greetings earthlings today i'm back with a review of a brand new broadcast condenser microphone from
earthworks that microphone that we're discussing and the only thing that we'll be discussing
because we will not be discussing this train wreck right here is the earthworks ethos
if you are interested in this mic it will cost you seven hundred dollars if you want the matte
black version it will cost seven hundred and fifty dollars and like always i'll throw some
links in the description down below also in the sake of full disclosure i do need to let you know
that earthworks sent me this microphone free of charge so that i am able to make this video
but with that out of the way for this video i have the microphone connected directly to
the focusrite 18i20 second gen my gain is set at around one o'clock recording 24 bit 48 kilohertz
and i will not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it a little bit in post
so check the dooblydoo to see what i diddly did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
first you are going to get the microphone you'll get an already installed foam windscreen an
already installed triad orbit microphone mount a 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter
and a single sheet of documentation then as far as the build quality of this thing it feels
absolutely outstanding the entire body is milled out of a single piece of stainless steel and it
feels incredibly robust when we take off the foam you can see that it has this metal grille here
that is incredibly robust as well and if we put it right next to an sm-7b you can tell it looks
like a shiny cute miniaturized version with the body and that grille if we look at the front of
the steel cage though you will see that it is open and you have a much finer metal mesh
to add a bit more wind protection then as we look around the microphone there are no buttons
or switches this is just a basic plug and play xlr microphone on the rear you will find the xlr port
and if it matters to you this microphone is assembled in the usa then as far as the specs
this microphone has a super cardioid polar pattern a frequency response of 20 hertz to 30 kilohertz
a sensitivity of around negative 34 db a self noise of 16 dba a max spl of 145 db an impedance
of 65 ohms and a phantom power requirement of plus 24 to plus 48 volts now i am spinning around the
ethos to 90 degrees so you can hear the off axis rejection and coloration we'll continue around the
microphone to 180 degrees here's the rear of the mic continuing around the microphone to the second
90 degree angle there we are and then we will rotate and end at the front of the microphone
now let's test the plosive rejection of this microphone with the provided foam windscreen
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto
now i'm right on top of the microphone to demonstrate the proximity effect on this thing
now i'm about three inches off of the microphone with it pointed at the corner of my mouth
and here is how it's sounding now i'm about one foot away from the mic now we're about two feet
away from the microphone and about four feet away from the microphone now i am typing on a keyboard
with gatoron blue switches to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up
and for the gaming folk out there now i am typing on the sad w and spacebar keys
here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
there you can see the microphone is right in frame a couple inches away from my mouth
and here is how the mic sounds in a completely untreated room
now i want to test the shock rejection of this microphone so i'll start by tapping
on my desk to see how much of that noise it can reject and then i'll tap on the boom arm
and just to be thorough i'm now going to tap on the body of the
microphone to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
and now i want to see what kind of effect the provided foam windscreen has on the tone of the
recording so currently i have the provided foam windscreen installed and here is how it's sounding
and now i have removed the foam windscreen and you can really hear the top end just open up and
come to life so you can really use that to your benefit when i was recording the acoustic guitar
and electric guitar which you'll hear later i took off the foam to really capture a bit more of that
top end so that is what the foam windscreen does to the recording i'll put it back on so you can
hear it one more time before we move on and here we are with the foam windscreen installed on the
microphone again and it dampens down that top end quite a bit and now like we always do we're
going to do a quick spoken word comparison between the mic that we're reviewing and a bunch of other
microphones on the market we are starting at a fairly high price point with the sm7b
that's because this is a very high price point microphone and we will also be including a couple
of other broadcast condensers so you can hear how it compares against those like always we'll
start on the mic that we're reviewing this is the ethos i am three inches away from the end of it
gain at one o'clock and here's how it sounds all right we're starting at a very high price
point this is the shure sm7b and neutral mode i turned off 48 volts my gain is at 100 percent
three inches off from the end of this microphone and here is how it sounds four hundred dollars
versus seven hundred dollars dynamic versus condenser let's jump back and do more of these
back on the ethos nothing has changed and here's how it's sounding let's jump to the next mic now
i am on the road broadcaster this is another broadcast condenser microphone this goes for
four hundred and twenty dollars insert a bunch of internet jokes haha very funny it says 420.
