greetings earthlings today i'm back with a review of a brand new microphone from aston
that microphone being the brand new aston element and aston claims that this microphone offers
the best of dynamic condenser and ribbon microphones if you are interested in this
microphone it will cost you around two hundred dollars like always i'll throw some links down
below and for this review i have the microphone connected directly to the focusrite 18i 22nd gen
48 volts phantom power is turned on and my gain is set at around 12 15
i will not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it a little bit in post
so check the dooblydoo to see what i didily did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
that was a bit aggressive wasn't it
of course you are going to get the microphone in this kit you also get a shock mount a pop
filter some documentation and some pins and six stickers which i do not find infuriating at all
no i think that's perfectly normal perfectly normal then as far as the build quality it's
not the greatest feeling microphone but i really don't have any complaints about it it has a coated
metal body as well as a metal grille it weighs in at around 288 grams on the rear just to make sure
i peeled off this rubber to make sure there was no switches hidden there on this side you have
these slots so you're able to mount the mic to the shock mount on the bottom you have the xlr port
and this is made in the prc and i think that's just a sneaky way to say the people's republic of
china it's the microphone is made in china if that matters to you then as far as the specs i wasn't
able to find any downloads on their website all i was able to find was this polar pattern which
is up on the screen right now i believe it is a cardioid pattern and this frequency response graph
not 100 sure what they're stating here but i believe it is 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz
and this must have been measured from at least a meter away from the microphone now i am spinning
around the aston element to 90 degrees so you can hear the off axis rejection and coloration
we'll continue around the microphone to 180 degrees there is a little bit of a lobe of
sensitivity back here continue around the microphone to the second 90 degree
angle here is how this sounds and then we will rotate and end at the front of the microphone
now let's see how well the microphone does are rejecting plosives and i will use the provided
pop filter as the pop filter for this test please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring
pizza pronto now i am right on top of the microphone to demonstrate the proximity effect
that that's stupid that's insanity now i'm about three inches off of the microphone with it 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
whoa 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 all you elite gamer boys and girls out there now i am typing on the sad w keys
here is how the microphone sounds in a relatively well treated room
and here is how the microphone sounds in a completely untreated room
now to see how well the provided shock mount performs i'm going to go ahead and tap on the desk
to see how much of that noise it rejects and i'll tap on the boom arm
now to be super annoying which is what i do very well i'm going to go ahead and
tap on the microphone to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
now normally i don't include any eq tests in my reviews but this microphone has so much
low end when you're close up to it that i feel as though i kind of need to demonstrate how it sounds
when you throw on a high pass or a low cut filter
so i want to go ahead and do that now up until now you have not heard any eq on the microphone
i can't snap but now i have turned on a high pass filter i will show you on the screen what
the eq curve and the high pass actually is to let you know how this microphone sounds when you
clean up a little bit of that oh so robust low end to put it kindly the low end on this thing
is stupid there's so much of it okay that's the eq test i also want to point out an
issue with the shock mount and the pop filter when you have both of those on the microphone the
pop filter is so close to the shock mount that if there is any kind of movement in the shock
mount the pop filter frequently will hit that and create a tiny little noise so if that is any kind
of concern to you i just want to point that out if you're going to be shaking the microphone around
you'll hear something like that now i want to do a very quick comparison between the aston element
and a couple of other microphones like a condenser we have a couple of dynamics and we do have
one ribbon microphone that way we can see how this microphone stacks up and where it fits into the
lineup of course we'll start on the aston element microphone and currently i am six inches off the
gain is set at around 12 30 48 volts turned on and check the lower third to see how much i boosted it
but here is how it sounds let's jump to the first microphone and first up we are on a 100
handheld dynamic microphone this is the se electronics sev7 the gain is set at around
430 6 inches off no 48 volts phantom power and here is how a handheld dynamic stacks up against
a moving coil active microphone from aston there you go handheld dynamic versus the element
we are back on the aston element and i am still six inches off still have the gains set at 12 30.
