- You might've seen my video
about the Neat Worker Bee XLR condenser mic.
But would you bee-lieve that Neat also makes a USB mic
that's incredibly affordable and sounds great too?
So let's try and figure out what exactly is happening
with the Neat Widget.
(intro music type beat)
But before any of that, let me just say
if you're somebody who shares audio online
with any regularity, whether that's streaming, podcasting,
videos, work video calls, conference calls, whatever it is,
something where you're regularly sharing, broadcasting,
or streaming your audio.
I really think that an upgraded microphone should be
an absolute necessity and a required investment
if that's something that you're doing.
And fortunately, if you're working within a budget
and you don't want to spend a whole bunch of money
on XLR mics and mixers and interfaces, and that whole thing,
or you just don't have the patience or tech skills
or whatever to do that,
there are a lot of USB options to get you started.
And this right here is the Neat Widget
and it is pretty neat believe it or not.
This is probably the most
bizarre USB microphone I've ever seen.
And I ordered it from Sweetwater for $35.
Prices do change all the time.
So if you want to know the most up-to-date price
when you're watching this video,
check the link in the description to see that.
But these are very affordable microphones.
And I say these because there are three different versions
of the Widget.
And the only difference between them is how they look.
They all look very, very different.
They have bold designs, I guess, to say the least.
But the sound quality, the microphone capsule,
the electronics inside are exactly the same
between all three of them.
So if you like the sound that you hear today
but you like the style of a different one,
it should sound exactly the same.
And not unlike with the Worker Bee microphone,
the visual styling can probably be, I guess
controversial might be a word, polarizing I guess.
That's what we'll call it, polarizing
because these definitely make a statement.
If you just want a small microphone
that's just gonna kind of sit out of the way,
here's the Rode NT-USB Mini.
It's a very small, almost invisible microphone
that can just stay out of the way.
No one's gonna notice that.
With this on the other hand, if you're on a video call,
one of the first things,
doesn't matter what the call is about.
Somebody is gonna say, what's the deal
with the weird looking microphone that you're talking into?
But right here, you can see on the packaging.
It says high definition, 24 bit 96Khz audio,
perfect for podcasting, video calls, and voiceovers.
And if you remember my video about the Worker Bee,
it came in this crazy heavy duty plastic packaging.
The Widget comes in this giant interesting packaging,
which is a lot of plastic.
They're very clear that it's all recyclable.
So it will get recycled.
I'm not a product packaging guy.
I don't really care what the packaging looks like,
but for the price, this is pretty interesting.
And it's kind of a shame that these aren't sold in stores
because you can imagine how visually appealing it would be
to see whole wall of these clear boxes.
But anyway, I've already opened it.
I just put it back in here for the video.
Sorry to ruin the magic there,
but I just wanted you to see what comes with it.
So when you get this, you get your microphone,
which is a pretty lightweight microphone.
The base is plastic.
The microphone is plastic.
In the base here, you get a sheet of stickers
and then you get the instruction manual
which of course, because it's Neat
and they can't, which is why I like them,
they can't just do things normally.
It's like that thing.
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
What's the best microphone of all?
Oh, it's this one.
You really don't need much more than that
because it's plug and play.
And Neat as a company is pretty interesting.
So if you want to know more about their history,
check out my Worker Bee microphone review.
'Cause I dive into the company's history a little bit
in that, but here we go.
This is the microphone.
And the reason it's designed this way,
which I actually really like, there's a plastic,
a very plasticy knob here.
You can loosen that.
And then you can adjust the height of the microphone itself.
I love this because it lets you position the microphone
so it's going to be close to your mouth.
For example, this microphone here, the Rode NT-USB Mini,
I love this microphone.
This is a really good sounding microphone, but it's so mini
that when you set it on the desk, it's so far away from you
that you don't end up getting the best sound quality.
This microphone definitely sounds better when it's closer
to you, but now it's far away.
Whereas here pretty much, no matter how tall you are,
how tall your desk is, whatever,
you can adjust the microphone.
So that way it's going to be at exactly the right height.
There's not much else to it.
I got this specific design because I really
like the atomic, it looks like a retro 1950s, 1960s
atomic age sort of thing.
And I thought that was kind of cool.
The base plate here, it kind of looks like there's a grill.
Almost like there would be a speaker or something,
but there's nothing.
There's no electronics in here at all.
The only electronics are up in here.
