This is the Tula microphone, a super cute used microphone with a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
When I first saw this microphone online, it's design and also its feature list caught my eye.
I actually asked Tula if they would send me one out to review, and they were kind enough to oblige.
So here are my thoughts on this microphone after having had a chance to use it for a couple of months.
This is not any ordinary microphone.
It is a USB-C microphone, but you can also use it as an analog mic into other recorders.
It has a headphone out for monitoring or listening to audio from your computer, and it also has 8gb of built in storage, so you can use it as a
standalone voice recorder as well.
That is a lot of features, so we're going to go through these one by one.
First, let's talk about using this as a USB microphone into a computer or an iPad.
This shows up as an audio device, so you can use it with any audio recording software or even video conferencing software.
If you plug headphones into the microphone, then Zoom or other software can also send audio out from the other participants in the meeting through the mics headphone jack.
This might be a bit silly on a computer where you already have a headphone jack, but it's actually really handy if you're using it with an iPad or an iPhone where there isn't
actually a headphone jack.
This by itself will get you way better audio going into Zoom compared to using your built in computer microphone, or especially your AirPods.
I do like my AirPods, but the battery lasts only like two hours at this point, and I am regularly in four to six hours of Zoom a day these days.
Plus, the audio from the microphone in the AirPods just isn't that great.
Using a real microphone will make you sound so much better in your online meetings.
If you are using this to record on the iPad, then make sure you use an app that supports external microphones like Ferrite.
Now, if you put this microphone into analog mode, you can connect the audio out into devices like the Mini and use this as an external microphone for those devices.
This is a great way to get much better audio than the built in camera microphone.
This microphone also has some pretty magical noise cancellation built in.
Now, it's not as magic as, say, Krisp with its AI noise cancellation that can remove any kind of sound that's not speech, but it does do a good job of removing the sort of ambient
background hiss in a room.
Just for comparison, this is with noise cancellation turned off.
Now what you're hearing is a couple of the background fans in my room and the kind of just ambient hiss.
And this is what noise cancellation turned on, and it does sound quite a bit better.
And it does make the room sound much more like a studio.
And keep in mind that this microphone is not as close as it probably could be if I were to put it on a stand, it's sitting out of the shot on the table below me.
So if you are looking for even better sound, bring it closer to your face.
One other thing I noticed the noise cancellation is pretty good at is removing typing sounds from the table.
So this is me pretending to type on a keyboard, tapping the table next to the microphone that it's sitting on.
This is with no noise cancellation, and now this is with the noise cancellation turned on.
But one of the coolest things about this is that it's not even just a microphone, it's also a voice recorder and has a built in battery, and you can take it on the go and record
stuff without connecting it to anything.
The recordings are all stored on the 8gb of internal memory.
To access the recordings, you connected to your computer with a USB-C cable, and it will show up as an external drive.
And then you can just copy the files off of it like any other drive.
Let's talk a bit about the physical design.
This comes in a few colors black, white, red, and teal.
The white is actually more like a cream, and I wish it was a bit brighter and cooler white to better match the rest of the stuff in my studio.
But I do get that the cream fits the retro vibe a little better.
The microphone comes with a little built in kickstand, and this lets you easily set it up on a table in front of you.
And the stand folds up nicely to put it away and transport it.
The stand also detaches, and then you can instead attach a 5/8" threaded adapter to the bottom so you can use it with regular microphone stands as well.
You could use this to hang it in front of you from an arm or put it on a little table stand to raise it up.
Now, keep in mind, you actually don't need it super close to your face.
Which brings me to the next point.
This looks like the kind of microphone you would want to have up close in your face while you're using it.
But surprisingly, it seems to be optimized to sit on a table like a foot or two away from your face.
Listen to the difference when it's really close versus on the table.
This is the audio from the microphone and you are seeing about how far away it is from my face.
If I get up really close to it, I have to turn the gain down so it doesn't get distorted and it does sound better.
But even at this distance, it sounds quite good.
Now you will, of course, get better sounding audio with the gain turned down and the mic closer to your face.
But I still think it does a decent job even this far from my face.
Now, I'm not going to claim this sounds better than every other microphone.
I'm sure there are better microphones if you are only comparing audio quality by itself.
But where this one stands out is because of all the extra features it has built in, like the recording and noise cancellation.
I'll give you a sense of the quality difference between this mic and a couple of other microphones I have that I would consider sort of similar.
The Røde NT-USB Mini is also a really great microphone.
This audio is recorded from the Røde NT-USB Mini to my iPad.
Now the Røde mic is a USB-C microphone, but it does not have any recording features built in, so you are always going to have to connect it to some other device for recording.
This audio is not post-processed at all.
This is recorded straight from the Røde into my iPad, and you can see how far away it is from my mouth.
This audio you're hearing now is directly from the Tula microphone, no post-processing and anything other than the microphone itself.
