greetings earthlings today I'm back with a review of another large diaphragm multi-pattern
condenser microphone so today we're reviewing this guy the road NT to a full recording kit
if you are interested in picking this microphone kit up it will set you back around four hundred
dollars like always I'll throw some links down below what in the what are you doing
in here who are you geez what is it it's a bean bag it's not a lightning bolt just leave
me alone man I don't what the hell is happening this makes no sense don't ask questions then
this whole thing falls apart for this review I have the microphone connected directly to
the 18 i 22nd gen with the gain set just at around 1:30 I will not do any kind of post-processing
but I may boost it in post so check the doobly-doo to see what I did aliy did now let's talk
about what comes in the box of course you are going to get the microphone you'll also
get a shock mount with a pop filter built onto it and the mounting bracket has a 5/8
and 3/8 inch threading built into it which is super awesome you'll get a dust cover an
XLR cable some documentation and a sticker next up as far as the build quality the microphone
feels incredibly sturdy it is a very hefty thick boy if I do say so myself it has an
all-metal body as well as a metal mesh grille and it does have a tiny bit of give to it
but nothing out of the ordinary on the front you will find three switches a 3-way polar
pattern selection switch for cardioid figure eight or omnidirectional a 3-way high-pass
filter selection for off 40 Hertz or 80 Hertz and a 3-way pad selector for off negative
5 DB or negative 10 DB as you go around the microphone there is nothing else and on the
bottom you'll find the XLR port then as far as the specs the microphone has a cardioid
omnidirectional and figure eight polar pattern a frequency response of 20 Hertz to 20 kilohertz
a sensitivity of around negative 36 decibels a self annoys of only 7 DBA an impedance of
200 ohms a max SPL of 147 DB or 157 DB with the 10 DB pad engaged and a phantom power
requirement of plus 48 volts now let's go ahead and walk through all the polar patterns
on this microphone so right now I am speaking into the cardioid polar pattern and this is
how the audio sounds now I am on the figure 8 polar pattern which picks up audio in the
front and the back and has null areas on the side and this is how it sounds and lastly
we are on the omnidirectional polar pattern at the exact same distance this picks up audio
360 degrees around the microphone and this is how the audio sounds now I am spinning
around the road NT to a on the cardioid mode to show you how it sounds from the side continuing
around to 180 degrees here's how it sounds from the rear continue around to the second
90 degree angle and then rotate and end at the front of the mic spinning around the road
NT to a on the omnidirectional mode and there should be very minimal change in the tonal
characteristics as we move all the way around the microphones capsule and now on the bi-directional
or figure 8 mode continue around to the rear of the microphone which should pick up the
audio fairly well again continue around to the second 90 degree dead area and then rotate
and end at the front now I'm right on top of the microphone with the high pass filter
disengaged and this is how the audio sounds same position but now I have engaged the 40
Hertz high-pass filter and this is how it affects the proximity effect and lastly I
have switched over to the 80 Hertz high-pass filter and this is how it sounds when we are
right on top of the microphone now I am right on top of the microphone to show you the proximity
effect on this thing about three inches off of the microphone and here's how it sounds
1 foot away from the microphone 2 feet away from the microphone now let's test the pilosa
projection of this thing please bring Pizza pronto please bring Pizza pronto please bring
Pizza pronto please bring Pizza pronto now I am typing on a keyboard with cherry MX blues
to see how much of my voice verse how much of the keyboard it picks up all right sad
boy gamers now we type in on the sad W keys because this microphone does come with a shock
mount I am going to go ahead and tap the desk to see how it does a rejecting that type of
noise and now I am tapping on the boom arm to see how much of that the shock mount rejects
now I am going to go ahead and tap the microphones body to see if there are any kind of resonant
frequencies
now I am speaking into the road NT to a on the cardioid mode with no high-pass filter
engaged in a decently treated room and here's how it sounds and now I'm speaking into the
road NT to a in the cardioid mode in a completely untreated room now I want to do a very quick
comparison between the Road NT 2a and the rode nt1-a so right now I am speaking into
the NT 2a on the cardioid mode with no high pass filter and no pad engaged and this is
how it sounds and now I am speaking into the rode nt1-a at the exact same distance with
the exact same gain setting this is just a cardioid microphone and this is how the audio
compares and just for good measure I also wanted to include a quick test of the rode
nt1 exact same distance again this is just a cardioid microphone exact same gain setting
as well and this is how the microphone compares
all of the mugs in the world is what I need so I can test them all and put them in your
feet if I only knew what to do this moment that I mean in re open say
or more importantly save my wallet okay I honestly can't stop buying microphones at
this point it is a serious problem but I got a test Amal right right tell me yes justify
my purchases all right so I really wasn't sure what I was going to think about this
microphone when I first started testing with it but I must say that I have come out of
the review pleasantly surprised and first up in terms of pros the microphone is pretty
dang versatile with all of the polar patterns which are all pretty dang usable the multiple
pads and the multiple high-pass filters it also has an insanely quiet noise floor at
negative 7 DBA as well as an insanely high max SPL of 157 DB so you can throw this in
front of pretty much any sound source without worrying about overdriving the microphone
also all of the accessories seem really well built and they do their job well and the microphones
build quality feels excellent but then in terms of cons if you are looking for a microphone
that rejects a lot of background noise this is not it it seems to pick up everything it
is very unforgiving in that department and also the weight of the microphone is pretty
high at 800 grams so what are my overall thoughts on this microphone on the electric guitar
if you throw on the 80 Hertz high-pass filter and to place the microphone a little bit farther
to the side of the speaker you can get some really amazing and warm tones I particularly
liked this microphone on the lead tone using that miking technique then on the acoustic
guitar I think that is my favorite sound source that I put this microphone in front of it
is just such a vibrant and detailed sound and then it does have a full sound without
being muddy it is just wonderful on the acoustic guitar then on singing the microphone is very
crisp and airy sounding so if you're trying to capture all of the higher frequency characteristics
of somebody's voice this mic will accomplish that for you and lastly for spoken word I
think the mic offers a very detailed and articulate sound while maintaining a smooth midsection
which I am a big fan of it's kind of a mix of the NT 1 and the NT 1 a to my ears and
now what I recommend to this microphone I think so I think it's a better sounding and
more versatile version of the NT 1a style microphone the NT 2a has a similar amount
of detail in the upper frequencies compared to the nt1-a but it is just smoother to listen
to meaning it comes across much more pleasing and also it has a warmer and rounder low-end
which in my opinion helps compliment that exaggerated boost in the upper frequencies
so if you're in a well treated room or if you're recording in a room where you want
to capture the tone of the room maybe you also want multiple polar patterns and you
want a very detailed and clear microphone sound then I think this is a great option
for you in the $400 price range ok if you found this video fun interesting or lightning
bolts go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you hated it give me a big thumbs down I hate
myself if you want to hang out in the discord server there's a link in the description and
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at the $5 tier or higher thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening
I'll see you next time bye lightning bolts