Best Microphone For Self-Tapes? Don't Waste Your Money!

If you're thinking about buying a microphone for your self-tapes do not spend a penny until you've watched this video because the most expensive microphone in this test is not the one I'd recommend. Hey everybody welcome back to the channel thank you so much for pressing play as always I know for those viewers who watch every week you've heard this a million times but I'm going to do it anyway for anyone who's new credibility check dead quick my name is Ross I've been a professional actor now for the past 20 years in that time I've booked roles on over 40 tv shows you'll see lots of them on your screen right now and for the last 15 years I've been running what is now the leading membership platform for actors in the UK who want to work on tv maybe people just like you if you want to land more auditions book more roles on telly and earn more money from your career it's called act on this the tv actors network you will find it at act on this dot tv link in the description and if you use the discount code youtube at checkout you will get your first month half price so go get a half price month after this pet is here behind the camera I got through the intro pet you all right well done yeah I'm impressed he's impressed right we're talking all about self-tapes I'm proper excited about this video very different okay self-tapes as we know are massive the number one route into booking tv work very often roles are cast directly from tapes nowadays the first round of everything is taped even if it's a bigger role you know before you get the recall in the room you'll have to do a tape but so much is just cast off tapes it wasn't long ago pets you know when you were doing wrong move for channel 4 books off a tape I was doing silent witness for the BBC books off a tape so many of our jobs are booked off tapes and we're geeks when it comes to the tech and production values and we hear of so many of our guests every week whether they're directors casting directors and you know casting assistants casting associates like production values do matter you know it doesn't mean you've got to go spend thousands on kit but you know lighting your tapes well shooting them nicely you know and having the audience hear you is crucial if you're going to book roles and today we're looking at microphones because we get asked tons of questions from our members about which mic should I use is audio important audio is so critical pet I think so many people overlook it mate it is it is honestly almost more important than the visual yes we've got to see you clearly but it doesn't matter if you look amazing on camera if we can't hear your performance or the subtlety is lost because we're straining to hear those lines it's over and so what we've done we've been quite quite creative pet we've written a self-save script you've written a self-tape script I've written a self-tape script it's not very good right you know don't worry the writers out there pet said before jack thorne does not need to worry um it's not great but it's you know it's practical okay we've written a self-tape script we've filmed it on multiple you know microphones multiple uh you know multiple times to compare you're going to hear an ident as well um you'll hear pet's reading you'll hear me as the actor and it'll just by the end of this video give you a really clear route into what you should and shouldn't be spending your money on when it comes to microphones so harvey mr editor let's just dive in pet we're going to dive in um harvey you can put this up on the screen in a minute to the first microphone we're going to look at and that's just the on board mic on your camera or your phone so some people might shoot on a dslr camera we do you don't have to phone cameras are great as well but we're not plugging a microphone in or anything like that we're just looking at the on board microphone so technically the cost is free nothing extra to buy is going to be built into your camera built into your iphone so you're going to see two tapes now the same tape but you can see one on a dslr on board mic one on pet's iphone on board mic and then we'll come back and we'll talk about the quality pet sound all right yeah let's do it harvey get both videos up on the screen mate let's play them out hi my name is ross grants my agent is jane hollowood and i'm based in manchester what the client's on the phone we'll tell her in the back they're asking if we've got an answer well we haven't so what do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it hi my name is ross grants my agent is jane hollowood and i'm based in manchester what's the client's on the phone yeah well tell them i'll bring them back they're asking if we've got an answer well we haven't how do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it so there you go on board mics pitch what's your verdict it's passable it's passable i think i think yeah it's possible um it's where most people are starting out right and as i say it's free if you have no resources at all if that's all you're working with that's all you're working with i'm not saying you can't book work off the on board mic on your camera or your iphone but it is just passable i've written a few notes here on board mics you know they pick up lots of room noise and echo you would have heard quite a lot just the room ambience there it's a lot of hard surfaces in this room so you'll hear like a lot of echo in that as well this is important the reader often sounds louder than the actor because the reader's stood next to the camera whether that's your dslr or your iphone the microphone often picks them up more than you so they can overpower your performance and especially if it's a scene where you're speaking quietly you know like you end up getting drowned out so i don't like that about on board mics and i put here the third point performance loses subtlety and vocal detail you heard a few lines in there of different levels so my iden was probably fine that you heard there you know as i'm saying my my name and my agent but then there's a couple of lines there that are almost done under the breath patch is it where i say we don't yeah um and when i've got you know the microphone on board there i'm quite far away from it so we don't you don't hear it quite as well um so the performance subtlety is lost um and the fourth point that i just put look you know fine for beginners but it's the weakest option overall of what we're going to look at today so does that make sense so that's like the the benchmark we're working from 100 so there you go and we'll play all these back later as well you're going to hear them again so mic number two we are now moving up the echelons i was looking for it i found it and this is called the road rode great microphone manufacturer and they don't pay me by the way it's not a sponsored video i bought all of this