatible with professional cameras, which means if I want to upgrade my camera gear to DSLR I do not have to buy a new mic as my mic is already fully compatible with it. Also it's 6 metres long, which is a bonus!
Let me know if you want the link to the $20 mic I use for all my videos! 😉
haha sorry @techoderx - I should have clarified the "no mic" part! I am just recording with the internal mic and have no additional mic in those segments.
You should definitely drop the link for that $20 mic here!! I bet a lot of people would find that helpful! :)
The $20 mic is Boya BY-M1
https://amzn.to/2LXpXRu
Thanks for the help in pointing out a decent quality mic . Decent audio is lacking in my videos. I think I will look into picking one of these up soon-
I'm so glad you found this video helpful!! I've been so curious if these cheap mic's are any good - and was pretty surprised at what good job it did for the price point.
Have a good day!
I just ordered this mic, it might improve my videos... have you tried clipping the mic on your clothes outside and does that work?? It looks a little impractical to hold the mic in the hand, but the sound is much better with the mic also outside.
I'm so glad you found this video helpful! I don't know what I was thinking just holding the mic outdoors. (insert facepalm) So I purposely filmed my latest vlog outdoors with the mic clipped to my shirt so you can see how it sounds. I think the audio actually came through pretty good!
Let the freak out and use it on a white shirt. Holy crap it works very well. My gosh, test 2, clip the mic to your shirt, not holding it, haha. Test 3 its similar to Apple headphones. I actually think if you mess with editing the sound, you could easily use that mic outdoors. Im going to get one for sure. Maybe not the $10 one I want something slightly smaller then the one you have and also a 2 piece set for people I'm with. great editing in this video @coruscate!
Let the freak out. LOL love it.
Yeah I don't know what I was thinking holding the mic up during the outdoor test. (my bad) Your not the only one who complained about that so I purposely filmed my latest vlog outdoors with the lav mic clipped to my shirt so people could get a truer sense of the mic sound quality.
If you end up getting a 2 piece set - let me know what you decide to buy! I've thought about getting one too and would love to hear what you think of whatever one you choose. :)
Awesome video @coruscate
I have a SmartLav+ which is a high quality version of what you've tested here, but for some reason it doesn't work when plugged into my mac.. so I only use it with my iPhone.
I'd much rather use one of these instead of my apple earphones for streaming and interviews, so might check it out. Thanks.
Ooh that's interesting it doesn't work on your mac. I was SUPER happy when it worked on both devices - because I wasn't sure how that would all go down. I'm excited to use this little mic for streams and interviews as well. I may eventually upgrade to a better lav mic - but for now this will work for me! :)
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my video!
It is true that a good microphone means good audio in the video, but sometimes the microfilm companies inflate their prices to sell something for $ 600 that offers the same quality of one of $ 150.
But I liked the way you test the quality of the microphones, now I have other ways to test a microphone before buying it :D
I'm so glad you found this video helpful @fabian98! Yeah i'm sure there is probably a big markup on some of those expensive mics! I do think getting a quality mic can be a great investment - but I just wanted to show in this video that you can make it by with something cheap. :)
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my video!
Your video proves that we shouldn't always depend upon the price tag. If someone needs microphone under this value, they can definitely get some. This was helpful for me. Appreciate your work.
I'm so glad you found this video helpful @broken.humor!! I'm all about hacking your way to better content until you can afford the top shelf stuff. It's easy to get caught in the trap of spending tons of money on equipment - but I'm of the mind to slowly upgrade as finances allow. :)
There is little difference between the no mic and with mic but the mic of $10 is cool. The indoor without mic is more than audible than with mic
I'm glad you enjoyed this video! I noticed a huuuuge difference, but that's what great about tests like this - It's just to show people both sides so they can decide for themselves if it's worth it or not. :) Your right too that filming indoors without a mic isn't too bad anyway because of the limited background noise.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my video!
Yeah, sometimes if we look for something very well, even cheap things are good. ☺
So true! This isn't the best lav mic out there - but for someone who is on a shoestring budget - it could definitely do the trick! I'll totally be using this in some of my outdoor videos where I want to be hands free and not carry around my regular mic. :)