Microphone Battle: Shure SM7B vs Electro-Voice RE20
As a content creator and producer in the podcasting space, I am always on the hunt for the best microphones to make my voice and our client’s voices sound super fancy.
There are two heavyweights in the podcast industry that I was eager to pin against each other in a battle to the death.
Well, maybe not death. No microphones were harmed in the making of this episode I promise.
The Contenders: RE20 and SM7B
Introducing into the ring, the Electro-Voice RE20 and the Shure SM7B. Both microphones are similar in cost (around AU$800) and they are probably the microphones that you see used the most in podcasting and radio.
But are they the best?
Who is the winner?
Would I even choose one of these microphones for my clients or our personal podcasting projects?
In this battle, I aimed to compare the audio quality, sibilance, plosives, suitability for vocalists and overall sound. I also had our Lead Videographer and Designer, Alex join me so that we could hear how these microphones performed with both male and female voices
Electro-Voice RE20
The Electro-Voice RE20, a veteran in the microphone industry, is often hailed as the industry standard for radio and broadcasting. Its distinct sound profile and flat frequency response make it a popular choice for broadcasters and podcasters looking for a reliable and consistent microphone. However, during my testing, I found that the RE20 exhibited a pronounced sibilance and lacked depth in the bottom end, which affected its overall suitability for my voice and recording style.
It performed well for vocalists during my singing test, as it had a nice sparkle in the top end, but if you’re looking for a vocal microphone there are better options at this price point.
Shure SM7B
The Shure SM7B is a versatile microphone known for its warmth and depth. While the SM7B provided a rich sound with ample body, I noted that it tended to emphasise warmth more than required, resulting in a slightly "muddy" sound for my voice. It also felt a bit flat for Alex’s voice.
The male voice was suited more to the RE20 in my opinion as it brings out less of the bottom end tones.
The Verdict
After thorough testing and evaluation, I crowned the Shure SM7B as the winner of this microphone battle. With its ability to capture warmth, depth, and clarity in audio recordings, the SM7B proved to be the better fit for my podcasting needs. While both microphones are top contenders in the podcasting world, the SM7B edged out the RE20 in terms of sound quality and versatility.
However, I do have to point out that neither of these microphones would be my actual pick for podcasters. Although they perform exceedingly well, the overall sound from both of these microphones didn’t leave me overly enthused.
At the end of this test I felt that both of these microphones would require a decent amount of work in the post production EQ phase to get them sounding the way I’d want them to.
Perhaps I’m picky, but I am an audio nerd with a Bachelors Degree in Audio Production and around 15 years experience, so I’ll cut myself some slack.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right microphone for podcasting is a personal decision that depends on individual preferences, recording environments, and vocal characteristics. As always, these opinions are my own and are based on the tests I’ve performed with my voice. This particular battle was conducted at a high end studio in a controlled environment, so it’s important to be aware that if your studio setup is different, the results will vary.
I never like to say “it depends” and “everyone is a winner”, so I won’t. The Shure SM7B comes out on top for me today, but there will be more battles to come in my quest to find the perfect podcasting microphone.
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: I'm doing a battle today on the podcast between two microphones that are very well known in the podcasting space. It's not one of the ones I'm using right now. Right now I'm using the SE DCM8 and I'm in my studio. But when I recorded this episode, I was actually at the Gasworks studio here in Fortitude Valley.
[00:00:23] And if you want to see what that looks like, then you can totally go to our YouTube channel and check out the actual video version of this. So for the context here, uh, anytime I'm just talking, you'll be hearing it through the SM7B microphone, and I will make references to the points where I actually am using the, electro voice.
[00:00:45] RE 20 so that you can hear the differences here. I hope you enjoy this. I think it's really cool to not even seeing what I'm doing and just be listening to the microphones. It gives you the best indication as to how they really sound. And if you're in a car, even better because the SM7B does handle car noise a little bit better.
[00:01:05] Differently. It has a few frequency issues that I don't love. So yeah, it would be interesting for you to hear that and see what you think. We'd love your comments on what you think the best podcast microphone is between these two and I hope you enjoy.
[00:01:25] Today we have a battle between the Shure SM7B. This is the microphone that you see absolutely everywhere, and we are also doing the electro voice re 20. These microphones are very similar in cost. We've got the re 20 here, that's, it's normally about a hundred dollars ish more. Then the Shure SM7B, we're looking at a price in Australian dollars at around 800 to 900, [00:02:00] depending on where you're looking.
