Mario Ponce - Sound Amazing Now!

Chris Stone [00:00:00]:
Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome to Adelecaster's musician podcaster Amazon live streamer and, of course, the market development specialist for sure. Please welcome Mario Ponce.

Mario Ponce [00:00:14]:
Hey. What's up, guys?

Chris Stone [00:00:17]:
That's such a great name. I feel like when I introduced you, I felt like, Bruce Buffer in the middle of the of the the the, you know, please welcome Mario Ponce. It just was it's it probably sounds great in an arena.

Mario Ponce [00:00:31]:
Oh, I'm sure it does. It'd be great to hear it in an arena one day, but, you never know.

Jim Fuhs [00:00:37]:
One day.

Mario Ponce [00:00:38]:
Yeah. Thanks, guys, for having me. Super excited to be here. Wow. I'm on Dealcaster, so thank you so much. And you mention my neon sign. Whoop. Other finger.

Chris Stone [00:00:49]:
There you go.

Mario Ponce [00:00:50]:
You love that sign.

Chris Stone [00:00:52]:
That is awesome. I think from

Mario Ponce [00:00:53]:
our events team, so appreciate there.

Chris Stone [00:00:56]:
I have sign envy right now with that, with that sure logo sign, behind you. And so yeah.

Jim Fuhs [00:01:02]:
Sign FOMO. Sign FOMO.

Mario Ponce [00:01:04]:
I have r two d two envy. Okay? So that's yeah. I don't think it gets better than that, And brick wall envy on the other side. But r two d two. Yeah. Dude, look at that. What kind of guitar is that above the in the back there

Chris Stone [00:01:23]:
above r yeah. That is a Waterstone t p 12. It's a 12 string bass. It's, Tom Peterson from Cheap Trick. That's his, that's his company. So, yeah, that's a that's a 12 string

Mario Ponce [00:01:38]:
Nice.

Chris Stone [00:01:38]:
Bass. Yeah. It's Awesome, man. It's it it definitely takes a while to get your fingers used to getting around that.

Mario Ponce [00:01:47]:
Right.

Chris Stone [00:01:48]:
And so this is a great segue because you started talking about guitars, and and here we are, you know, speaking to, you know, a member of one of the biggest audio companies, sound companies in the world right here, in Shure. And we immediately start talking about backdrops and lights and and Right. And everything like that. But, you know, you are a musician, and

Mario Ponce [00:02:11]:
Oh, yeah.

Chris Stone [00:02:11]:
I would love to sort of start digging into that because

Jim Fuhs [00:02:14]:
I think what a lot

Chris Stone [00:02:16]:
of people might think, when when they look at, you know, sound companies is that maybe someone was just hired because of their business acumen. I'm not saying you don't have business acumen. Right? Right. But having a passion and affinity for sound and for music and sort of understanding what goes in the bag for for musicians and for podcasters and for live streamers is important. So I'd love to maybe hear how about how you started in sound and, how that got to where you're at now.

Mario Ponce [00:02:47]:
Absolutely. So, I've been a musician my entire life. So since a wee wee lad, I've played drums, bass, guitar, been in bands throughout the nineties. You know, thought I was gonna be a rock star at one point, but still play music to this day. You know, a lot of different projects. So, you know, my musical, adventures started very, very young. So I was very familiar with the brand. You know, always had an s m 57 lying around, always did home recording.

Mario Ponce [00:03:23]:
So I know, a lot of people out there who, you know, don't have a professional audio degree or they're not an engineer. They're a little intimidated by, some of those concepts. And I'm one of those people. I was a DIY guy through and through, experimenting with different stuff, reading as much as I could, and trying to learn the most I can about making my recordings the best I can. And we're talking about recording on one of those little four track cassette players. You know? And then, digital comes in, and then you have Pro Tools, and then you have GarageBand, and all the way to recording stuff on your phone. So things have really progressed. I'm one of those people who started with a four track cassette player trying to get the most out of my, out of my gear.

Mario Ponce [00:04:21]:
So that's kind of my musical background. Like I said, still play music, to this day, especially with my son. He's a musician as well, so being able to enjoy that thing together.

