greetings earthlings today i'm back with a brand new series yeah i don't have a name for this
series so if you have any ideas let me know down below in the comments but because it can be so
difficult when you're just starting out to select the right gear to get up and recording i wanted to
start a series where i come up with a couple of different full recording setups under a specific
budget to give you an idea of what you can expect in a price range and maybe give you some ideas for
gear that you can get to improve your recordings for the inaugural episode of this unnamed series
i opted to go for the modest budget of 150 dollars for an entire recording setup and i have to tell
you gosh darn it that was difficult but i did end up coming up with three different full recording
setups and i hope it gives you some ideas of what you can expect or gives you some ideas of what
to pick up to get some better sounding recordings let's go ahead and jump to setup number one now we
are recording with setup number one the microphone that i opted to go with is the behringer xm 8500
this is a 23 xlr dynamic microphone the reason i selected this microphone is simply because it's
cheap and for the price it sounds surprisingly good it doesn't sound over boosted in the top
end it doesn't sound anemic in the low end for 23 dollars this thing sounds pretty dang incredible
the microphone is very basic there are no switches no dials no nothing it is bare bones the bottom
just has an xlr port and the microphone does come with a microphone clip to throw it on a microphone
stand because this is an xlr microphone we will need to grab an xlr cable and in this budget range
we don't have much wiggle room so we needed to save a bit of money i opted to go for a single
amazon basics 10 foot xlr to xlr cable this comes in at around nine dollars is it the most durable
no does it do the best at rejecting rfi and emi no but for nine dollars it does a surprisingly
good job and i used one for four years before it actually failed on me next we will of course
need to get a usb audio interface to connect the microphone to our computer and for that i opted
to go for the behringer um2 this sets us back 48 which is a bummer because a couple of years
ago you could pick this up for 30 it has an xlr microphone and line level input it has a quarter
inch instrument input it allows for direct zero latency monitoring as well as computer playback
has a quarter inch headphone output on the back you got rca outputs to run to your speakers which
are unbalanced you got the usb port and it does provide a full 48 volts of phantom power
if i had more of a budget i would opt to go for something slightly higher quality
but given that we are building a full complete recording setup we don't have enough budget to go
for something slightly nicer with a better build quality we're stuck with this and for the price
it performs admirably next we need a little bit of wind protection and plosive protection for
the microphone we unfortunately did not have enough budget to go for a proper pop filter
i selected an on stage ball pop filter which goes for 299. it doesn't do an amazing job at reducing
plosives but it does a little bit and that will ultimately yield a better sounding recording
and it's cheap let's throw it in there and get a little bit better sound we also need
to pick up something to hold the microphone and i don't like the majority of desktop stands because
i think that puts the microphone a little bit too far away from your mouth and a lot of the
desktop stands that would work are out of our budget so i opted to go for a neewer boom arm
this clips to the side of your desk and it is a boom arm it gets the microphone off of the desk
gets it closer to your mouth a few downsides to this is it does have springs on the outside so
if you bump the boom arm you'll hear the springs jingling and jangling but this comes in at 13.29
and for the price it does a fine job you can even wrap some duct tape or gaffer tape around
the springs to reduce the noise that's generated by them and get a little bit better sound next we
will need a way to monitor our audio and because our budget is stretched so thin we don't have room
for speakers we don't have room for reputable studio headphones i selected the tascam th02s
they have an all plastic build quality they are a mix of on-ear and over-ear headphones
they look like over-ear but they sit very close to your ears and they feel like on ears
the sound quality is very mid-forward and it sounds muffled and dark but they do lay flat
and these come in at twenty dollars so although they are not the best sounding they are not the
best built they'll do the job and it leaves us a little bit of room for some other essentials
then because i don't remember if the headphones come with a 3.5 to 6.35 millimeter adapter
i threw one of those in the cart this costs five dollars and it converts the standard
3.5 millimeter headphone plug to quarter inch and that allows us to connect the headphones directly
to our interface and monitor what we're recording through the microphone as well as hearing computer
playback and lastly one of the most important aspects of the setup that you're getting is
sound treatment that is something that is very often overlooked and i don't have this specific
solution in my studio so it's blank right here but here's a picture of that here's a picture of these
moving blankets these moving blankets cost twenty seven dollars and fifty cents they're not going
to do the best job at reducing reflections and reverb in your room but it will still improve
it quite a lot and that will yield a much better sounding recording you can get by by recording
in your closet which we'll discuss slightly later but this is setup number one and the total for all
of this stuff comes to 148.78 this is before tax and shipping but you gotta give me a little bit
of a break because getting all of this stuff under that budget was incredibly difficult but there you
go that was set up number one let's go ahead and jump to setup number two for setup number two i
wanted to go the usb microphone route in case you're somebody who does a lot of travel and
you don't want to carry around an audio interface the microphone that i selected is the samson q2u
this microphone goes for somewhere between 70 and 80 dollars it comes with an xlr a usb cable
a windscreen and a desktop stand so it comes with pretty much everything that you need
on the side of the mic you have an on off switch which can function as an impromptu mute button
on the end of the microphone you have the usb port but you also have an xlr port which you can run
simultaneously so you are able to record over usb and run xlr to a portable recorder and have
a backup it also has a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack which offers zero latency monitoring