[00:02:01] This is for podcasting specifically that I'm testing these microphones. You will see. The RE20 in more of a radio setting. I've definitely seen this on sort of radio stations. and then you see the SM7B pretty much it. Everywhere.
[00:02:19] This microphone has been around for, oh God, I don't know, maybe 20 years, very long time. And it is what people would say the industry standard for podcasting at this time. And so I wanted to battle these two, because I feel like they are actually pretty close competitors in price point, but also in what people use them for.
[00:02:41] What I'm going to do is I'm going to test how they sound, how the sibilance sounds. So, sibilance, meaning how much of that sound that you hear when you talk, and different people have varying degrees of sibilance in their actual voices as well. So, depending on how you speak, sometimes if you have more, if you use more of your teeth, When you're talking, uh, the breath going through the teeth will mean that you actually have more sibilance.
[00:03:08] And also, you may have more or less sibilance depending on what side of your mouth you actually speak out of more. Yes, there is a side of your mouth that you speak out of. And so, as you move your head around a microphone, you can actually start to hear what's going on. where your voice sounds the best and where your sibilance is the least.
[00:03:30] So sibilance is also something that you can manage in post production. There are like, plugins that you can get to reduce your sibilance. You can also adjust it using EQ settings, and I may do a separate video on just how to manage sibilance as well for that purpose. But for right now, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to say the same phrase.
[00:03:47] And we're going to switch between these two microphones. I'm going to focus my attention on each mic as I go so that you can hear how the sibilance goes. Judge for yourself what you think there. And then I'll give my recommendation at the [00:04:00] end.
[00:04:00] Brianna: Electro voice RE20.
[00:04:04] If Moses supposes his toes are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously.
[00:04:11] That's front on. Now I'm going to go off axis. If Moses supposes his toes are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously.
[00:04:20] Brianna: Shure, SM7B.
[00:04:25] If Moses supposes his toes are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously. If Moses supposes his toes are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously. Now, we're going to do a test where I do a popping sound test.
[00:04:43] The RE20 does not have a pop filter that is appropriate. When I tried it without a pop filter at all, I was not happy with the amount of popping. And I will show you that.
[00:04:53] Brianna: Electro voice RE20.
[00:04:57] Popping the popcorn and sizzling the sausages. And off axis. Popping the popcorn and sizzling the sausages. Now without the pop filter.
[00:05:08] Popping the popcorn and sizzling the sausages. Popping the popcorn and sizzling the sausages.
[00:05:16] Brianna: Shure, SM7B.
[00:05:19] Popping the popcorn and sizzling the sausages. Popping the popcorn and sizzling the sausages. Now the SM7B, this has got the biggest foam on it here. There is actually another foam that is a smaller amount of pop filter that is probably the one that you see more regularly on this microphone.
[00:05:39] I'm using the big poppy one for the moment, the big filter on this. Next up, we're going to do a singing test.
[00:05:45] Brianna: Electro voice RE20.
[00:05:49] Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's [00:06:00] a land that I heard of once. In a lullaby.
[00:06:08] Brianna: Shure, SM7B.
[00:06:11] Somewhere over the rainbow, Way up high, now, we're gonna try and see how it sounds. If I sing up into my higher register with a lot of breath
[00:06:28] Brianna: Electro voice RE20.
[00:06:31] sound, I wish upon a star and wake up where the stars are far behind me.
[00:06:44] Brianna: Shure, SM7B.
[00:06:47] Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake up where the stars are far behind me So now we've done the singing test.
[00:07:00] So now we're going to get Alex in here, who has a lovely male voice, and he is going to tell you what he had for breakfast.
[00:07:08] RE20. This morning I had some porridge cooked by my lovely partner Brianna, whom you would have just seen on camera, topped with some homemade granola, frozen blueberries, banana, and then a drizzle of peanut butter. Now over to the 7B. I had some porridge this morning with some homemade granola, blueberries, some peanut butter, and it, uh, was delicious.
[00:07:36] Thank you very much.
[00:07:38] What a fun time. That sounds like a delicious breakfast. Someone who is really awesome must have made that. Now I'm going to give you my thoughts on these microphones to end off the battle. Who do you think? I'm going to crown the winner. Let's get into it. Let's start with the RE20. So the RE20 is a [00:08:00] very high pitch, frequency, flat sort of sound for me.
