[0:00] When I started content creation, the
[0:01] microphones being recommended to
[0:02] beginners were expensive and not
[0:04] designed for them. Influencers
[0:06] recommended overly sensitive condenser
[0:08] mics that cost way too much, like the
[0:11] Elgato Wave or the HyperX QuadCast. But
[0:13] then it got worse. Eventually, I
[0:15] upgraded to an XLR setup, and that mic
[0:17] that I bought became useless because it
[0:20] was only USB and didn't work with
[0:22] mixers. It became a literal waste of
[0:24] money that I had to replace. Thankfully
[0:26] these days that isn't a problem anymore
[0:28] because of these. This is the Fifine AM8
[0:31] microphone. This is the Fifine K688 and
[0:35] this is the Fifine SC3 mixer. All of
[0:37] these cost around 50 USD each, which is
[0:40] a third of the price of those mics I
[0:42] just mentioned. And today I want to show
[0:44] you why these are an utterly amazing
[0:46] choice for you to start with. And I'm
[0:48] going to be giving away four of these
[0:50] five fine mics. So stick around for
[0:51] that. I'll be cutting between all three
[0:52] of these mics for this entire video. So,
[0:54] you'll be able to hear real world
[0:55] examples of the sound quality as we go,
[0:58] focusing mainly on the AM8 because it's
[1:00] the most value for money. And before we
[1:03] get into that giveaway and explain the
[1:05] SC3 mixer, I want to start with the
[1:07] intentional build of the AM8 because
[1:10] every time I use Fifine products, I find
[1:12] myself realizing that it's a brand that
[1:14] puts an amazing amount of thought into
[1:16] what they do. For example, when using it
[1:18] as a USB microphone, it has a tap to
[1:19] [music] mute button that doesn't click,
[1:21] meaning you don't get a big clicking
[1:23] sound when you want to quietly mute
[1:24] yourself. The same can be said for the
[1:26] RGB controller that's right here as
[1:28] well. You're currently listening to me
[1:29] speak and and now I'm unmuting myself.
[1:32] See, no tapping, no clicking. Works
[1:34] perfectly. The other thing I love is it
[1:35] doesn't use large clicky buttons to
[1:37] change the gain or the volume of the 3.5
[1:39] mm headphone jack. Instead, it uses
[1:41] these lovely slidy knobs to minimize the
[1:44] noise that you can hear while adjusting.
[1:45] Obviously, you can hear my voice
[1:47] changing as I move it, but you can't
[1:48] hear much microphone sound. And yes, as
[1:51] I just said, it has a 3.5 mm headphone
[1:53] jack, which means you can monitor your
[1:55] voice without [music] any kind of delay
[1:57] or latency, which is fantastic. Right
[1:59] now, I am listening back to my voice and
[2:01] my PC sounds through the Fifine AM8. The
[2:04] stand it comes with is solid and heavy
[2:06] as well, so it's not going to fall over
[2:08] at the slightest bump. And when I remove
[2:09] the microphone, it actually has inside
[2:11] the mic mount a 5/8 and 3/8 mic thread.
[2:15] So new creators don't get confused on
[2:17] how to attach this mic to a mic arm or
[2:19] other thread. And of course, it's a
[2:20] cardioidnamic microphone, meaning it's
[2:22] naturally less sensitive than condenser
[2:24] microphones. For example, if you see me
[2:26] moving off to the side right here,
[2:27] you'll slowly hear that my voice is
[2:29] dropping off pretty quickly. And if I
[2:31] move over this side, it'll drop off even
[2:32] more again. And if I wanted to, I could
[2:34] move pretty far away. And you'll hear my
[2:36] voice goes away quite quickly. Meaning,
[2:38] if someone else is in the room, it's
[2:40] going to be great at noise rejection
[2:41] overall with a slight noise gate. One
[2:43] thing I noticed about the AM8 is it's
[2:45] actually less sensitive than the K688,
[2:47] which is another microphone we've looked
[2:48] at and love on this channel. But because
[2:50] it's less sensitive, it actually means
[2:52] it's better at rejecting background
[2:54] noise than the K688. On that note, I
[2:57] will say that the AM8 sounds a lot less
[2:59] colorful. It has a lot less personality
[3:01] by default than the K688. I also noticed
[3:04] it naturally feels like it has less
[3:06] midtones with a bit more of the bass
[3:08] added into it, which now that I say that
[3:09] is pretty common for a lot of dynamic
[3:11] microphones. Now, this lack of
[3:13] personality is technically a really good
[3:14] thing. A lot of people will prefer it as
[3:16] it makes it more flexible to adjust with
[3:18] EQ to match their voice. Now, yes, it is
[3:21] great at noise reduction, but I will
[3:23] say, would I use the stand it comes with
[3:25] as a streamer or gamer? Probably not,
[3:28] because it would be right in front of
[3:30] the keyboard on the stand while I'm
[3:32] typing on my keyboard. I actually have
[3:34] to hunch every bit to get close enough
[3:35] to this because of the way the stand
[3:36] works. Now, that wasn't terrible. that
[3:38] is totally usable with a default
[3:40] expander filter. But if I was a streamer
[3:42] or gamer, I'd get the AM8T version,
[3:45] which is the same microphone, but it
[3:46] comes with a mic arm and is roughly the
[3:49] same price.
