Review on NEAT Worker Bee Cardioid Condenser Microphone - Includes Pop Filter and Shockmount - Solid State Technology by Larry Morris

If you don't have a better microphone lined up to compare, you'll think this one sounds great. And if you're experienced at posting, you can actually get some pretty great-sounding nude voiceovers with this. I figured my Sennheiser MKH 415 T was struggling and needed a cheap mic pretty quickly, so I bought this Neat Worker Bee. I tuned it, cut some voice samples with it and it sounds really good. It also has low self-noise, which is impressive for a sub-$100 mic. If you know what you're doing in a post, you'll actually get pretty good audio. Nobody will confuse it with TLM 103, but if you're a podcaster or do a little voiceover work, it's not so bad! It comes with great packaging and a fun but informative instruction manual, a good shock absorber, a pop screen and a toy bee. That's a lot for $89. However, I found my 415 to be fine; it was a cable problem solved with a Canare Quad Star cable with Neutrik connectors from a company named after Blue Jeans ;-) So just for fun I did a sequential read with a listening script. Now, when we compare the legendary German mic to a sub-$100 Chinese-made mic, as you'd expect, the difference was easily audible. The Sennheiser has smoother highs and doesn't have the somewhat dark mids of the Worker Bee. But with some sensible post-processing I was easily able to get a very balanced, beautiful and clean track from Worker Bee. I went through four auditions and didn't think twice. To be honest I highly recommend getting this via Rode NT1-A (or even NT1). Why? Because the Worker Bee doesn't have the harsh, brittle highs that the Rodes seem to build in in a way that no EQ can make them nice or smooth, ask me how I know. And trust me, your client's sound engineer knows that too. So, to reiterate, Worker Bee was easy to get an overall good sounding track and would easily be a better choice than Rode. Finally, if you are a man like me who has a baritone. Despite some droning in your voiceover, Worker Bee will be a good addition to your sound because (except for the proximity effect) it doesn't pick up that deep rumble like other mics do. And vice versa,