greetings earthlings and welcome back to podcastage today i am back with a re-review
of one of the only broadcast dynamic microphones that can give the sm7b a run for its money if
you don't know what this microphone is it is the electro voice re20 if you are interested
in this microphone it will cost you around 450 dollars like always i'll throw some affiliate
links in the description down below also for this review i'm running the microphone
directly into the focusrite 18i20 second gen 24-bit 48 kilohertz gain at around 430
i will not do any kind of post-processing but i will have to boost it a little bit in post
so check the doobly-doo to see what a diddly did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
first off you are going to get this zippered hard shell storage case
you'll of course get the microphone which does come with this firm hard mount already
installed you'll get a 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter and a little bit of documentation
then as far as the build quality i have zero complaints about this thing it's built like an
absolute tank i've been beating one up for four or five years and it's still working like it's brand
new as far as the construction the entire body is going to be metal and it has this very firm metal
mesh grille which has no give to it on the side you will find a high pass filter selection switch
on the rear you'll find the xlr port and the mount on this is going to be made
out of plastic but i have never run into any issues with any of my electro voice microphones
and if it matters to you this microphone is made in the usa of domestic and foreign
content and that's about as good as it can get nowadays so i think we need to celebrate
what's the
okay then as far as the specs this microphone has a cardioid polar pattern
a frequency response of 45 hertz to 18 kilohertz a sensitivity of approximately negative 56.5 db
and an impedance of 150 ohms now i'm spinning around the re20 to 90 degrees so you can hear the
off axis rejection and coloration we'll continue around the microphone to 180 degrees here's the
rear of the mic continuing around the microphone to the second 90 degree angle there we go
and then rotating and ending at the front of the microphone now let's go ahead and test the plosive
rejection of this thing please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza
pronto and now i'm right on top of the microphone to demonstrate the proximity effect on this thing
and the variable d technology should limit the amount of low end that's introduced when we get
right on top of the microphone now i'm about three inches off of the mic with a pointed at the corner
of my mouth and here's how it's sounding about one foot away from the microphone now we're
two feet away from the microphone and finally we're about four feet away from the microphone
yeah i know nothing happened i need to subvert your expectations
keep you on your toes 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 the game and folk now i am typing on the sad w and space bar key
now here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
about four fingers away from my mouth
and here is how the microphone sounds in a
completely untreated room about four fingers away from my mouth
and now because the microphone comes with a firm mount i'm going to tap on
the desk to see how much of that noise it can reject and then i will tap on the boom arm
also because i'm an incredibly annoying person i will tap
on the body of the microphone to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
and again i'm right on top of the microphone to really exaggerate that proximity effect
i do not have the high pass filter engaged and here is how it's sounding and now i've switched
on that high pass filter and you should hear a lot of the low end a lot of the fullness a
lot of the body just get rolled off i personally think for most people this is going to be a bit
aggressive for spoken word but if you have an incredibly deep voice it may actually be useful
now like we always do we're going to do a quick spoken word comparison between the microphone that
we're reviewing and a bunch of other broadcasting microphones that are available so we can see how
it compares against the competition we'll start on the re20 i am three inches off my gain is at 430
no high pass filter engaged and here's how it's sounding first up we are on the behringer xm 8500
this is a twenty dollar handheld dynamic microphone three inches off my gain is still
at 430. this is significantly louder so check the lower third to see how much i boosted it and let's
jump back to the re20 and do more tests back again on the re20 nothing has changed this is just a
palette cleanser let's jump to another microphone now we are on the ubiqui ubiquitous ubiquitous
ubiquitous sure sm58 i'm three inches off my gain is at 430 this is a handheld dynamic it costs 100
here's how it sounds check the lower third let's jump back to the re20 for the third time back on
the re20 just so you can get a feel for it let's jump to another microphone now we are on the se
electronics sev7 another 100 handheld dynamic microphone three inches off gain still at 430.
