Shure MV7 vs SM7B - A Great Microphone You Won't Buy

so Shore has an interesting problem on

their hands see because they have this

and the Shure sm7b is

unquestionably the most sought after

microphone in content creation and I

would argue as a dynamic microphone one

of if not the most sought after dynamic

microphone for music as well at least

for vocals and its history goes back to

like the 1970s with the Shure sm7 and

before that even the Shure sm-5 and um

the sm5 needed a little bit of refining

so throughout the entire 20th century

the sm7b continued to rack up a ton of

different accolades we all know Michael

Jackson but James Hetfield is a huge

user of this microphone the Red Hot

Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis and those

are just the ones that come to the top

of my head but odds are if you're a

recording artist a vocalist you've

probably dealt with the sm7b at some

point but by the 21st century a new kind

of use case began to evolve for the sm7b

and that is the world of content

creation suddenly you began to see the

sm7 like everywhere and live stream and

every wannabe YouTuber's bedroom like

like mine everywhere that you saw a

camera and a decent budget you started

seeing the sm7 and this is where the

problem begins to show up you see the

sm7b has some Hardware constraints that

make it just a little bit more difficult

than the average microphone the gain

needed to power this microphone to a

volume level that most people considered

to be adequate requires more power than

a lot of beginner Hardware can provide

yet every single person and their mother

wants this microphone on their stream

and thus a gap in the market was formed

see Shore has this predicament we have

this microphone that everybody wants

something that seems such a resounding

Resurgence in popularity and a

completely different use case than what

it was originally designed for at least

when it comes to hardware and in these

somewhat more affordable setups this

expensive mic microphone needed more

than a lot of that Hardware could offer

and the mv7 this bad boy right here was

the answer was the solution

or was it let me back up a second and

give you a little bit of a clarifying

statement when it comes to the sm7b

something I always say while it is true

that it is harder to power than the

average microphone any interface that

has above around 55 decibels of gain can

probably power this microphone just fine

it can power this microphone to a high

enough volume level that the average

user really isn't going to tell a

difference and if you have good

production shops you can get this thing

sounding as good or better than if you

use an external gain booster like a

cloud lifter but you all know that I've

set it on so many videos alright so

here's what's gonna happen I want to

share with you a little plugin called

golfos This is a sponsored portion of

the video but it's a blind mic test

between the USB the XLR and the sm7 so

you have to watch it from there we'll do

another blind microphone test at the end

of the video that way you can reassess

where you went wrong with the first

point

as many of you already know golfos is an

intelligent EQ that reacts to your audio

inputs in real time what it does and how

it reacts to that input really depends

on the parameters that you give it ever

since I downloaded goldfoss I've used it

on nearly every processed voiceover

chain replacing the role of a typical

Dynamic EQ basically I'm using it to

control unwanted frequencies and adding

high-end presence while simultaneously

controlling the harsher more aggressive

and sibilant tones I also use it on

almost all my mastering chains where a

static EQ would have to permanently cut

or boost a frequency gulfoss will only

do this within the parameters that I set

for it meaning it will cut out the mud

when necessary but leave the mix alone

when not long story short if you've

listened to a processed voiceover or

music production on this channel within

the last year you've listened to golfos

and from the 14th to the 1st of December

you can get 40 sent off go fast as part

of the holiday deals and it really will

become one of those plugins that you

just never not use it's that powerful

check out the link below if you'd like

to check out golfos

hello there is a discussion on the tone

of these microphones a little bit later

on the video but I am the future editing

Ricky and I couldn't help but interject

here because I have some new opinions

that I wanted to form because I can

never make up my mind it's why this

video has taken forever so based on that

first blind test there are some distinct

differences between the USB the XLR and

the sm7 I do still think for the most

part any version of the mv7 and the sm7

have a very similar tonal characteristic

but it seems like the XLR version is the

brightest has the least amount of low

end buildup of these three different

tones the USB version to me had too much

