- Yes, okay, I did spend
a whole day watching Twitch.
But I'm justifying it
as a day of work
because I was trying to pixel peep
and look in the webcam frames
of the top 250 twitch streamers
and see exactly what
microphone they're using.
Why?
Honestly, I don't really know.
I think this quarantine might just be
getting to me a little bit.
But some of the results
are pretty interesting.
I guess I'm just kind of curious
as to what the most commonly
used microphones are
amongst these top Twitch broadcasters,
people getting thousands and thousands
of live concurrent viewers at a time.
Is there any correlation between
how much money you spend
and how many viewers you get?
Is there anybody in the top 250
that's using cheaper USB microphones
versus the more expensive XLR microphones
that require mixers or preamps?
Ultimately, I want to help you guys decide
do you need an expensive microphone setup
to be a contender
for a top Twitch streamer?
And we're going to answer that
question in this video.
(chill music)
Before we start
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All right, let's start by talking about
exactly how I gathered this data.
Firstly, to get a list
of the top 250 streamers,
I went to a website called sullygnome.com
which is basically a Twitch statistics
and analysis website.
I wanted to see the most watched channels,
and I changed it to display
the data from the last 30 days.
I then exported this data
to a spreadsheet so I could have a list
of the top 250 streamers
from the past month.
Next, this is the painstaking bit,
I went through each streamer,
one by one,
opening up their live stream
or a recent vod,
trying to see which microphone they used.
Now this could be from either
seeing the microphone in the camera
or searching in the
panels below the stream
for a gear list or seeing
if they had a website
or a YouTube video exploring their setup.
I would say that probably
for about 15% of the users
I couldn't find out
which microphone they used
and I also filtered out
any channels that were
big esports channels
like Riot Games or ESLCSGO.
To make sure that I
still maintained the list
of 250 streamers at the end,
I kept going,
so I probably in the end
looked at about 400 streamers
which filtered down to around 250 results.
Now last thing to mention
before we dive into the data
is that some big streamers
are obviously sponsored
by microphone companies,
and may have to use a specific microphone
or just a specific brand of microphone
on their streams
as part of their partnership.
Right, so results time.
The most popular microphone,
maybe not surprisingly,
is the Shure SM7B.
I actually have one right behind me here.
Very very common microphone,
and it would've been my guess going in
but I had no idea
just how popular it was.
An incredible 110 out
of the top 250 streamers
on Twitch are using the Shure SM7B
as their microphone of choice.
That means that 44%
of these top 250 Twitch streamers
are all using the exact same microphone.
I'm going to dive into some examples
and some reasons why
later on in the video,
but for now let's keep
going through the data
and see which other
microphones performed well.
In total, there was 36
different microphones
that featured in the top 250,
which is a good indication
of how much choice there is out there.
After the Shure SM7B,
the next most popular,
maybe a bit surprisingly for me,
was the Blue Yeti.
Now this is obviously a USB microphone,
and a condenser microphone,
so quite different to the Shure SM7B,
and we saw 9% of users
still using the Blue Yeti.
Now the Blue Yeti is rightfully so
a very popular microphone
around smaller streamers.
And it's usually what people pick up
as their first professional microphone.
But it is still a USB condenser microphone
and really very different
to the Shure SM7B.
So I was certainly very
surprised to see it
so high up on the list.
Next we have the Audio Technica AT2020,
and there's two different
variants of this.
A USB version and an XLR version,
which I kept separate
because I wanted to look specifically at
some stats about USB versus XLR.
If we combine them together,
then 11% of the user base
are using the AT2020.
Some honorable mentions
are for the Rode Procaster
and the Electro-Voice RE20,
a couple of dynamic microphones
that are very popular in
the podcasting industry,
each picking up about 4% of the market.
Next let's look at how
much people are spending
on their microphone typically.
The average spend
over the whole analysis
is just over $300.
But I think that was kind of skewed
because there was a few users
that were using some seriously
expensive microphones
at over $1,000 a piece.
If instead we break up the
pricing into some groups,
we can see the most popular category
is the $300-$400,
which is where the Shure SM7B
sits at, $400.