[00:08:06] It has a lot more sibilance than the SM7B. It is definitely suited to someone who has a lot of depth actually in their voice, just on their own, who doesn't need a lot of help in that space because it's not going to give you much. Now I'm recording this completely flat, so as in there is no post production.
[00:08:26] All we will do here is a little bit of boosting to get the levels the same. So both of these microphones are being recorded into a John Hardy M2 preamp. We have the RE 20 set at a gain of 52 dB. And we have the SM7B set at a gain of 57 dB. So both of these microphones require quite a lot of gain to get them to a level that feels really good.
[00:08:52] That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that if you have a preamp that isn't the best, uh, then it means that sometimes even the preamp can't give you enough gain. It can't get you the gain that you need to power, to support, uh, such a hefty gain heavy, microphone. So you will need something to help boost that.
[00:09:15] Now, SE makes a booster called the Dynamite, and you can get that to help your preamp get the boost that you need. The SM7B has also come out with a new model, the SM7DB, Which actually includes what is essentially an SE dynamite inside of it, so that you don't need that extra boost outside because it's within the microphone itself.
[00:09:40] RE doesn't have that, and, it's still going to require quite a lot of gain management. in your preamp. So just be aware of that. If you're looking at buying a kind of higher end microphone like this, you need to make sure that the preamp that you have can support that much gain can get you what you actually need from it.
[00:09:59] If you have [00:10:00] a Rodecaster Pro 2 or a Rodecaster Duo, if you have a Rode Streamer X, any of those will give you enough gain because they have Apex processing within the actual amp. amp that is in those systems, so that will be okay. But if you have something like a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, or something that isn't a preamp that has a lot of gain in built, then you will need some form of boost to actually get you what you need from there.
[00:10:28] So same for if you were recording straight into the camera, you would not be using the preamp. boost levels that are on the camera because you're just nowhere near going to get what you actually need. So be aware of that. Even though these microphones are expensive, they are very gain hungry, which means you're going to have to negotiate that.
[00:10:46] Now, as far as what I like the sound of about the RE20 is I do like that it does have a nice kind of sparkle to it. It gives it a bit more clarity and a little bit more of that. You can hear what they're saying quite well, quite easily within the RE20. But I do find that it feels a bit flat for me. It doesn't have a lot of depth.
[00:11:09] It doesn't have much body in the bottom end. and it just feels a bit boring to me as a microphone. So I don't love the sound of this. I wouldn't buy this microphone myself. For my voice, because I don't think that it's, it's going to cut it. And also it does have quite a lot of sibilance. If you can hear even when I say the word sibilance, there's quite a lot there that needs managing.
[00:11:31] And from a, uh, EQ point of view, that's going to take me too long to get the sound that I actually want out of it. Now, if we move over to the Shure SM7B, I also don't love this microphone. So it's hard for me to pick a winner, but the SM seven B, if you can hear, it's got warmth, it's got depth, but I think it's got too much depth.
[00:11:57] It makes me sound too woo like, [00:12:00] too, uh, I don't, it's like so hard to even describe the point that is sticking with me. It's good on access. And off axis, it's got a decent proximity effect. So as in, if you get closer to it, it still sounds pretty good. If you get further away, that's still okay. So the gain kind of aspects within this microphone, make it possible for you to be a little bit further away and it still sounds pretty good.
[00:12:25] Um, It doesn't have a lot in the high end that I like for my voice. It gives me more warmth than the RE20. And if I had to choose between the two, based off of this comparison, I'd have to go with the Shure SM7B because it gives me a little bit more,
[00:12:44] body and it feels more like my voice than the. RE20 does.
[00:12:49] So if you're looking for a comparison, if you're looking to buy one of these two microphones, then my pick for me as a vocalist, as a singer, as a female, I would say that this one wins. This one performs a little bit better from a singing standpoint as well. For my voice, I think this one gave me a little bit too much, just sparkliness, but no body, not enough in my sort of bottom end, uh, for when I was singing into it as well.
[00:13:20] So SM7B wins for me on this battle. They're pretty much the same price. You're going to need to manage your gain. Be aware of that. Make sure that you have a preamp that can handle it. And if you've got any comments, I would love to hear them. What do you think?
[00:13:34] What is your favorite for my voice, for Alex's voice? Who would you pick as the winner and give me some reason why, why would you do that? I would love to know. I've also got a video that puts the SM7B up against. The fake SM7B. That's gonna be an interesting one, so make sure you check it out. [00:14:00]
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