Best Microphone for YouTube Videos? | Blog Universes

Best Microphone for YouTube Videos?

So one of the most important parts of good video is having good audio, and in this video, I'm gonna be reviewing and comparing some of the best microphones for YouTube videos, as well as sharing my favorite $25 audio accessory that every creator needs. Hey what's up, Shashank here, bringing you the best tips and tools for building your influence with online video. And on this Blog, we do a lot of tips and strategy Blogs as well as tech review just like this one. I'll list out all of the gear mentioned as well as anything else I forgot. Let's jump into the video. So audio is one of the most important parts of every video. In fact, a lot of times people will tolerate low video quality, but they'll give up quick on a video if it has bad audio quality, right? Let me know in the comments if you can relate to that. No matter how much you're into the content, if the audio is hard to hear, or it's not very good, or if it even hurts your ears, you'll bail on the content right away. And so, leveling up our audio for our videos is so important, and one of the best ways to do that of course is by investing in microphones. Now one of the most popular styles of microphones for YouTube videos are shotgun mics. You'll see this in a lot of the Canon Video Creator Kits. They include the camera as well as a shotgun mic so you can just mount it right on top of the camera, and this is a great improvement for audio. And towards the end of the video, we're gonna be doing some comparisons between a couple different shotgun mic options.

But I want to share one of my favorite audio accessories with you first, 'cause I really believe you could probably level up your current microphone just by using this tool. Now, the reality is if you mount the microphone on a camera like this, it's great for, say, vlogging when you're nice and close, or if you're sitting right in front of the camera with a wide-angle lens. But what happens when you get a little bit further away from a camera like this? Well of course, the audio quality goes down. That's why one of my favorite accessories to even use with a shotgun mic that you maybe already have, is a boom pole just like this one. This microphone boom stand allows you to get the microphone a lot closer to you if let's say I was sitting on the couch, and the camera was five feet away, six, seven, eight feet away, if you have multiple people in the shot, or if you just don't want the camera right in your face with the wide-angle lens, having a way to get the microphone off of the camera and closer to you as the subject is super important. So let's talk about what's in this setup. Okay, so what's super-cool about this setup is you can use it with any microphone that would mount on the end here. So if you already have an existing mic, maybe adding this to your kit could really level up your audio. Now this is an on-stage stand, comes in at $25 here in the U.S., and it telescopes up from 36 to I believe 64 inches. So you can see this would work for a standing shoot as well as sitting down, if I was sitting on the couch here or anywhere else. 

So that's super nice, and then, I recommend a two-pack of the mounting threads, because just in case you don't know what size your microphone is, it's only about $5 for the little converter pieces. So you pick those up as well, and I'll link all of this in the description below. And then last thing is a 25 foot cable that will make it so that your mic will be able to extend and plug all the way in to your camera. So that's all you need, those three things together, The stand, the mounting piece, and the cable, and you should be able to use it with an existing microphone that you already have. Now, you can actually pick this up in a kit called the Studio Boom Kit on Amazon, and there's four different options. The first one is with the Rode VideoMic, this exact red one right here, and that comes in at $179, and it's just with basically everything you see here. If you go to $199, they also include the windsock, but you might not need that especially if you don't plan on shooting outside, but if you do, those Deadcats that slide on here are nice, if you plan on shooting in wind. And then they also have the same kit with the Rode mic pro version. And you can either get the pro, or the pro with the windsock as well and those are more expensive, so again details about all that stuff in the description below. Now actually let's jump in and do some tests to see how the audio sounds. For the first test, we'll actually try it with the microphone on the camera a few feet away from me sitting on the couch to see what that sounds like compared to how much better it sounds when we add the boom pole and get the mic much closer to me as the subject. Alright, so just for example's sake, this is the Rode VideoMic just on top of our camera, and so it's about five to seven feet away, plus I'm in a loft area that's pretty echoey here. So you can see that immediately, you're having a little bit better audio 'cause it's a pro mic, but as we integrate this boom pole and move the mic a lot closer, let's check out the difference in sound. Okay, so now you are hearing the Rode VideoMic Pro and it's only about 12 inches away from my mouth, so it's not in the shot because of the way it's composed. 

