Editors Keys SL600 Condenser Microphone - A Streamer's Dream?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,856 words · ~9 min read
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since the first time I ever made a video about a microphone incidentally it was
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actually the predecessor to this one the SL300 we've received a lot of requests
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to cover this category better and at first this was confusing to me why when
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I was a kid building a hot rod PC the microphone was the last thing on
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anyone's mind but of course that was before services like twitch TV existed
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and for that matter before YouTube existed and suddenly you know everyone
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and their dog all of a sudden figures they need a broadcast grade microphone
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to ramble into while playing video games but of course that shift has occurred
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now and my recent appearance on Pimp My setup which you can check out here by
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the way really drove home for me how many of these just perfectly normal
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people have high-end microphones as part of their Rigs and why these reviews are
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so popular so without further Ado here's
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our video of the SL600 condenser microphone from editor keys
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Corsair's H GT and h100i GTX all-in-one
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liquid coolers improve both the appearance and cooling of your PC click
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my face to learn more right out of the
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box the SL600 feels more professional grade than consumer grade and I actually
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mean that in kind of a negative sense it includes a hard case for travel you know
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because everyone needs one of those and a reasonably comp competent if not
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exceptional shock mount okay that one's actually pretty handy and guys like blue
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and Razer charge extra for that on similarly priced consumer SL prosumer
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oriented mics like the yeti Pro and siren and they had the sense to include
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a nice long USB cable but it doesn't include any kind of stand for the darn
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thing this is what professional gears always like you know here's the hard
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stuff to find but we'll just assume you already have like a thing to actually
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put it on your freaking desk or something more elaborate like a boom ARM
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that clamps to it to hold the thing up and and I didn't I mean it's not a huge
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deal an editor's keys does have reasonably priced stand accessories if
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you don't have your own already but the bad news is that could put the SL600
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beyond the uh you know oh it's only a little bit more than the siren threshold
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where folks are likely to upsell themselves a few bucks for something
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that is significantly better if they don't already own one but is it
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significantly better patience we'll get to that first the physical tour the
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SL600 has a striking and to me very appealing but I'm kind of partial to
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this color scheme appearance with a black metal body and orange mesh over
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the single large 34mm diaphragm yes
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folks this is not a jack of all trades microphone so if you were expecting to
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get XLR output and a veritable smorgus
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Board of pickup patterns that are pretty
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unlikely to be used outside of very specific situations you'll be sorely
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disappointed the ETL 600 is designed to be used one way and one way only speak
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into the microphone below the business end is a low cut switch to get rid of
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the boominess that can sometimes occur when someone other than me sits too
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close a minus 10 D pre- attenuation switch for loud sources a gain knob and
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oo what's this the big upgrade that got my attention on this model compared to
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the SL300 which I use just about every other day a headphone knob to go along
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with the zero latency audio monitoring Port just under the dial very nice just
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like the other microphones that I'm comparing against it can output only
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your computer system sound from that port or it can mix in the microphone's
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input with zero delay making it perfect for podcasting or does it now we'll get
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into the actual audio quality I'll be putting it up against the two similarly
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priced products that I have in my testing stable right now in my usual
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scenarios let's start with some test audio from the SL600 in my ideal
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scenario where it's positioned directly in front of me between my keyboard and
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face with a dual layer pop filter in this position the SL600 performs very
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well ambient noise pickup is among the lowest I've encountered so in spite of
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the four other computers in the room and the nearby server room and even with the
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keyboard rocking out in the background behind it which I'll start mashing away
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on now voice quality is very very good I
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mean if you're a game streamer this can be the difference between an acceptable
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microphone and one that's totally usess useless which was my biggest complaint
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about the Razer siren from my Yeti blackout and pro review the sound of my
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voice through the siren was a strong point for it but its high noise floor
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and inability to shut out background noise like typing like
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this hurts it in a big way when it's commanding a big league price similar to
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the other microphones we're looking at today the next of which is the Blue Yeti
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Pro which holds up really well against the competition its noise floor is
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similar and its ambient noise pickup both the H of the computer systems
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and typing away behind the mic is noticeably better than the SL600 but
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both Brandon and I in side-by-side listening tests pegged the SL600 as the
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more natural sounding of the two and therefore probably my pick for vocal
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recording with the yeti Pro having a more radio likee sound quality at this
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distance something that many broadcasters will prefer which got me
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thinking how would the SL600 perform in a more up close and personal recording
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environment the answer is well you're listening to it you get a much warmer
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sound with more bass but without it becoming overwhelming that same experiment on the
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yeti Pro didn't give me nearly as dramatic a difference in the recording
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though so for skilled broadcasters who want to leverage the different ways that
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they'll sound as they move closer or further from the microphone the SL600 is
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a clear winner for me which leads us to our next test scenario starting with the
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SL600 putting the mic off to the side next to the monitor where it's forced to
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operate from a distance of about half a meter from The Sound Source this is
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definitely not the SL 600's wheelhouse it sounds noticeably more distant than
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the Blue Yeti Pro which I'll switch to now for easy side-by-side comparison
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although as usual I have standardized test recordings which you can find in my
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SoundCloud linked below the video but I'd still take it over the Razer siren
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which I'm switching to now due to the siren's noise floor and background noise
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pickup which continue to be the bane of its existence
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is this thing on all right so let's talk final thoughts then once you get to a
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certain point it looks like uh for USB desktop microphones that's about $200 it
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becomes more about tradeoffs than one product being clearly significantly
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better than another the SL600 would be my choice for Pure vocals or
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broadcasting thanks to its voice recording prowess and the lifetime
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warranty is a definite plus but the yeti Pro XLR output hardware mute button it's
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a big one and ambient noise reduction make it a clear choice for game
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streamers at the same price once you factor in that you're going to need a
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stand for this bad boy speaking of
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streaming and game streamers xsplit
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broadcaster Powers countless live streams and recordings around the world
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including the WAN Show that you see here online as Tech tips every Friday their
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new V2 version of the software has powerful new tools it's built to meet
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the needs of today's content creators and all these bullet points that I'm
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supposed to say but the basic point of all of this is that xplit is Affordable
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and just plain works it's stable their
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game detection is outstanding so it can actually pick up on games Luke's had it
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running with games that aren't even released yet and it's just like Boop yep
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we know about this we'll let you go ahead and cast that which helps the
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games not be as demanding on your system when you're streaming them as well as
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just generally being easier to use you can set up a variety of scenes you got
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fade effects as you switch between them and it's got all kinds of stuff that
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really just generally makes the life of me personally and I'm assuming anyone
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else who tries it a little bit easier the best part is that if you're willing
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to give up on a couple of the more premium features like lots of extra
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scenes it is completely free there's also some stuff I should mention about
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xplit gamecaster so that's for gamers to
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easily stream and record their great gaming moments at the click of a button
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it's gotten easy to use overlay so you can go ahead and bring that up and start
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you know streaming or recording your gameplay without actually all tabbing
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completely out of the game and I think
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those are pretty redundant I've got another point that says it's great for
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creating live streams and recordings yeah yeah it would be I mean anything
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split media makes pretty much is for that so visit xplit dcom Linus to start
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streaming and recording in HD today guys
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thanks for watching like this video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked leave a comment if your
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