Mind Readings: Adobe Podcast Mic Test

In today's episode, we are continuing our experimentation with Adobe Podcast. Specifically, going to be testing it with a variety of different microphones. Last time we tested it just with the uh onboard audio in a variety of noisy situations. And today we're going to test um moderate background noise. There's a fan going, uh, so there's a little bit of fan noise, uh, and we're going to test it against a whole bunch of microphones.

We're going to have microphones like uh the Bose QC earpods, the Apple AirPods uh version one and two, the original uh Bose uh headphones, the we're gonna test out these uh AeroPex uh OpenCom that have a little boom mic. Uh we have the David Clark uh helicopter headset, which sounds like uh normally sounds like a inside of a tin can, uh, and the anchor Q45. Now, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna record uh a few sentences connecting each of these devices to the phone and recording some video and the associated audio that goes with it. Generally speaking, generally speaking, you want to record with the best equipment possible. That's why I'm recording, you know, this introduction with the the Shure SM7B.

Uh it great sound in means less work for the algorithm to do uh for the reconstruction of your audio, and that's a really important point. When you listen to the output that Adobe Podcast puts out uh from its enhanced settings, it's not cleaning up the noise. It is reconstructing your voice based on the inputs that hears. That's how it can get rid of background noise that would otherwise be interfering with your voice. If you do traditional uh audio editing in something like Adobe Audition, yeah, you can do noise reduction, noise gates, compressors, and all those things, but you're still gonna have that background noise, particularly at frequencies where the human voice also operates.

The way I think, and I don't have confirmation because I've not talked to anyone at Adobe about this, but the way I think it's working is it's understanding what is your voice, basically using that on a against a pre-trained neural network model, some kind of artificial intelligence to reconstruct your voice from scratch. And that's why there are little glitches here and there. And that's also why I fed it some audio from a trade show. Very loud background, but a lot of other human voices, and the algorithms went just imploded, right? It was not able to construct anything useful, whereas traditional noise reduction techniques might have been able to salvage at least something.

Either way, that background noise with all those other human voices really threw it for a loop. So I'm guessing that that's how that worked. So let's go ahead and do these tests. We're gonna record some video with each of these and then come back to see which one sounds the best. Test number one, straight audio right off the iPhone using the the built-in microphone.

I'm in about a foot away from the the mic here, talking normally. We're gonna see what Adobe Podcast does for reconstructing this to sound uh as close to studio quality as possible. Test number one, straight audio right off the iPhone using the the built-in microphone. I'm about a foot away from the the mic here, talking normally. We're gonna see what Adobe Podcast does for reconstructing this to sound uh as close to studio quality as possible.

Okay, we've got the first generation Apple AirPods Pro. So this is generation one. Again, I'm still the same distance, although it doesn't really matter because I'm using these, but I'm using the onboard microphones and the AirPods one to see how they sound, then we're gonna put it through Adobe Podcast to see what it can clean up. Okay, we've got the first generation Apple AirPods Pro. So this is generation 1.

Again, I'm still the same distance, although it doesn't really matter because these. But we're using the onboard microphones and the AirPods 1 to see how they sound, then we're gonna put it through Adobe Podcast to see what it can clean up. Okay, we've got the Apple AirPods revision 2. So this is the second generation AirPods. They are already, we already know that they have a better microphone setup thanks to the H2 processors and things on board.

But let's see now. Again, still not a great environment. We're going to see how this sounds after Adobe Podcast cleans it up. Okay, we've got the Apple AirPods Revision 2. So this is the second generation AirPods.

They all already, we already know that they have a better microphone setup thanks to the H2 processors and things on board. But let's see now. Again, still about the great environment. We're going to see how this sounds after Adobe Podcast cleans it up. Okay, we've got the first generation Bose QC earbuds.

This is the Gen 1. These are actually my favorites because the case is wirelessly charged, I don't know why the case doesn't on the version 2. And to me, at least the earbuds feel like the heel better, but you know, whatever. Anyway, we want to see how the microphone sounds on these, and then see how it sounds when we wash it through Adobe Podcast. So it's the Bose QC Earbuds Gen 1.

Okay, we've got the first generation Bose QC earbuds. This is the Gen 1, these by are actually my favorites because the case is wirelessly charged, so they don't know why the case doesn't on the version 2. And to me, at least the earbuds feel like the heel better, but you know, whatever. Anyway, we want to see how the microphone sounds on these, and then see how it sounds when we wash it through Adobe Podcast. So this is the Bose QC Earbuds Gen 1.

Okay, we have the Bose QC Earbuds Gen 2. So this is the second generation product. Supposedly has better microphones and all that jazz, you know, the usual marketing stuff. So we're gonna see again how this sounds in a moderately noisy environment, and then how Adobe Podcast cleans it up. So Bose QC Earbuds Generation 2.

Okay, we have the Bose QC Earbuds Gen 2. So this is the second generation product. Supposedly has better microphones and all that jazz, you know, the usual marketing steps. We're going to see again how this sounds in a moderately noisy environment, and then how Adobe Podcast cleans it up. So Bose QC earbuds generation two.

This is the David Clark uh H30s, I think it's the BT30s. I don't remember what model the number it is. Uh but these are the passive noise canceling headphones. If you they look familiar, it's because these are basically headphones meant for airplanes and helicopters. They just made a Bluetooth version for headphone nerds like me, I guess, so that we could ha wear something.

It looks like we're belonging in a helicopter, but yeah, at our desks. Um it is fantastic for flying, obviously. If you want um noise canceling that works all the time, these are the ones you get downside, they're super heavy, and they're really big and cumbersome, but they have good battery life. Anyway, the point is to test the microphone, the boom mic on this, which probably sounds like you would a helicopter would, and then put that through Adobe Podcast. So these are the David Clark uh BT 30 something or others.