Chris Stone [00:04:32]:
So Yeah. And your son your son, if I remember correctly, is a drummer. Right?

Mario Ponce [00:04:37]:
He is, an everything musician. Okay. He plays drums, but he also plays guitar. He's, I'm in Southern California. I'm in San Diego County, and he's active in the noise, punk scene, hardcore scene, I guess you would call it out here

Jim Fuhs [00:04:55]:
in the

Mario Ponce [00:04:55]:
or down here in Southern California. So his main thing is right now is guitar and and vocals.

Chris Stone [00:05:01]:
Oh, okay.

Mario Ponce [00:05:02]:
But he does play drums. He's an amazing drummer. He's a, amazing multi intro instrumentalist.

Chris Stone [00:05:08]:
And I love the fact that you that you do that with your son, that you guys have that that you can do together. It's it's like, you know, you know, being a musician myself and, you know, there's that moment where your your son at first walks over and points at your jazz bass and goes, can I play that? And you're like, oh, you know, you're just all you know? And then they lose interest, and then they hate you. You know? And then they love you again, and they'll never play music. But you actually have, you know, you know, a son you can play. Now you may not agree with all of his musical choices. That's okay. Everybody's got different, you know, types of music. You know? Right.

Chris Stone [00:05:48]:
It sounds to me like you may not be a hardcore fan, but you're a fan of your son, so that matters. Right?

Mario Ponce [00:05:53]:
Well, I mean, I'm pretty open minded. He's turned me on to a lot of music, and, you're right. It's like, can I play that bay bass, dad? At first, it's like, woah. Hold on. And then now it's like, well, it's what's mine is his. So, it's been, yeah, it's amazing. We do like a lot of this of similar music. He always turns me on to different types of stuff.

Chris Stone [00:06:15]:
But That's awesome.

Mario Ponce [00:06:16]:
Very fortunate being able to share that with him. So, yeah.

Chris Stone [00:06:21]:
Very, very, very cool. And so being in bands and, like, I I'm so tempted to go into my closet where I've got a four track because I was back there cleaning it and cleaning it out, and I had I had this four track. And I pulled it out, and I was I was very tempted to just toss it. And I thought, nah. And, of course, there's a tape in there. Right? So I'm like, I wonder what I recorded on this thing. Right?

Mario Ponce [00:06:43]:
Yeah.

Chris Stone [00:06:44]:
Of course, you know, all of the, people that are, 20 years and younger are all tuning out at this point. But I think when you go through those kinds of processes, you you can apply that to future technology. And, of course, I always would go back and go, well, I remember there wasn't a free GarageBand. I had to buy Cakewalk, and they sent me 54 floppy disks that I had to load into my Commodore sixty four computer to get off my lawn. Right. And, you know but I always thought to myself, if I had that kind of technology back then, wow. What what could I do? You know? I'd be the next Trent Reznor or or whatever. If it just doesn't work like that, people are are being able they you just gotta work with what you're given for the, you know, for the present technology.

Chris Stone [00:07:27]:
But one of the things that I really love about, Shure microphones is you brought up the 58, and you brought up the 57. And you there's just this, like is there to say it's iconic or to say it's the industry standard just doesn't even give it, like, enough justice, you know, especially the the s m fifty eight, which I know has an amazing, amazing history. But every stage you walk into, every club for the most part you walk into, I know every band that I was ever in, the singer would always have their own microphone because you don't wanna go into a club and use some spit ridden 58 that somebody else was you know, who knows where that thing has been. Right?

Jim Fuhs [00:08:11]:
Right.

Chris Stone [00:08:11]:
But they always had their own s m 58. They always traveled with it. They always traveled to you know, they had their own bag, you know, that they that they that they stuck that thing in. And why do you think it has just stood you know, and the 57 as well is a great, audio microphone for vocals, but all you know, a lot of people use them for drums and guitar amps and and things like that in in studios. Why do you think they've, stood the test of time so well?

