Welcome to the audio testing page!
As we start to dive more into the art of music we tend to find things about the industry that frankly isn't covered a whole lot. One of those things that simply is not covered is the overall quality of microphones. Now, we're not going to be able to compete with any professional-level site which has $15,000 Condenser microphones laying around in their warehouse. However, if it's one thing we really wish that those sites would do is actually show us a test of their microphones within a reasonably controlled environment saying the same script or song so that we can truly hear what a microphone sounds like instead of basing everything off of a price-tag and saying
It's good because we spent thousands on it.
A lot of the microphones we will be testing here are going to be low-level or consumer market-grade microphones to give you insight as to how each of them sounds.
Reason for this page:
When shopping for various recording hardware the first thing Google will promote (of course) is a YouTube video. This has problems on multiple levels! For starters, audio is being re-compressed into YouTube. While we don't have a professional recording studio where you will get the raw WAV files whenever applicable. On top of that, you don't have to listen to us drone on and on for 10 minutes! We are completely aware the average reader can go through 2,000 words of text in under a few minutes. Instead, you can just scroll right down to get to testing. In effect, we are saving you time! You're welcome! Finally, you can pull the raw recording files into whatever software you wish to determine for yourself if our opinions on the audio quality are valid. YouTube may be the largest video platform in existence but for certain applications, it cannot replace a website.
Script:
The script we will be using on all of our audio recordings will be as follows:
Today is <<DATE>>. <<MILITARY-TIME>> coordinated universal time. This is a sound test brought to you by s-config.com. This is a test of the <<MICROPHONE-NAME>> passed into a microphone jack of the <<RECORDING DEVICE>>. All recording settings are at 100 percent with no amplification. Room conditions are a 14x14 room that has no sound proofing foam. Check 1... Check 2.... Check 3... 12345-54321 All systems are a go.
There may be some variation of the script depending if additional hardware is necessary in order to power the microphone or if there is a wireless component to it. But that is the basic script that we will be saying on each of the sound files below.
Audio tests.
Without any further delay let the tests begin!
Recording device: PC with an Audigy Rx5 sound card. Line-In record levels at 100 percent with no amplification.
Microphone: CAD GXL2200 Condenser Microphone ($90 USD) with Behringer Xenyx 1202FX Mixer ($99 USD) supplying 48v phantom power.
Comments: This is my primary microphone. A bit of an expensive setup but it works rather brilliantly. Condenser microphones are not things you can hook directly to a PC due to their nature or running on 48volt phantom power.
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio files are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well.
Recording device: PC with an Audigy Rx5 sound card. Microphone record levels at 100 percent with no amplification.
Microphone: Koss CS100 headset retailing at $20(USD)
Comments: Audio quality has a lot of tin and distortion. Needs some foam to stop wind and pops from distorting the microphone.
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio files are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well.
Recording device: PC with an Audigy Rx5 sound card. Microphone record levels at 100 percent with no amplification.
Microphone: Apple iPhone 5 Earbuds with microphone retailing at approximately $10(USD) on eBay as these were not sold separately.
Comments: Audio quality very low due to the positioning of the microphone. Slightly muddy when amplified.
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio files are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well.
Recording device: PC with an Audigy Rx5 sound card. Microphone record levels at 100 percent with no amplification.
Microphone: Corsair Void Pro headset which retails at $69 (USD)
Comments: Over modulation and distortion problems. In our opinion, this has to be the worst-sounding microphone out of the lot which speaks volumes considering this is supposed to be a quality gaming headset.
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio files are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well
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Recording device: Onboard recording within Cyanogen CM11 android variant.
Microphone: Amazon Kindle Fire 5th Generation Tablet on-board microphone.
Comments: The microphone really picks up the echo in the room!
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio file are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well
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Recording device: Onboard recording within Android 6
Microphone: Samsung Galaxy 7 phone onboard microphone.
Comments: Microphone quality a muffled due to the cel-phone design.
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio file are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well.
Recording device: Audigy Rx 5 PCI-e sound card.
Microphone: HCY LT-1611080846 6mm x 5mm Capacitive Electret Microphone from china.
Comments: Soldered some wires to allow us to plug these into our sound card and that is it! The sound quality has a little quiet to it but is not bad at all. However, this is just our opinion and way maybe replace our corsair headset microphone with one of these bad boys. I suppose the most amazing thing about this microphone is we got a pack of four from china for about 0.40 (USD) a piece with free shipping. Of course, t took a few weeks but who cares!
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio file is available to download. WAV audio file is available as well.
Recording device: Internal sound chip. SunXI Audio ALSA driver.
Microphone: Onboard 1mm microphone.
Comments: Good God! It sounds like I was sucking on helium before the test! This has to be one of the weirdest recorded sounds we have done. The ARM processes must be clocked a little differently in Armbian as when we recorded this it sounded much faster than it should. Also, in order to get good volume out of this microphone and sound chip we had to almost hold it to our face like a cellphone. Because of the slight modulation variance, it almost sounds like we're talking on AM radio. It does however record and this is how it sounds.
Download or play in your own external player: Opus and OGG audio files are available to download. WAV audio file is available as well.
Other notes:
Transcoding was processed from the RAW .wav file to streaming with the following command for opus conversion.
ffmpeg -y -i "source.wav" -c:a libopus -b:a 160k -vbr on -ac 1 -compression_level 10 -frame_duration 60 -f opus "destination.opus"
Taken in part from our FFmpeg article.
Licensing.
There have been people who have reached out to me about using these sounds for voice applications. (one through Twitter, another direct contact.) So for any of those wondering out there:
You got full permission to use the voices as an asset for any commercial means. The only thing we ask is if possible to put credits in the documentation of the product somewhere that you got it from this website. Feel free to copy/modify/mix/rehash whatever you want. Now, we're sure your legal department may want more than just this statement and if you want further details you can contact us.
In general, as long as it's not hurting anyone go crazy man! Make those millions!
Final thoughts.
Based on the feedback of people who seemed to like this. In the future, we hope to provide an SDK gaming voice pack. Something that developers can easily implement and use in their gaming software. As well as several scenarios in other markets such as the commercial and industrial worlds.
Overall this is an interesting experiment in microphones. Although the test environment isn't the most professional setup in the world it does demonstrate that a microphone can change the way you sound to your audience. You can't really apply the logic of cheap meaning bad or expensive meaning good. There are different builds of microphones and also different ways you can use microphones. Now, this test may not be good for someone doing Acoustics like a guitar. This test was mostly designed around the spoken word. But it's our attempt at it. We highly encourage websites to output their own RAW files as we can't trust anything that we truly hear on something like YouTube or Vimeo.