This is now significantly closer to my face than it was before, when I was recording it for the main part of this video.
This should give you a nice side by side comparison between these two microphones in the same environment.
To get this into the YouTube video, I pulled the .wav file directly off of the microphone and dragged it into my video editor.
This is a recording from the Røde Wireless Go II.
First, this is the raw audio file off of the mic capsule that I've downloaded from the mic capsule.
And now this that you're hearing is recorded onto my iPad using the USB interface of the Røde Wireless Go II.
There is no post-processing done of this audio.
The reason I think this is a similar comparison, even though these microphones are obviously very different styles, is that this mic capsule does record, and the receiver of
the Røde is a USB-C audio device.
And now we're back to the Tula the microphone with its built in noise cancellation, but no post-processing done.
And again, just for comparison's sake, this is now with noise cancellation turned off.
I'll let you decide which you like better in terms of raw audio quality.
That said, these microphones are all pretty different in terms of features.
So a straight up audio comparison isn't all that practical, especially again when you consider the noise cancellation built into the Tula mic.
Now let's talk about some of the quirks.
One of the downsides of this microphone is the usability.
While I do really like the minimal design, it does mean there are very few ways for this microphone to give you feedback on the various states that it's in.
There are a few lights on the buttons on the sides, and they will indicate different things depending on the combination of lights that are lit up.
It is super not obvious, and it takes a little while to get used to.
And along those lines, the mic can play back recordings from the internal memory if you have headphones plugged in, but because there's really no screen, it ends up being pretty
awkward to try to skip around and navigate through your recordings.
Really, the only thing I found this to be useful for is to play back the most recent recording just to double check your levels.
The good news is when you press play, it will always play back the most recent recording, so you can pretty much just ignore the forward and back buttons for the most part.
I would definitely recommend downloading the little cheat sheet from their website and printing it out and keeping that with the microphone for a little while until you get used
to it. The cheat sheet will show you what all the different LEDs mean and what the different, long or short press of the buttons will do.
They do need to update the cheat sheet for the 2.
5 firmware updates, since that was created before the new features were added.
One thing I want to mention about using this with the ATEM Mini specifically, the downside is that it only does output mic level, which means you have to use the mic
preamps in the ATEM Mini, which are definitely not the best.
And of course, one thing to remember if you're using any microphone from the analog inputs in the Mini is that your HDMI video from the camera is very likely delayed, so
you'll need to adjust the audio delay in the ATEM to compensate.
That's not the fault of this microphone.
It's the fault of the HDMI output of whatever camera you're using.
Let's talk about the firmware 2.5 update.
In December 2021, they added a couple of really cool features, so you will want to make sure to install that firmware update if yours doesn't have it already.
There are three main features added in this update.
First, interview mode.
In interview mode, you can record from both the built in microphone, as well as an external lav mic plugged into the mic jack, and that'll record on separate tracks.
To enable this, turn on the mic first of all and then long press the record button.
The LEDs on the front will flash green twice, and that means that interview mode has been enabled.
This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say it's not super obvious how to use it or what the lights mean.
Once you're in interview mode, both of the lights will be gain meters, so the left one is the Tula main built in mic and the right is the lav mic.
The gain for the mic is controlled by the plus and minus on the left, and the gain for the lav mic is controlled by the plus and minus on the right.
But the cool thing is this does give you separate tracks of both microphones.
Now analog mode.
In analog mode, you can connect the output into other devices that don't have a way to use USB microphones.
So, for example, this lets you use it with the ATEM Mini.
So to enable analog mode, first, turn on the Tula mic by pressing the on/off button on the bottom right, and then immediately press the plus button on the top left.
You'll notice the green gain light is working, but the front left recording light is off.
Once this is enabled, you can control the gain with the plus and minus on the left as normal.
Lastly, the monitor option.
It used to be the case that you would always hear your own audio through the headphones if you're connected into software like Zoom.
With this update, you can actually now mute your own audio.
That way, the headphone jack is only the audio from the computer.
I know it can be pretty distracting to hear yourself when you're on a Zoom call, so this is great if you are using it for this and you don't like hearing yourself in your own
calls. So to toggle this mode, you long press the mute button.
However, there is no visual feedback that you're in this mode.
You'll just stop hearing yourself, but you should still see the green light blink when you talk, which is how you know that the microphone is still working.
So I hope this gives you an idea of some of the really cool things this microphone can do.
Again, thanks to Tula for sending it out to review.
I think this is a fantastic microphone for all sorts of different use cases, and I really like that you can use it both as a recorder as well as a USB audio interface into your
computer for Zoom meetings or recording into apps on your computer, or even using it as an external microphone into a camera or the ATEM Mini.
Plus, it just looks super cute.
Well, give us video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and let me know down on the comments what you think you would use this microphone for.
Thanks so much for watching, and I will see you in the next one.