Mario Ponce [00:08:39]:
That's a great question. You know, in my personal experience, so when I started with Shure, I knew that, you know, 58, 50 seven. And I've used a lot of 50 eights, 50 sevens in, like, rehearsal rooms, you know, where, like you said, they're pretty beat up and stuff. And I knew because of that experience that a 58, you know, is a quality product. And I think, the thing that resonates with people when they see a 58, they try a 58, they use it, is the quality that goes into a product like that. And that's something that from top down, Shure is very, very proud of is this quality assurance that you're getting the best that we have to offer. So I I think that's at the top of the list. Not of course, it sounds great.

Mario Ponce [00:09:29]:
It cuts down on feedback. It's groundbreaking cardioid polar pattern, all that stuff. But I think at the end of the day, it's it's something that is the quality that goes into something like that. There's passion, I I think you would say is the right word, that goes into a product like that. And whether it's a microphone or it's a guitar or it's a drum set and it's your favorite one, and you get to play it or you you you know, you hear it, you know, you hear how the bass sounds, your favorite bass or your favorite guitar. You know, it's you know that there's love and passion that went into that product, whatever it is. And I like to think of a microphone as an instrument because if you're a singer, that's your instrument. Right? Most people or a lot of singers that I talk to, their microphone is their instrument.

Mario Ponce [00:10:21]:
So I think there's you could sense there's a lot of passion that goes into that. And like I said, it's the same thing with any of your favorite types of instruments. You know, like, for me, I have a Moog synthesizer. Oh. I love it. And when I play it, I could tell that there's a lot of thought and a lot of love that went into creating this thing. And I think that's what resonates with people when they get on a 58 or they hear it somewhere or they actually get to experience it for themselves.

Chris Stone [00:10:51]:
You know, Mario, we did a show, I wanna say it was three weeks ago, and I don't know what got into me. But I was it was talk I was I was just going on and on and on about how awesome this mic is and how I believe it's an underrated podcast mic. And not a lot of people realize that this thing is so great. And I'm sitting here talking about it, and I just decided I would do this. And I don't know if I was the first person to ever do this on on Amazon. I'd like to think I was. But I actually unscrewed it and pulled it apart.

Mario Ponce [00:11:22]:
Okay. You actually pulled it apart? Like Yeah.

Jim Fuhs [00:11:25]:
I just took it apart.

Mario Ponce [00:11:26]:
Like I

Chris Stone [00:11:26]:
was like, has anyone ever done this? You know? Oh, fuck. You know? Has anyone ever done this live on Amazon? It's like, why would you why would you want to do this? Right? But I think I think it just to me, I have had these microphones in my hand, has have sung into them, have had singers you know, when people say drop the mic, you can literally drop this mic, and it's a tank. It it it just it stand there's so much that this can withstand.

Mario Ponce [00:11:56]:
Right.

Chris Stone [00:11:56]:
And so I just think I I was just maybe there was just the demo person in me just saying, hey. You know, I wanna I just wanna show. I can just unscrew this thing, and I can pop this thing back in, and I can do you know, have you ever seen this kind of stuff? And, you know, just realize this thing is is solid as a rock and is you know, obviously, it's an XLR, microphone. And so I think maybe we can talk a lot. I know we're jumping around a little bit, and I wanna get back into, how you you got from being a musician to, you got careers at other, companies that we're not we're not gonna tease too much on on on that. But, these are some some interesting companies that you worked at before you got to Shore. But let's talk a little bit about, you know, a standard XLR, a cable microphone versus a USB microphone, and I think, you know, maybe some some use case scenarios for, for some of the folks that are watching, and and listening for that.

Mario Ponce [00:12:52]:
Yeah. You know? Okay. So USB bikes, I get this question a lot about, is there a difference in sound? Obviously, there's gonna be a difference in sound, but I think it all depends on your setup, on what you're trying to achieve in your live stream or in your content or whatever it is you're trying to do. So for example, I always so I go live every week on Amazon. I use an MV seven and I use an XLR or excuse me. I use a USB, and the reason why is because within my day, within my, position at Shure, I'm doing a bunch of different things. Amazon Live is one of them. So I need something that's gonna be easy to use, something that's kind of quick, and something that doesn't need a lot of setup.

