greetings earthlings today i'm back with a review of a microphone designed by the
legendary microphone maker david royer that microphone being the mojave ma201
fett if you are interested in this microphone it will cost you around eight hundred dollars
like always i'll throw some links down below and for this video i have the microphone
connected directly to the focusrite 18i 22nd gen the gain is set at one o'clock
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 didily did now let's talk about what comes in the box
first off you will get this hard shell storage case you'll of course get the microphone a shock
mount a 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter and a tiny piece of documentation then as far
as the build quality this microphone feels absolutely outstanding as well as it should
it feels incredibly robust it has an all metal body as well as a metal mesh grille which does
have a bit of give to it so i would be careful with that it has a one inch capsule weighs in at
around one pound as we move around the microphone there are no buttons or switches and on the bottom
you will find the xlr port then as far as the specs this microphone has a cardioid polar pattern
a frequency response of 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz a sensitivity of around negative 39 db an impedance
of 550 ohms a self noise of approximately 14 dba a max spl of 125 db and a phantom power
requirement of plus 48 volts now i'm spinning around the ma201 fet to 90 degrees so you can
hear the off-axis rejection and coloration we'll continue around the microphone to 180 degrees
here's what the rear of the microphone sounds like continuing around the microphone to the second
90 degree angle here is the second side and then rotating and ending at the front of the microphone
i am very sorry mr royer but now let's see how well this microphone does at rejecting plosives
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto now i'm right on
top of the microphone to demonstrate the proximity effect on this thing now i'm about three inches
off with the mic pointed at the corner of my mouth and here is how the audio is sounding about
one foot away from the microphone two feet away from the microphone and about four feet away from
the microphone now i am typing on a keyboard with gatoron blue switches to see how much of my voice
verse how much of the keyboard it picks up and for you covert gamers now i am typing on the feds keys
somebody's gonna get that here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
and here is how the microphone sounds in a completely untreated room
and now to see how effective the provided shock mount is
i will go ahead and bump my desk to see how much of that it rejects
and i'll tap on the boom arm
and because i'm an incredibly annoying person i will now tap on the body of the microphone
to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
now i want to do a very quick comparison between the ma201 fett and a couple of other microphones
on the market so we can see how this stacks up and how it compares against some other options on
the market we'll start on the mojave microphone i am six inches away from this the gain on the
interface is set at one o'clock no post processing but make sure to check the lower third because i
may have to boost each of these microphones in post differently but let's jump to the first mic
and do that comparison first up we are on the audio technica at2020 six inches off gain at
one o'clock this is one of the most popular home studio microphones because it is only one hundred
dollars you may be asking why are you comparing a 100 mic to an 800 mic because it's so popular and
it gives you context so here is how this sounds 100 versus 800 let's do some more comparisons
we are back on the mojave ma201 fett no changes to the gain the distance anything
here is how this microphone sounds let's jump to the next one and hear how it compares next
up we are on the neat king b which goes for about one hundred thirty dollars or did go
for one hundred and thirty dollars six inches off gain at one o'clock check the lower third
i don't think this is currently available but i know this is a big fan favorite people love this
thing because it's got a it's a great bang for your buck mike and here's how it sounds compared
to the mojave let's jump back to the mojave and do a few more comparisons back on the ma201 fet again
this is how an 800 microphone sounds get a good feel for it listen to it hear how it sounds on
my voice and let's jump to another microphone and compare to that now we are on one of my all-time
favorite microphones the rode nt1 this goes for around 270 dollars so quite a bit cheaper than the
mojave cardioid solid state condenser six inches off gain at one o'clock check the lower third
here is how it sounds let's jump back to the mojave and do some more comparisons now hey we're
back on the mojave again because there's never enough comparisons in here and i know i will still
get comments saying hey you didn't do a comparison against this and you should have done that sorry i
can't do them all i would love to i just can't but here is the mojave let's do some more comparisons
next we are on the shure ksm 32 which is in my opinion a real sleeper condenser microphone
this goes for 500. six inches off gain at one o'clock and here is how this microphone sounds
compared to the mojave something about the shure ksm32 it's just special in the top end
it's so soft but not overly dark really a cool sounding mic so this is the ksm 32
let's jump back to the mojave hey we're back on the mojave m20ma208
201 fett sorry for any fonzie fanatics out there i know you're deeply offended the ma201 fett
here is how this microphone sounds at six inches gain at one o'clock
let's do a few more comparisons next we are on a little baby neumann the neumann tlm-102 hello
neumann this goes for seven hundred dollars six inches off again at one o'clock again check the
lower third and here is how a somewhat comparably priced condenser cardioid microphone from neumann
sounds like compared to the mojave designed by david royer which one do you like better
neumann or royer mojave not royer but design you get it let's jump back to the mojave alrighty we
are back on the mojave again i just realized i did not tell you where this microphone is made
i don't know that information is not available i believe the capsules are made in china the
body and the electronics may be made in the us i don't know don't take my word for that but this
is how the mojave sounds let's jump to another mic and hear how it sounds compared to this one
now we are on one of the most popular voice over microphones the neumann tlm-103 this microphone
