Auto Focus
A podcast by the PodcastVideos.com team focused on gear reviews, studio equipment setups, and lessons and experiences from building an audio and video content creator business.
Auto Focus
Mastering Podcast Audio: Exploring the Shure SM7B
Ever wondered why the Shure SM7B microphone is the go-to choice for podcasters and audio enthusiasts worldwide?
Join Dan Craft and Brooke Galligan to unravel the secrets behind these iconic mics, and their cousin, the SM7DB, in our latest Autofocus episode.
We'll unpack the subtle yet impactful differences between the SM7B and SM7DB, especially the SM7DB's adjustable presets designed to enhance audio pickup when you can't be right up close. It's all about making the most of your equipment, whether you're a podcaster or an audio newbie.
Beyond the tech, we're diving into the human side of podcasting—crafting a relaxed and comfortable studio atmosphere for our guests.
From swapping out bulky mic stands to selecting chairs that invite ease and conversation, we've been refining our setup to strike the perfect balance between comfort and quality.
We'll share insights into how we've tackled framing issues during recordings, ensuring our guests stay in view and engaged throughout the session. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your craft, tune in for practical tips and engaging stories that could transform your podcasting journey.
welcome back everybody to the latest installment of autofocus from podcast videoscom. I'm dan craft I'm brooke galligan good to see you again, brooke. Oh, always, we've uh, we've got a whole bunch of color sitting on the table here. It's very bright. We're not ready to talk about the roadcaster itself no but the mics that are in front of us.
Speaker 2:Sure, let's talk about mics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure let's do it. Okay. So I'm speaking to you through the Shure SM7B. This is probably the most popular microphone for podcasters out there. We have them on tabletop stands. We've had them on arms before. We use them in almost every aspect Our mobile kits, our solo studios. We love them. However, you're not talking to them on an SM7B. You're talking to them through an SM7DB. It looks a lot like the same mic, but it's not. It looks a lot like the same mic, but it's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so both of these mics they're directional mics. These are the mics that you want to use. So you have different types of mics and there's the omni-directional mics, and those are the mics that are like you can put it in the ceiling and it's going to pick up sound from all directions. These mics are directional mics, so you have to really be talking into the mic and the closer you are, the better they sound. No, so you want to talk to them because they're going to hear a little bit about what's going on on the side, but they're made to really focus on what's in front of the mic.
Speaker 1:It's a different sound pattern in terms of collection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's like you want to make sure that, and so that's why podcasters and you know people that do like audio anything really like these mics because they sound really good. They've got a lot. You know they're they, they can really make you sound amazing and, uh, they just they're, they're, they're very directional so you, you really can hone in and really hear that voice. What's great, the difference between your mic and my mic is my mic has these little boosts on the bottom.
Speaker 1:I've got this one set up too. This is a similar Brooks mic.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you can add a boost.
Speaker 1:And so if for some reason, it's a couple of presets that are adjustable, at least in an A-B setting a.
Speaker 2:it's a bit of a boost. So if you want to talk back here, it can add some boost, and if you're in a room by yourself and you can't be near the mic and make it sound really good and you have to be far away, then this would be a perfect time. This would be a perfect time to use that setting. This will boost the audio, boost the pickup, boost everything. What is what we found, though, when we cause we got these mics to add the boost, because what we found again is that People in our studios they are not used to talk like this yeah, and like we.
Speaker 2:And then we wanted to create an environment where people don't feel like they're in a studio and so, minus the interrogation lights, but like, but, like. We want people to feel like they're not that that they're like in a studio and that and that they are, they are, they are comfortable.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, there's a real simple trick we implemented several months ago too, was it wasn't the mics themselves, but the stands they're on. We had stands that were quite a bit taller and it stuck that mic right in front of your face. Yes, this is a lot more unobtrusive.
Speaker 2:It is for everyone it's unobtrusive, but it also moves the mic further away. Uh, we also decided to go with these, like chairs that really lean far back and like swivel and roll and roll, and so it's really easy to get away um from where you need to be, which is like eating the mic um, that's.
Speaker 2:That's been a problem for uh framing and the camera angles too yes, we have had, we, we have had, uh, we've had guests get so comfortable. They just they're just out of frame, um, and so so we we've been. Those are some of the challenges that we're still facing to this day, but with the mic, specifically, we got the boost to help. We thought, oh, we'll just add a boost and so people will be able to lean really far back and it won't be that bad.
Speaker 1:That mic will catch something. This mic without the boost might not.
Speaker 2:Might not. This mic without the boost. Yeah, might not, might not. But what ended up happening is that if you have four mics and four people talking with four boosts on, um, you just pick up literally everything.
Speaker 2:Like you know, people moving you've got a weird echo in stereo exactly so what we ended up doing is, uh, we don't even use the boost. So in this studio um setting, we don't use the boost we. What we do is we enhance the audio in post. Um, there's a lot of tools out there that we don't use the boost we. What we do is we enhance the audio in post. There's a lot of tools out there that you don't know. Like, you don't need an audio engineering degree to like enhance your audio. You know Adobe has a setting, like in premiere, that it literally is called enhance.
Speaker 1:And before you get it into the editing software, though, we can make adjustments for the mics based on this broadcast right here. That's that's our mixer. This is where the mics feed into. Literally the other end of this cord is attached to a Rodecaster, just like that. Your sample mic is actually attached to this one right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so you can take these mics and you can put them into your Rodecaster. And there's certain settings that you can do on Rodecaster that are literally made for these mics, which is really cool, which is another reason why we like these mics above any other mic. So you can basically go in and you can like see if there's there's, you can see the different settings. There's presets for everything. You can custom everything. But what's great?