Mario Ponce [00:13:43]:
So I use USB, pop it right into my laptop, assign I use OBS to, you know, m v seven. Usually, USB mics come with some sort of software suite that acts as your interface so that does all of the audio configuration for you. And that is why I always gravitate towards USB. Now if I had a little bit more time, I could put it into my mixer, use XLR, I could do my own treatments, I can do my own compression, my own EQs outside of a software suite. That's where USB comes in. So it all depends on your all your knowledge of audio, what you have at your disposal, what you're willing to use as a setup. There's a lot of these factors that come into play because, they're both great. It just depends on your application.

Mario Ponce [00:14:39]:
So when you talk about difference in sound, I would say that there is a difference in sound. Mhmm. I would like to think that the analog the piece about this is a little bit more warmer, more natural, I think. But, again, it all depends on the mic you're using. It all depends on your interface. It depends on the mixer that you're using, but it also depends on your situation. I think that's the one thing that's way, way important here is the fact that you're using what you need to make things easier for you. And, that's why I think USB microphones are, have taken off in the last, oh, gosh, let's say ten years.

Mario Ponce [00:15:26]:
Maybe in the last five years, they've really taken off, and it's because everyone knows USB. Right? Flash drives. Remember flash drive? Oh, yeah. You have, little flash sticks. You're you're connecting your, you know, USB to your printer. Right? So, of course, the next logical thing would be to use it for audio, use it for instruments, and whatnot. So I think a lot of people gravitated towards it because of that simple ease of use factor. But if you had the means, if you had the equipment and the gear, I think XLR is is probably gonna sound the warmest and more natural for you.

Jim Fuhs [00:16:07]:
Well, and I think that's a great point. I think what we see a lot is a lot of the people, like, maybe some of the people watching this show or listening live or on replay, or they're just getting started out and write a lot of times when people first start, like, say, well, even with a Zoom, they're using the microphone that's built into their computer, and they don't understand the difference. So then they're like, Oh, you mean I gotta plug a microphone in?

Mario Ponce [00:16:30]:
Right.

Jim Fuhs [00:16:30]:
And so the USB to your point is easy because they just slide it in the computer. But then when you start saying, oh, well, if you get an interface, I think it's a little bit of, technology, you know, fear. Right? And that's why we say don't fear the gear. We kinda help people walk

Mario Ponce [00:16:44]:
through that.

Jim Fuhs [00:16:45]:
Because I started out with USB, but Yep. As I got more confident and understood how I could control my audio better by having an interface, You know, I almost am afraid to not go with, you know, without an interface because I'm, you know, it really does to me, it makes a difference. And when you have a friend like Chris Stone that is an audiophile, he,

Chris Stone [00:17:09]:
he'll be like, oh

Jim Fuhs [00:17:09]:
my gosh. You're using a USB microphone.

Chris Stone [00:17:12]:
What did you call me?

Mario Ponce [00:17:13]:
It it does make a difference. I mean, it absolutely does. But like I said, I mean, I I have I use USB for live streams just because of convenience factor for me. Yeah. However, last week, I did a stream where I used an s seven fifty eight, for my stream, and I used an interface. But still, that interface is going digital into my laptop. So Right. You know, at the end of the day, it's like, it's yeah.

Mario Ponce [00:17:45]:
I'm using it US or XLR, but at some point down the chain, I had to convert that. So

Chris Stone [00:17:51]:
Yeah. That's true. So you guys, that's another thing, and I don't know if we have this in the carousel or if it is, on sale for the holiday spirit or the holiday season, and that is the, is it m the MVI?

Mario Ponce [00:18:03]:
Yeah. This guy right here.

Chris Stone [00:18:05]:
So MVI. Yeah. That is a powerful little interface. And so if you do have an XLR microphone, that is something that you can plug into your computer, pop that traditional mic, cable in there. Mario, is is there anything that you, wanna share as it relates to the, to the MVI? I don't have one, handy right now.

