greetings earthlings and bros today i'm back with a review of the microphone that pewdiepie uses so
i have no choice in doing this mic review so bad that microphone is the AKG c 4 1 4 XL 2 if you are
interested in this microphone it normally costs $1100 but currently it's on sale for $900 like
always i'll throw some links down below and for the majority of this review I have the microphone
connected directly to the Focusrite 18 i 22nd gen my gain is set at around 12:30 and i will not do
any kind of post-processing but i may boost it in post so check the doobly-doo to see what I did
Lee did and in case you're worried about me just running this thing through the Focusrite later I
will run it through an EEPROM into the universal audio x8 interface so you can hear how it sounds
on some higher-end stuff and now let's talk about what comes in the box but it's too heavy I don't
want to break everything so I am NOT going to throw it I apologize as I just alluded to it does
come in this really sturdy metal storage box of course you'll get the microphone you get a shock
mount a 5/8 to 3/8 inch microphone stand adapter a foam windscreen a pop filter a dust cover and
some documentation including measurements of your specific microphone then as far as
the build quality the microphone feels extremely well-put-together it has an all-metal body as well
as a metal mesh grille with a tiny bit of give to it and I'm not gonna squeeze it too much because
I don't want to dent it it weighs in at 300 grams on the front you have your polar pattern selection
switch to go between all 9 polar patterns and on the rear you have two buttons first a pad switch
to add a negative 6 negative 12 or negative 18 DB pad and a high pass filter switch to add a 40
80 or 100 60 Hertz high-pass filter then as far as the specs this microphone has nine different
polar patterns it has an omni a wide cardioid a cardioid a hyper-cardioid and a bi-directional
pattern and it also has all the in-between polar patterns as well it has a frequency response of
20 Hertz to 20 kilohertz a sensitivity of around negative 33 DB an impedance of 200
ohms an EIN of 6 DBA a max SPL of 140 DB or 158 DB depending on what patch you have engaged and
a dynamic range of 134 dB first thing that I want to do is go through all of the polar patterns on
this microphone so you can hear the different tones of each of those patterns first up I am
on the omnidirectional pattern and here is how the audio is sounding halfway between omnidirectional
and wide cardioid and here is how the audio sounds next up we are on the wide cardioid
polar pattern and here is how the mic sounds now we're halfway between wide cardioid and cardioid
and this is the tone of the mic now we are on the normal cardioid polar pattern and here is
how the audio sounds halfway between cardioid and hyper-cardioid and here is how the mic sounds now
we are on the full hyper-cardioid polar pattern and here is how the mic sounds second to last we
are halfway between hyper-cardioid and figure 8 polar pattern and this is how the mic sounds
and lastly we are on the figure 8 polar pattern and here is how the microphone sounds on this
setting now I am spinning around the microphone on the omnidirectional polar pattern so you can
hear how the tone of the mic changes as we move around the mics polar pattern next up we are on
the wide cardioid polar pattern moving to 90 degrees continuing around to 180 degrees then
continuing to the second 90 degree or 270 degree angle and rotating and ending at the front of the
mic next we are on the regular cardioid polar pattern moving around 290 degrees here's how
it sounds continuing around to 180 degrees the dead area in the back rotating and continuing
to 270 degrees and then rotating and ending at the front of the mic here we are on the
hyper cardioid polar pattern moving to 90 degrees here's how it sounds from the side continuing to
180 degrees which does have a lobe of sensitivity continuing to 270 degrees from this side and then
rotating and ending at the front and lastly we have the figure 8 pole pattern moving around to
the first a dead area and 90 degrees continuing around to 180 degrees which has another lobe of
sensitivity continuing around to and rotating and ending at the front of the mic now let's
test the plosive rejection of this thing and I will be a little bit gentle with this thing
because I don't want to damage it please bring Pizza pronto please bring Pizza pronto please
bring Pizza pronto now I am right on top of the microphone without any high pass filter engaged
on the cardioid polar pattern and here is how it sounds about three inches off of the microphone
with a pointed at the corner of my mouth on the cardioid polar pattern and here is how the audio
sounds one foot away from the microphone two feet away from the microphone microphone now I
am typing on a keyboard with cherry MX blue to see how much of my voice is how much of the keyboard
it picks up and for all you elite PewDiePie gamer boys out there now I am typing on the
sad W keys here's how the microphone sounds in a well treated room and here is how the microphone
sounds in a completely untreated room with the polar pattern on cardioid and hyper-cardioid
now I am right on top of the microphone on the cardioid mode to really accentuate the proximity
effect and I will switch on the high-pass filters so you can hear how those affect the sound right
now I don't have any high pass filter engaged now I have engaged the 40 Hertz high-pass filter and
here is how the microphone sounds next up I've engaged the 80 Hertz high-pass filter and you
can hear it really starts to attenuate that lower end and lastly I've engaged the one hundred and
sixty Hertz high-pass filter which should roll off a lot of the lower frequencies and here is
how the audio sounds now let's go ahead and see how much the provided foam windscreen effects the
tone of the mic so right now I am three inches off of the mic on the cardioid mode no foam windscreen
installed and here is how the audio sounds and now I am in the exact same but I have installed
the provided foam windscreen and here is how the audio compares now let's see how effective
the provided shock mount is at rejecting bumps of the desk as well as the boom arm now I want
to do a very quick comparison between the xl2 and a bunch of other condenser microphones around the
same price point so you can hear how it stacks up against its competition right now I'm speaking
into the c4 one for Excel 2 at 3 inches away and here's how the microphone sounds first up in the