The second most popular price range
is the $100-$200 range,
which sees nearly 25% of
streamers buying microphones
in that category.
So this is where some of those
lower end XLR microphones
start to come in,
like the AT2020,
also some of the higher
end USB microphones
like the AT2020 USB,
or the HyperX Quadcast,
or the Rode NT-USB.
They all sort of fall in this price range.
If we look at the actual connectivity
of these microphones,
we can see that 77%
of Twitch streamers are choosing XLR,
and 23% are choosing USB connections.
Now obviously an XLR microphone
can't connect straight into your computer
like a USB microphone can,
so the streamers that are
using an XLR microphone
need some kind of interface
or mixer to connect it to their computer.
Something like the GOXLR
or the Scarlet2i2
or the 2i4,
or just a generic mixer.
So you can expect any streamer
that is using an XLR microphone
to be spending an extra $100 to $500
on an interface of some sort
to connect it to their computer.
In terms of the
dynamic versus condenser
microphone argument,
this was kind of close,
which is probably what I expected,
with 60 40 split in favor
of dynamic microphones.
Brands wise, we can see
that obviously Shure has
the highest market share
because of how popular the SM7B is.
Audio Technica next up with 16%,
Blue with 13%,
Rode with 10%,
and then we start to fall off
through the rest of the brands
as they only have one or two mics
that are popular amongst streamers.
So now let's talk about the Shure SM7B.
44% of streamers are
using this microphone.
That is just a crazy number,
there must be some reason.
Let's actually jump onto the computer
so we can use the Shure SM7B
as a sample and you can actually
hear exactly what it sounds like,
and I'll try and explain
why it's such a popular
microphone for streamers.
So you're now listening to the audio
from the Shure SM7B,
a $400 mic that's been
around for a long time.
Apparently actually the original SM7
was used for Michael Jackson's Thriller
and the variants, SM7A, SM7B,
really haven't changed
much of the fundamentals
of the mic internals.
Just like streaming
it has become the staple microphone
of the podcasting world
with many of the popular
podcasters choosing the SM7B
as their microphone of choice.
Let me go through exactly
the setup that I have here,
because it's important for
you to be able to understand
exactly what you're listening to.
So I have the Shure SM7B
plugged into something
called a Cloudlifter,
which I'll explain in just a second,
and the Cloudlifter is then plugged in
via XLR to a Focusrite 2i4.
I do have a GoXLR
which is obviously another interface
that you can use,
but I wanted to give you
the cleanest signal
with no alterations.
So no compression,
equalization, de-essing, noise gating.
So this is a pure signal
from the Shure SM7B
through the Cloudlifter
into my interface
which is the Focusrite 2i4,
and then that goes
straight into my computer.
I have the gain on the Focusrite 2i4
set to around 60%,
so what you're hearing now is exactly
what the microphone sounds like
I've done no post processing in the audio.
I may have just boosted it slightly
so the volume is the
right level for you guys,
but it's just the raw feed
from the Shure SM7B.
So what is the Cloudlifter thing
that I have which sits
between the microphone
and the preamp or the interface?
Effectively, the Shure SM7B
is a notoriously quiet dynamic microphone,
meaning that it needs
around 70 decibels of gain
to be able to be at audible levels.
Most preamps and interfaces
only provide about 70 decibels of gain,
and when you're cranking it
all the way to 100% like that,
they start to introduce self noise.
So the actual audio signal
starts to sound noisy.
A Cloudlifter or a Fathead,
there's a few different products out there
that do the same thing.
That sits in between the microphone
and the preamp and provides around
20 to 25 decibels of clean gain
before it hits the preamp.
That means that you can turn the gain down
on the preamp or the interface
from 100% to something like I have,
about 60% now,
and therefore reducing the self noise.
So let's talk a little
bit about the Shure SM7B.
Why has it become the staple
in the live streaming and
podcasting industries?
Is it a warranted title?
Or are people just following the trends
and seeing what popular
streamers are using?
Well, let's start off with the pros.
The Shure SM7B is a very
natural sounding microphone.
Meaning that you can shape the audio
in many different ways,
which is why it is so versatile
and used in so many different industries
from live streaming, podcasting,
to live recording and even live shows.
