in this video we're gonna be talking about elgato's wave one microphone
and their low profile mic arm and how they both exceeded my expectations for the price
i'll also compare it to the shure sm7b and the mv7 in short the wave one has become my
main choice for all my live streams tutorials and web client calls and anything that requires
a good sounding mic live with little fuss and no extra equipment let's talk about why
i'm rafael and welcome to the channel where our goal is to always fix it in camera and then
finesse it in post and i was appreciate the early thumbs up because i've been on the hunt for a good
affordable microphone that allows me to fix it in well mike and what i mean by that is a microphone
that sounds good out of the box without any other special hardware and where there is no opportunity
to finish it in post i'm actually quite surprised with the wave one and i'll be honest i've only
known elgato for the stream deck and the cam link and other capture devices for gamers and streamers
but oh man have they come around with their first microphone offering seriously when they
reached out to see if i would be interested in taking a look at their first microphone
i initially had my reservations and besides i already had the sm7b and the stack of devices
that are required to go with it how could this sub 150 usb mic offer anything that i didn't already
have access to well let me tell you had i known about the wave one before i would have started
with it for my setup that has been my goal from the beginning and still is to find the simplest
minimal frictionless live streaming setup one good camera a computer and a stellar microphone
that sounded great for me and my voice live and the whole thing super easy to use this is not a
sponsored video but when i researched elgato their history and approach was very streamer focused
and they seem to have a good understanding what the biggest frustration is for most streamers
i know the frustration i was having with the sm7b was when i was using it for live streams i felt
i was never able to get it to sound as good as i knew it could be i am used to doing everything in
post-production mixing and finessing in post live production audio has always been a struggle for me
and asking my friends in audio pros their solution was to buy a mixer similar to the road caster
which is probably great but i wanted to keep my setup minimal and i didn't want to spend another
700 on top of the money i already spent on the microphone and personally i don't even like that
the sm7b required a dac and a gain lifter just to get it to work at its best it does sound great
and it makes sense in a professional studio or if you've been doing this for years but that is
a pricey setup for someone that is just getting into live streaming or podcasting overall the
elgato wave one is a good entry level usb mic i like the way it looks and the way it sounds
and that's because elgato didn't go it alone for their first mic the core of this microphone is
built using a luit cardioid condenser capsule inside so elgato didn't just slap any white
label capsule in there but partnered with a microphone company with 10 years of experience
it has a tight cardioid polar pattern to capture speech very well and since the vast majority of
elgato's audience is podcasters and streamers it works very well with many voices the wave
one has a headphone volume or input gain dial on the front that doubles as a press to touch mute
button they also have the wave 3 which from what i can tell has the same internals but more controls
and buttons on it one of my favorite things is the clip guard option through the software on the mic
this prevents louder noises from clipping so if you get really excited during a live stream
it won't kill your viewers ears and you'll still sound great it comes fully assembled with a small
stand to keep it on your desk i personally like having the mic a little further away so i chose
to go with the low profile mic arm which i would say is probably the best mic arm for the price
and this is also a new product from elgato i've had the rode boom mic arm for about
a year but i've never liked how visually intrusive it is in the frame like come on
look at this i don't like the look of it either because it reminds me of those cheap desk lamps
for me the low profile arm looks really nice and has some great cable management built into it
it's a very simple design and it works well and it comes with all the accessories that you'd need to
mount any microphone and thus far with nearly two months of use with it the ball head has held up
even with the heavier sm7b though i have been using the wave one mostly and i have found myself
tightening the tension a few times so i'll have to do a long-term review on how it holds up like and
subscribe for that follow-up like i mentioned earlier i like having the mic a little further
away from me i found keeping it close was a little too distracting and it still sounds good even at
a distance and if you do like having a closer two i recommend you getting the pop filter accessory
the software that is used with the wave one and the wave three is the wavelink app it controls
the mic and up to seven other audio sources for a total of eight plus it creates two independent
mixes one for you and one for your audience and you can pull anything into it as a source i use it
with ecam live seamlessly and it works on pcs and mac including the new m1 max you can also use this
mic without the software if you don't need it so here's a test between the waveone the shure sm7b
and the mv7 no processing straight out of the mic so this is the shure sm7b as a mic test i'm rafael
and welcome to the channel where our goal is to always fix it in camera and then finesse it in
post and this is the elgato wave one mic test i'm rafael and welcome to the channel where our goal
is to always fix it in camera and then finesse it in post this is the shure mv7 test i'm rafael and
welcome to the channel where our goal is always fix it in camera and then finesse it in post and
i always appreciate the later thumbs up here are some drawbacks with the wave one i find that it
picks up way more ambient and room tone than the sm7b and the mv7 in my setup i feel that
this is due to the shape of the microphone but in the software it does have a switchable low cut
filter which removes unwanted low frequency noise but still keep your room noise down i don't have
this room sound treated just one sound blanket off behind the camera to keep the reverb in the
room down but fan noise acs and vents make sure you keep those away from the mic as best you can
with the software i would love to see an option to make a mono source stereo and to quickly mute
any source with one click both the headphones and the streams i'd also love to see some eq
and denoise capabilities in the software or an option for plugins in real time i've heard rumors
that this may be coming in a future software update so fingers crossed and there is a way to
get this mic into your camera but it does require it to be plugged into a computer for power and
with the earphone jack to be routed to the camera let me know if there's a way that you use usb mics
with your camera that work well without a computer also if you have any usb mic recommendations that
you think i should check out that aren't the blue yeti drop a comment down below
overall i've been super happy with the wave one and if you've been struggling to find an easy
to use usb microphone that will work great with your voice for podcasts live streams and tutorials
definitely check out the wave one if you found this video helpful make sure you give it a thumbs
up also i live stream on my second channel where i do deep dives on the creative process
as well as freelance financials so make sure you check that out as always thanks for watching