I Need Help Identifying a Specific Microphone

[evansste]

I'm seeking help identifying a microphone that I've seen in a YouTube video. It's a desk microphone, and its quality and capability are quite noticeable. However, the creator of the video, doesn't tell us which microphone she's using. I've asked in her comment's section. However, I haven't received a response. For this reason, I'm hoping that an audio community, with experience in audio equipment, may be able to help.

I've attached a still image from the video. In this image, you'll see that she's pointing at the microphone, on her desk.

Can anyone identify this microphone? I love the quality, and am seriously considering using one, in order to make videos.

If you want to watch the whole video, here's a link:



If you're able to identify this microphone, then I'd love to hear from you. Her audio is fantastic, and she doesn't even have to be that close to the microphone. I'd love to know what she's using.

Thanks for your time and attention. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous User]

My guess.
Blue Yeti (or possibly Blue Yeti Nano)

 

[Steenamaroo]

That's a Rode NT1, but a really old one going by the body colour.

They show the various iterations at the start of this video.

 

[rob aylestone]

Rather nice mics too!

 

[gecko zzed]

I have one. One of the early Rode NT1 mikes.

 

[evansste]

This is some really great input. Thanks, everyone.

"gecko zzed", you say that you have one. Would you be willing to confirm whether or not it works while your mouth is about two feet away from it?

This is the aspect that got my attention, most, when I watched her video. It's just setting on her desk, a few feet away. Yet, she has great audio. When I look at a lot of the people using the NT1, in other videos, their mouth is only a few inches away. Perhaps this is just the way that most professionals record.

Her microphone does look like the Rode NT1; as many of you are pointing out. However, after a few quick searches, I don't see anyone using it at a distance of a few feet. Is it that the microphone is capable, but they're just not doing it?

Thanks, again, for all of your input.

 

[rob aylestone]

ah - you're getting confused about the image vs the sound. I have recorded choirs with NT1s from a distance of 4 or more metres away - and the output level, and internal noise mean distance is no issue at all. It is not a low output mic like the Shure SM7B. However, they are actually more troublesome close in. Not in any 'faulty' way. They are a fairly normal studio large diaphragm microphone, and if you go in close they pop and blast from your nose and mouth air flow. The cure, like ALL studio mics is pop shields. Either the mesh type, but that looks a bit silly in videos, so you can use the larger foam windshields if you must go in close.

If you go in close, the sound warms up and gets bassier - because it's a cardioid mic, and cardioids, apart from specially designed ones, increase bass and warmth as soon as you get more than 6" or so away, and as you get closer from that point, the change in tone is very obvious.

Most podcast/video mics are designed for close in use and the frequency response is adjusted to make them more neutral. This mic is well known for having clean, clear sound with clarity, but of course it then also needs protection. Getting close to an NT1 naked is risky, but the same applies to all the great mics - U87 Neumans, and the TLM103s, plus AKG 414s and tons of others.

 

[evansste]

Thanks, rob, that really helps.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Whether a mic sounds good for speech at that kind of distance or not really depends on the room.

In an empty, reflective, 'live' room, you're going to hear the effect less and less the closer you are to the microphone.

Her room is a little live but it doesn't sound terrible.
Seems like a fairly small room with a lot of stuff in it.

The same mic and setup in an empty and/or larger room wouldn't sound as good.

 

[evansste]

Thanks, Steenamaroo. Ironically, I recently watched a video that touched on this very subject.

My room isn't all that small. However, it does have carpeting, and doesn't have any sort of echo. So, I'm hoping it'll work well enough, without any sort of sound treatment.

Thanks for your input.

 

[TalismanRich]

You might think it doesn't have any echo, but a quick and dirty way to test that is to set up a microphone, hit record, and clap your hands a few times. Then when you look at the wave form, you'll see the various reflections. Do it from 10 ft and the reflections will be much stronger vs the initial clap. Get 1 ft away and the initial clap will be much stronger relative to the reflections. Add in proximity boost from being close to a cardioid microphone and you get a BIG dry sound, which a lot of people love. A little touch of reverb and you sound like a pro singer!!!! (or so you might feel).

 

[evansste]

Thanks for the echo tips. I just bought the Rode NT1 5th generation microphone, on Amazon. So, I guess, how it sounds, will be the ultimate test; in terms of echo, etc.

I truly do appreciate all of the suggestions, and feedback, that all of you have provided. You all have been a great help.

 

[TalismanRich]

I bought an NT1 years ago, and it's still one of the first mics I pull out when I fire up the recorder. They are incredibly quiet and I think they sound good. The 5th gen model has the USB connector as well as the XLR. The USB would be great for a quick and easy recording without having to carry an interface around. With 32bit floating point, you don't need to worry as much about levels.

 

[rob aylestone]

I set this clip to the point where I move away from the mic in my video studio - so you can hear the change in sound. Oddly, I use the SM7B mic always at a distance - a couple of feet usually - but I moved further away. My studio is fairly dead, so not really a boxy sound.
We also need to use correct terminology. An echo is where you can hear a distinct second version of the sound. Up to this point, it is reverberation - not echo.

 

[evansste]

Thanks so much, Rob, for providing that video. It shows exactly what I wanted to see.

In the video, you're easily more than two feet away from the microphone, and your audio sounds really good.

Thanks for providing clear evidence of what these high-quality microphones are capable of. This is exactly the kind of quality that the woman shows in the video that I originally watched.

 

[Steenamaroo]

There may be 'er well actually' nuances but, broadly speaking, a microphone's not much different to your ear.

Talking to someone at 10 foot in a cosy furnished room isn't a problem at all,
but talking at 10 feet in a parking garage might be.
If you came up and spoke in to the persons ear in that parking garage, the ambient effect is reduced drastically.

A microphone has the same experience.


With microphone distance you're always dealing with a ratio - direct sound to reflected sound.
The farther away a microphone is from the source, your mouth in this case, the louder reflections off walls ceilings are going to be, relative to the source.
That's 'hearing the room'.


In short, if your room sounds bad then recording at distance in that room will sound bad.

 

[rob aylestone]

The trouble is that in a small room, with hard walls, each one is parallel to another, so your voice hits at least 4 surfaces that then reflect the sound back out to hit another and another. Move away from the mic and the stuff it captures that is via one, two or three bounces is pretty unpleasant. Just have an experiment in your space. Any equipment to be honest will capture the sound. Want you want is as much direct sound as possible and as little reflected sound.

 

[ecc83]

"my room isn't all that small" Oh yes it is! You see Evan, in acoustic terms, even a fairly big, for most of us, room of 4000 cu ft is "small" and untreated will introduce unpleasant reverberation.

A good fix for next to nothing is to rig a heavy blanket or duvet on a horizontal boom stand* behind the mic so you talk to that but do the same behind you because the mic's strongest pickup is of course the front and the 'verb will come in over your head.
For a really 'honky' room you can build an absorbent "roof" as well but it is rare to have to go to such lengths.

*Or borrow "Er indoor's clothes horse if peeps have such things any more?

Dave.

 

[Papanate]

The trouble is that in a small room, with hard walls, each one is parallel to another, so your voice hits at least 4 surfaces that then reflect the sound back out to hit another and another. Move away from the mic and the stuff it captures that is via one, two or three bounces is pretty unpleasant. Just have an experiment in your space. Any equipment to be honest will capture the sound. Want you want is as much direct sound as possible and as little reflected sound.

In small rooms that are reflective I find a Vocal Shield useful at reducing the errant reflections -