here's how it sounds let's jump back to the ev and do more comparisons and in case you were
confused we're back on the re20 again so you can hear how it sounds let's do another comparison
now i'm on the rode pro caster which is a 230 dollar broadcast dynamic microphone
again three inches off gain still at 430 and here is how this sounds compared to the re20
which one do you prefer let's jump back to the re20 and do more of these i know it gets
redundant but we need to do it we're back on the re20 here's how it sounds let's do another one
now we are on the electro voice re-320 which costs around 300 i am three inches off my gain
is still at 430 no high pass filter or kick switch engaged and here's how this sounds compared to the
more expensive bigger brother the re20 speaking of the re20 let's go back to it would you be
surprised if i told you we're on the re-20 again here's how it sounds let's jump to another mic
now we're jumping up in price quite a bit i am on the buyer dynamic m201tg which is a 300
instrument dynamic microphone i am still three inches off my gain is still at 4 30.
here is how it sounds let's jump back to the re20 and do more of these things i don't know how
many of these we have done but we've done some and it's the re20 again and we have more to do
let's do more of them and now i am on the re20s main competitor the shure sm7b i am in the neutral
mode no high pass filter no presence boost about three inches off of the capsule my gain is still
at 30 and here is how this compares to the re20 i know some people will hate the sm-7b compared to
the re20 and others will love the sm-7b compared to the re20 what do you think let's jump back to
the re20 who would have thunk it back on the re20 again nothing has changed why would it
and here's how it sounds let's jump to another microphone now we are on the rode broadcaster
which is a broadcast condenser microphone this one costs 420 bucks la mao three inches off my
gain was decreased to one o'clock and i do have 48 volts on and here is how a condenser sounds
compared to a dynamic around the same price let's do more all right again we're back on the re20
here is how it's sounding let's jump to the ninth microphone i think and now i am on my original
re20 i'm including this to determine if there is any change in the tone after five years of
heavy use if spit gets on the foam and degrades it and that alters the sound or if beating the crap
out of it changes the tone as well but nothing has changed same distance same gain setting let's jump
back to the new re20 and do more comparisons all right we are back on the re20 again three inches
off gain at 430 no high pass filter engaged check the lower third and let's jump to another mic now
i am on the earthworks icon pro i am still three inches off my gain is at one o'clock 48 volts on
this is another broadcast condenser microphone and it costs 500 check the lower third to see how
much i boost all of these in post and let's jump back to the ev and do a couple more comparisons
okay here is the re20 listen to the sound of my voice let's jump to the next one and now we are
on the electro voice re27nd which goes for around 500 i do not have any of the switches engaged on
this microphone and as you can tell this is the much brighter bigger brother of the re20 so there
you go re27nd versus the re20 and in my headphones this is actually hurting my ears let's go back we
are getting very near the end but first we're back on the re20 here is how it sounds let's jump to
the second to last microphone i believe now we are on the earthworks ethos which is another broadcast
condenser microphone this costs seven hundred dollars i am three inches off of the end of this
thing 48 volts on gain at one o'clock and here is how this sounds compared to the electro voice
what do you think let's jump back and do one final comparison we're there we did it harry we're there
and you all know what's going to be next but before we do that here is the re20 here's how
it sounds nothing has changed check the lower third and let's jump to the final microphone and
to wrap it up we are on the neumann u87ai which is a studio multi-pattern condenser microphone i
am three inches off of this thing my gain is at 11 o'clock 48 volts on cardioid mode no pad no high
pass filter engaged and this is the control from video to video it's not really meant to be a fair
comparison but this is the u87ai let me know which of these microphones was your favorite and what do
we do next why did i forget how to say do what do we do next music test let's do the music test
if i didn't have to buy another mark i could have saved a few bucks now
but i just needed to know if the mic was functioning like new that's a true story when i
was starting this re-review series i was so stoked thinking finally i can make a video that doesn't
cost me money to make then i realized i need to buy the microphone to make sure it hasn't degraded
over years of use and then it hurts twice as much to buy the same microphone twice so joke's on me i
guess let's go to the outro okay so in the time between my review in 2017 and now my opinion of
this microphone has not changed i still think that it's one of the best dynamic microphones ever made
and first up in terms of pros i think the main driving factor for this broadcast dynamic is
that extension into the treble and air it makes it sound a bit more open a bit more natural but