There's two areas of design that I think are missing,
but I don't really have a problem with it
considering how affordable the microphone is.
One of them is that the cable is permanently attached.
So you can't disconnect the cable.
Most USB mics, you can choose whatever cable
you want to use.
It's not a big deal.
This cable is a decent length, but if something happens,
if it gets broken or damaged,
the whole microphone has got to go.
That's a bummer.
And the other thing is there's no headphone output.
A number of USB microphones have headphone outputs,
which allow you to have zero latency monitoring.
So while you're recording,
you can monitor everything in exact real time.
This doesn't have that.
So if you want to listen to what you're recording,
you have to run it through software and then listen back.
And there's really no way to get zero latency
monitoring that way because you're sending the signal
to the computer.
It's getting processed
and it has to come back to your headphones.
And that just can't happen instantaneously.
Fortunately, it's not really a big deal.
If you're using this for Zoom calls
or just basic streaming and stuff,
it's really not a problem at all.
Where it could become a problem
is if you wanted to do music vocals
and you were trying to record with a track.
Because even if there was a slight millisecond delay
in what you're hearing versus what you're recording,
it just kind of breaks your brain.
So no headphone monitoring output,
just a microphone to plug in and get going.
So let's listen to the Widget and see what it sounds like.
Up until now, you've been listening to the Rode VideoMic NTG
which is my normal video mic when I'm recording my videos.
However, instead of running it into the camera,
it has been running into the computer via USB
and into Adobe Audition with no processing or adjustments
or anything like that.
So I'm using the VideoMic NTG, so many names,
and now we'll switch over to the Widget.
So this is the VideoMic NTG.
(Thanos snap)
And this is the Neat Widget.
This is just plug and play.
I connected it to the computer.
It immediately showed up as an input
in Adobe Audition and I pressed record.
There's no processing.
And I'm about a fist distance, a fist-ance,
away from the microphone.
That is an official unit of measurement, by the way.
And this is it.
This is how it sounds straight out of the box.
If I get a little bit further away from it
and what it's picking up in the room,
and if I get really close to it,
this is what it sounds like.
I'm not sure if there's proximity effect in effect here,
or if I'm just totally peaking all the audio levels.
If you want to talk about plosives,
we got Peter Piper pitched a podcast.
As usual, I just have the microphone facing
45 degrees away from me and then I'm speaking past it
and plosives shouldn't really be much of a problem.
Visually, I think that this is interesting.
You might hate it, but if you don't hate it,
then I think you might really like it.
And I do really like it.
Since I got this for $35,
the other USB mic that I've talked about
that's in that price range is the Fifine K669B.
Super catchy name.
You might remember that video if you haven't seen it.
That was also a really inexpensive USB mic
that ended up being really impressive.
I was blown away by how good that microphone sounded.
It did not have the visual styling of this.
It was sort of your more traditional,
black cylinder design.
I'd love to test this against that
since they're in the same price range,
but I actually gave that microphone
to a friend after I made that video.
So we'll put this one up against a couple other microphones.
You already heard it against the Rode VideoMic NTG
but we'll also do it against the Rode NT-USB Mini,
the classic Blue Yeti.
And even off over here off screen, the Shure MV7.
We'll start with the Rode NT-USB Mini
because it is the least expensive of those options.
Even though it is significantly more expensive,
$35 about $100.
So this is the Neat Widget.
(snapping)
I don't know why I have to snap every time.
And this is the Rode NT-USB Mini
which does have some cool features built into it.
It does have headphone output,
so you can monitor with no latency.
It also works with the Rode Connect app, which is free
and that will allow you to use multiple USB minis
at the same time.
And it kind of turns your computer
into a virtual Rode caster, which is super cool.
So there's some benefits built in there.
There's headphone volume on here.
There's a mute thing.
However, what you might notice is, like I said,
since this is so mini, it's much more reverby
around me here because you're picking up a lot more
of the room tone than when I was able to be close
to a microphone like the Widget.
So for this microphone to sound its best,
you really do kind of need to be close to it
to really bring out how good it is.
Which means it works best when it's mounted
to a boom arm or something like that.
So you can position it very, very close to you.
But if you're looking for simplicity,
this one will let you position the microphone
exactly where you need it without any additional hardware.
And that's pretty awesome.
And the next microphone we're going to compare
to is the Blue Yeti, the u-blue-iquitous microphone
in early YouTube and streaming days.
And this is a very interesting comparison because,
as you may or may not know, the founders of Neat
were also the founders of Blue.
