Page 3 - Recording Performance Tests
While a typical user may not always need a dedicated microphone, there are definite use cases for one, especially as working from home becomes more of a norm across industries. In addition, dedicated studio-grade microphones are often the audio input of choice for content creators, streamers, and gaming enthusiasts. We have tested microphones in various contexts in the past, and the result has ranged from barely usable to surprisingly clear. While we could just sit and say, "Yep, it picked up my voice loud and clear, 10/10", there are some audio tests we can do to see how it actually performs. Furthermore, we can also test various use cases for a microphone, whether it means speaking for recording podcasts or instruments and singing for music recording. A single product may not work for every situation, but this will be a demonstration of the Creative Live! Mic M3's capabilities.
As you may have already read in previously, the Creative Live! Mic M3 captures sounds in two polar patterns, which includes cardioid and omnidirectional. In the cardioid pattern, sound picked up is the most natural from the front and captures audio here at the loudest amplitude. In our omnidirectional pattern, sound is picked up equally from all directions to the microphone equally. In our off-axis pickup tests, we record how the microphone deals with sounds that are not directly facing the diaphragm to show if there is any distortion or change in quality of the captured sound. In its cardioid pattern, the recorded audio from the front was clear, but the side and back sounds were more distant feeling with its lower amplitude. However, in the omnidirectional pattern, you can hear how the recorded voice sounded practically the same regardless of how I oriented the microphone to my mouth.
As for the more technical tests, we tested the Creative Live! Mic M3 for how it handles plosive and background noises. Plosive sounds traditionally refer to a speech sound where the vocal tract is blocked and airflow stops right before the pronunciation of these sounds. If you try making sounds like p, k, t, d, b, or g, you will notice right before you say these letters, your airflow will have stopped. Afterwards, this produces a "puff" or immediate contrast in air pressure. When it comes to microphones, this air pressure change can result in an unpleasant sound. As for background noises, this is affected by the pickup pattern of the microphone as well as the off-axis capturing behavior.
In terms of plosives, you can hear how the Creative Live! Mic M3 was very capable at reducing plosive noises, with the p-words coming through without hearing the puff of air. Without the pop filter, you can still hear some air pressure noise recorded, especially on the second "pepperoni", but this was completely subdued when we placed the pop filter in place. As such, the filter was definitely effective at further removing these plosive noises, which is great to see. As for background noises, the Creative Live! Mic M3 still picked up a lot of the background noises for my keyboard and mouse clicks. This is a condenser microphone, so it is performing as expected, but unfortunately you can also hear the deeper noises from the vibration of the keyboard when pressed, which is possibly more distracting than the keyboard itself. I wish Creative provided a better shock-reducing solution to prevent as much of these noises.
As with all recordings, a good microphone should capture the source in a natural way. For the spoken word test, I recorded an excerpt from the Creative Live! Mic M3's retail box. From here, you could hear all of my different speaking articulations while reading the box information. While I got a bit more into my announcer mode of reading, the sound was natural and clean with no distortion or noise artifacts. Due to the slightly lower frequency range of my speaking voice, I have found some microphones to cut off my voice at the bottom due to its limited frequency capturing range. For the Mic M3, you can hear the bottom was slightly cut out from my voice, but the overall captured sound still felt natural, but a bit hollower. It also felt more open than most gaming headsets without any nasally sounds, which comes from the fact this is a dedicated microphone.
The next recordings were of me strumming on an acoustic guitar, then overlaying the recording with me singing into the Creative Live! Mic M3. In all cases, we were recording with the cardioid polar pattern. With an introduction involving the musical Hamilton, you might think I would try using one of their songs. However, as I cannot really rap, I sung Secret Tunnel from the television show Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is a song that I have only recently heard. I placed the microphone about 10cm near the 14th fret on my guitar, away from the sound hole. These natural qualities heard in the spoken word test translated to a mostly clean pick up of my acoustic guitar. Thanks to its tilting mount, I could easily direct the microphone down to where my guitar was without needing to use extra equipment. Overall, the guitar sounded natural and clean without any muddiness. While I could improve on my strumming pattern, the Creative Live! Mic M3 captured the sound accurately. With my singing, you can hear my voice sounded similar to the spoken word with the same slight decrease in the bottom end. There were no signs of distortion recorded in these tests, which is great to see. With the available omnidirectional pattern and ability to capture different audio sources well, I think the Creative Live! Mic M3 is a pretty good all-purpose microphone.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Recording Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
