- Today, we are gonna do a side by side comparison
of three popular lavalier microphones.
And then we're gonna find out if one of them
is the best microphone for your smartphone.
The mics we're gonna use today are the BOYA BY-M1,
the Rode smartLav+, and the Audio-Technica ATR 3350iS.
By the way, the microphone you're listening to right now
is the BOYA BY-M1.
And I almost forgot, we're also gonna do a comparison
between those three microphones
and the onboard microphone on my iPhone 7,
so you can hear all of those, then you can decide
if you need a mic or if you don't need a microphone.
Now as I said before, the mic you're currently
listening to is the BOYA BY-M1.
It runs about $16 on Amazon, maybe between 16 to 20,
depending if you get Prime or not.
And the cable is quite long.
The cable is six meters long.
And that can be really convenient,
if you're gonna put your phone up on a tripod
and step away from it, so you can film yourself.
Six meters is quite long,
and you can pretty much run all around your phone,
without the risk of ripping it off the tripod.
Now the BOYA BY-M1 comes with a little capsule,
and inside that capsule, it requires a battery.
But the good thing about this is,
unless you're plugging it into a camera,
you don't need to turn it on.
The on means you're gonna connect it to a camera,
and the off, which means there's no battery used,
that means you're gonna connect it to your smartphone.
And the connector is a TRRS connection,
which means you plug it into your smartphone
and you're ready to go.
Now before I clip on the next mic
and show you what that sounds like,
I want you to go down and leave a comment below
and let me know what microphone you're using
or if you're using any microphone at all,
as well as any audio apps that you might have on your phone.
I read every single comment,
and I reply to as many people as I can.
And when this video's over, I'm gonna go down there
and continue this conversation, so go down there
and let me know what microphone you're using.
And by the way, the sound that you're hearing
from all the microphones is raw,
straight out of the microphone.
I'm not gonna add any EQ or any compression
or anything else that could possibly change the sound.
At most, I'll raise the volume,
to balance out the sound of the three microphones.
The microphone that you're listening to right now
is the Rode smartLav+.
It's the most expensive microphone
that we're gonna discuss today,
running about $70 US on Amazon.
And it has the shortest cable.
Now, the cable length could be a disadvantage
or an advantage, depending on how you shoot.
I personally like the cables to be a little bit longer,
but maybe not six meters.
This one's pretty short, it's only about a meter.
And the Rode smartLav+ is the only microphone
we're discussing today that doesn't require a battery.
And the connector is a TRRS connector.
That means you can plug it right into your smartphone
and it's gonna work.
So now that you've heard two of the lavalier microphones,
let's see what the onboard microphone
on the iPhone 7 sounds like,
so you can get a good comparison
between a lavalier mic and no mic at all,
and then you can decide if this is something
that you need or not.
So now the sound that you're hearing
is just from the iPhone.
The lavalier mics are turned off.
So now you decide if this sounds better,
or does this sound better?
That's entirely up to you.
Now a few people have commented
and asked me in previous videos,
if when you plug a microphone into your phone,
does it automatically start recording with your video.
And the answer is usually.
So what happens is, in most cases,
specifically with the iPhone,
as soon as you plug the microphone in,
it overrides the internal microphone.
And if you find that your phone isn't doing that,
go into your settings, and look for an option
that allows you to choose an external microphone.
And if your app isn't doing it,
it might have settings as well.
Go in there again, and look for an external microphone.
And if your app doesn't do that,
then maybe look into getting a different app.
But, if you have a phone that does not have a headphone jack
and I don't know why they took headphone jacks out of phones
but if this is the case, then you're gonna need
a lightning or a USBC to 3.5 millimeter connector,
which is basically the little dongle
that you plug into what used to be the headphone jack,
and then you plug the microphone into that.
Okay, so now the microphone you're hearing
is a Audio-Technica ATR 3350iS.
It also has a long cable.
It's about six meters long,
and it also needs a battery to operate.
Now unlike the BOYA, you actually have to
turn this battery on to use it,
either on your camera or on your phone,
and it is gonna eat up the battery.
And the plug is a TRS connector,
which means it'll work on your laptop
or your computer, or even your camera, but not your phone.
However, they do include an adapter,
which is a TRS to TRRS adaptor,
that has a really cool headphone port in it,
so you can monitor what's going on.
And then you can plug it right into your phone.
However, I need to be real with you about this microphone.
I just got it yesterday, and I tested it
on my DSLR, I tested it on my phone,
and I tested it on two different Zoom audio recorders.
And the audio signal is incredibly low, and what happens is,
when you have to pump that up to hear it,
you're gonna get background noise, and you don't want that.
So because of this, I do not recommend
you purchase this microphone.
I'm gonna put a link down in the description below anyway,
so you can go and read some reviews
and make your own decision,
but I don't recommend it.
I have seen some people who say it works fine,
and I've seen other people
who have the same problem as I do,
so personally, I would stay away from this microphone,
and I'm just trying to keep it real.
Now if you want my honest opinion,
about which one of these lavalier microphones I prefer,
I like the BOYA BY-M1.
The sound's a little bit bassier,
it's very inexpensive.
It's the cheapest microphone that we're talking about today.
And I really like the fact that
even though it takes a battery,
you don't actually have to use up the battery
for it to work on your smartphone.
So I'm taking the BOYA BY-M1 microphone
every single time, over these other microphones.
And a matter of fact, like I said before,
I'm not even recommending the Audio-Technica too.
So if it's between the smartLav and the BOYA,
I like the BOYA.
But listen, you get whatever microphone
is within your budget
and whichever one you think sounds best.
So that's entirely up to you.
And that wraps up our lavalier comparison video.
I hope you found a microphone that you like.
Go down to leave me a comment.
Let me know which one sounds best to you.
Thank you so much for watching, I do appreciate it.
If this is your first time here,
be sure to hit that subscribe button.
Follow by the notification bell,
so you don't miss anything, and you can continue to learn
how to master your mobile,
and I will see you in the next video.