Mario Ponce [00:18:26]:
Yeah. MVI, it's either quarter inch or XLR adapter, so you can plug an instrument or a guitar if you wanted to. It is micro USB to USB C. It's got headphone monitoring directly on the product. If you look at the front, it's got five DSP presets. So, if you don't know a lot about audio, plug a mic into here or an instrument and you want to get the right audio, you've got five little presets here, for speech, for, interviewing, for instrument, for recording a band, or if you could just if you just want it flat. You also have, in control on the front here. But the most interesting thing about this is that it has phantom power.

Mario Ponce [00:19:09]:
So you could put any condenser microphone in here, and you could power that microphone with the phantom power. It it you can even it'll run a Cloudlifter or a Gainlifter. So if you wanted to plug an SM seven b with a Gainlifter using phantom power in a simple setup, this is, this is a great solution.

Chris Stone [00:19:30]:
Yeah. That's great. And I I love the the fact as well is it's so small. And so that's I think that's the other thing. In in terms of ease of use, depending on whatever your use case is, I mean, for instance, you know, a lot of people are out traveling back out in conferences. You were just at TwitchCon, which I would love to hear about as well. And that is one of those things where it's like, when you're someone when you're a content creator, it's like, you okay. I'm gonna you know, I've got all these new gadgets and, you know, I'm gonna get my gimbal in there and my camera and this mic and that mic and and, you know, I can't really put my you know? And then you start looking at everything and you're like, man, I gotta go simple here.

Chris Stone [00:20:09]:
I gotta go Yeah. I really you know? And so I think that's why a lot of people will choose USB microphones. But if you're in a situation where you need multiple microphones, you can't plug, multiple USB microphones into the same computer and be able to use them. And so I think a lot of people have run into that situation. Like, I have this USB mic, and I've got another USB mic. How come I can't use them on the same computer? Well, that Right. You know, your your computer is not gonna is not gonna be able to work. It's gonna use one of those audio sources.

Chris Stone [00:20:41]:
So that's where the interface comes in. I know that's a solo interface, but it's it's also, like, a really great way to say, well, I have a really solid XLR microphone, and all I gotta do is bring a short microphone cable and that MV one. Is it MV one or MVI? MVI. MVI. MVI.

Mario Ponce [00:20:59]:
MVI. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great I use it all the time. My son uses this into his phone and records on BandLab. So it's got a or a GarageBand. So you can use it with with a phone.

Mario Ponce [00:21:16]:
However, you do need to buy and I don't have the cable. Do you have

Chris Stone [00:21:21]:
an RS cable? Or okay.

Mario Ponce [00:21:23]:
That you can buy, and it has a lightning. It's micro USB to lightning, but you wanna buy our version because it's certified to work with iPhone. So Right. And then you have an app too that you could download for this for the iPhone only. And the app has, like, gain. It's got compression. It's got EQ. But it also has a 20 dB lift.

Mario Ponce [00:21:48]:
So if you needed that extra gain lift, the app actually has that too. So Nice. But the most important thing is is if you're gonna use it with a phone that you buy the cable that we offer because it's kinda made for iPhone.

Jim Fuhs [00:22:01]:
Wow. That's that's pretty, that's pretty slick. And I I will tell you one of the things, like, talking more, like, about the USB mics. I think the fact that you guys have come out with the Motive, you know, apps, right, the family of apps there, really helps people be able to control their microphones. Like, I think Chris, yeah, Chris might be has got this here. But, like, with the, the m v seven or the white noir m v seven that was, you know, available only here on Amazon, which, which we've been able to use before, you could control everything through the app where as opposed to, you know, I'm using the m v seven x, and everything's gotta be done through my interface because it doesn't, it's just an XLR microphone. Chris looked like he was about to say something. Chris is doing some some technical stuff.

Jim Fuhs [00:22:59]:
But, yeah, I think, you know, but I had no idea about that that iPhone thing. That that's pretty interesting, especially with people doing, like, social audio, whether it's on Twitter spaces or maybe they're using, you know, LinkedIn audio as well that, you know, to actually be able to put their microphone into their phone could be something that, people might want to do because they want to they want to sound better.

