if you want to look like a pro in your next video podcast or maybe even in your next
zoom meeting the earthworks icon usb mic has those looks for sure but does it have the sound
to match the looks well i'm talking into it right now this is the raw audio so
you can tell me now in this video i'm going to be doing some more tests with
the earthworks icon usb mic so you can find out if this is the right microphone for you
i'm zane welcome to audio tech tv where it's my goal to help you conquer the tech so you can
unleash your creativity now i just want to give a big thank you to sweetwater for sending me this
microphone to review currently the earthworks icon usb microphones about $350. but you can get it for
about $15 a month using sweetwater's financing i've included a link down in the description so you get
more details on that now you've been listening to the earthworks icon usb mic this is raw audio
recorded in i haven't edited this audio at all and i'm about nine inches away from the microphone i
do have the gain on the back turned back just a little bit as this thing has a lot of gain to it
and we're going to get into the features in just a little bit but this is sort of the sound quality
that you'll get when you're doing something like a youtube live or facebook live or in your zoom
meetings this is what it will sound like now i do have a light fan that's kind of noisy it might be
picking that up and also the computer fan is a little bit noisy so you might be hearing that
so if you do hear any sound like that that's what those are and that's going to be typical
if you have similar noises in the background now before i get into some more of the audio
tests which are going to be some distance tests with this plus i have some other things
planned a little later but let's look at what you get when you purchase this microphone so of course
you get the mic itself which is a usb mic and it's attached to this really nice swivel mount that can
connect to pretty much any mic stand so a great looking mic like this should be on a great
looking mic stand especially if you're in a zoom meeting or on a podcast you want it to look great
and it includes this really nice triad orbit custom desktop stand it looks great when it's
on this but as you can see it does connect to my regular mic stand that i have set up in my studio
which works for these videos pretty well also in the box you get the usb cable with it and there's
a 15% off coupon for the triad orbit website all right now i just want to briefly talk about the
quality of the build of this microphone this is solid stainless steel when you pick up the box
it is a heavy box and part of it is because of the stand but the stand doesn't weigh as much as the
microphone itself this thing is solid stainless steel it's not plastic it's not thin aluminum it
is solid a great quality build and now let's look at some of the features of this microphone so like
i said it has this really nice swivel mount so you can pretty much position this microphone
any way you might want to on the back you have the gain knob and if you turn it left that increases
the gain you turn it right and this is when you're facing it right and left when you're facing it you
turn it right and it decreases the gain and that's good for the distance that you're going to be so
if you're going to be further back you're going to want to turn it up and if you're going to be
really close up on top of it you're going to want to turn it down and like i said i'm about
nine inches away from the microphone and i have it turned down right now and that's how good this mic
picks up your voice it's really designed for voice so the gain knob also if you push it in you'll
feel it click that acts as a mute so that's really nice to have when you're in a meeting
and you don't want the boss to hear something that you're about to say you just push that mute on
and there's no worries or if you're interviewing somebody in a podcast and you don't want any of
your breathing or other noises to get into the microphone you just push that mute it push it
again unmute it it's that easy on the back there's also your usb port and then there's a headphone
jack there so you can plug in your headphones and listen to what you're recording or you can
listen to the guest that you're interviewing or whatever else you might have going on
there's also an led light right underneath and this is for more than just looks when it's blue
that means it's turned on and ready to use when it's green that means it's actively streaming
audio to your computer and when it's flashing the green and blue that means it's in the mute mode
and then when it's red that means it's clipping and you need to turn your gain down all right
so now i'm breaking out the measuring tape and i'm going to do some distance tests because you
might be sitting further away or closer to it in your setup so let's hear how it's going to sound
in different setups so right now like i said this is nine inches away this is unedited audio so this
is what the earthworks icon usb microphone sounds like unedited at nine inches away all right so now
i'm one foot away from the microphone i've turned the gain up just a little bit it's actually at
the center position right now and this is what the earthworks icon usb microphone sounds like
raw at one foot away all right so now i'm 18 inches away from the microphone i've turned
the gain up just a little bit and this is what the raw audio sounds like going through the earthworks
icon usb microphone this is raw audio i haven't edited at all alright so now i'm pretty much right
on top of the microphone i'm three inches away and this is again the raw audio going through
the earthworks icon usb microphone this has not been edited at all all right so that was pretty
interesting doing all the distances and it kind of makes me wonder if i could use this as sort
of a shotgun microphone because it picks up your voice really well from further away and that's
kind of a nice feature with this microphone now i know this mic is really designed as a
vocal microphone not like a singing microphone but more of a podcast or meeting microphone but
if you're like me you might occasionally want to record an acoustic guitar in or maybe even sing
so right now i'm going to test out what it sounds like on an acoustic guitar just to find out
all right i might as well try it out with singing and playing the guitar
at the same time now don't judge it on my voice because i'm not really a great singer
but maybe judge it on the quality of the audio that's going into the microphone
so let's hear what that sounds like i met a microphone an icon was its name
i met a microphone and earthworks was its brand i met a microphone and this is how it sang
i met a microphone earthworks icon usb all right there's how it sounds with a little bit of vocals
so in my opinion if you want a microphone that looks great on camera and you want the sound
quality to match then the earthworks icon usb is a great option for you and again i want to give
a big thank you to sweetwater for sending me this microphone to try it out and if you want to check
out some really nice looking studio headphones click the video on the screen right now if you
like this video please give it a thumbs up also subscribe to the channel for more videos like this
thank you so much for watching for audio tech tv i'm zane keep creating and we'll talk soon