They left the company several years ago,
and then formed a new microphone company.
So comparing these two is actually
a pretty interesting thing to do.
And this Yeti is a couple of years old.
I purchased this before Blue was purchased by Logitech.
So I'm not 100% sure if that changed the manufacturing
of Yetis, but this for all intents and purposes
we could call the classic Yeti.
And this is the Blue Yeti in the cardioid pickup pattern,
running into Adobe Audition with no effects, no processing,
nothing like that.
The Yeti being a larger microphone is kind of
like the Widget in that it lets you position the microphone
directly in front of you, a little more easily
than something that's as small as this.
And of course the Yeti can also be mounted on a boom arm.
You can take it out of the stand and mounted on a boom arm.
The Widget can not be mounted
on anything other than what it comes with.
The Yeti, what do these sell for?
This one was about $100 depending on the model you get
and the color you get,
they could go up to 120, $130.
And then there's an XLR edition too,
but that's a totally separate thing.
So we'll say it's another $100 microphone.
And that price does get you some extra features.
You have headphone outputs,
just like you do on the NT-USB Mini.
You've also got multiple pickup patterns.
So you can record in a different variety of scenarios,
and you have a gain knob on the back of the microphone.
So you can adjust not just your monitoring level
for your headphones, but the actual output
of the microphone into your software or your stream.
You can do that directly from the microphone.
That's pretty cool.
None of these other ones really have that option
for the most part.
And this is the classic Blue Yeti.
I wanted to make sure to include this
because otherwise it would have blew it with this video
this comparison video right here.
And speaking of sure,
let's compare the Widget to the Shure MV7.
And now we're back on the Widget
but you might remember my review of the Shure MV7.
It's an XLR and USB dynamic microphone.
It's the most expensive one
that we're gonna compare to today.
So I bought the Widget for $35.
This one regularly sells for about $250.
So I don't know that you're gonna normally compare these two
but you just kind of see
if you notice a difference for the price.
Now, the Shure has a few bonus features
if you're using it as a USB mic.
It has an interface built in right here
where you can adjust some of your volume levels,
some of your monitoring levels.
It does have headphone outputs and it has an app that comes
with it that lets you do some equalization, some mixing,
some processing right there in the app before sending it
out to whatever software you're recording or streaming with.
Now, I won't be using any of that today.
I'll be running it just into Adobe Audition
like I have with all of the other microphones.
So let's plug it in and switch
over from the Widget to the MV7.
And now you're listening to the MV7.
There really was no strategy
between the comparisons that I ran today.
They're just the other microphones that I had.
But I think if you're somebody looking for a USB microphone
it's gonna be very hard to not see
or wonder about the Blue Yeti.
So now you hear how that sounds.
The Rode NT-USB Mini is an awesome option,
especially because it is so small.
It can easily hide away on your desk.
But like I mentioned, you need to position it close
to you to get the best sound.
So that might include something like a boom arm.
The MV7 is the most expensive microphone we're talking
about today, but it also does have that XLR functionality.
So if you do want to use it with a mixer
or an interface down the line, you'd be able to do that.
But it does need some kind of mount, either a tabletop stand
or a boom arm, because it will not stand on its own.
It does not come with a stand.
So I hope you understand that
because it can be an outstanding feature.
Everything else not withstanding.
So let's jump back now to the Widget.
And I'm personally someone who's not only a big believer
in working on upping your audio quality
no matter what you're doing,
but also in checking out all these different options.
Because no matter what features you're looking for,
what price point you're looking for,
what style you're looking for, there are a lot
of really good choices available today to kind of
fit every one of those, check all of those different boxes.
And I think most people who are looking to spend
just a little bit of money to up their USB audio game
probably do want a really simple microphone.
Maybe something like the Fifine that I mentioned earlier.
But if you want something that's a little more bold
and a little different
and just sort of isn't what everybody else has,
this is definitely a pretty incredible option.
And as much as I've been focusing
on the visuals of this microphone,
when it comes to any kind of video,
your audio is as important
if not even more important than the visuals.
Because believe it or not,
people will stick with bad looking video
that sounds good, longer than they'll stick with
good looking video that sounds bad.
You can never pay too much attention to your audio,
but I hope you have been paying attention
to this video because if the Neat Widget
maybe isn't the microphone for you, it would be neat
if you clicked on these widgets to check out
some other budget microphones that might be the perfect mic
for your setup.
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