greetings earthlings today i'm back with a review of the microphone which is the
spiritual successor to the sony c800g which was a ten thousand dollar tube condenser microphone
that microphone being the sony c100 and if you are interested in this microphone it will cost you
around one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars which i am sure sounds shockingly like a good deal
after learning the c800 had cost ten thousand dollars i will throw some links down below if
you do want to check it out though for this review i have the microphone connected directly to the
focusrite 18i 22nd gen my gain is set at around 12 o'clock and i will not do any kind of post
processing but i may have to boost it 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 everything comes in this awesome hard shell carrying case you'll of course get the microphone
a shock mount a 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter a bit of a foam windscreen and a tiny
bit of documentation then as far as the build quality of this microphone i have absolutely
zero complaints it has an all metal body as well as a very firm metal mesh grille with no give to
it on the front you have a very nicely attached polar pattern selection switch to go between
omni cardioid and figure eight on the rear of the microphone you'll find the same style of switch
for a 10 db pad as well as a high pass filter on the bottom of the microphone you will find the xlr
port also this microphone does have two capsules in it one being a full condenser capsule and
another being an electric condenser capsule to capture the 20 to 50 kilohertz frequency response
and if you are interested in it this microphone is made in japan then as far as the specs of this
microphone it has a cardioid omnidirectional and bi-directional polar pattern a frequency response
of 20 hertz to 50 kilohertz a sensitivity of negative 31 negative 37 or negative 35
db on the cardioid omni and bi-directional polar pattern respectively a self noise of 19 db 24 db
or 22 db on those same polar patterns in the same respective order and a max spl of 132 138 or 136
db on those same polar patterns in that same order the mic has an impedance of 90 ohms and a phantom
power requirement of plus 48 volts now i'm on the cardioid polar pattern moving around to 90 degrees
here's the off axis rejection and coloration continuing around to the rear of the microphone
should be dead here continuing around with a second 90 degree area and then ending at the front
of the mic now i am on the omnidirectional pattern moving around the mic and you should hear very
little tonal change as we move around because it should be picking it up 180 degrees around the mic
and we are at the front and lastly we are on the figure eight mode moving around to 90 degrees this
should be the deadest area continuing around to 180 degrees here's what the rear of the capsule
sounds like continuing around to the second 90 degree area another dead knoll area and then
ending at the front of the microphone now let's see how well the microphone does at rejecting
plosives please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto and
now with the provided foam windscreen please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto
please bring pizza pronto now i am right on top of the microphone to really accentuate the proximity
effect and here is how it is sounding about three inches off of the mic with it pointed at the
corner of my mouth and here is how it 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 gateron blue switches to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up
and for all you gaming folk out there now i am typing on the sad w keys
here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
there is the microphone right there and here is how the mic
sounds on the cardioid polar pattern in a completely untreated room
now to see how well the provided shock mount performs i'll go ahead and tap
my desk so we can see how much of that it rejects
and i'll tap the boom arm
now i'm going to tap the microphone to
see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies in the body or the grill
next test i want to go ahead and see how the provided foam windscreen affects the tone of the
microphone currently i'm a couple inches off of the mic no foam windscreen on top of it and i am
on the cardioid mode no high pass filter and here is how it is sounding and now i have the provided
foam windscreen installed i don't hear too much happening in my headphones but it's really going
to come back to listening and playback it isn't as noticeable as a lot of foam windscreens so
it seems as though they did a fairly good job at making a transparent foam windscreen now
i am back right on top of the microphone so we can get that proximity effect back
currently i do not have the high pass filter engaged and here is how it is sounding and now
i have engaged the high pass filter on the microphone and here is how it is sounding
you can hear that it does clean up a bit of the low end but it doesn't sound to be
too overly aggressive there you go high pass filter test now like always i'm going to do
a quick comparison between the sony c100 and a bunch of other microphones enough that i would
call it a smorgasbord of other microphones that are available to see how it compares against them
we are starting on the sony c100 i am on the cardioid polar pattern no high pass filter
engaged connected to the 2i2 or 18i20 gain at 12 o'clock and here is how it is sounding
just because i think it's funny here i am on the newer nw700 this is a 22 to 23 dollar microphone
six inches off gain at the same distance check the lower third to see how much i boost each of these
in post and let's jump to the next comparison back on the sony c100 at the same distance same gain
setting nothing else has changed and here is how this microphone is sounding again now i am on one
of the most popular condenser microphones the audio technica at2020 this goes for about 100
same distance same gain setting check the lower third no filters or anything on this mic and
there is how it sounds in comparison let's do some more of these things for the third time
we are back on the c100 so you can hear how this microphone sounds before we jump to another one
and hear how it sounds compared to that now we are on one of my all-time favorites the rode nt1 this
goes for about 270 dollars i am six inches off gain still at 12 o'clock and there you go that's
how it sounds let's jump back to the c100 and do more comparisons back on the sony c100 and i
have to admit something i started re-reading harry potter ton of fun but here's how this microphone
sounds let's go to the next one now we are jumping up in price quite a lot this is a 900 dollar fet
condenser microphone this is the telefunken tf-11 six inches off gain at the exact same distance
and this is how it sounds in comparison let's do a couple more comparisons that's what they're called
hey we're back on the sony c100 again cardioid mode no high pass filter gain at 12 o'clock