Since it's a dynamic microphone
rather than a condenser microphone,
it's very good at rejecting
some of the background noise
or noise that isn't directly
in front of the capsule.
To simulate this,
I'll do some typing on my keyboard
so you can hear how much of it
it picks up.
This is quite a loud keyboard.
If I stop talking you
might be able to hear it
a bit clearer.
Another thing about it
is that it is very well built.
It's mostly metal construction
and it doesn't actually need a shock mount
since the inside capsule
is apparently internally air suspended,
so it isolates itself
from mechanical noise.
Also, it looks good.
I know that the aesthetics of a microphone
should be the lowest of priority
when you're shopping around,
but there's no denying
that this microphone does look quite good
in a webcam frame
compared to some of the
offerings out there.
Okay, the cons are it is expensive,
at $400 plus the need
for a Cloudlifter or Fathead
as well as some kind of
audio interface or mixer,
you're looking at spending
quite a lot of money
to upgrade your whole audio setup,
especially if you're coming
from a USB microphone
and you don't already have the interface.
It's worth noting that
the GoXLR and GoXLR Mini
as well as some other interfaces
do have particularly clean preamps,
so you can get away
with using a Shure SM7B
without the need for a
Cloudlifter or a Fathead
if you wish to.
The other major con I would
say about this microphone
is just how close you need to be to it
for it to sound good.
You're really going to need
to have this microphone
in your webcam frame for your streams.
If you have it out of frame,
it's just going to sound so much worse.
To demonstrate that,
I'm right up on the microphone now,
if I move about a foot away,
this is what the microphone sounds like
from about a foot away from the mic.
So this would be when the microphone
isn't in frame.
Before we wrap up this video,
I want to really emphasize
three major points
when it comes to choosing a microphone
for your streaming setup.
Point number one is don't
just follow the trends
and buy what everyone else is buying.
You really need to do your research here
because microphones are so dependent
on the speaker's voice
as well as the environment
that you're recording in.
Do your research.
Do you want a dynamic or
a condenser microphone?
How close do you want to
have it to your mouth?
How sound proof can you get your space?
You really need to get a microphone
that fits your specific needs.
Point number two is to make sure
that you're really getting the most
out of your current
microphone before upgrading.
You can make pretty much any microphone
on the market sound awful
if you don't follow the
advice in the manual
or online to make sure
that you're setting it up correctly.
If you've got some questions,
why not join the Gaming Careers Discord
where we have thousands of members
with so many different microphone setups
that can help make sure
that you're using your microphone
in its best way?
And point number three,
maybe the most important one,
is that the microphone that you use
is not going to be the reason
that you make it or don't make it
as a streamer.
As long as you can be heard audibly,
I promise you
that it's not going to
be the difference maker.
As we've shown in the data,
there are 10% of the top 250 streamers
that are spending less than $100
on their microphone,
and getting away with USB microphones.
There's even a few examples
in the top 50
of people that are just
using headset microphones
and have still managed to make
their streams incredibly popular.
Your content is always going
to be what matters most,
much more important than which microphone
you end up choosing.
Guys I really enjoyed making this video.
It was a ton of work
going through like 500 streamers
trying to work out
which microphones were most used,
but I really think it was worth it
and hopefully the data
has been useful for you.
If you would like to see me do
more of these types of videos
where I look at the top streamers
for different equipment
like lighting or cameras,
be sure to hit that thumbs up button,
that'll let me know that
you enjoyed this content
and I'll get working on the next one.
Also if you don't know,
over at gamingcareers.com,
I have three buyer's guides
for streaming PC's
where you actually build
your own streaming PC's
at different budgets.
So if you're looking to upgrade
your streaming setup,
that's definitely a place to go
and check out.
I update them monthly
to make sure you're getting
the best bang for your buck,
and I'm probably going to make a
microphone buyer's guide
over there as well.
Thanks so much for watching,
I'll catch you in the next one, peace.
(chill music)
- [Video] Spike planted.
(shooting)
- [Man] Right, right, right.
Right.
She was C earlier.
Coming from A long right now.
(shooting)
(bomb beeping)
Not anymore.
- That's a four man baby.