This is the David Clark uh H30s, I think it's the the or the BT30s. I don't remember what model number it is. Uh, but these are the passive noise canceling headphones. If you they look familiar, it's because these are basically headphones meant for airplanes and helicopters. They just made a Bluetooth version for n headphone nerds like me, I guess, so that we could ha wear something.

It looks like we're belonging in a helicopter, but yeah, at our desks. Um it is fantastic for flying, obviously. If you want um noise canceling that works all the time, these are the ones you get downside, they're super heavy, and they're really big and cumbersome, but they have good battery life. Anyway, the point is to test the microphone, the boom mic on this, which probably sounds like you would a helicopter would, and then put that through Adobe Podcast. So these are the David Clark uh BT30 something or others.

Okay, this is the Aftershocks OpenCom. So this is a Bluetooth bone conductance headphone that uh leaves your ears open so that uh you can hear your surroundings and actually transmits most of the sound through your your phone. Uh it's got the boom mic on it, and that's what we're testing today. These, by the way, are what I wear for when I'm running outside, because you can actually hear the traffic around you and not get hit by a car. But the the microphone we care about today, so let's see how this sounds and then what it sounds like after we put it through Adobe Podcast.

Okay, this is the Aftershocks OpenCom. So this is a Bluetooth bone conductance headphone that uh leaves your ears open so di uh you can hear your surroundings and actually transmits most of the sound through your your bones. Uh it's got the boom mic on it, and that's what we're testing today. These, by the way, are what I wear for when I'm running outside because you can actually hear the traffic around you and not get hit by a car. But the microphone we care about today, so let's see how this sounds, and then what it sounds like after we put it through Adobe Podcast.

Okay, these are the anchor uh sound core sound space Q45. I don't even remember what the name of the product is. Um these are the budget uh noise canceling headphones. They're actually really good. They're actually better than the older generation of the Bose ones.

But again, today we're testing out the microphone to see how the microphone sounds on these, and then we're gonna put it through Adobe Podcast to see if Adobe Podcast can clean up whatever the sound is. I've actually never tested these. The microphone on these will be I'm curious to sound hear what it sounds like. So this is the anchor uh sound something or other Q45. Okay, these are the anchor uh sound core, sound space Q45.

I don't even remember what the name of the product is. Uh, these are the budget uh noise canceling headphones. They're actually really good. They're actually better than the older generation of the Bose ones. But again, today we're testing out the microphone to see how the microphone sounds on these, and then we're gonna put it through Adobe Podcast to see if Adobe Podcast can clean up whatever the sound is.

I've actually never tested these. The microphone on these will be I'm curious to sound hear what it sounds like. So this is the anchor uh sound something or other Q45. All right, that was a lot. So we can draw a couple of conclusions from this.

One, I clearly have a problem, at least when it comes to uh headphones. They are one of my uh one of my vices, one of my addictions along with keyboards. Two, as with everything, the better the quality going in, the better quality coming out. We heard on some of the headsets like the David Clark uh and the Aftershocks, the audio quality going into Adobe Podcast was atrocious. So, of course, it came back, it did the best it could, and it did better than probably you'll be able to do manually, but it wasn't it wasn't the level of quality you would expect from something that was truly recorded in a studio.

The Bose headphones, the first generation QCs did okay, the second generation not so much, because again, for some strange reason that product got worse in its second generation than its first. The anchor headphones reasonably well, right? Those that microphone is pretty capable. The AirPods, uh, version one was good, version two was better. Here's the funny thing though.

Of all of the microphones that uh produced a good outcome, a good output from Adobe Podcast, the one on the phone did surprisingly well. It did surprisingly well. So much so that I'm like, huh, that's interesting, that um that would have those different capabilities. So I think what we can draw uh in terms of conclusions are a couple things. Number one, if you have to record on the go, maybe you're at a conference or a trade show or you're traveling or whatnot, and you want to get some ideas down, use the best mic available to you, right?

Um for this test, that would be these, the um the Apple AirPods Pro version two, followed by the phone itself. The phone itself. And that's really important. The reason that's really important is that as long as the background doesn't contain hum other human voices in any significant volume. If you're just out and about and you want to jot something down, you just turn on your phone, hit record, and then you know that later on you can clean it up in the in post-processing.

And that's that's critical because we all want to sound our best, right? We all want to look our best, we all want to sound our best. But if we don't have to lug a whole bunch of extra gear with us, there's some value in that, right? There is some value in being able to just have your phone with you, knowing that you can clean it up later. Now, if this is a high-stakes production where um, you know, it's a feature film or something, yes, of course, you want the best gear.

You're not gonna skim, you're gonna you know, get your shotgun mic or your boom mic or your your concealed lavalier mic, whatever the case may be, because you want the best quality audio. But if it's not mission critical, if it's day in a life, if it is a video blog like this, your phone and a as quiet an environment as you can make it within reason is good enough, right? So when I travel, for example, and I go on the road, I don't have to lug all this gear with me now. If I want to record something in my hotel room and have it sound good, because I can just use the the microphone right on my phone, and it will still sound great, right? As long as there's not like you know, uh mariachi band outside the door.

Um, if there is other things are going on. But that's freeing. That is freeing to know that as long as I've got my phone with me at a quiet place, I can continue to make good quality content with great quality audio with nothing more than the phone itself. So I would encourage you to do this with your own gear because I've got a specific phone model and all this stuff, but do with all your own gear, test this out with your own stuff and see which combinations of the gear you own deliver the best sound without having the full studio set up using a tool like Adobe Podcast. You might be surprised, you might be delighted, and then you might find out, yeah, I don't need to haul to haul around tons and tons of gear just to sound my best.

Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon. If you like this video, go ahead and hit that subscribe button.