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Since my first video's release on YouTube I have relied on my trusty Blue Yeti USB Microphone. The audio quality was decent relative to just using a webcam. I had in mind I had bought the Blue Yeti Professional (which has XLR outputs), but I was mistaken (the listing I bought from said: "Blue Yeti Professional Microphone" - not a "Blue Yeti Pro XLR" lol). It's been 2.5 years on the Yeti and I feel like I eventually managed to get half decent audio through fine tuning the audio channels in "post" (I have developed quite the editing process to refine the audio channel lol).

It is time for a change. Now I don't want to oversell the new items but it's rare to make an upgrade to the video production process and to get a result that actually makes a huge difference. Playing the Yeti and new setup side by side through a smartphone speaker there may not be that big of a difference. But if you have a set of headphones the difference is quite pronounced.

So what did I settle on?

There are many many options from professional microphones (like the Sure SM7B which you'll see displayed in basically every podcast style of video) to DAC (digital to analogue converter) and USB Audio Interfaces to convert the professional microphones (some of which require "Phantom 48V" external power).

I can appreciate the audio from the Sure SM7B but after watching a Senpai Gaming's overview of the Audio Technica AT-875R Shotgun Microphone I knew it had to be that for my next upgrade. My microphone placement is somewhat poor given that it's surrounded by screens and a glass side panel - hence the move away from a cardioid condenser to a shotgun condenser microphone.

A challenge with these professional microphones is finding authentic items. All the cheap ones on marketplaces appeared to be "fakes" - so I opted to aim for that authentic item. One catch with this upgrade is that you can no longer simply use USB cables to connect everything - some XLR cables were needed. I did cheap out on them but so far they are working.

A good quality vibration mount for the microphone is important to reduce movement artifacts - and I obtained the Blue Yeti microphone stand and vibration mount. Unfortunately this setup will not work for the new shotgun microphone (or maybe there are adapters) - but that meant a desk mount was needed with a shotgun style vibration mount.

Lastly - how can I supply 48V phantom power while converting the XLR output signal to something the HP Z8 G4 Workstation can handle? After some extensive research I settled on the Solid State Logic SSL2+ USB Audio Interface. It's not the newest release I could have got (the Scarlett 2i2 4th gen was my runner-up interface), but it was loaded with features that would help make it useful for future expansions. The AT-875R Shotgun Microphone is a fair bit cheaper than a Sure SM7B which means I could get two of them if needed in the future - but that's only if you all appreciate ASMR-level unboxings lol.

Stay tuned for a quick testing of the new setup - I had planned a simple "audio video" for audio comparison, but that turned into a more involved video.

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