[3:51] Hello there. My name is LJ and I am
[3:53] currently typing on my keyboard. You can
[3:55] probably hear it in the background.
[3:56] Podcasters or beginning voice actors or
[3:59] anyone who doesn't need a keyboard or
[4:00] mouse clicking constantly around them,
[4:02] this stand will work great for you. Now,
[4:04] I said two things earlier. first that I
[4:06] had a giveaway coming up, which I do, so
[4:08] stay tuned for that. And second, I said
[4:10] the phrase when using it as a USB mic,
[4:13] and that's because this mic, much like
[4:15] the Fine K688, includes one of the most
[4:18] important features of a value or budget
[4:20] mic. To me, it is both USB and XLR,
[4:22] meaning if you ever want to upgrade to
[4:24] an XLR mixer, such as this beautiful
[4:27] Fifine SC3, which we will cover in a
[4:29] second, you can without needing to
[4:31] replace the microphone. I will say when
[4:33] you run this mic through an XLR
[4:34] interface, you obviously won't be using
[4:36] the buttons [music] on it to mute or
[4:37] change the gain. Instead, you'd
[4:39] obviously use the interface. So, these
[4:41] become inactive and so does the RGB
[4:43] light strip. Except that's where this
[4:45] kind of becomes amazing. Just like the
[4:47] Fifine K688, you can actually use this
[4:49] microphone as a USB mic and an XLR mic
[4:52] at the same time. It's called dual
[4:54] output. So, you can send USB to your PC
[4:56] and send the XLR to an external
[4:58] interface or recorder or a different PC.
[5:01] And with that, let's talk a little about
[5:03] the SC3 because it's pretty much
[5:05] plugandplay. Normally, setting up a
[5:07] mixer and a new mic takes around 20 to
[5:09] 30 minutes of fiddling minimum. This
[5:11] took me 30 seconds because that's how
[5:13] long it takes me to plug a USB in when I
[5:15] can't see the back of my motherboard.
[5:16] Now, unlike other mixers, when you plug
[5:18] this in, you'll notice that there is no
[5:20] software. Your PC will read this mixer
[5:22] as a pair of headphones and a
[5:23] microphone. It will show up in your
[5:25] sound settings as Fifine SC3 for both
[5:27] input and output. And because there is
[5:29] no software required, this instantly
[5:31] plug and plays not just for PC and Mac,
[5:33] but also for a PlayStation 5. You can
[5:35] just plug this into your PlayStation 5
[5:37] and use a professional microphone on
[5:39] that. From here, you'll plug your
[5:40] headphones into the back of the mixer
[5:41] and you'll be able to hear all your
[5:42] desktop audio such as your game, music,
[5:44] Discord, etc., and adjust all of that
[5:46] just from your desktop slider. Now, on
[5:48] the other side, you have your XLR port.
[5:50] This is where you'll plug your XLR cable
[5:52] in that is connected to your XLR
[5:53] microphone. Today I am using Amazon
[5:55] basic XLR cables because if you buy the
[5:57] SD3 by itself, it doesn't come with XLR
[5:59] cables, but there are five bundles that
[6:01] do. So, I'll link those below. Once your
[6:03] microphone is plugged in, you can adjust
[6:04] the gain with your mic slider on the far
[6:06] left. As you can see, I'm boosting my
[6:08] gain right now. I should probably lower
[6:09] it back down so I don't blow your ears
[6:11] out. And as I do that, you're going to
[6:12] see my levels moving up and down on my
[6:15] mixer. And once I've set my levels down,
[6:17] those lights will disappear and I'll
[6:18] just have my reactive voice levels.