buildup in the low end and I liked the

sm7 the least out of all these three

tones because to me the sm7 was quite

heady and had kind of a peaky mid-range

the sm7 to me seems the most overly

sculpted the most muddy but I've

personally never liked the sm7 on my

spoken word my voice anyways that's my

two cents from the blind review XLR the

most even brighter tone USB a little bit

too much buildup in the low end but

still perfectly fine sm7 compared to the

mv7 I think a little bit peaky in the

upper mid-range Shore went entirely

Above and Beyond in tailoring the mv7

towards the beginner many ways that I

probably wouldn't even thought of not

only is it substantially easier to power

than the sm7 one of the main problems

but it offers two entirely different

ways to record a USB out and an XLR out

and you can record both of them at the

same time if you wanted to so that means

no matter if you're working in an

extremely Adept professional recording

studio or you're working with quite

literally no Hardware except for a

laptop a USB cable and the mic you're

good you can get professional audio and

at only 55 decibels of gain necessary to

power this microphone it comes in at a

much more reasonable power consumption

level something thing kind of akin to

the sm57 or the sm58 Just One DB of

difference and on top of that it sounds

shockingly similar

to the sm7 I mean guys look at this

frequency response you would think

you're looking at the same frequency

response and that was most certainly

done on purpose they sound for the most

part into most gears very very similar

to me the more important downfalls of

the mv7 as compared to the sm7b has more

to do with its resonance control and its

pop filter unlike the sm7b

which has a distance between the capsule

and the top of the windscreen

the windscreen here is essentially right

at the level of the capsule now what

that means is plosives are really not

that hard to commit whenever it comes to

this microphone you have to have good

microphone technique it is also

relatively resonant certainly more

resonant than the sm7 is so when it

comes to the compromises of the mv7 when

you're looking at the tone and the audio

it produces to me it's less about the

frequency response in the actual pure

tone and more about the usability behind

rejection of outside noise and its

ability to reject plosives now let's

talk about some of the more cool

technical features of this microphone so

I mentioned it before but it has a dual

output mode meaning you can record out

of the USB and the XLR output at the

exact same time super cool but

why I would never use it and with the

USB option you are provided with a host

of software-based features this allows

you to process your incoming signal

before you ever hit the software you're

using to record and if that's something

like OBS or something like Premiere

audio editing perhaps isn't quite as

much on the Forefront as something like

Ableton or Pro Tools or something that

an audio engineer might need but a

streamer and a content creator well that

might be useful that being said I was

not a huge fan of the software let's go

to my little discussion and

demonstration of it now this angle is

bad I gotta figure out another angle for

this all right let's go so I wanted to

quickly go over the software that comes

with the mv7 to be uh quite honest with

you I'm not in love but then again I'm

not in love because I'm used to a doll

something that has much more control

than you're getting with this software

you can do things like Auto leveling

that way you're not going to clip as

easily if you're not used to setting up

your game properly and then if you go

into the manual mode we get a little bit

more complicated of things to play with

but not really we don't really know what

we're doing with the EQ curve we do know

we have a high pass we do know we have a

presence boost and we do know that we

have a high pass and presence boost but

we don't know what frequencies we're

dealing with here and that same sort of

oversimplification is is present pretty

much everywhere the compressor is just

light medium and heavy let's see what

heavy sounds sounds like so here's heavy

compression you don't really know what's

going on and you also have an onboard

limiter that way you don't clip but as

you can see here manual mode or any of

the modes in this sort of sure plus

motive software are not complex enough

to get really into the nitty-gritty

width and I would do all this stuff from

a Daw anyways but that being said this

microphone isn't necessarily targeted

towards me this is more targeted towards

people that need good audio but don't

need to know the complexities behind

what makes audio good you also have some

LED light Behavior you can have night

mode which makes the LEDs just a little

bit more dim and live mode which is what

I'm using now to show you live

monitoring levels on the microphone

itself software is just a little bit too

dumbed down for me probably gonna work

