- In this video we're gonna show you
everything you need to know about using
the Shure SM7B with the Gator Frameworks 3000
Series Boom Arm.
If you are looking for current pricing or specs
since that is the foundation of what a lot
of people use to compare these types of things
- (Jordan) we do have links down in the description below
with the current up-to-date pricing
because these prices are always changing.
So you can check the pricing and availability
at a variety of online retailers.
If you don't find it in stock one place,
you can easily find it in stock in another
if you are looking,
if you use the links
down in the description below.
The quick review of this stand,
is that in my opinion this is the best looking
and it matches my expectation of a good mix
between good-looking and good functionality.
It's not the fastest
or most transparent boom arm to use out there
but it does solve a lot of the issues
that a lot of its competition have.
It has the best clamps that I like.
It has good cable management.
It has nice beefy knobs, good construction,
and everything like that is really easy to use.
Like other boom arms.
You can't go inverted on the joints.
You can only play inside on the angles
of all of them.
You can never like make a "W"
or you don't have that crazy flexibility
that you have with some scissors style stands.
But for 99% of people,
I think that this is a really good mix
with a tube style stand like this
you get sponsorship opportunities
or sticker placement or whatever you wanna do
that you don't get with other types of stands.
And the cable management
is much less distracting.
So we're gonna work through
using this stand on a daily basis,
all the little things that I've encountered
and the things I really like and don't like.
Now, first of all if you are on camera,
they've done a really good job
of making everything as dark, and matte black,
and anti-reflective as possible.
A lot of other manufacturers would tend to
put chrome components on it.
And I find that really distracting
when you have lights,
and you have cameras picking it up
or even if you're doing video conferencing
or meetings and you have a window
or something like that,
chrome parts can be really distracting.
And you can tell that they've gone though this
and made it as camera friendly as possible.
They've definitely thrown their branding here
but you can easily cover that up with gaff tape
if you don't like it,
or put a deco on for your own show
or if you're just doing video conferencing,
or home studio voiceover stuff,
and it probably doesn't matter
to you and won't affect you that much.
Now it does have an embedded XLR cable.
We're gonna start on the microphone here.
I found this to be totally fine.
I don't get in a big huff or puff
over different brands of XLR cables.
I know some people are really
really concerned about their brands
and they want their super expensive XLR cable.
I've never found a meaningful difference
as long as the cable is,
you know decently gilded
and it's not picking up,
you know AM radio with the cable
or anything like that.
I've never had a problem with it.
So if you are really concerned
about cable quality
then you'll have to do your own research there.
But for me, this is totally fine.
Another downer on this stand,
which it doesn't apply to the Shure SM7B
is that if you do want to switch out
and run a USB mic for a session
you kinda just have to run the cable
for the USB mic down the back and tape it,
or and then you have to hide the XLR cable.
So that's a little bit weird.
This is very purpose built for XLR microphones
like the Shure SM7B,
which that's the microphone we're talking
about in this video,
so it does work really great for that.
In terms of drift, lift, and shaking,
and maneuverability of this stand.
It is prone to the shaking like that
that other tube style mic stands
are prone to have just because of the geometry,
these joints here don't get a lot of leverage
over it,
where if you have a scissor based stand
or something like that,
issues like this don't really happen that much.
But it is much better that the competition
with things like drift and lift.
What I mean by that,
is some of the competition,
you can't tighten this middle knuckle enough.
So if you make this angle smaller than 90 degrees
that's when it's most effected.
When I've noticed it,
it will do something like this.
That's the tendency because of the spring
they had to make this spring so strong
because it has a lack of leverage
because of how good looking they wanted it to be.
But the good news is with the Gator knobs here
it's the same knobs that are on the desk clamp
which we'll talk about later,
but it is quite robust.
So you really can get a really good hold on it.
Everything feels solid.
I crank them down pretty good.
So that does allow you to get really low.
I have a tendency to want my microphone
to sit like this and you can see
that a floated there cause I didn't tighten it.
So that's one little knock against it,
is if you're somebody that wants
a really transparent stand
something that you're not thinking about
this probably isn't a stand for you
cause you will be cranking
and loosening stuff as you move it around.
But sometimes
I prefer to have my microphone like this.
If I'm sitting at my desk,
it's down low, I'm down low.
My hands can be on the keyboard in front of me.
I can see the screen.
And this does tuck in nicely
where I want it to be.
A lot of tube style ones
really struggle with this
because you can't tighten that
and then you will get lift.
So the frameworks solves that problem for you.
In a perfect world,
I prefer my boom arm to be down like this
with this stem a little bit flatter
but this is as tight as you can go there.
So just keep that in mind.
It's workable for sure.
It's just not quite what I prefer for my stands.
Other than that, if you're a mid height
or if you're talking like I am,
it's totally great.