stuff with my with my own money this is the road video mic pro plus and it retails patch at 208 pounds oh it's almost a year's wages for you that mate it's more than it's more than a year's wages that i pay patch um it is a great mic you know this is what's called a shotgun mic so it's more end address it should pick up what you point it at effectively um but i don't think it's it's the best choice as you're gonna hear for cell tape so and before we go into that harvey if you could play out the cell tape again with this road video mic pro plus mate let's just have a watch and a listen hi my name is ross grant my agent is jane hollywood and i'm based in manchester what's the clients on the phone yeah well tell them i'll ring them back they're asking if we've got an answer yeah we haven't and what do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it so there you have it the road video mic pro plus 208 quid that will only work with dslrs by the way that's not for your iphone we'll show you some microphones for your iphone in a minute what do you think of that one patch it's better better for the money it's it's not for tapes is it right i think a lot of people they'll maybe browse amazon and we will put links to these in the description to amazon as well where you can go and go and check them out and they'll think 208 quid brilliant right i'm gonna invest all this money i'm gonna get crystal clear audio and then they get that back right it is better than the onboard mic um but i don't think it's um it's the best so yeah point number one cleaner louder than the onboard mic right so it's a step up number two directional pickup keeps the reader quieter that's something you will know is just about because it's pointed at me you'll hear me better than you hear patch you'll still hear patch clearly um but it will be you know slightly more focused on me than it was on the on the onboard mic it still captures a noticeable amount of room noise i find though and i feel that this mic is better suited to vlogging than self-tapes that's really what it was made for what they call that run and gun shoot in where you're out and about we used to do a vlog we'd be out and about all the time it really picks up you know subjects really close to the camera sort of right in front of it not when you're quite far away you know doing a self-tape so not bad but i think a lot of people would think 208 quid gonna be great right so there are better options shall we move on to those patch let's do it let's do it right this is where we start getting like good audio right mic number three this is called the rode smart lav plus that's the box that it comes in and it looks like this it's a little what they call a lavalier microphone just what you what you'd get on a tv set effectively if you're being miked up wirelessly this is a wired version of it though so this is a wired mic and you can get different adapters for it extension cables uh it'll work on your dslr or any phone at all you'll have to get different adapters depending on what phone you've got but it will work on anything how much do you think this is patch that's got to be it's cheaper i mean it's cheaper but it's going to be up there in it so i'm going to go about what between 1500 no it's not between 1500 it's 30 quid right right now amazon this is 30 quid okay and i think it sounds pretty good let's listen harvey again if you could get the smart plus tape up on the screen let's play it out hi my name is ross grants my agent is jane hollywood and i'm based in manchester what's yeah well tell them i'll ring them back yeah well we haven't just tell them i'm dealing with it boom 30 quid compared to 208 i think it pretty much smashed it patch that's great that price decent decent quality so i put here very little room noise there's still some room noise with all these mics and we won't get into it today but you can you can counter some of this stuff in post-production we won't get too complicated but um you can do that you'll always get a little bit of room noise but much less than we had on the other two mics right i put here the actor is crystal clear with the reader still easy to hear okay so those those more nuanced lines like we don't picked up very very easily it captures every nuance even a whisper okay i could have gone much quieter than i went there i mean with the with the you know the lavalier mics you can talk like really i mean i'm barely like raising my voice at all but you'll hear this completely clearly and so captures every nuance even a whisper and i put tiny and discreet but the cable can get in the way that's the only downside with the smart lab plus is you're using cables it's a long cable but so you can like you know trail it along the floor but i imagine if you're doing takes where you're standing up you're walking around knowing my eyes perhaps you'll be falling all over it mate you know getting all tangled up could be a bit of a disaster but for 30 quid and yeah you might have to buy a couple of adapters might cost you a tenner i think it's an absolute bargain so really really solid audio now that's what we're getting with these mics and then lastly i'm gonna look at a bit of a dearer alternative still from road these are all from road by the way all road mics like i said before they don't pay me i just think their stuff's great i've used it for years and years and years and the last one is called the road micro okay this is a um a wireless system it actually comes with two transmitters i've got one on now it's kind of giving away the audio quality now when it perch um but it comes with two transmitters not that you'd use two for a cell tape but if you've got other you know uses for these mics um a usb c adapter so it'll plug into your phone it'll plug into your laptop so if you get a zoom recall you can still use this one on your laptop for a zoom recall and it also comes with a camera adapter so it will be fine for dslrs if you don't use a phone you can use your dslr as well and it's 99 quid for all of that fetch 99 pounds for it all so we've gone from two to eight down to 30 for the smart plus wired back up to 99 for this wireless option but i think it is another great option so harvey final time um on its own anyway let's uh let's play the wireless micro cell tape out hi my name is ross grants my agent is jane hollowood and i'm based in manchester what's the claims on the phone yeah we'll tell them i'll ring them back they're asking if we've got an answer yeah well we haven't just tell them i'm dealing with it and there you have it totally wireless totally micro 99 quid i think it gives gives great audio four little points there for the verdicts i put very little room noise again very similar to the smart lab plus actors crystal clear with the reader still is it here just like it was before captures every nuance with slightly brighter audio i find on this one though compared to