Playing with microphones can be just as exciting as testing out a new speaker, especially if you know how to make use of them. If you have had any experience with this, then you are probably nodding as that was a bit of a “duh” statement, but sometimes you have to start out with the obvious to paint the right layer of primer before you get into the good stuff (story-wise).
That being said, today I get to talk a little about beyerdynamic’s brand new “FOX” USB connected large diaphragm condenser microphone. The kind of microphone you typically use for recording when you are looking for warmth in vocals or select instruments like an acoustic guitar. Also popular for artists looking to knock out both their voice and guitar out with a single mic in a record, and especially vloggers.
Unlike your typical microphone, the FOX is a USB mic, making it a digital mic that doesn’t require any additional adapters or gear. You simply plug it into your computer and hit the ground running. Not only does this help minimize the mess when it comes to cable and gear running all over, but it makes it a heck of a lot easier to go mobile with your gear.
This is actually beyerdynamic’s first USB microphone, seeking to compete against the likes of companies like Blue, Rode, Shure and Audio-Technica–who already have had a strong existence in this section of the market. Looking at the specs, it looks like they are looking to make a top impression from the start. Not a surprise coming from such a popular German audio company.
It is a studio grade solution that offers a sampling rate of up to 24 bit/96 kHz, which already gives you an idea of what to expect when you start recording. This should (in theory) lead to absolutely amazing vocal capabilities and rich instrument presence. Or, simply a wicked sounding voice when you vlog your favorite gaming sessions.
It features a low to high gain switch on the back allowing a quick selection between the two, and the rest of your controls on the front. Those controls on the front include a mute button (with an LED in the center so that you can easily tell when it is enabled), a mix knob that allows you to pan between desktop audio and the mic itself (for monitoring), a volume knob for headphones, and a 3.5mm jack for said headphones (so that you can monitor yourself live).
When it is plugged into the computer, it will also function as your playback, so that your voice and monitoring can all be done from a close space via headphones. Hence the need for the mix knob, so that you can control how much of the computer/project you want to listen to vs how much you want to highlight just your voice monitoring.
Setup and Performance
Plugging it into your computer, it should already be recognized as a microphone in your sound properties, as well as a playback device via the headphone jack. You can choose to keep the setup as is, or split between your speakers and keep the mic as just an input, making use of monitor speakers vs headphones. However, if you do take that route, you will lose live monitoring capabilities. The whole point in offering this as part of the function, is to mimic having a soundboard in-between the microphone and the computer. It allows you to mix in other tracks like instruments into your ears as you record.
Right out of the box, the microphone already sounds pretty nice. Your only control directly on the mic itself is that low<->high gain adjustment, but before adding EQ, effects or anything else, the sound you get is already headed in the right direction. It might have been nice to have a little more hard adjustment like you do on the Blue Yeti, but let’s take a look at what we get so far.
Here is a sample of what the mic immediatly sounds like with low gain selected. Outside of some increase in gain, nothing has been added or modified (320kbps MP3):
Here is a sample of what the mic immediatly sounds like with high gain selected. Nothing has been added or modified (320kbps MP3):
We didn’t even drag it into a room that was acoustically ready for recording. I plugged it into my main PC here and simply asked everyone to hold still and stop breathing for a few seconds. It’s usually never this quiet around here, but it worked. Here I thought I was just getting a quick listen to see what it sounds like, and that we’d have to drag it into one of the rooms we have built for this kind of thing. However, it was perfect the way it was and I realized I already had the clips recorded and ready to go.
From here, you can use whatever software you are using to record with, to adjust it further to your liking (if at all). The end result can be quite surprising. You can check out the following video that beyerdynamic put together using the FOX microphone to get an idea of what you can accomplish with enough time and editing.
Although it doesn’t have as many hard adjustments on the mic itself as something like the Yeti does, it is nice to have a mic that already sounds pretty nice without the need of such adjustments. Where the Yeti does require you to play around with it a little before you start to get what you are looking for (pre-edit).
That being said, something like the Yeti can sometimes come off sounding better depending on how much time you do put into adjustments on the software side of things. Comparing the FOX microphone to a handful of others we have lying around, we get a better idea of what this mic really is.
Puting it up against something like Blue’s Snowball, the FOX dominates it in quality. However, if you swap the Snowball out with the Yeti, this is no longer the case. That being said, in a lot of ways, both of these mics can get neck to neck at times. It all depends on your settings on the Yeti, the quality of your space, and again, the time you put into editing to make each one shine. Of course, if I compare it to some of the wired microphones we have here, like the Sterling Audio ST59, AKG C 214 or Blue Spark (sort of)–it begins to lose its advantage. However, now we are talking about dragging a soundboard and/or other gear and cables back into the mix (this also depends on the quality of such equipment of course), which defeats the purpose of having a USB mic to record with.
It comes with an aluminum mesh shield (pop filter) that slides onto the collar of the microphone to help with all of those P’s and B’s. It functions quite well as we never added one of ours into the mix at any point during our testing of it.
It also comes with an adjustable stand so that you can sit it right on a desk or other comparable surface. You can choose to take the route of a mic stand instead if you like, but I’d highly recommend a proper mount if you have one lying around. It does come with an adapter though, if you prefer to mount it directly to the stand sticking straight out.
In the box
It comes with everything you need inside of the box. You have your USB Type-C to USB-A cable for connecting it to the computer with, the aluminum mesh shield (pop filter), the adjustable base, and the instructions. You also get that mic stand adapter in case you want to ditch the base for your own custom setup.
Our Conclusion
In the end, the FOX turned out to be a fantastic microphone with a small footprint. It outperforms some of your other typical USB models, while doing a decent job of staying neck to neck with the most comparable alternatives. It does well within its own price range but doesn’t always live up to trusty wired condenser solution you’d use in a larger setup. Of course, the purpose of a USB mic is to dial that setup to a much smaller footprint. So in that realm, it’s doing quite fine. It hits the ground sounding good, and you can dial it in for an even better performance using your favorite software. This easily fits in well for small artists and beyond, as well as just about any level of podcaster or vlogger. It’s a great mic option for just about anyone, although it seems to be mostly designed around recording artists. It also looks just as nice as it sounds.
| Buy from Amazon | Buy from beyerdynamic | |
Our Rating | Average Price* $149 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
Video:
Additional Images:
Specifications:
- USAGE: Singing, Speech, Podcast 6 Radio
- TRANSMISSION TYPE: Wired
- TRANSDUCER TYPE: Condenser
- POLAR PATTERN MICROPHONE: Cardioid
- MICROPHONE FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20 – 20.000 Hz
- MICROPHONE TYPE: usb studio microphone
- CONNECTION: USB
- CABLE LENGTH: 1 m
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