as well as computer playback and because of all of these features this is one of my most recommended
microphones for beginning podcasters it is so convenient it gives you an upgrade path and
for the price it is very hard to beat as i alluded to earlier i think that desktop stands
are pretty useless because the microphone ends up being a little bit too far away from your mouth
and a little bit too close to the desk so when you bump it it picks all of that up because
of that i threw in the neewer boom arm again this comes in at 13.29 this will just allow us
to get the q2u off of the desk and closer to our mouth to get a slightly better signal to
background noise ratio then i know i sound like a broken record but because our budget is stretched
so thin and we still need a way to monitor our audio i selected the tascam th02s they go for 20
bucks i've said everything that i can about these headphones the build quality is decent the sound
quality is not very good but it allows you to hear what you're actually recording and lastly we are
bringing in the moving blankets again because just because it's a dynamic microphone does not mean
that you will not benefit from having some sound treatment in your room this goes for 27.50 and
that will ultimately yield a much cleaner sounding recording you will thank yourself your audience
will thank you and that brings setup number two's total to 140 and 79 cents you still have
nine dollars and 21 cents you can go get a bean burrito or nine of them at taco bell or something
that's setup number two and now for setup number three because i thought it would be a little bit
boring just to have two dynamic microphones i am going to go ahead and assume that you're able
to record in your closet which can function as an excellent makeshift recording booth it will
really reduce the reflections and reverb in your recording and also i'm assuming that you already
have a set of headphones that you'll like that frees up a little bit of extra budget so we can
get this microphone and get the condenser sound in this budget range the microphone that i selected
in this budget range is the behringer c1 which is an xlr condenser microphone this microphone is 58
dollars i've seen it go for more i've seen it go for less the reason i selected this microphone is
it's all we could afford in this price range everything else would push us
way over budget i would like to have selected the neat worker b which goes for around 90
but that would be out of our budget it would push us way over budget so we're stuck with
the behringer c1 as our only condenser mic on the list as i mentioned this is an xlr microphone so
we need to throw in an xlr cable again i selected the amazon basics 10 foot xlr cable that costs us
nine dollars and it does a perfectly sufficient job for the price then to connect this microphone
to our computer again i selected the behringer um2 costs 48 it's limited in bit depth and sample rate
16 bit up to 48 kilohertz for most people that's going to be more than sufficient and for 48 bucks
as i've said before performs pretty dang good we do need to have some wind and plosive protection
for the microphone and for that i selected the pmo pop filter thing this filter goes right onto
the microphone it puts a little bit of distance between the grille and the actual microphone
there's a tiny bit of foam on the inside to help reduce the plosives as well and this costs
eight dollars not the best in terms of plosive rejection but it does improve it quite a bit and
lastly assuming that you are recording in your closet chances are you won't have any surfaces
to mount a desktop boom arm to i threw an amazon basics tripod microphone stand in the cart as
well that costs us 23 dollars and it'll hold the microphone no real issues there it does the job
and that rounds out setup number three if my math is correct the total comes to 146 dollars
you still got four bucks you can get a couple of double decker tacos rip whatever sad day
they're gone but there you go setup number three 146 condenser recording setup under 150 bucks you
just gotta hide in your closet and record in there now i want to do a few tests of these microphones
first one being a podcast test so far i have not had any processing on these microphones and
there it is now i have thrown processing onto this microphone and here is how it sounds a little bit
of compression a little bit of eq and here on this screen is what i did to it here's how the xm 8500
would sound in a podcasting situation now i am on setup number two this is the q2u and i am talking
i am talking without any processing and i snapped now the processing is on a little bit of eq a
little bit of compression here is a screenshot of what kind of processing i am actually doing
listen to it this is what it would sound like in a podcasting situation if you used the exact
same processing with my exact same voice at the exact same room as me and now i am speaking into
setup number three the behringer c1 through the um2 there is no processing right now and
there we go now i have processing turned on compression eq look on the screen right now
this is the actual processing that i did this will give you
an idea of how it would perform in a podcasting
situation
do
testing likes all day i build up quite an appetite i don't know what to say i think
that mics are tight i don't know how to end this stupid song i don't know how so i will just end it
that is how you do it end it when it needs to end it needed to end and it will end now
there you go music tests for you guys on all the different microphones
and there you go those were my three setups that i came up with under the 150 dollar budget let
me know in the comments down below which of the setups you like the best the xm 8500 the q2u or
the behringer c1 also i know some people were inevitably screaming in the comments oh my god
why didn't you pick this why didn't he pick this microphone and this interface was under budget
let me know how i screwed it up let me know down below how i screwed that up also because i haven't
asked you to write enough in the comments down below let me know what you thought of this series
and also let me know if you want to see more of them and what budget i should shoot for next do
you think i should go to 300 225 dollars let me know let me know what budget you think i should
shoot for in the next iteration of this series but with that being said if you found this video
fun interesting or helpful go ahead and give me a thumbs up if you thought this video stunk more
than me after being locked up and quarantined for six months and not showering enough go
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next time thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening i'll talk to you later bye