i wonder if everybody knows that my hair is going this gray or if i'm tricking them with the beanie
i look like a bitter old man and i guess i act like one too so it's it's no big surprise is
it greetings earthlings and welcome back to podcastage today i am back with a review of
another affordable instrument dynamic microphone that microphone being the sterling p10 if you are
interested in this mic it will cost you between 60 and 80 depending on if it's on sale like always
i'll throw some links down below and in the sake of full disclosure i do need to let you know that
sterling sent me this microphone free of charge for the sake of making this review for this review
i will be running the microphone directly into the focusrite 18i 22nd gen my gain is set at around 4
15. i will not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it a little bit in post
so check the dooblydoo or the lower third to see what i didily did or how much i boosted
it in post i translated it for you there you go and now let's talk about what comes in the box
first the microphone comes in the zippered padded storage bag you will of course get
the microphone a microphone clip but no 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter and a tiny bit of
documentation then as far as the build quality it does come across as robust and i don't have
any concerns about it it has an all metal body as well as a metal mesh grille which does have a
little bit of give to it so i'm not going to press it too hard as we move around the microphone there
are no buttons or switches on the end of it you will find the xlr port and if it matters to you
this microphone is made in china made in china then as far as the specs this microphone has a
cardioid polar pattern a frequency response of 50 hertz to 16 kilohertz a sensitivity of
around negative 56 db a max spl of 153 db and an impedance of 400 ohms now i am spinning around
the p10 to 90 degrees so you can hear the off axis rejection and coloration we'll continue around the
microphone to 180 degrees here's what the rear of the microphone sounds like continuing around
the microphone to the second 90 degree angle and then rotating and ending at the front of the mic
now i know that it's not a vocal microphone but we have to test the plosive rejection of it so
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto now i am right
on top of the microphone to really exaggerate that proximity effect and here is how it's sounding now
i'm about three inches off of the mic with it pointed at the corner of my mouth and here is
how it's sounding about one foot away from the microphone two feet away from the microphone
and about four feet away from the sterling p10 now i am typing on a keyboard with gatoron blue
switches to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up
and for all the gaming folk now i am typing on the sad w and spacebar keys
now here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
there it is the little microphone little cutie pie but here is how
the microphone sounds in a completely untreated room why did i sound like that
now to see how the microphones mount and the internal suspension system rejects shocks
i will go ahead and tap on my desk to see how much of that noise it can reject
and then i will tap on the boom arm
also i'm annoying so i will tap on the body of the microphone to
see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
also i know that this isn't a handheld dynamic microphone but just for the sake of being complete
i do want to pass it back and forth between my hands
to see how much of the handling noise it can reject if you did decide to use it for that
now like we always do in order to get a little bit more context i'm going to do a quick spoken word
comparison between the microphone that we're reviewing and a couple of other offerings out
there so we can see what the differences are in tone and see how it stacks up against the
competition we'll start on the microphone that we're reviewing and this is the sterling p10
i am three inches off of this thing my gain is at 415 and here's how it's sounding let's jump
to the first mic now we are on the sterling p20 which is the vocal version of this microphone line
this goes for i believe sixty dollars i am still three inches off my gain
is at 415 check the lower third and listen to the top end on this very different from the p10
let's jump back to the p10 and do more comparisons back again on the sterling p10 nothing has
changed and here is how it's sounding first up we are on the microphone's main competitor the shure
sm57 this goes for 100 i am still 3 inches off my gain is still at 415. check the lower third to see
how much i boost each of these in post and this is how it sounds in comparison to the sterling
let's do some more of these back again on the sterling p10 as a pallet cleanser so you can hear
this mic before we jump to this next one right now now we are on the buyer dynamic tgi51 instrument
microphone this goes for i believe 130 dollars i am three inches off my gain is still at 415
and here is how this sounds in comparison let's jump back to the sterling and
do a couple more comparisons we are back on the sterling again so you can hear this another time
just for pallet cleansing's sake and let's jump to another one now we are on the buyer dynamic
m201tg this goes for about 300 i am three inches off my gain is at 415 and here is how this sounds
in comparison to the sterling let's jump back and do two more i think all right we are on
the sterling p10 again nothing has changed here's how it sounds let's jump to the fourth microphone
now i am on the shure sm7b i am about three inches off of the capsule my gain is set at
one hundred percent this goes for around four hundred dollars i am in the neutral mode and
here is how this sounds compared to the sterling p10 not a fair comparison not really the same
microphone type at all but it was on my desk and i figured let's compare it so that's the
sm7b compared to the sterling let's jump back to the sterling and do one last comparison and
we aren't doing too many of these but we are back on the sterling p10 and we have one more
mic that we're comparing it against you know what it's going to be let's jump to it yes i am fully
