Tag: Microphone

Categories
Hockey Feed

Oilers’ Klim Kostin steals reporter’s microphone and leaves on live TV!

Twitter

The Edmonton Oilers rolled past the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night, getting the 7-4 win and making the Pacific Division playoff race even tighter in the last stretch of the regular season.

The Oilers were celebrating as soon as they got off the ice on the way to the dressing room where the club’s TV host Tony Brar was posted with his microphone to catch the reactions of the players.

However, he never expected one of them to steal and leave with his microphone. As Brar was commenting next to the Oilers entering the tunnel, forward Klim Kostin grabbed the microphone and continued walking, bringing the mic in the dressing room with him. Brar was left laughing in front of the camera, but without the necessary microphone to do his job.

This is hilarious:

It is fun to see that the Oilers are in a good mood and looking to repeat the feeling with just more than two weeks left in the regular season.

This was not the first time Kostin was messing with Brar. The forward seems to be making sure the reporter is always on his toes around him! 

Edmonton faces the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday in a battle for playoff positioning in the Pacific Division.

Let’s hope Brar gets his microphone back before then!

Recommended articles:

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Starting a YouTube channel? Here’s some great gear to get started

Cameras, a gimbal, microphones and lights are all things you need to start a quality YouTube channel in 2023.

Below are some of my favourites and others I hope to get my hands on sometime in the future. Let’s get into it.

Microphones

Regarding microphones, there are two major types creators tend to use — shotgun microphones and lavalier microphones. Shotgun microphones typically sit on the camera and capture all the audio in the scene. A lavalier (lav) mic usually attaches to the subject to capture dialogue.

In my kit, I have the beefy Senhiessier MKE 400 and its smaller sibling, the MKE 200. The larger mic is arguably better, but the small one requires no batteries, sounds almost as good and is easier to pack up due to its small size, so I tend to use it more. When working with other creators, I often see shotgun microphones out in the wild, but I prefer lav mics.

Gimbals

You might be asking yourself why a gimbal is important, and the answer is that it allows you to get stable shots anywhere. If you don’t like movement in your films, this might not be for you, but if you’re walking and talking or just want to do cool pans, a Gimbal is an extremely versatile tool.

I went through two gimbals this year. My aging DJI Ronin-SC was starting to struggle with the weight of my Fujifilm 16-55mm lens when fully zoomed out. This happens when you run gimbals hard without balancing every time, but it’s the cost of working quickly, I guess.

From there, I tried out the Ziyhun Weebil 3, a brand-new gimbal from 2022, and it worked out great. The ergonomics of the device are leagues above the Ronin-SC. The simple addition of a wrist wrest brings the gimbal up a league and makes holding it all day ten times easier.

While I like it and find it can accomplish all my work, I think the precision in the DJI motors was slightly better. Perhaps I can dial in the Ziyhun in the settings over more time, but next time I upgrade, I may switch back to team DJI.

Cameras

A ton of cameras came out in 2022. From action cameras, like the Insta 360 X3 and the DJI Action 2, to high-end mirrorless sets like the Fujifilm X-H2S, there’s something for everyone.

In the action camera space, I still stick with a trusty GoPro. The batteries, accessories, and camera all cost reasonable amounts and deliver excellent camera performance in a small body. I even broke one and got it replaced for free under the GoPro membership warranty. The Action 2 is a great camera, but for the amount I use an action camera (mostly in car videos), the GoPro is the economical choice.

In the mirrorless camera space, it’s hard to get something better than Fujifilm’s latest beast, the X-H2S. This camera has great colours, stabilization and autofocus making it the most complete Fujifilm package to come out in years. On a budget, I wholeheartedly recommend the Fujifilm X-S10, which I use in conjunction with an X-T3 for all my work. If you’re not a Fujifilm fan, I’ve heard great things about the Sony Fx30 and the A7IV.

That said, like the GoPro, the Fuji ecosystem of lenses can be a little more cost-effective than Sony, offering better value in the long run for very comparable visual quality.

Other accessories

Surprising no one, the most beneficial camera accessory is my iPhone 14 Pro. As a second camera, it’s fantastic, and the microphone quality makes it a tremendous all-in-one video tool. I even shot a few videos across the year, mainly on phones, and the iPhone 13/14 Pro are by far my favourites.

For the actual videography, I used the Aperture MC pocket light, the larger Aperture P60C and the 200d. This combo offers a lot of versatile options. I especially enjoy the portability of the MC and the P60C. Being able to run the P60C off two small-ish batteries opens up remote shooting options.

My favourite drone is the DJI Mini 3 Pro, but for people starting out, the Mini 3 offers very similar camera quality for a few hundred dollars less.

Other awesome tools that I use almost every day include three of these Small-Rig magic arms and the Small Rig camera tool. I also use a trusty Peak Design travel tripod. I have the aluminum version, but after carrying it around for a year I think next time I’ll go with carbon fibre.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our websi

Categories
Mobile Syrup

My favourite part of Audio-Technica’s AT2020USB-X mic is the mute switch

For years, I’ve used Blue’s ‘Snowball’ microphone for just about everything, from chatting with friends while gaming to recording episodes of the SyrupCast. It’s served me well across a variety of uses, but I recently retired it for Audio-Technica’s new AT2020USB-X microphone.

The AT2020USB-X is a cardioid condenser microphone that works over USB that boasts 24-bit/96Hz sampling. It also features a headphone jack for zero-latency monitoring and a capacitive mute switch that, frankly, turned out to be a game-changing feature for me.

Now, I’m no audio expert, but in my time with the AT2020USB-X, I’ve been impressed with its output. You can hear it in action in SyrupCast episode 266 (and I’ll likely continue using it as my main podcasting mic). For comparison, here’s a SyrupCast episode where I use the Blue Snowball.

2That said, at $219 in Canada, the AT2020USB-X is much pricier than the $99.99 Blue Snowball. It is a better microphone and boasts a higher sampling rate than the Snowball, plus I prefer the AT2020USB-X’s USB-C connection to the USB Type-B port on the Snowball.

Still, it’s hard to beat the value proposition of the Blue Snowball, which I’ve found to be a consistently strong performer for the cost. If you’re looking to start a podcast, I’d recommend value microphones like the Snowball, while long-time podcasters looking to improve their audio game might want to start considering higher-end options like the AT2020USB-X.

Hands down my favourite feature of the AT2020USB-X is the built-in mute button. ‘Button’ is doing a lot of work here — it’s a capacitive touch button and offers no tactile feedback, which might prove frustrating for some. Still, I loved being able to quickly and easily mute my microphone while recording a SyrupCast so I could grab a drink of water or cough without disrupting whoever was speaking. Sure, I could mute the microphone on my PC, but having the button right there was super convenient.

Furthermore, muting the AT2020USB-X swaps the blue LED to a red glow, adding a fun visual cue.

The mute button will, of course, be quite handy beyond podcasting applications. With the wide variety of virtual meeting software out there, it may be easier for some just to mute their physical mic rather than try and mute themselves in Teams/Meet/Zoom/whatever other meeting software. I also appreciated being able to mute the mic when I wasn’t using it without digging through Windows 11’s awful audio settings.

You can check out the AT20202USB-X on Audio-Technica’s website, where it’s available for $219. Alternatively, it’s on Amazon but at a higher $247.98.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.