Mario Ponce [00:23:22]:
Yeah, and this app here that you're showing is the desktop app for the m v seven, so it's got a bunch of different things, that are specific to this microphone. If you wanted to use your m v seven on a iPhone, or a cell phone, you could. You would just need to get that cable for iPhone that we were talking about. But this app, you could download it for free, iOS or Android, on the app stores, and it's the same exact app. So you can actually use an m v seven on your phone if you really wanted to.

Jim Fuhs [00:23:56]:
And you guys can hear me right now?

Mario Ponce [00:23:57]:
We can hear you. Yes, Chris.

Chris Stone [00:23:59]:
Okay. So now so what you're hearing right now, I'm speaking into the, Shure m v seven, Amazon exclusive white noir. Grab it while it's white hot. And, so, yeah, this so now you're gonna be able to hear sort of the differences, and I've I've got this already on a on a, a preset. A lot of these functions are on the mic itself. So, if you've got here, I've got an m b seven. I could pull and do an overhead, Jim. But if you've got, an m b seven handy

Mario Ponce [00:24:30]:
I do.

Chris Stone [00:24:30]:
Let me add this here. And that way we can kinda see this. So all of these functions are are on the mic itself, and this is not tactiles, meaning you're not gonna it's not gonna add extra sound into your broadcast, which I thought was really well done. So if you wanna slide any gain, do any muting or anything on the mic itself, it's not, you know, it's you're not gonna create any crazy vibrations, onto your broadcast. You can just kinda slide your finger. There's you know, if you wanna hold down the sides here, you can, you know, unmute unmute yourself. There's all kinds of really, really cool functions on the mic itself. But if you've got this ShurePlus MOTIV app up and you can adjust your gain.

Chris Stone [00:25:19]:
So right now, if I if if I wanna you're probably hearing me get a little bit louder, but as I can, I can drag it down if I'm clipping or anything like that? But it does have, a limiter here as well. You know, in terms of gain and, and audio, obviously, you know, you, you never want, you never want to clip. So you're gonna having a limiter on is probably not a bad idea. You you never know. And, of course, you can add, you know, three different levels of of compression, to your voice, and you're probably hearing my voice change a little bit. I like this this presence boost right here, sort of the, those those upper mids here, but you can you can start flat and kind of go from there. If you wanna get something where you can probably hear a really high presence boost, right here. If you wanna adjust, what you're hearing, of your mic versus your playback, right here, you can do that.

Chris Stone [00:26:13]:
I'm I just stopped hearing myself there for a second. And then here is these live meters, and I showed this earlier where you have, you have lights that are going on, that are live based on the sound that's coming into the microphone. And you can turn on light mode, which just sort of dims those, those lights. And, you know, the other cool thing is, you know, I have I have this I saved a preset. This is the preset that I like. I call it Oreo cookie because this is the one that I I I use for my my white noir. Everybody says it looks like an Oreo cookie. I'm like, yeah.

Chris Stone [00:26:51]:
By the way, Mario Yeah. I've had a number of people because we've we've done these videos for, for the white noir and for the m v seven, m v seven x on on and we put them up on YouTube as well as, you know, the ones up on Amazon. Yeah. And we get this question all the time, and that is, are there is there going to be a white Noir m v seven x, and is there going to be a white SM seven b?

Mario Ponce [00:27:18]:
So, the answer is no. We we have no plans to, do any colors to m v seven x. However, you'd never know. SM seven b is a little bit tricky to do colors with. So we do have a company that we work with called ColorWare. Right. And ColorWare will actually, customize your m e seven, if you wanted to. So, I don't know if they do m e seven x.

Mario Ponce [00:27:48]:
That's a great question. But, m e seven, and then you can also do an s seven fifty eight, but not an s seven seven b. It's a little bit more complicated to take this thing apart, and, you know, paint it and or or whatnot. But, you know, we that is a question that you got a lot. I get it all the time. You said we were at TwitchCon. I got it all day long at TwitchCon. So it's something that we definitely is on our radar.