If you're one of those guys
that likes it overhead pointing down
that works really great for it as well.
So you do get really good maneuverability.
A couple of compromises there
like we discussed
compared to a scissor based stand.
But if looks and cable management
are really important to you,
then this is definitely way to go.
Other than that,
one other issue with maneuverability here
is as you turn it,
you may run into where the cable
hits the tightening knob there.
You can see there,
I don't notice it 99% of the time.
You can get a stem for this
that goes between here.
It's the three inch extension tube from Shure.
And that will basically
take this whole thing down
and take it out of the way.
We're gonna put that on right at the very end,
so you can see how it works.
I don't think it's necessary
is not where I would spend my money on this.
Then you do have a really wide range
of motion still
but that is something to consider.
If you are really just wanting to go all out
and make one big purchase to consolidate shipping
or something like that,
maybe throw this in of the extra 10 bucks,
just to make sure that you have it.
Other than that,
I think the geometry
and everything else like that works really well,
it looks really well.
In terms of desk clamps,
these are my favorite desk clamps
out of any boom arm
that we have in the studio here
and we have quite a few.
There's a couple of reasons
of reasons that I like these ones specifically,
One, these clamps will close all the way.
You can actually send them all the way up.
So sometimes you're doing this
in a precarious situation.
I've had this idea a bunch
of different times about putting clamps like this
on the side of a table
or desk or something like that.
And you just want to clamp it to,
a lot of the competition will max out
somewhere around there
like three eights of an inch or something.
You can't actually tighten it to a clamp
but this thing will literally clamp to anything.
And you can see here
when I clamped to a small bracket like this,
that it still has thread despair.
So I love that about it.
Another thing about this clamping mechanism
is that both sides have felt on them.
So they're worried about protecting the bottom
of the tablestand as well.
There's a little piece of foam
or felt in there and there.
So sometimes you are recording a podcast
in a temporary environment,
maybe you're on a high gloss boardroom table
or something like that.
I've never been worried about using this clamp
in an environment like that.
It does hold up well,
it doesn't scratch the surface
or anything like that and you can get it tighter.
Another thing that I like about this clamp.
there's a lot of talking about the clamp here
but you can mount it both ways.
There's a hole on the top
for the stem of the stand.
And there's a hole on the side.
Sometimes I'm working
from a roll top desk of mine
and I can't use this vertically
because of all the drawers
and everything around it,
but I can turn this sideways
tighten it up and still get the stand in.
And so that's another bonus.
I've never seen any other clamp
from another brand that has that.
So it's just another thing
that Gator has thought through.
And it's nice and flexible.
It's not the best looking clamp
but I will say it's definitely
the most functional one
out of all the clamps we have here.
It also comes with this desktop permanent mount.
Again, it's not the most elegant solution,
but I like that it has a tension screw
and a tolerance than the base.
This allows me to use this stand
with any of the boom arms that we have here.
That's a really, really big benefit.
If you're using a flange mount like this
it's always built right
to the tolerance of the stand
and some will fit some won't,
some will be lose,
some you won't even be able to get in.
They're basically paired
to the stand that you buy them with,
where this one is a lot more tolerant,
a lot more flexible.
So if you are the type of person
that is always upgrading gear
this is another thing for going with Gator.
Cause then you can keep the clamps and you know
it'll work with all the stuff that you're using.
Okay.
So now I'm going to put
this Shure extension tube on
just so you can see how that works.
Again,
I don't think it's necessary,
but it is worth mentioning
since we're doing it in depth review talk,
spending so much time
just talking about one stand here.
(fast forwarding) (tools clicking sound)
Okay,
so here's what it looks
like with that extension tube on.
You can tell that it does change the look
of the stand quite a bit.
So it's not my favorite thing to have
but if you do really need those inside angles
you need to turn the microphone like that
for some reason.
Now you can have that freedom to do so.
I don't think this is super highly recommended
for the stand
but I do wanna point it out.
And with this,
you can still get nice and down low,
you can get a mid height.
Be up where I am right now.
And if you're one of those guys
that likes to go super high and pointed down,
that works for you as well.
It doesn't really affect the geometry
or the float.
If anything,
it actually helps the float issue
because there's more leverage down here now.
So it is even when it's fully loose back here
it does have a tendency
to sit a little bit better,
although it will shake a little bit more
because of all the weight that's down here.
So that's everything I have to say
about the Gator Frameworks
3000 Series with the Shure SM7B.
If you do have any questions or comments
or if you have issues
that you've had with this setup
please leave a comment
down in the comment section below.
I love reading all the comments
and if you want pricing or specs again
we do have the links
down in the description below.
And if you want to see more videos
like this in the future,
please like, and subscribe.
Thank you for watching.
(upbeat closing music)