here is how this microphone sounds let's jump to another one next we are on a condenser microphone
which goes for about 130 dollars this is the neat king b i have 48 volts phantom power turned on
my gain is set at around 12 30. check the lower third to see how much i'm boosting this in post
but here is how a condenser mic sounds or can you condenser microphone sounds compared to the aston
element back on the aston element again because we have more microphones to compare it against
here is how the aston element sounds it's six inches away let's jump to another microphone
and see how it compares to that and now we are on a 230 dollar broadcast dynamic microphone
the gain is set at 430 i am six inches off of the end of this thing and check the lower third
to see how much i boosted it but here is what a broadcast dynamic microphone sounds like compared
against the aston element and there's only about a 30 difference between these microphones guess
what we're back on the aston element big surprise here's how this microphone sounds six inches off
of it let's jump to another microphone and do some more comparisons because we need some context next
i am on a 400 dynamic broadcast microphone the sure sm7b the gain on the focusrite is set at 100
i will likely have to boost this a bit in post so check the dooblydoo to see how much i boosted it
compared against the aston element i do have the microphone set to flat mode no presence boost
no low cut and there you go that's a 400 broadcast dynamic mic against the aston element
and i think this is the last one we are back on the aston element and we are going to the most
expensive microphone we're comparing it against a ribbon mic let's do that right now and lastly
we have a ribbon microphone the buyer dynamic buyer dynamic m160 a 700 ribbon microphone my
gain is still set at 100 percent no phantom power thank goodness but here is how this microphone
sounds more than three times the cost of the aston element let me know in the comments down
below which of the microphones did you like the best did you like the aston did you like the neat
king b the se the road or the shure or the buyer dynamic let me know in the comments down below
i have run out of things to say to you i no longer care what you do
yet i have got one final parting request
won't you please suck my butt i understand you may not think i'm funny i think i'm
funny that's all that really matters to me i think i'm freaking hilarious deal with it
okay well this is a rather different sounding microphone doesn't quite sound like a dynamic
kinda makes a ribbon microphone sound wimpy in the low end so quite different but let's start
with the pros first off the microphone does tend to have a nice extension into the treble and air
frequencies unlike some handheld dynamics also when the pop filter was not hitting
the shock mount the shock mount did seem to be pretty effective additionally the microphone is
completely dead in terms of resonant frequencies and lastly it does have active electronics so
you're able to get that ribbon and dynamic sound without having to crank your microphone preamp
and get a bunch of line noise that way but then in terms of cons if you're looking for a microphone
that does an excellent job with background noise rejection i don't think this mic really
fits the bill it picked up quite a bit of the keyboard when i was around at 180 degrees the
lobe of sensitivity there is also quite pronounced additionally when i got to 90 degrees i found the
off axis coloration to be a little bit nasty so if you're in an untreated room with a lot of reverb
that's when that is going to come into play and start to affect your recordings quite a bit
and i don't know if you noticed it but this microphone has quite a bit of bass and i would
say it's almost out of control if you're not going to be doing any kind of post processing
if you're not going to be throwing on a high pass filter before you go to a live stream the base is
too much but now what are my overall thoughts and opinions of this microphone on the electric guitar
first thing it needs a high pass filter because the low frequencies are a bit out of control
but once you clear up a bit of the low end and make room for the other frequencies to breathe
it does have some nice detail and articulation and aggression in the upper frequencies while
maintaining a somewhat smooth sound and not getting too piercing so on the electric guitar
not my favorite but i do think that if you use a high pass filter you can get some pretty usable
tones then on the acoustic guitar i found it to be a little bit bland and dead sounding which
is typically what you expect out of most dynamic non-condenser microphones but if you're looking
for a big round sound like ground somebody's gonna get that reference but this microphone does that
it gives you that big full robust low end in case you're looking for that on your acoustic
next up for singing once i threw on the high pass filter for a non-condenser microphone i thought
it had some pretty nice extension and offered a somewhat breathy and airy quality which is
pretty rare for a dynamic or non-condenser i guess but without the high-pass filter on it i
it's too much i know i'm a broken record it's a bit too much it's mut it's muddy it's messy i
don't like it without a high-pass filter on it and lastly for spoken word i would classify it
as v-shaped that's what i heard especially when i started to compare it against the other
dynamic microphones in this video it made the other dynamics the 7b pro caster v7 sound very
mid-forward and nasally i don't think that those other mics are necessarily mid-forward and nasally
at least not all of them this microphone is just so bass heavy and dominant and it does have a bit
more extension into the treble and air that it gives it a little bit of that v shape especially
when you compare it against the others and to wrap up would i recommend the aston element
i'm honestly not 100 sure i'm not completely sold on it it does give you that ribbon sound which i
am a big fan of and it has active electronics so you're able to get that sound without having to
crank the preamp that's all great but at the 200 price point i'm left wondering if people wouldn't
be better served by picking up a more affordable ribbon and then a dynamic like an sm57 or a
condenser like the neat king b or the at2020 that way you have more microphones to pick from in your
arsenal and your mic locker and you can still get those ribbon sounds but you're also able
to get more clear condenser or more aggressive dynamic tones although if you do already have
a bunch of microphones in your locker and this is not going to be the only microphone that you have
and you do like the tone of it you like that robust low end the little bit of extension into
the upper frequencies and the active electronics so you don't have to crank the microphone pre
then sure i would recommend it even though it is not my favorite microphone that i've tested
out i think that's going to wrap up for today so if you found this video fun interesting or
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