very well for people that you know don't

want to touch a Daw though another thing

that I'm noticing with this microphone

like my nose sounds

foreign

that's some intense nose sounds anyways

let's keep going also quick note when it

comes to the touch controls on the mv7 I

didn't find them to be the most

responsive the mute button and the

button that switches from the headphone

monitoring and the gain levels those are

completely fine but the fader in the

middle that controls the gain levels and

the headphone monitoring I didn't find

it to be very accurate you can see in

this clip I had to struggle and swipe

many times in order to get just an

incremental level of volume increase not

really that big a deal but might be

annoying on the go this is also only a

problem for the USB side because if

you're using the XLR these controls are

actually turned off so in a lot of ways

the mv7 is everything you could ask for

in a cheaper version of the sm7b it

delivers on all aspects of what makes a

sure sm7 assure sm7 but doing so at a

cheaper price and then easier to run

platform and design and more usability

and the Very very similar tonal profile

but

here's the butt and it's more of a butt

about you than it is about the

microphone because if I could make an

assumption

you

you still want this I know you do

because I do too and we probably think

pretty alike and that leads me on to my

next topic something I've harped on in

the past it's designed although it's

less quantifiable it's hard to deny the

presence of the sm7b compared to its

little brother here as I've said before

it looks great on camera it has an

amazing industrial design I would say

it's one of the best looking microphones

on the market and there's no denying its

pedigree people know this microphone

people want this microphone regardless

of the fact that there is another

microphone out there that is probably

better for you admittedly this is

probably a little bit pedantic but the

mv7 just doesn't hold as much visual

weight as the sm7b I mean the squashed

nature of its proportions its smaller

design when you feel it compared to the

weight and the industrial metal of the

sm7 it feels like a cheaper product and

it is you see where the compromises

start to show themselves and also sure

nice job on putting that logo right

where every camera is going to see it

just couldn't help yourself you don't

see this logo on any other sure product

because this is the one that's meant to

be on camera so you could have your

YouTube channel sponsored by Shore

whether you wanted to or not look Amanda

are these the most important things

about a mic absolutely not but you know

there's a reason there is a lot of

affordable sm7 clones out there that are

just going under different brand names

some of them huge like universal audio

that are coming in at around the same

price point as the mv7 because quite

honestly some of these other microphones

nail the industrial design better than

the mb7 does and I don't even think that

this discussion should hold too much

weight in your decision making this is

more me analyzing you and why you are

still going to want to buy this for more

money even though I've just described to

you why this one probably would work

better for you we think emotionally as

consumers we think about things that are

less quantifiable we want to buy objects

that make us have a sense of

accomplishment I've said this before but

when you speak into an sm7b as compared

to an sm57 or the mv7 you feel like what

you're saying is more important you're

validating your craft by purchasing a

more expensive item we all do it and

when you think about how desirable the

sm7 is when you think about the pedigree

it has well quite frankly I think a lot

of creators out there a lot of audio

Engineers out there a lot of musicians

out there are probably just going to

want to buy the more legendary product

and I think part of that is just because

the alternative product really didn't

nail the design aspect of

the product and hey if you disagree with

me prove me wrong and buy the mv7

because you're The Logical one of the

two of us of the thousands of us but we

all know

that most of us are not those people

otherwise you would just get an xm8500

and as promised here is the blind test

between the USB XLR and the

sm7 what do you call a pig that does

karate

a pork chop what do you call a pig that

does karate a pork chop what do you call

a pig that does karate a pork chop how

do you fix a cracked pumpkin with a

pumpkin patch how do you fix a cracked

pumpkin with a pumpkin patch how do you

fix a cracked pumpkin with a pumpkin

patch

hey folks I hope that was helpful thanks

to goldfoss for sponsoring this video

check out the mv7 if you are logical buy

the sm7 if you are not if you'd like you

can work on a project with me by

emailing me at realaudiohaze gmail.com

my Instagram is right here bye

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