the smart lab i feel it picked you up a bit better patch but also with that you get a little bit more of the ambience but it's just a brighter you know brighter uh sound to it that's going to be your preference right you've got your own ears they're not mine um and maybe even your vocal tone you know might change between the smart lab and the and the micro but yeah slightly brighter feel to it less discreet because you can see it right you know less discreet than the smart lab plus um but completely wireless and just incredibly easy to use it's so easy to sync to your devices and like i say versatile because you could connect it to your laptop for your zoom recalls as well so you've heard all of them on their own i think for a better comparison patch we're going to play out a couple of lines each of dialogue so probably four lines of dialogue and we'll play them out back to back so you'll hear first of all the dslr on board iphone on board and then we'll move up to the um the road video mic pro plus the smart plus and then the road micro so harvey job for the editor this week if you could play out yeah four lines of each back to back mate and then right on the screen the uh the microphone so we know what they are let's have a listen the client's on the phone we'll tell them i'll ring them back they're asking if we've got an answer yeah well we haven't so what do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it the client's on the phone yeah well tell them i'll ring them back they're asking if we've got an answer well we haven't no how do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it the client's on the phone yeah well tell them i'm going back they're asking if we've got an answer yeah we haven't and what do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it the client's on the phone it will tell them i'll ring them back they're asking if we've got to answer yeah well we haven't just tell them i'm dealing with it the clients on the phone yeah we'll tell them i'll ring them back they're asking if we've got an answer yeah well we haven't then what do i tell them just tell them i'm dealing with it so there you have it hopefully it's a bit more obvious now the differences between each of the mics now you've you know you've heard them in situ the same lines and maybe you're quite surprised like i say 208 quid doesn't necessarily translate into the best audio my recommendations patch are these let me know if if you agree and i'd love to know yours in the comments as well but if you're on the tightest budget like literally if you have no money now whatsoever right don't feel pressured by the way into buying any of these if you are on a super super super tight budget stick with the onboard mic for now right it will still work there are people in our community who have still landed jobs with the onboard mic but for subtle performances i just don't think it's the best right you know your tape's not going to stand out necessarily technically um with the onboard mic but if you're on a tight budget you know stick with that for now save up best value without a freaking doubt the smartlav plus and i first bought this microphone in 2020 i think six years ago over six years ago still to this day an absolutely cracking microphone at 30 quid on amazon at the time of recording the price the price will fluctuate but 30 quid absolutely best value for me um the most convenient and probably you know what the one that i'm going to continue to use because we still use this on all of our tapes you use it as well patch and i use it is the road micro the one that i'm using literally to talk to you with right now um few reasons yes it picks up ever so slight tiny you know higher amount of room noise i think it's a bit of a brighter mic but just the overall convenience mate like so so convenient um no wires to fall over and the multiple applications you can use it for with the dslr with an iphone with your laptop it's 100 quid it will last a decade if not more you know when you break it down it's like you know god i know a 10 or a year um you know it's pennies um you know to use that and i just think it gives you just incredible audio um for your tapes and we've both booked tapes this year patch using this very mic so thank you road microphones would you um agree patch yeah i was surprised at the smart lab you're surprised at the smart lab just how well that holds up yep but for convenience and one of actor's main gripes is setting up and striking you get rid of all those cables it just makes it so much easier yeah rid of the cables dead easy technophobes don't you worry about it syncs syncs super super simply and i'm not saying by the way that the video mic video mic pro plus is a bad microphone for vlogging it's fantastic it's just not you know the right mic for cell tape so hopefully this video has saved you a couple hundred pounds that you might have spent on something like that um i would love to know your suggestions if you've seen any other mics any other brands that you think are absolutely banging let us know you know your opinion of what you've heard today and i just want to finish by saying listen remember right casting directors don't care what microphone you use they care whether they can hear your performance clearly or not that's all they're bothered about so if they're distracted by echo i've put here if they're straining to hear your lines or if your reader is louder than you you're making it harder for them to imagine you in the role so give them clean clear audio and then you can forget about the tech and focus on what actually books tv roles above that and that is a truthful believable performance so obviously performance always still counts so i hope you found this useful been a little bit different we'll probably do some more videos like this pitch where we maybe talk about lighting backgrounds all that sort of stuff if you want videos like that let us know in the chat like i say i'll put the um the links to all of those in the show notes as well and do come if you want to land more cell tapes first of all and do come and join the community act on this dot cv we sit down literally every single week with the biggest casting directors agents actors writers directors producers host private zoom calls just for our members where you will find out how to book you know what book work ultimately but at least land um auditions with the biggest names in the game really just push your acting career forward faster every single week use the discount code youtube please at checkout let us give you 50 off your first month and come and check out what you have been missing so thank you once again for watching go get great clean audio and we'll see you on the next one until then bye for now and if you enjoyed this video and you want to save yourself from making four other self-tape mistakes that could be costing you tv roles click this video here