aware that this is not a fair comparison but now we are on the neumann u87ai i am three inches off
on cardioid mode no filters no pads gain at 11 o'clock on the focusrite and this goes for 3 600
how does it sound which of the microphones that i compared it against did you like the best
let's jump to the music test now
hmm
i've got a million ideas in my head but i don't think i'll ever get them out
because i've got a million fits that i need to make so we can see how these mic sounds
i always glide down to those last notes and also mike's sound is what i was trying to say but it's
very difficult to say a word that ends with an s and follow it with a word that starts with
an s i dare you to try it it's really hard and when did i start pronouncing it ed instead of
head i am turning into tom de long but i'm a big fan of tong tong tong delam so let's go to
the conclusion i don't know what i'm talking about anymore all right as far as affordable microphones
go i think that the p10 is offering a different enough sound at a very reasonable price and that
makes it an interesting proposition and first up as far as pros i won't go so far as to say this is
a very smooth microphone but i will point out that it rolls off a lot of those higher frequencies
which on more affordable microphones can get grainy can get piercing and because it rolls
off a lot of those frequencies it does avoid that also i don't have any concerns about the build
quality of this microphone it feels perfectly robust it comes with a nice storage case as well
and probably the biggest selling point of this microphone the price and then as far as cons i did
find the off axis coloration on this thing to be a little bit unpleasing so if you're in a room with
a lot of ambient noise making it into the sides of the mic it can get a little bit funky sounding
also i would have liked to have seen a 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter i know it's made for
music and you're typically not going to be using a 3 8 inch microphone stand but it would have been
nice to have included that and i know this wasn't designed to be used at a desk or for vocals but i
did find that the shock rejection was subpar also the handling noise was pretty brutal and again
i know it's not a vocal microphone but it did suffer from plosives this is more of an fyi than
a con but i'm pointing that out in case you are looking at this for vocals and now what are my
overall thoughts and opinions of this microphone on the electric guitar i actually really enjoyed
the sound that i was getting you get this really tame and controlled low end because it does roll
off a lot of the low mids and the bass then you get a much more mid forward sound if you love
mids you're gonna enjoy this if you don't want a mid forward sound you're gonna hate this or you're
gonna eq that out and then when you get to the treble and air it does attenuate a lot of that
so you miss out a lot of the chances for it to become shrill or grating or piercing or grainy
and overall on the electric guitar i was really happy with the sound that i got
then on the acoustic guitar i didn't hate it but i am definitely not in love with it i do appreciate
that it isn't muddy because of the roll off and the low end but then you get that very mid-forward
sound and then you have all the treble and air attenuated so you don't get any of that liveliness
or really sweet articulation that you want on the acoustic so like most dynamic microphones i wasn't
impressed with it for this application but in a pinch i'm sure you could get it to work just fine
next up for singing call me crazy but i didn't hate it for this application let me explain first
off you are one hundred percent getting that more mid forward sound it does come across a little bit
nasally you aren't getting that airiness and brightness and liveliness that i know a lot of
people love for singing microphones but the thing that made it stand out to me and not dislike it
is because it misses out a lot of the harshness and graininess that a lot of dynamic microphones
in this price range exhibit so probably again not going to be my first pick but in a pinch
i think it could work and finally for spoken word the thing that stood out to me was the midsection
it does come across quite nasally so if you have a nasally voice like me
it's going to exaggerate that and probably not be too flattering but it does have a controlled
low end so you're not going to run into too much muddiness there and then you have an attenuation
of the treble and air so you're not getting too much of that articulation it also doesn't suffer
from sibilance so that's pretty nice and overall it's decent but remember it's not a vocal mic
and to wrap up would i recommend the sterling p10 if you're looking for a vocal microphone no but
for some people who are looking for an instrument dynamic microphone i think it might make sense
what i mean by that is it's clear that if you're looking for an instrument dynamic mic at this
price point chances are you're looking at the sm57 but if you don't like how aggressive the top end
is and you want a bit more mid forwardness i think that's where the p10 comes into play because it
does attenuate a bit more of that treble and a lot of that air and you are getting a bit more of that
mid boost so if that's the sound that you're going for i do think the p10 makes sense or if you're on
an extremely limited budget and you're maxing out at 60 dollars and you're able to get this
on sale for 60 bucks i think that's a pretty good deal to get a very workable microphone
all right that's all that i've got for you today let me know in the comments down below which of
the microphones you like the best if you did find this fun interesting or helpful go ahead
and give me a thumbs up if you hated it give me a big ol thumbs down want more videos subscribe
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah i'm just on repeat saying the same thing over and over again
pretty good impression huh i have nothing else to say other
than those people are amazing thank you so much for watching thank you so
much for listening i will talk to you on a later date bye-bye