comparison is the SE electronics SE 4400 a which you may think has a very similar form factor to
the XL 2 but it is at half the price so $500 I am 3 inches off of the mic with the exact same
gain setting on the cardioid mode and here is how the mic compares just to make the comparison
a little bit easier I am back on the 4 1 4 XL 2 so you can hear this before we jump to the next
mic now we have jumped down in price a little bit to the rode nt1 which is 270 dollars I am
3 inches off of this mic it is only a cardioid microphone gain said exactly the same and here
is how the audio compares back on the XL 2 as a palate cleanser before we jump to the next
microphone in this comparison next up I am on the new Austrian audio OC 8 1 8 in the cardioid
polar pattern no pad no high-pass filter at 3 inches with the exact same gain and you can see
how much I boosted it in the lower third but here is how the Austrian audio sounds in comparison to
the AKG which is the company that Austrian audio folks used to work at how cool is that surprise
surprise we're back on the xl2 so you can hear this microphone before we jump to the next test
Hey look at that the microphones look almost identical now now I am speaking into the C 4
1 4 XLS which is a little bit cheaper than the xl2 but I have it on the cardioid mode no pad
no high pass filter 3 inches off of the mic exact same gain setting and here is how the microphone
compares do xl2 how cool we're back on the xl2 so you can hear how this thing sounds before we jump
to another microphone now I am speaking into the NOI mantilla LM 103 which is also around $1,100
I am 3 inches off of the microphone exact same gain and here is how the microphone compares to
the XL - we're back on the XL - again so you can hear how this sounds before we jump to another mic
and the last microphone in this comparison is the neumann u87 ai which is 3200 - $3,600 i have the
exact same gain setting at 3 inches off of the mic cardioid polar pattern no pad no high-pass
filter and here is how this microphone compares to the $1,100 XL - now so you can get an idea
of how a microphone of this caliber performs in a better situation I am going to run this
microphone through the Neve portico 50:17 through the Universal Audio X 8 so you can hear how that
sounds but here is a baseline sample of the XL to 3 inches off of my mouth running through the
Focusrite 18 i 22nd gen and here is how it sounds and now I have the xl2 running into the portico
50 17 with my gain set at 36 dB I do not have the high-pass filter the silk circuit or any of
the compressor compressor compressor engaged and that is running line-level into the X 8
and here is how this microphone and setup sounds compared to something like the Focusrite 18 I 20
myk's all day if I had my way
if I could you know I would test mics all day but I've got there I need to
so I can
got to pay your bills boy you can't just play with microphones he says talking into a stupid
expensive mic I know I'm a hypocrite or whatever okay so I think there is a very good reason why
you will find these microphones in studios all over the world and first up in terms of pros
would be the versatility this thing has nine polar patterns three different high passes
and three pads meaning it would be very easy to adjust this mic to fit whatever use case you have
also it has an insanely high SPL at 158 DB and it has a really low self-noise at 6 DBA I also
found the off-axis coloration to be very minimal and the coloration that was there wasn't really
unpleasant which can be something that's an issue on some lower end condensers the build quality on
this mic is also absolutely excellent and the accessories that come with it are top nut the
shock mount does an excellent job the pop filter that comes with it does an excellent job it just
comes with everything that you need to get a good recording and then in terms of cons if I
can be hyper hyper critical the upper frequencies aren't of the smoothest that I have heard I would
like to have them a little bit smoother but by no stretch of the imagination is the upper end of
this microphone harsh and now what are my overall thoughts of this microphone on the electric guitar
I absolutely loved it on that instrument I did find between 100 and 200 Hertz there was
a bit much going on there so you could benefit from pulling that down a little bit but in the
top-end I found the boost to add a really nice bite to the over driven guitar and when I came
in with a lead guitar and started playing towards the top of the neck it didn't lose that nice bite
but at no time did it become grating or harsh or piercing it kept that nice tone the entire
time then on the acoustic guitar I think it has a really nice amount of weight to it in the low
end but again between 100 and 200 Hertz I think there's a bit too much going on there and an EQ
could really benefit you but in the top-end it was crystal clear and it had some amazing
articulation that I loved on that instrument next up for singing the main thing that stood
out to me was how much clarity and detail the mic had but it didn't get fatiguing to listen
to and because of that I really enjoyed it for that application and lastly for spoken a word I
was a bit surprised to hear how neutral the mid section sounded especially compared to some of
the Noi means which have a much more mid forward sound and have a bit more nasal anis to them this
microphone didn't have that and it also has a very crisp top end which makes it very clear
what you're trying to say so if you're looking for a darker microphone maybe a smoother top end in my
opinion this microphone isn't going to offer that for you so what I recommend the AKG c4 1
4 XL - absolutely I would these microphones are found in studios across the world for a reason
they are absolute workhorses do you need them for gaming videos on YouTube no it is absolutely
overkill but if you're making music I think it is an excellent choice because at least in my
limited tests I found it to work extremely well on everything that I threw at it so if you need
one or two microphones to fill out your microphone Locker I think this is an excellent option alright
that is going to wrap up for today but I would love to hear from you and the commas down below
what do you think of this microphone do you think Felix or PewDiePie is nuts for having it or do
you think he's a genius let me know down below if you found this video fun interesting or helpful go
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you all so much for watching thank you so much for listening I will talk to you next week bye