We have the camera at the same distance, but it gives you that better audio. And I would also say that it can be advantageous for other reasons. Instead of having the mic pointed forward and catching more of the echo off the walls, I actually have carpet around here, plus this is a fabric couch, and a little bit more audio dampening. I mean you decide, and let me know in the comments, compared to the last scene and how much echo there was in a very echoey loft here, compared to this scene with this boom pole and the mic at a down angle. So that is why this is one of my favorite tools for audio, because it's really versatile. You can use it in different shooting situations, if you wanna get further away from the camera. Definitely if you want to do group shots, a lot of times when Benji and I will shoot for video influencers, we will use this setup and it's perfect for having two people on a couch or even more, even three, or an interview setting. A lot of different things that you can do with this, and a good price, and something you can add to your kit. 

Even if you already have a microphone that you're using, you can just incorporate this. But now, let's test through a couple different mics on here. We're gonna test this VideoMicro that is not powered, you've already heard this one, we'll also do the Rode VideoMic Pro, and I'll even share a couple budget options for YouTube microphones as well. Alright, so now you're hearing the Rode VideoMicro on the boom pole. And this is a $60 microphone, so it's not powered at all, and it's also going over a 25 foot extension cable. So this will maybe give you an idea of what your audio will sound like if you're using one of the Rode mics or a different brand that doesn't have power. So now you're hearing the Rode VideoMic again. So I just wanted to put these in order. You just heard the Micro that comes in at $60 and is not powered, so now this one comes in at retail $150 here in the U.S., you could probably find it for about $130 online at different sites. And this one definitely sounds a little bit more robust and full than this last one, right? And it's also because it is powered, takes a 9-volt battery, and is a great sounding mic. However in the next scene, we're gonna test the pro version. This one doesn't really have any audio gain, that one has plus 20 dB gain on it, and is just a few more pro features. But this is a great mic, and you can actually grab this with the Studio Boom Kit on Amazon for $179 out the door if you don't have a mic yet, and that's actually a pretty good setup, 'cause you save a few dollars even on the accessories when you combo it all together. Meaning the boom pole, the cable, the little converter piece, and all of those things. 

So that's actually one of the best all-around audio setups for YouTube in my opinion. Okay, so now you're hearing the Rode VideoMic Pro. Now this mic comes in at around $220 here in the U.S., and has a couple extra features. Mainly, it has the ability to go plus 20 decibels and I've found that lately that hasn't mattered too much for us when we're shooting on Sony or Panasonic cameras. But we really use that plus 20 a lot when we shoot on Canon T7i, T6i, the Canon 70D, because the preamp in the camera is kind of noisy. So we actually go plus 20, and we turn the gain all way down to just one click up, and that sounds really good. And that's kind of our ideal audio setting for shooting with Canon, and this microphone doesn't have that plus 20 dB, so it's nice to have that and probably worth it to get the pro version, just for that reason alone. However, if you're on Panasonic or Sony, a lot of times we're just shooting with it at zero, and this is how it sounds. So we just compared a few different microphones, and I think that the results of all of those were great, right? I mean do you agree? I think they're all usable, workable audio for YouTube. Sounds professional, sounds clean. But they all are, they still cost a few bucks to even invest in, even that $60 mic so I did mention some budget options. And one of them is the TAKSTAR Shotgun Microphone. It's a $28 microphone that you could mount on the same setup, and it has a lot of great reviews. I have friends that use it, so I definitely recommend that if you really wanna be on a budget. If you were to get that microphone and still get this boom setup for around $50, $60 total out the door, you could get the shotgun microphone, the cable, the stand, and you'd have a great solution without breaking the bank. But my last budget option that's kinda off-topic with shotgun microphones but just in case you're really strapped, is using a lapel mic from BOYA. I've talked about this in other videos, it's the BY-M1, and this is $20 out the door. 

You don't need a boom pole, you don't need anything else, you just plug it straight into the camera, so let's hear how it sounds right now. Alright, so right now you are hearing the BOYA BY-M1, a $20 microphone, which as you can see, this is what it's gonna sound like. And it's a little bit different, right? You're gonna attach it to your shirt and it wouldn't work if you needed to have multiple people on camera or whatnot, which kinda goes to the fact that usually there's not one audio solution for every different scenario. But this is also a great solution especially if you just want to have a little bit better audio without spending too much, or if you want to get a more versatile setup, definitely checking out shotgun microphones with the boom pole. So I hope that those tips were valuable, but I realize there's a lot of other mics that we did not cover whether that's microphones for interviews, for live events, USB microphones for doing voiceovers or gaming, smartphone, there's so many different audio solutions so we actually have a whole series out. 

Question of the day! What microphone are you currently using to create your videos, Definitely post your comments down below. So thanks for checking out this Blog. Blog Universes is bringing you the best tips and tools for building your influence with online Blog.

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