Microphone Battle: Shure SM7B vs SE DynaCaster DCM8
Alright podcasters and vocalists alike, it's time to settle a score! Today, we're throwing down in a microphone brawl between two titans: the legendary Shure SM7B and the lesser-known but highly regarded sE Dynacaster DCM8.
By the end of this rumble, you'll know which microphone I prefer for females with similar vocal tones to my own, as well as vocalists looking for that extra bit of sparkle.
The Smackdown: Testing the Mics
To set the scene, we’ve recorded this battle at Gasworks studio in Fortitude Valley with both mics plugged into a top-notch John Hardy M2 preamp. We're keeping things raw with no post-production on the sound, so you hear exactly how these microphones perform. All we’ve done is boosted the levels to ensure they’re the same.
Here's how they performed in different scenarios:
Sibilance and Plosives (those tricky Ps and Ss): I busted out the tongue twister, "If Moses supposes his toes are roses..." as I’ve found this to be the best way to hear these pesky sounds. Did either mic turn our voices into a sizzling mess? Not quite! Both mics have built-in pop filters, so plosives were a breeze. The DCM8 handled sibilance slightly better, though. Remember, where you position your mouth relative to the mic can also affect sibilance, so experiment to find your sweet spot. If you speak using your teeth more (yes, it’s a real thing), then you’ll find you naturally have more sibilance that needs managing.
Singing Test: I belted out a bit of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to see how each mic treated my vocal pipes. The DCM8 came through with a warm, clear sound, perfect for showcasing the nuances in my voice, and gave me a nice bit of top-end sparkle whilst still delivering depth.. The SM7B wasn't bad, but I found it to be a bit “boring”. The sound was flatter, not a lot going on in the top end that I enjoyed, and overall I would need to do more work to make this sound like I wanted it to in post-production eq’ing.
Bringing in the Backup (Male Vocals): I enlisted the lovely Alex to chime in with his lunch order as we were both pretty hungry at this point. Both mics captured his voice well, but the DCM8 again offered a touch more clarity. I did find the SM7B performed well with Alex’s voice though. It highlighted his manly bass tones well, but there was an extra bit of muffling/muddy tonality here that I didn’t enjoy. Bonus points for the DCM8 because, let's be honest, it looks a fair bit sleeker on camera. The SM7B's exposed cable can be a bit distracting.
The Verdict: DCM8 Takes the Crown (But There's More!)
The SE Dynacaster DCM8 emerges victorious in this clash. It delivers a warm, clear sound with minimal fuss, requires less gain thanks to its built-in dynamite boost (perfect if your preamp isn't super powerful), and won't break the bank compared to the pricier SM7B, which is almost double the wigwams. No matter which mic you choose, microphone placement plays a huge role in sound quality as does the recording environment.
So, grab your headphones, listen to the samples we recorded over on YouTube, and weigh the pros and cons for yourself. With this knowledge in your arsenal, you’ll be ready to pick the microphone that'll suit your needs.
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: Today I'm doing a battle, a battle I've been wanting to do for quite some time. It is a battle between the Shure SM7B and the SE Dynacaster DCM8. I have already done a review of the SE Dynacaster DCM8 on the channel just by itself. And I wanted to trial it up against a few things that I think are in a similar space for podcasters.
[00:00:32] More specifically. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to run through a bunch of different use cases, different sounds so that you can decide what microphone may be best for you, depending on your use case. I'm going to test the Sibilance, the poppiness. So how it handles the pops, the plosives, as they say, both of them have pretty substantial pop foam on here.
[00:00:56] So I would imagine that they will both handle that very easily. And then I'm going to also sing into the microphone so that if you're a vocalist and you're looking at, uh, doing some just singing into the microphone, then you will be able to test what that sounds like. I'm also going to test this microphone with a male voice.
[00:01:13] We're going to have Alex pop in here and tell you what he wants to have for lunch so that you can hear what a male voice sounds like as well. Make sure you have your headphones on so that you are hearing true. What it is going to be. Both of these microphones are plugged into a John Hardy M2 preamp. We are keeping them very flat as in there will be no post production.
[00:01:32] We may do a little bit of compression or limiting in the backend. That's as much as we're going to do from a post production standpoint, because I want you to hear exactly what these microphones sound like. Now I am in a fancy studio. I am at Gas Work Studio here in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane. And so this is a completely dead studio.
[00:01:50] Basically room. So you may not have the kind of acoustic treatment that a studio has in your home studio. So do keep that in mind. You may have a little bit more [00:02:00] background noise to deal with reflections and things like that. Uh, but this is just the, the nicest space for me to record some podcasting reviews here.