[6:20] That'll show where I'm talking at right
[6:21] now. A really important thing to note is
[6:23] underneath your mic slider, there is the
[6:25] mute button, obviously for muting your
[6:27] microphone. It's actually quite tactile
[6:28] [music] and feels really, really nice to
[6:30] press. There is obviously a mute button
[6:32] for every single slider [music] except
[6:33] for the headphone slider, which is
[6:35] instead replaced with a mic monitor
[6:37] button, so you can hear what your own
[6:38] voice sounds like with zero latency,
[6:40] which again is an incredibly helpful
[6:42] tool. And once you've done those three
[6:43] things, plugged your headphones in,
[6:44] plugged your XLR in, and plugged it into
[6:46] the PC, congratulations, your entire
[6:48] interface is set up. You can go to OBS
[6:50] or Discord and select the SC3 as your
[6:52] mic and your headphones and it just
[6:54] works so simply because [music] that's
[6:56] what it's designed for, an entry-level
[6:58] simple interface for you as a gamer and
[7:00] creator. If you want to add filters such
[7:01] as compressor, EQ or anything else, it
[7:03] is true you can't do that inside the
[7:05] device, but you can do that inside
[7:07] either OBS or in post-production
[7:09] software. As for virtual routing, yes,
[7:12] this doesn't handle that. So, you can't
[7:13] tell Chrome or music to go to one slider
[7:16] and your game to go to another slider
[7:18] like you could with, say, a $500 USD Go
[7:20] XLR or a $400 bridgecast. But remember,
[7:24] again, this is a $45 interface. And it
[7:27] does have a lot more to it. So, let's
[7:28] talk about the bells and whistles and
[7:30] explain how to enter that giveaway I
[7:32] talked about. For example, one of my
[7:33] favorite parts is the 3.5 mm line input
[7:35] on the back here, which will let you
[7:37] connect phones, tablets, or even
[7:38] instruments if you want to do that,
[7:40] which means the audio from those devices
[7:42] is coming through the interface as a
[7:44] mixer, so you can hear it and output it.
[7:47] [music]
[8:04] >> [music]
[8:09] >> And then we also have a 3.5 mm line out
[8:12] for sending your audio to external
[8:13] speakers. Or if you wanted, you could
[8:14] output this into a phone so the person
[8:16] on the other end hears your mic and mix.
[8:18] These line in and outs are connected via
[8:20] these other two sliders as you can see
[8:22] right here. And the mute buttons beneath
[8:24] correspond to them. Coming up to the top
[8:25] of the mixer, we can see all those bells
[8:27] and whistles that I talked about, such
[8:28] as 12 tone autotune. And this is how my
[8:31] brain decided to test that. Let it go.
[8:34] It go
[8:36] back anymore.
[8:39] Let it go. Let it go. Can you tell I
[8:42] have a 2-year-old daughter? It's pretty
[8:43] easy to pick which tone. You just tap it
[8:45] each time as it cycles through. And then
[8:47] when you want to stop, you just hold it
[8:48] down for a few seconds, which is also
[8:49] how you use the voice changer, which has
[8:51] all the things you'd expect. a male,
[8:53] female, robot, monster, baby, elder. And
[8:55] then underneath these, we have the four
[8:56] sample pads. Now, to use these, you just
[8:58] hold down the sample pad.
[9:00] >> I turned myself into a pickle, Morty.
[9:01] And then you let it go, and then you're
[9:03] going to press it back. And
[9:05] >> I turned myself into a pickle, Morty.
[9:06] And ta, it plays the voice line that you
[9:08] had recorded. Again, that giveaway is
[9:10] coming up very soon. But first, it's
[9:11] time to plug in the Shure SM7B, one of
[9:13] the most expensive and gain hungry
[9:15] dynamic microphones in the space. This
[9:16] thing requires so much power to sound
[9:18] good. And professional mixers that cost
[9:20] hundreds of dollars use the fact that
[9:21] they can power this Shure SM7B as a
[9:24] baseline. It's a selling point. If a
[9:25] mixer can handle the Sure SM7B, they
[9:28] want to brag about it. So, [music] can a
[9:30] $40 to $50 mixer handle the SH SM7B?
[9:33] Okay, this is the Shure SM7B plugged
[9:35] directly into the SC3.
[9:37] There's no filters or anything on it,
[9:39] obviously, because that's not how this
[9:41] interface works. Uh, yes, it can. And
[9:43] that is nuts. You know, thinking back to
[9:45] when I started, it's hard not to be
[9:46] jealous of you guys. The fact that
[9:48] companies like Fifine are creating not
[9:50] just microphones that sound great on a
[9:52] budget, but also interfaces for [music]
[9:54] you to start your journey with is
[9:57] it's it's amazing. You can spend 90
[10:00] bucks and have everything you need to
[10:02] begin content creation. The
[10:03] accessibility of that makes me really
[10:06] happy [music] because you guys can
[10:09] follow a dream of yours without
[10:11] stressing like I did. I've got way too
[10:13] many microphones lying around. So, if
[10:14] you want to win one of the four Fifine
[10:16] mics I have, comment down below the
[10:18] answer to this question. Is the Fifine
[10:19] K688 and the Fifine AM8 XLR or is it
[10:23] USB? And make sure you include the
[10:25] secret code word accessible. Keep your
[10:27] DMs open. I'll be reaching out to ship
[10:28] them over the next few weeks. And if you
[10:29] want to learn about the K688, click
[10:31] right here. It's it's on screen. One of
[10:33] these places. [music] You'll know where
[10:34] it is. See you next week.