i do think that opens it up for a con which i'll discuss in a second but back to pros i do think
it does a great job at background noise rejection so if you have a lot of ambient noise this does a
really good job at rejecting that and the off axis coloration on this thing isn't terrible so if you
do end up with room reflections the sounds coming in off the side of the microphone aren't going to
sound terrible and funky but then when we start looking at cons the first thing that sticks out
to me is the microphone's inability to reject shocks so if you are buying this microphone i
100 recommend buying the electro voice shock mount or some kind of third party shock mount because
it's really really bad also that treble and air extension that i mentioned i find does
exaggerate some sibilant frequencies so if you are someone who has an extremely sibilant voice
i think it may become an issue but if you're someone who doesn't really have any issues
with sibilance i don't think you have anything to be worried about and now what are my overall
thoughts and opinions of this microphone on the electric guitar it's not my personal favorite
but i understand why people love it it gives you an overall neutral and even and balanced sound
i did find the low end to get a little bit overpowering while close miking the speaker
cab so throwing on a high pass filter in post can yield better results and if you're looking for
that more neutral sound on the electric guitar over the more aggressive and mid-forward sm-57
i think it's absolutely workable and a great sound then on the acoustic guitar i'm still surprised
at how well this thing works and i think that's because of the extension into the treble and air
that makes it sound a bit more alive a bit more realistic and it captures a bit more detail
so if that's something you're looking for in a dynamic microphone i think it sounds great in the
studio i would probably still gravitate towards a condenser for the acoustic guitar but if you're in
an environment with a lot of background noise and you need to eliminate that i think that's where
this may be the right choice next up for singing i found that for a dynamic the top end of this thing
is extremely lively and exciting sounding but it avoids that typical overboosting and unnatural
sound that a lot of dynamics run into the mids on this thing i also find quite different from a lot
of other dynamics i wouldn't say they're pulled out i wouldn't say they're scooped i would just
say they're reserved they're reserved mids and it avoids any kind of nasalness and then you get to
the low end and you get a really nice controlled low end because of that variable d technology but
if you want a bit of warmth you can still engage and get a little bit of that proximity to bring
in some more low end and finally for spoken word i think this microphone is outstanding for that
application i know i'm gonna sound like a broken record but that top end is what makes this special
compared to other dynamic microphones it has a bit more liveliness a bit more articulation and
it just sounds great in the top end assuming you don't have too much sibilance again the
mids aren't scooped it doesn't have a v-shaped sound but it has a more reserved mid-section
and when we went back and forth between all of the microphones in the comparison that's where
it becomes extremely apparent that this microphone has less mids than a lot of microphones out there
and finally in the low end you get a very powerful and robust low end but it doesn't
come across overpowering it doesn't get muddy or unclear just a great low end on this thing
and to wrap up would i recommend the electro voice re20 absolutely i would and for music i think it's
the exact same story as the sm7b although it's not my favorite for every application
i think pretty much every recording studio needs one and probably already has one because it's so
versatile i have seen this thing used successfully on pretty much every single instrument ranging
from voice to bass to drums to guitar anything and everything you can get a very usable tone out of
it so if you're doing music i absolutely recommend adding one of these to your microphone locker
also for spoken word i would absolutely recommend this mic if you're looking for that brighter and
livelier top end that is a little bit less smooth and can be susceptible to sibilance you're also
getting a little bit less of those mids if you want to avoid that if you want to avoid nasalness
you're also getting the variable d to control the low end and the proximity effect so if that
sounds good to you and if you prefer the sound of this over something like the 7b absolutely i
recommend it it's a great sounding mic all right that's going to wrap up for today but like always
i would love to hear from you in the comments down below which of the microphones that i compared was
your favorite did you like the re20 or did you prefer something else if you found this video
fun interesting or helpful go ahead and give me a thumbs up if you hated it give me a big ol thumbs
down that was weird how it stayed focused on my face when i had my fist in your face anyway what
did i say if you want more videos subscribe you can do that you can hang out on the discord server
podcastage.com discord and that's about it thank you so much for watching thank you so much for
listening you are amazing have an amazing week and i will talk to you on a later date bye-bye