[00:02:09] We have the gain set at 57 dB for the Shure SM7B, and we have the gain set at 30 dB for the SE Dynacaster DCM8. So straight off the bat, that is what you are hearing. Okay. Let's get into the tests. First up, we're going to do a sibilance test where I'm going to help you understand how these microphones perform those kind of sounds.
[00:02:35] If you speak using your teeth a lot, you won't know that you're doing it, but, uh, generally people that speak with their teeth a little bit more and they have the breath kind of coming through that way, you may have more sibilance. You can also have more or less sibilance. Sibilance, depending on what side of your mouth you're actually talking out of.
[00:02:52] So as you move your head around a microphone, you can actually start to hear where you sound the best. And so then that will help you ascertain where you should actually position the microphone for the best sound for you. Sibilance test. We're going to start with the S E Dynacaster DCM8. If Moses supposes his toses are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously.
[00:03:18] If Moses supposes his toes are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously. SM7B 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 get into the plosive test, the poppy pop pop pop test. DCM8. Popping the popcorn.
[00:03:49] Popping the popcorn. SM7B Popping the popcorn. Popping the popcorn. Okay, now I'm going to do a little bit of singing. DCM8. [00:04:00] Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
[00:04:16] SM7B Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby DCM8. Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake up where the clouds are far behind me SM7B Where troubles smell like lemon drops way up of the chimney tops. That's where you find me.
[00:05:06] Okay, now we're gonna get Alex in here to tell you what he wants to have for lunch.
[00:05:11] All right. Starting with the diner caster. Welcome back to what I desire to eat Today. I think a nice red curry tofu would be delicious. And now the SM7B. So my lunch order today would be a red curry tofu with some pelosive peas.
[00:05:31] Is red curry the spicy one? I don't want a spicy one. I don't like spicy. Do you like spicy? I don't really like spicy. I like a little bit of spice. I like enough to be like, ooh, but you know, not too much. White person medium. Yes. So that is the tests. So if I had to choose between the SM7B and the SE DC M8, S E D C M 8 is going [00:06:00] to be my winner.
[00:06:01] Firstly, the sound. So, the DC M8, if you have your headphones on, I want you to just really listen, maybe turn it up a little bit, so that you can hear what's going on with this DC M8. It has a really nice bottom, like, low depth to it, a warmth to it, without the muddy sound. There is almost no muddy to this microphone at all.
[00:06:22] So, it's getting a nice, um, like frequency response without introducing something that I don't want. And then it also handles the sibilance, the high end frequencies really well. It doesn't have a lot of sibilance and it doesn't seem to really matter where I put my mouth. It's still giving me what I need.
[00:06:39] So for that reason, it's got that nice clarity, that high end sparkle. It sounds really good with vocals, just singing into it as well. And it doesn't require the amount of gain. That the SM7B does. Let's get into that. So the SEDC M8 has a dynamite boost inside of the microphone. I did a specific review of this microphone by itself which I'll link as well.
[00:07:04] It's got this boost already inside of it, which means that you don't need to gain as much on your preamp. because it's already in there. Whereas the Shure SM7B doesn't have that. It doesn't have a boost, which means that the gain that it needs is a lot more. So we've had to pump this up to 57 dB to get it to the level that can compete with the SE DCM8.
[00:07:30] Now that is a problem. If you don't have a preamp that can support that kind of gain, it's going to be hard for you to be able to get the sound that you want out of this without introducing a dynamite boost, maybe from SE or a cloud lifter, uh, to get the gain that you want. Shure negated that by then now introducing the Shure SM7DB, which means it now has a boost inside.
[00:07:55] The SE DCM8 already has that, and it's a lot less expensive as well. [00:08:00] This one is about 450, the SE, whereas this one is about 380. 850 for the Shure SM7B. The Shure SM7B, although it is an industry standard microphone, it introduces a lot more muddy sounds to me. But it feels like it needs more work in the actual post production phase for it to sound like you want it to sound.
[00:08:21] It doesn't have as much clarity as this one does. It definitely feels a little bit more, uh, bland. And requiring more energy for you to get it to where it needs to be. Also from a video standpoint, I think that the DCM8 just looks better. See how the SM7B has this like cable thing that runs through here.
[00:08:44] And I think it pulls focus more. Uh, whereas the DCM8, everything's encased inside of it. And it just looks a lot nicer on camera. And to me, that is a pretty big deal. So. There's that. For the price point, this wins. DC M8 for the sound quality, this wins. The build quality is similar. They're both having really good quality builds.
[00:09:05] There's no plastic terribleness. They're both XLR microphones. That's kind of on par, but the DC M8, it's just Uh, it just wins, just wins for me. What do you think? What actually sounds the best for you, uh, based on what you've heard today?
[00:09:22] Did something sound better singing into it? Did you like it better for Alex's voice? I'd love to know what you think and what you're thinking of getting for yourself. If you have any questions, pop them in the comments and thanks so much for being here.
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