Hey y’all, Tito Ferradans here to talk about Hollyland’s LARK 150 wireless microphone. If
you’ve been following this channel for a while, you know I’m not great with sound. In fact,
I’m pretty bad at it - as many comments point out. I started with the camera mic,
moved to a on-camera shotgun mic, then learned a lav would do a better job, upgraded to a lav
that recorded to my phone, making for a super annoying workflow, then moved up to
Rode’s Wireless Go and now I’m testing the LARK against it. You’re hearing the LARK right now.
Hollyland has sent me the mic to test it out, but they didn’t get to see the video before
you nor had any input on what I’m going to say.
The tough part is, I’m not a sound person. I’m not gonna pretend to be a connoisseur
of such dark arts and I’m gonna look at this mic from my perspective of someone
who wants to know just the bare minimum and still get great results. Like what a
lot of folks do for anamorphic, but for sound. I just want it to work.
So this review will focus on how intuitive it is to work with this gear,
and how much - if any - tinkering is required.
The LARK costs $280 at B&H and I was impressed by how many extras this thingy comes with.
For comparison, the Rode GO cost me $225 back in November and it comes in a little bag, with
one transmitter, one receiver, an aux cable, two usb cables and a little muff for the microphone.
I’ve been following Caleb Pike’s suggestion of how to rig it under my shirt since then,
but I’ve also gotten notes that a closer mic would give me a better result. The Rode GO II
is out now and it’s more comparable to the LARK 150, but it’s also slightly pricier at $299 USD.
Jumping back to the LARK, it’s extras include two lav microphones, an aux cable that goes to
your camera or recorder and a cable just for your phone, a usb to type-C cable to charge the case
and a pair of little muffs. I stuff all of these inside the cloth bag that also comes with it.
The actual electronics come in a small hardcase that has a snappy lid and a stays closed
even if I shake it really hard. The box is the charging station for
everything in this kit, and it reminds me of the case for my bluetooth earbuds,
except this one works, while my earbuds don’t. It’s kinda like airpods, but with mics!
Once we open it, we get to the good stuff. We have the two transmitter/mics and the receiver
in here. If you press any buttons, the receiver lights up in its “case mode”,
giving you the battery levels for everything, including the charging case, which has its own
internal battery to recharge the system if you’re away from a power outlet . The
batteries for each transmitter last four and a half hours, and I don’t think I’ve shot this
long of an interview. This battery life rules out narrative film usage though, where 12 hour
shoots are standard, unless you’re constantly turning off and on the transmitters. For my
videos here on Youtube these are great. When making this content we usually have about an
hour of actual microphone run time. If I needed more time, since I'm the only subject talking
I can quickly swap out one transmitter and let the other charge in the case. The receiver lasts
seven and a half hours, which is better, but still, not long enough for a regular shoot day.
As soon as I get these miniaturized thingies out of the case, everything connects on its own,
and this is such a relief. The last thing I want is to be fiddling with channels on tiny screens.
For me it’s also a huge bonus that the transmitters have only one button, which
is a power/mute button. The transmitter itself is also a microphone by default, but the internal mic
can be switched over to anything else you plug as an external mic, like the provided lavs. The
receiver has two little knobs to control the level of each mic and to quickly mute them.
All transmitters and receivers have a clip that you can use to attach to clothes,
objects, stretchy bandages, and it also fits on a camera shoe mount. This way I can easily mount
the receiver on the camera and run the cable from Line Out into the camera’s mic input. The other
side of the receiver has a slot for headphones so you can monitor sound directly from here.
The default recording mode is Mono, which is mixing both inputs on the same audio track.
If I’m using only one mic, that’s great. If I’m using two mics,
I’d prefer to record on Stereo, with each mic on a separate track.
To switch modes, just press and hold one of the volume dials. That’ll first go to a mode called
ST -6, which gets the input from both mics and it throws them on almost identical tracks, except one of them is 6dB lower than the other,
so if one of the mics clips, you’ll have some protection on the other track. Neat.
If I press and hold this knob again, it goes to Stereo mode. Easy enough.
This is actually when I noticed the color scheme. Each transmitter has
a “power” light and by looking closely you’ll see they’re actually different shades of blue!
These colors match the controls on the receiver and help you figure out which mic is which! My
biggest suggestion for Hollyland is to make these colors radically different, instead of teal and
blue. Like, use a yellow, or orange, or something else that won’t involve any second guessing.
Now, for the sake of comparison, we’re recording a sample using the LARK, which you’re hearing
right now, and now we’re gonna switch to the Rode GO. My lackluster audio knowledge only
gets to me say they both sound great, I can’t tell one from the other if I’m just listening to them,
but if you’re an audio person, you might be able to notice something that I
don’t from these clips! Please leave a comment in case that happens!
What do I like about this microphone kit? Having it all in one case that charges the gear
is great. The extras are also welcome, plus not having to deal with manually connecting anything
is gold. Having a good-sounding 2-lav wireless kit for this price is something I did not
expect to see when I was in film school ten years ago. Wireless lavs costed a fortune
and guzzled double A batteries like crazy. And there was always a ton of interference. So. Much.
Interference. That’s my main memory of it. This thing has a pretty intuitive
and automated approach to for set up and use, so that’s a big score for me.
Now I can easily record 2-people interviews already synced with video
by feeding the receiver into a camera. This saves me money from buying
an external recorder and time from synchronizing video and audio later!
So, I like this thing and that’s the mic I’ll be using forward, at least for a while.
What are your thoughts about it? I’d love to hear read them in the comments below.
Thank you so much for hanging out, and I’ll see you next week. Tito Ferradans, out.