Speaker 1:is that you've still got the software.
Speaker 2:Beyond that, to adjust it further if you will Hold on, but Rode already has the presets in here, and so road has already gone through and made presets for all of these things. There's like guitars and dynamic mics and condenser mics, and they're wireless mics, and then there's a pod mic or whatever. And so you keep going and, uh, these are just different types of mics, they aren't down to the brand. And then you start getting into what actual branded mics and right here there's. The last one is the SM7B, which is this one, not that one.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing. This one doesn't have the boost.
Speaker 1:Essentially, what we found is that this one doesn't have the boost Right, yours does, but in our particular case, we're better off not using the boost features on that microphone itself. Run them through the Rodecaster, use the editing software to achieve what you're looking for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was great. And so when we have our, so when we do ours since we don't know from session to session who the voice is, you know, basically because we'll have, sometimes we'll have, like, a female on the mic, sometimes we'll have a male on the mic, and sometimes you know that each person has their own voice.
Speaker 1:We've got people who are naturally quite a bit louder than others.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so we don't go in and customize the mic settings because we basically don't know. We don't want to customize it to one person and have it sound bad for another person, so we leave it as general as possible and then again you fix it in post. But, as any other person knows, you want to try to not fix it in post, you want to try to get it perfect going into the mic.
Speaker 2:So if you're using it, just you clean out no-transcript things you can do to make your voice sound the most professional and amazing as possible. If you want to go for that NPR voice, if you want to go for that like radio disc jockey voice, you can really make that happen, and so that's kind of.
Speaker 1:Let's talk solo mic for a second. You're alone in the room. It's just you and your microphone. Would you possibly be looking at activating some of those presets to tweak it?
Speaker 2:I would yeah, if it's only you on the mic, ever like, if you're the one, if you're the only one ever using the mic, you customize it to you and the way you do it to you and the way you do it, you just plug in the headphones and you're just like you're just listening for it and so, and then it's, it's the easiest way to do it.
Speaker 2:You can even plug this roadcaster into a computer and you can use programs like garage band, audace, audition, things like that. Um, you can, you can use all sorts of stuff to basically make you know, fine tune your voice to make it sound as perfect as possible, and then also like, are you using it for speech? Are you using it for song? Like, whatever you're doing, you know there's like the options are endless, um, especially when you're just pairing a really good mic with a really good mixer. Um, there's a lot of learning curve, I think, when it, when it comes to this, if you're just, you know, getting started and you're in, you're new to audio engineering, uh, but road and um, and sure both have amazing, um you know, uh, sites to basically answer tutorials, answer all of your questions.
Speaker 1:And so you'll, you will have to learn if you don't have it.
Speaker 2:Yep and so, um, you know, anytime that we have issues with our road casters or things that act act weird, the first place I go is Rode, so they have a lot of really good stuff online and they're really good at answering all of your questions.
Speaker 1:So our takeaway here? The SM7B is the most popular mic out there for podcasting, probably for a reason High quality, clean, sound, simple. The SM7DB you're using might be better suited to a solo, where you know you're only going to have one person on the mic to take advantage of some of those presets.
Speaker 2:Not even that. So the presets are in the Rodecaster. This one is if you are in a setting where you know you need a boost, and that's literally it. Like you don't need, like the settings on here, like you're literally just boosting it. That's the you know you're boosting the voice, so you're boosting what needs to happen, and then to add all of the effects and the sparkle and the depths is really just pairing the right mic and with the right mixer, and you're just pairing them together and you're just really figuring out how to make your voice sound the best while using both of these.
Speaker 1:So if you had to choose between this mic and that mic SM7B, sm7db your break point here is do you think you're going to need a bunch of boost right at your microphone or not? If you think you're going to, the DB is probably the way, the way to go. If you think you're going to be using almost all of your audio cleanup in the mixer and in post-production, then the SM7B is fine and yeah, and the price point too.
Speaker 2:you know the SM7 is like it's it's. The SM7 is less expensive and this one is more expensive because it has a little bit of a couple extra features.
Speaker 1:So, unless you absolutely need the extra features, go with the one that everybody else seems to like too. Apparently, there's a lot of reasons for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And so it all comes down to your price point where you want to start, where you are in your podcasting journey and where you want to be. But really you can start with you know any type of mic and as long as you're getting your story told, that's all that really matters. You can always advance to to to like, higher, higher you know.
Speaker 1:Sure, there's a couple other mics out there. They're very popular as beginner mics the, the Eddie snowball, I believe it's called dude there, some small, even sub-$100 that might be pushing it these days, but around $100. These run, I believe, about 400 a piece, don't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably about 400.
Speaker 1:Now you can also go. I know people in professional radio station settings are paying $3,500 a microphone Probably more than your average podcaster needs to set out for that.
Speaker 2:No, we don't need that. I think there's enough setting. It's in here where you can. Definitely there's even like special effects, where you can actually go and like change your, you can give yourself a robot voice.
Speaker 1:Go ahead of yourself. We're going to have a whole nother episode on everything those roads can do. That's going to be a long one.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Robot voices voices, yes, so, but in the meantime, that is the breakdown on the shure sm7b mic very popular, and the slightly less well-known sm7db that we've tried out here in the studio as well. Yep, so all right, until next time. I'm dan craft and I'm brooke galligan we will see you for another auto focus here soon.