goes for about 1100. and it is a fixed cardioid condenser microphone here is how this oh i'm six
inches off gain at one o'clock what a shocker like i would change now i don't think i have to i think
everything's still still in the clear but this is what an eleven hundred dollar three hundred
dollars more than the mojave here is how it sounds compared to the mojave does it sound three hundred
dollars better let me know comments down below and we're back on the mojave again 800 solid-state
fixed cardioid polar pattern microphone condenser microphone at that and here is how this sounds i
believe this is the last comparison we have and many of you already know what it's going to be
here is how this microphone sounds let's jump to the last mic and do that comparison and that is
right you all knew it was happening now i am on the u87 ai cardioid mode no high pass filter no
pad no nothing and here is how a 32 to 36 hundred dollar microphone sounds like compared to an 800
die not dynamic condenser microphone good golly i'm having a hard time speaking today
but i wanted to include this because this is another voiceover staple give you a bit more
context from the low end on the at2020 to the high end on the u87ai but let me know
which microphone did you like the best did you like the mojave audio technica sure neat
road neumann neumann neumann or which one let me know down below now let's do a music test
another day another microphone review conclusion that you
need to know and won't you tell me what you think in the comments down below
i am so desperately awaiting your comment telling me what you think of this microphone i know that
sounded super duper sarcastic i didn't mean it to come across that way let me know what you think
of this mic down below in the comments okay don't you know there buddy boy for a first time player
on the channel that being mojave i have to say i'm really impressed with this thing and i cannot wait
to try out more of their microphone more their microphones which we will be doing in the future
hint wink wink nudge nudge all that stuff but first let's talk about the pros and the cons
pros the off axis coloration on this thing is damn near non-existent when you're all
the way out to 90 degrees it doesn't sound funky or odd meaning if you're capturing
any of your room it's not going to make it sound funny it's not gonna affect the sound or the tone
of your recording and secondly i know this is kind of a cop-out but the sound of the microphone
it has this amazing weight to it but it doesn't sound muddy or loose or undefined down there
and then the top end is detailed and articulate and clear but at no point does it become fatiguing
that is in my opinion the main pro about this thing it's the sound of it and then as far as cons
i am being a little bit nitpicky but i would love for the mic to come with a standard microphone
stand as well as the shock mount that way if you're micking something up in a tight area like
my box of doom you're able to do that a little bit more easily and secondly it doesn't do a great job
at rejecting background noise if you're someone in an untreated room and you don't want to pick up a
lot of reverb that is going to be a huge drawback from this microphone because it does not reject
any of that next as far as my overall thoughts and opinions of this microphone on the electric guitar
i really enjoyed it because it has this weighty girth to it but it doesn't come across as muddy
the mids were open sounding not overly punchy not overpowering and the top end had this detail and
this bite to it without becoming piercing without becoming fatiguing without becoming sharp on the
electric guitar i really really enjoyed it then on the acoustic guitar again i really liked it
for that application the thing that i noticed is when i was really digging into the strings
it captured that aggression and i really heard that in the upper frequencies but then when i
laid back and played a little bit more softer it ended up smoothing out the entire microphone sound
became smoother and more enjoyable more laid back if i could call it that really worked well on the
acoustic in both playing styles in my opinion next up for singing the standout for me was the upper
end of the microphone i heard somewhat of a sheen to it which you could really hear when i make
sh sounds while i'm singing it's so clear and so concise sounding but it avoids coming across
as analytical and all around for singing i really enjoyed it and lastly for spoken word one of the
first things i noticed on this microphone was the weight to it when you get right on top of it you
get this low end girth heft whatever you want to call it and i really really enjoyed that the
mids were unobtrusive they were not overly nasally they were really nice sounding and
then the top end i've said it about 50 times are detailed and articulate and clear i do
think that it may be a little bit too sibilant for spoken word without any kind of processing
and i think throwing on a de-esser can really help the sound out but all around for spoken word i do
think it is a quite nice sounding microphone and that it could work really well and to wrap
up would i recommend this microphone why yes i would i have very few complaints about this thing
i think that if you're looking for this type of sound a little bit v-shaped really heavy low end
and a clear and concise top end with a little bit of sparkle a little bit of a sheen if that's what
you're going for absolutely i recommend it but i do have one caveat if you are in a reverberant
room or you have a lot of background noise and you don't want to pick any of that up i think you
ought to look somewhere else because this seems to pick up the entire room and a lot of background
noise but if you're in a well-designed room that's designed to sound good and you want to capture all
of that the off-axis coloration or lack thereof is really going to play to your benefit because
you're not going to be capturing the reverb from the sides that sounds really funky and awkward
and really mid-forward or tinny which a lot of microphones tend to have and 90 degrees so i think
in that type of environment it would work really well but if you don't want to capture any of that
look somewhere else alrighty i think that's gonna wrap up for today but like always i would love to
hear from you which of the microphones that i compared against the mojave was your favorite
was it the mojave the road the audio technica the neat the neumann the neumann the neumann or the
shure let me know in the comments down below if you did find this video fun interesting or helpful
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bye