the razor siren what could be so
exciting about a microphone you might ask well I wasn't sure either in fact
when the press release first hit my inbox I completely ignored it and it
wasn't until I received numerous tweets asking when I was going to review it
that I went ahead and sent over a sample request so I could evaluate razer's
expansion into an entirely new category
microphones that actually sound good by the way this is the part where I would
normally tease an upcoming video but I can't this time and I guess that's all I
can really
say cooler Masters case mod World Series is your opportunity to show off your
modding skills and win great prizes entries close February 7th 2015 click
now to learn more so let's open with the packaging something that I rarely do
these days but in this case I feel like it's warranted first in the Box we've
got some stickers a very long braided USB cable and a quick start guide which
I've asked them to revise since it makes absolutely no mention of installing
synapse on the page that appears to have all of the steps and if you don't
install synapse then Windows seems to install a driver but the microphone just
doesn't work a frustrating issue the good news is that if you don't care
about adjusting the grand total of two parameters within the software you can
uninstall it and use the mic like any other USB audio input next is some of
the finest packing foam ever a nice
dense soft foam that feels like it would be as much at home in a carrying case as
a product box a really nice touch if you're someone like a game broadcaster
who might actually travel with it now Razer could have taken this one step
further and made the Box a carrying case but uh not this time although who knows
maybe siren V2 Razer which leads us to the microphone itself man these guys are
good at taking the most mundane things like keyboards mice and now microphones
and turning them into industrial artwork I mean what's next webcams actually I
better not give them any ideas the surprisingly well-built aluminum stand
has a foam covered base and two arms that have large thumb bolts running
through them to hold the mic in place but that also allow it a degree of
movement to compensate for the uh height
of the user I feel like Razer missed an opportunity to use rubber instead of
plastic here for better resistance to desk vibrations but for folks who really
care about the best sound quality to go along with the optional pop filter which
reduces plosives they've got an optional suspension Mount accessory that'll work
with third party stands all right so Linus you mentioned sound quality are
you going to talk about that at some point yes yes I will it's coming but first let me finish up with the mic body
on the bottom you'll find the mini USB input a threaded socket for third party
stands or the optional pop filter a headphone jack that offers zero latency
monitoring something that's great for live broadcasters and a toggle for the
illuminated razor logo on the back on the back under that logo are two dials
one for the microphone gain control and the other to alter the pickup pattern of
the three 14 mm condenser capsules hidden under the mesh at the top of the
mic the options are bidirectional cardioid omnidirectional and stereo and
if you're not familiar with any of that terminology Razer includes a handy
little glossery in their manual that tells you the best pickup pattern for
some of the most common applications on the front of the mic is a mute button
the monitoring output volume control dial and an OLED screen that displays
volume and gain levels according to whatever has been most recently adjusted
but now that we've talked for 4 minutes about what the siren is supposed to be
and the box it comes in it's time to answer the real question is it actually
any good the answer is yes it's good
really good even uh but I was expecting a little bit better not because the
siren isn't a well-built and likely very worthy upgrade to the audio recording
solution you're using now but because of the design philosophy of this product
Razer aimed to create a jack of all trades mic here with the adjustable
pickup patterns and while its versatility is outstanding I feel like
most of the use cases they present for anything but the cardioid configuration
are unlikely uses for this product I mean no one will be using it for
instrumental recording conference calls and events I mean what does that even
mean why would I want a microphone picking up literally everything around
it in the middle of an event and if you're conducting interviews you need to
mic up each person rather than relying on One mic to capture everything if you
want to do things even remotely properly so because of that I wish that Razer had
delivered a more specialized product the best cardioid mic they could build for
streaming and voice recording rather than a do everything product because I
think it might have been a little better at what I think most people are going to
use it for in that case now I don't have a ton of quality microphones to compare
it against unfortunately so I can only really compare directly to the editor
Keys SL300 a very similarly priced
cardioid only mic that I personally think sounds significantly better
closeup with that great AM radio Sound and from a distance with much better
background noise isolation and I guess I can also compare it to the built-in mic
on my Audio Technica atth a1s it's not a
desktop microphone but it's the best on headset mic I've yet encountered and for
game streamers anyway it's certainly a viable option so you guys can hear test
recordings of a bunch of different configurations in the SoundCloud link
below but for the time being here's a couple recordings of the siren at least
all Razer siren test recordings were done with the cardioid pickup pattern
unless otherwise noted My First Recording here is a best case scenario
with the siren between my keyboard and body with a double layer pop filter note
the significant back background noise from other computers in the
office and the sound level of typing on the keyboard that's directly behind the
computer for reference here's a recording of the siren without the pop
filter in the same position this recording was done with
the SL300 microphone in the same configuration basically a best case
scenario for this mic background noise is lower if you
listen and here is what background typing sounds
like and finally here's the siren positioned off to the side of my monitor
less ideal for audio quality but perhaps more convenient for folks who don't want
their microphone in the way and now for fun I'm going to switch
modes here's omnidirectional with all the background noise in the room and its
full
glory and here's stereo with me leaning
a little bit to the left and now a little bit to the
right so in conclusion while I've ragged
on Razer a little bit for the sound of the mic I do have to give credit where
credit is due it's a lot better than what most people are using and the
versatility is better than both of the other two products that I was able to
compare it against while the SL300 has a
minus 10 DB switch and a low pass filter
it doesn't come with on mic control knobs a stand or much more importantly a
zero latency real-time monitoring Jack and the atth A1 headset mic is well
aside from being expensive attached to a headset something that not everyone
wants to be stuck with so I guess at the end of all this the siren EES out a
recommendation not because Razor's naming scheme is getting any better I
mean really guys it looks like you just misspelled the product name but because
the mic looks like a solid bet to me right now but then again who knows how
I'll feel when blue sends over their competitor so stay tuned for that review
but before we can do any of that a word from our one of our most fun sponsors
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