i am three inches off my gain is at one o'clock and 48 volts is on and here's how it sounds
when i make disgusting mouth clicks i hated that or maybe i just heard that in my head i don't know
next microphone we are back on the ethos again the foam windscreen is still installed because that's
how the majority of people will be using it and here's how it sounds let's jump to the next mic
now we are on the electro voice re20 i am three inches off of this thing my gain is just shy
of 100 so i would say maybe 445 ish this goes for about 450 and this is a dynamic microphone
here's how it sounds let's jump back to the earthworks and do more comparisons
this is the fourth comparison i am back on the ethos and here's how it's sounding let's joke
next one or something now we are on a more affordable option from earthworks
this is the icon pro it costs five hundred dollars i am three inches off of this thing my
gain is still at one o'clock and here's how this sounds 500 versus 700 for the ethos what do you
hear as a difference which one do you like better let's jump back to the ethos and do a bunch more
of these things you would think that after 600 or a thousand videos however many videos i've made
on youtube i would be able to speak i am still unable to speak this is the ethos let's do another
microphone comparison now we are on the louton audio ls208 another broadcast condenser microphone
this costs 600 if i'm not mistaken i am in the neutral mode 48 volts on and my gain is at 430
because this is a very quiet condenser microphone but there you go lauton audio ls208 with the
provided foam windscreen on for you and let's jump back to the ethos and do more comparisons
this is the earthworks ethos again three inches off gain at one o'clock check the lower third to
see how much i boost each of these in post and let's jump to the sixth seventh eighth i don't
know where we are next one next we are on the neumann kms105 a super cardioid or hypercardioid
handheld condenser microphone this costs 700 i am three inches off of the end of this thing my
gain is at four o'clock and here is how a handheld stage condenser microphone sounds like compared to
a broadcast condenser microphone let's do more alright we are back on the ethos again nothing
has changed just listen to my voice on this to get a feel for the tone of this and let's jump to the
next one now we are on the earthworks sr314 this is another handheld stage condenser microphone
this costs seven hundred dollars i am three inches off of this my gain is at one o'clock and here
is how this sounds compared to the ethos one made for stage vocals another made for broadcast vocals
what do you hear as a difference let me know in the comments i know what i hear
but you tell me and let's do two more comparisons is this the eighth comparison here i have no idea
but we have the magic of post-production so i will go ahead and make this the eighth in the
lineup next microphone now we are on the neumann bcm705 this is neumann's only dynamic microphone
and it is a broadcast dynamic i am three inches off of this thing my gain is set just shy of 100
i would venture a guess and say 447 on a clock dial and here's how this sounds did i say 700
broadcast dynamic three inches off let's jump back and do one final comparison and i think you
know what it's gonna be and i think i already said that in this next bit too whatever and if i am not
mistaken this is going to be the final microphone that we can pair it against you all know what it's
going to be but first up this is the ethos let's jump to the last microphone and finally we are on
the neumann u87ai this is meant to function as a control from video to video to video
it's not a fair comparison in 99 of these videos but this is a multi-pattern condenser microphone
3600. cardioid mode no high-pass filter notepad gain at 11 o'clock three inches off and here's
how it sounds that's that's all i've got those are the comparisons let's jump to the music test now
is this mike realistic or does it do me favors because i'll tell you one thing i need all the
help i can get yeah if you're viewing microphones as different styles of paint the paint that i'm
looking for is a paint that will sufficiently cover the entire original image where nothing that
was originally there is visible anymore that's what i'm looking for let's go to the conclusion
okay i know people are going to disagree with me when i make this statement but i think this is the
best sounding broadcast condenser that i have ever tried but first up as far as pros the microphone
did an outstanding job at plosive rejection when you use the provided foam windscreen it also did a
great job at handling noise rejection and shock rejection which is always nice in a broadcast
studio so you don't have to worry about as much handling noise of a boom arm or anything also like
all earthworks microphones the build quality of the chassis leaves nothing to be desired
and just like the icon pro the triad orbit mount is an absolute joy to use but then as far as
cons i do think that the proximity effect on this microphone can get a bit overwhelming and as far
as the background noise rejection it is pretty good but it still picked up quite a bit of the
clickiness of my keyboard and quite a bit of room tone in the untreated space and now what are my
overall thoughts and opinions of this microphone on the electric guitar it's a very similar story
to the sr-314 it has a pretty controlled low end the mids are nice and pleasing and detailed
but the top end is so articulate and extended that it captures something that is uncommon on
the electric guitar and it ends up coming across a little bit fizzy a little bit sizzly because
those are frequencies and sounds that are not typically captured on the electric guitar then on
the acoustic guitar i definitely heard more mids than i was expecting but it was still a pleasing
and smooth midsection the lows were controlled and nothing boomy down there and the top end was
articulate but it didn't come across sharp next up for singing i wasn't the biggest fan of it with
the provided foam windscreen i think that it tamed the top end a bit too much so if you're using it
for that application i would take off the provided foam windscreen and use a transparent external
pop filter that way you can get some really nice detailed and really articulate vocals similar to
the sr 314 and finally for spoken word that is my favorite application for this microphone the low
end has this really appealing weight and body to it but it doesn't come across as muddy or unclear
the mids are incredibly detailed and clean but it doesn't come across as scooped and it completely
avoids any kind of nasalness to it which is wonderful to listen to and then the top end
is crisp detailed and articulate but it doesn't come across as overly sibilant it doesn't become
fatiguing i just love this thing on spoken word and to wrap up would i recommend the earthworks
ethos for spoken word absolutely i'll start by saying compared to something like the sr-314 it
doesn't create that same sense of excitement when you first hear it because it does have a more tame
top end which may not come across as realistic and it's not as hyper detailed and articulate
as something like the icon pro but for long form podcast and broadcasting i think that's a benefit
for the ethos because over an hour two hours four hours those higher frequencies might become
fatiguing for the listener but if you're looking at this microphone solely for music applications
i think it becomes quite a difficult sell because for seven hundred dollars you can get much more
versatile microphones out there but if you bought this for spoken word and then you want to record
some music i think you can absolutely use this and get great results i just don't think you should be
buying this exclusively for music and the last thing that i want to say is if earthworks comes
out with a foam windscreen that is compatible with the sr314 or the icon pro i'll definitely pick
that up and try them out to see if it can bring either of these other microphones closer in line
with the earthworks ethos and that's it for today but i want to pass a question off to you i know i
am bold by saying this is the best sounding broadcast condenser that i have tried out i
want to hear from you what do you think about this microphone do you think it is the best sounding
broadcast condenser or do you think one of these other condenser microphones or a broadcast dynamic
beat it out let me know in the comments down below and let's have a conversation about that but if
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