[00:00:00] I’m Niall Mackay, the podcast guy, host of smarter podcasting and founder of Seven Million Bikes podcast. Now I am very excited today because today is the first time ever.

I go given something for free. So I’ve been sent the Miano. Pd 200 x microphone and they didn’t ask me to do this but i’m going to do it cause i’m excited it’s the first time ever i want to do a review of this microphone today Now right now i’m talking into the shoe sm 57 that i use every single episode so now let’s see how good this microphone is

So the Miano PD, 200 X it’s a USB slash XLR podcast make. So I’ve never had one of these. It means you can plug it into your audio interface for me, it’s the Podtrac P four, or you can plug it straight into your computer with the USB. The last USB mic I had was a blue Yeti.

Which was not the best microphone for a podcast. I wouldn’t [00:01:00] advise getting that one there’s loads and loads of background noise. And, uh, Brooks or, uh, I had a bad experience with that, but I’m excited for this one. This one says, so it’s got the standard adapter, which is great. Two in one digital knob.

USB-C as well, which are noticed the connection to your laptop has two connections. It has the USB. They can an old fat rectangular one. And then also the USBC, which is the more modern one as well. So if you have a laptop that doesn’t have that or rectangular. USB connection. You can still use it. Still has the connection for the new one.

Got the 3.5 millimeter head Jack, which is great. You’ve got a mute button, microphone, capsule. Let’s get a metal body and the shock mode, the main features are it’s got a dynamic capsule. Make gain and headphone volume control all metal body built in wind form. it has a cardioid polar pattern, but you can see what a cardioid polar pattern is right here.

Then it also has a mute button, shock mode, programmable. Do I say that right? Is that my Scottish accent? Programmable. How do you see it? If you’re not Scottish, [00:02:00] programmable RGB late, and it’s compatible with PC smartphone and a games console as well. So I’m excited to see what this microphone sounds like.

Let’s get started.

This is the first time I’ve opened this since I received it. So let’s see what’s inside the box.

Package nice and safely. You got your user manual, Then we got the microphone packed away. Nice and safe in here. Let’s see what we got. So this is a USB And XLR mate. So we got USB Got a connection for the microphone.

Then, of course the microphone. What I like about this is it comes with the shock Mount. I’m notorious for hitting this boom arm and making the microphone vibrate. So maybe this will help me out. I’m excited as well for the RGB light. I think that’s going to make a look pretty cool. right now I’m on the SM 57 as always, but what we’re going to do, I always use studio Seven from the script. I’m actually in a big, empty living room right now.

Lots of shiny surfaces for the sound to bounce off of, which is not ideal at all. This is in no way or shape or [00:03:00] form a studio. But. I have my good microphone.

I have my pop filter. And I had my studio sound. So the final quality is pretty good. I’m going to test this microphone against the shoe SM 57 and two more microphones that I have that I don’t use too often. And we’re going to compare the quality without the studio sound on from these scripts. And then I’m going to tell the on, and we’ll be able to see the difference. So let’s find out.

So the first one is the shoe, a PGA 58. This cost me $80. And it’s a pretty, still the microphone. I like it. It’s good. It’s good to travel with. And biggest thing is make sure you turn the on, it does have an on-off button and I’ve definitely set up all my mates before and been like, why is mate number two, not working. What’s wrong with this PGA 58.

You just gotta make sure you tell him the on. The other microphone I bought here. This is a brand you may not have held off. I hadn’t heard of it before, but it’s called the Audix F five. Or Wes. And again, this is really still the microphone cardioid pickup pattern, warm, natural sound optimized for small to midsize PA systems. And this cost me about [00:04:00] $60. So it wasn’t that much cheaper than the shoe. And again, I really study microphone and again, you’re going to make sure that you turn it on.

So I’m going to compare these two microphones, my SM 57 with. The new microphone that had been sent from me or no, the PD 200 X. I record from home. So I’m actually in a big, massive room with lots of shiny surfaces, big glass windows, basically everything that I tell you that you shouldn’t do when you set up a home studio, but this is the best I’ve got at the moment. Now that we, I make sure my sound quality is great.

Number one, I use And turn on the studio zone. But that only works. If you have a good microphone and you know how to use it. So make sure you’ve got a good microphone set up. As I’ve said before, I’m using the SM 57. So we’re using that here in this big room. It’s okay. I can put the seven through Descript. When I turned on the studio sound, you get awesome sounding quality audio, but I’ve never actually compared microphones before I use this one.

I have it from Louis Ray. If you follow me, you’ll know he’s my friend and music producer and he gave me this [00:05:00] microphone. He doesn’t use it. So I use it and. It is absolutely amazing. So we’re going to compare this one, which I use for every one of my recordings with the audit Yes.

The shoer PGA 58 and the new one, the PD 200 X. I’m going to compare them with and without studios down to see what the difference is. Let’s get set up. No, for them, you all know PD 200 X. I’m really excited to use this microphone and see what it sounds like.

I mean, to be honest, it sounds pretty good, but as expected, there’s obviously lots of echo going on, but that’s not the microphone’s fault. That’s the room. But at the same time, it sounds really good. My voice is really clear. It’s got a nice base to it as well. So now we’re going to compare this to the other microphones with no studio sound on.

I’m trying the shoe up PGA 58, which is in the same price range as the Muna. But it does not look as nice. It doesn’t come with as many features and it is a pretty basic microphone. [00:06:00] I don’t have the studio sound on right now and I can hear the sound is completely different and it’s way, way better on the

I have to admit I’m loving this microphone already. Uh, the sound is much, much clearer on that. This one is way more muffled. And then I’m going to turn on the studio sound and let’s hear what this one sounds like. Post-processing, I’m kinda scaled the, they’re all going to sound the same because of the beauty of AI Descript studio sound, but if they do well, then that’s amazing, but right now, This microphone does not sound very good.