let's jump to another microphone and hear how it compares to that now i am on another very popular
condenser microphone the neumann tlm-103 i am six inches off gain at the same spot twelve o'clock
this goes for around eleven hundred dollars and here is how it is sounding very nice sounding
microphone but what do you like better tlm-103 or the c100 more comparison time we are back on
the sony c100 again unfortunately it's not the c800 because if i had that i would have ten to
twenty thousand dollars in one microphone but here is how this sounds let's do another comparison now
i am on the akg c414 xls on the cardioid mode no high pass filter six inches off gain at 12 o'clock
this goes for about eleven hundred dollars this is a studio workhorse multi-pattern and
i mean multi-pattern microphone there are tons of them on here nine i believe and this is how
it sounds in comparison to the c100 let's do one or two or three more i don't know how many more
let's do more comparisons and i believe this is the final microphone we're comparing it against
so here is the c100 get a good feel for it in your ears and let's jump to the last mic
and to wrap up we are on another extremely famous workhorse voiceover microphone the neumann u87ai
on the cardioid mode no high pass filter again at 12 o'clock six inches off and this goes for 32
to 3 600 lots of money but a very good sounding microphone and there you go those are the mics
we're comparing let me know in the comments down below which of these microphones did you like
the sound of the best do you like the c100 do you like the tf11 the akg either of the neumann's or
do you like the newer newer nw700 comments down below let's do the music test now
i hope it's not too much to ask for
but i'd like my pizza now bring it fast no bring it pronto population me and pizza town
mark my words world i will have my pizza and i will have it pronto one of these days
and that that wasn't a threat as much as it may have sounded like one
but i will have my pizza you will bring me my pizza and it will be pronto it's not a threat
but here are my demands okay as someone who has never used the c800g if this microphone is close
to that mic i understand exactly why it's popular for rap because it is extremely articulate
it is articulate gets all that sound and first up in terms of prose it offers a hyper detailed sound
and to be frank that's probably why you're looking at this microphone and why you would buy it
because you want that hyper detailed sound i was also really impressed by the high pass filter on
the microphone most high pass filters are too aggressive this one worked extremely well at
not removing too much of the voice well done there i also really like the the case that it
comes in because it makes me feel like james bond that's not really a pro but also the build quality
and how well they thought all of the accessories out is really great and then as far as cons i do
think the self noise is a touch too high at 19 plus db i also found the shock mount to not be
the most effective it's not the worst i've ever heard but at a 1250 price point i would
have liked to see a little bit more effective shock mount and given the hyper detailed sound
i do find that it can be fatiguing over longer listening sessions and now as far as my overall
thoughts and opinions on this microphone on the electric guitar i really wasn't a big fan of it
at least not for more aggressive and distorted sounding guitars i think it captures too much
sizzliness to it and i did not think that was appealing or pleasing to listen to
on darker sounding electric guitars i do think it can work and it can bring a bit of life into that
but it definitely wouldn't be my first pick still then on the acoustic guitar i absolutely adored
this thing probably my favorite use case of all of them it offers such an articulate and lively sound
the low end is not anemic or missing the mids are clear just an all-around wonderful sound on
the acoustic next up for singing i actually did find myself enjoying it even though i am partial
to more warm and vintagey sounding microphones this is not that this is detailed detailed detail
articulate articulate articulate it has a bit of a sheen to it because it has so much air going on
up there not the smoothest but once you start to throw on a bit of processing a compressor
and stack some vocals you get some really cool sounds and very very modern sound to it if that's
something that you're going for i think it does accomplish that quite well and lastly for spoken
word i thought that it was surprisingly good i am typically not a big fan of very bright microphones
with big boosts in the treble or air this one wasn't terrible it has a hefty low end which
was surprising to me the mids were unobtrusive and very clean and then the top end was open
and i know i sounded like a broken record but this is what this microphone is it was detailed
and articulate and crystal clear that really is the only way i can describe the upper end
of this and again i will say not the smoothest top end if you're looking for smooth it doesn't
really do that but it can work really well and to wrap up would i recommend the sony c100
i don't see why not i would mainly recommend it for people who are recording acoustic instruments
or singing voice i think that's where it really excels and where it really brings something new
and interesting to the table it has a different sound than most microphones that i've heard it
has a sheen to that top end which is very modern sounding and i know a lot of people are looking
for on the other hand for spoken word it really is a toss-up i personally think the tlm-103 is
really giving it a run for its money and it's about 125 or 150 bucks cheaper just has a
smoother top end and that is something that i am always looking for in my spoken word microphones
for long form spoken word content that top end may become a little bit unappealing and you may want
to look elsewhere but if you are buying this for studio use you're buying it for acoustic recording
and for singing and you want to use it for spoken word you absolutely can get away with that i found
throwing on a de-esser and an la2a just wonderful sound and i believe that is it for this review i
did use this microphone on the banjo says podcast i linked that in a card i also used it and put out
a cover song i linked that in a card and i will put the higher quality audio on podcastage.com
if you want to hear that but with that being said go ahead and tell me which of the microphones
that i compared it against did you like the best did you like the c100 are you a tlm-103 fanboy
do you like the tf11 or the nw700 tell me in the comments down below and a huge thank you to
these amazing folks over here they are the members of this channel without them i would not be able
to continue to do this if you want to be one of these wonderful beautiful amazing lovely people
you can do so by clicking that join button and joining at the five dollar tier or higher okay bye