So now I’ve turned on the studio sound and the wonder of AI. I mean the D scripts to do sound really changed my podcasting life. Before that I used to have to send my files to Louis. He would have to edit it and he spilled time. Cause he’s my friend. He was helping me out. Sometimes they’d be waiting days for it to come back, which is not his fault. He had a job to do.

And it really slowed down everything that I did. Then I signed up to Descript and within about a month the released studio sound. And since then I’m able to do voiceovers at home. I record all my podcasts at home, [00:07:00] all my posts. Processing and all my clients absolutely love it. I love it as well. So.

If you can’t tell I’m a massive fan of Descript. I am an affiliate. If you go in the notes, there is a link for the script. I will get a small commission. If you join up. But let’s test how good it is. How does this sound compared to the north studio sound again, this microphone, I’m not loving it.

So now I got plugged in the Onyx. X, this one was a little bit cheaper than the shoe as well. This one was about $50 and you can probably hear it. It’s not that great either. It’s not really too dissimilar to the shoe as well.

but this, the sound is not very clear. It’s pretty muffled. There’s a little bit of an echo, which of course you would expect, as I’ve said, also forgot to mention for the last microphone. I don’t have a pop filter on this right now. It does say that there’s a pop filter built in, I don’t really trust that. So when I’m doing this, when I’m using this, I actually do have a filter that I add on as well. But I thought today, let’s try it.

As it is no pulp filter that shouldn’t really affect the clarity. [00:08:00] Uh, toll that should only affect the in the bow. So this is what it sounds like with no studio sewn down.

So I’ve done this Judy sound on now. And I wonder what it sounds like. I won’t get to hear this until after I edit it. You can’t hear the studio sound on, live in your headphones. I wish you could. But I think it’s going to have about the same effect As the shoe, a PG 58, a. It’s going to make it sound better. It’s going to make it sound clear.

The thing with studio sound is it enhances the audio. It doesn’t take crap, audio and make it amazing. It takes whatever audio you have and makes it better. And to be honest, sometimes it makes it worse. If the original audio is bad. It’s AI. It’s not a magician. So if the world’s drop-off, if the speaker starts to speak away from the microphone like this, if maybe they don’t finish the end of a world properly, or sometimes I guess the AI just gets confused. It can actually take the sound and make it worse. Especially if there’s two people speaking and they laugh.

I’ve had clients send me [00:09:00] audio recordings and it’s three of them in a room around a microphone. And at the end of the day, studio sound can only do so much. So it should make. All key audio better. It will make good audio amazing. And it will make terrible audio. Maybe worse. But I wonder what this sounds like.

And for the last one, I’m going back to my trusty shoe SM 57. Now, if you can notice, I don’t have my pulp filter on there. I’ve got no studio sound on right now. I thought I would give the other microphones are fading chance. Now. Maybe I’m already being Tunde

by the Miano PD. 200 X. But I already missed the quality of that one. So I’m excited to try that, but let me put the pop filter on. And yeah, I mean, it sounds a little bit better. It still sounds to me, not as clear, maybe more muffled. And I don’t know if I’m imagining that. It obviously is a microphone that I use for all of my podcasts. It’s my main go-to microphone.

[00:10:00] This microphone is not also the most expensive microphone ever. So again, if you know me, I’m Scottish. I like to do things on a budget and so and this microphone isn’t even main it’s from lewis who’s a music producer but it is a good microphone you can’t go wrong with sure and i wonder how it stands up though to the Miana. Diona. So now I’m going to turn on studio sound and see how that sounds

So no studio sound is on. It should sound crystal clear. There should be no echo or no background. Hopefully I I’m kind of scared cause I love this microphone and I’ve been using it for a long time and I preach about how good it is and it gives me really good quality, but if I can improve my audio, if I can improve my podcasting, I will definitely be social happy. So there’s a part of me that hopes that.

It isn’t. Isn’t better than this one, because this is like yield faithful. But if the Muna was better, I’m going to have to change.

All right. So let me put all that together, back to back so you can hear better what the [00:11:00] difference is between all these different microphones.

Audix No Studio Sound

the Onyx. X, it’s not that great. The sound is not very clear. It’s pretty muffled.

Shure PGA58 No Studio Sound

I’m trying the shoe up PGA 58,

Shure SM57 No Studio Sound

shoe SM 57. I’ve got no studio sound on right now.

PD200X No Studio Sound

PD 200 X sounds like with no processing at all on it.

Audix With Studio Sound

I’ve done this Judy sound on now. It’s going to make it sound better. It’s going to make it sound clear.

Shure PGA58 With Studio Sound

So now I’ve turned on the studio sound

Shure SM57 With Studio Sound

So no studio sound is on. It should sound crystal clear. I like it. It’s a really clear sound.

 Let me know what you think in the comments let me know what microphone do you think is the best let me know what you think the differences between the four of them

 I’m onto the mule now. And. I’m not going to lie. I like it. It’s a really clear sound. I do like the fact that it also comes to the pop filter built in. And most of all, I’m such a. What’s the world. [00:12:00] Shallow. It looked really cool, which you can’t really see right now. There you go. You can see bets on though. It looks really cool. I love the RGB lights. It’s just something that makes me smile. I’ll boot blue on since that’s my favorite color. Uh, it’s easy to adjust. I can tell him that don’t I can tell the up, I like that I can plug the headphones directly into it. I think I made a phone, a new podcast microphone.