Mario Ponce [00:28:17]:
We're looking at closely, so stay tuned there. But if you do want some immediate color to your m v seven, I think ColorWare would be the place to go.

Jim Fuhs [00:28:27]:
Very

Chris Stone [00:28:27]:
cool. And then the one other thing with the Sure Plus MOTIVAP, which also works with other microphones like and we're gonna talk about the MV 88, which we have here as well, is that if you click over here to auto levels, if you're not someone that wants to get in the weeds, with, you know, EQ and compression and all of that kind of stuff, you know, I it it's not like it's super complicated, but there are some auto levels here where if, you know, like, I'm speaking near to the microphone. Mario, you're a little bit further away. So my guess is you have you've clicked over here on far.

Mario Ponce [00:29:00]:
I am on far mode.

Chris Stone [00:29:02]:
Yeah. And and so here's the difference. I am I'm near right now, and it's probably you're probably gonna hear a lot of gain when I hit far and start talking. And so now you can now I'm louder. Right? And so Yeah.

Mario Ponce [00:29:12]:
You are.

Chris Stone [00:29:13]:
So now if I'm back here, you know, maybe a fist lengths away, I'm still getting high quality, you know, but then as you know, you gotta you can't eat the mic at this point because you're gonna take some people's faces off. So, hopefully, you've got a you've got a limiter on. It

Mario Ponce [00:29:30]:
you can be six to 18 inches away in far mode.

Chris Stone [00:29:33]:
Oh, okay.

Mario Ponce [00:29:34]:
I use far mode all the time. Far mode. Jam is exactly what you're showing. Far and natural Oh. Is my go to. One, because I'll sound consistent every time. Number two, I'm doing things like showing microphones and demonstrating, and I need my hands free. Yeah.

Mario Ponce [00:29:54]:
So being able to be away from the microphone, really helps. And far mode is really popular for those who don't want the microphone in your shot if you're doing a video. And if you're a gamer and you're streaming on Twitch or something and you need your hands free because you're on your controller or you're on your keyboard, far more far mode does a great job for you. So, I use far mode. My like I said, my jam is far and natural, and that's what I use for all

Chris Stone [00:30:26]:
of my jam. Jam is far and natural. That should be a t shirt or a bumper sticker or maybe the next neon sign behind

Jim Fuhs [00:30:31]:
you. Right.

Chris Stone [00:30:32]:
That's amazing. But, you know, I never even thought about that. FarMode being really good for an Amazon influencer who's demonstrating products. Mhmm. Right?

Mario Ponce [00:30:41]:
Or if you're an educator and Yeah. You're teaching stuff, it could be your music teacher, it could be anything, any educator, and you are worried about, like, do I need

Jim Fuhs [00:30:53]:
to get close to the mic?

Mario Ponce [00:30:55]:
Can you hear me?

Chris Stone [00:30:56]:
Right?

Mario Ponce [00:30:56]:
FAR mode's gonna handle all of that for you. So

Jim Fuhs [00:30:59]:
And, see, that's that's something I guess I had never thought about from use cases. That's a reason to to go with USB because you can't use this app with XLR.

Mario Ponce [00:31:11]:
You cannot. Correct. Yeah. So that's So yep. I mean, that's another thing. Like I said, USBs usually have their own audio suite. In some way, the Shure plus modem app is ours. And, if it doesn't work for you, maybe you can configure your own audio within your interface that works for you.

Mario Ponce [00:31:31]:
But I just happen to find that far mode is exactly what I need.

Jim Fuhs [00:31:35]:
Well, it makes it easy because you're you've got it preset. Right? If I'm going to do that on an interface, I'm gonna have to really be aware of things, and I've I've gotta do a lot more, you know, probably be playing with gain and and things of that nature to get it Right. To get it just right. So that that's, you know, people want it easy. Right? I think that's that's one of the things for probably the

Chris Stone [00:31:57]:
majority of users.

Mario Ponce [00:31:59]:
That's so true. And the other thing too is we're doing our streams in imperfect rooms. Right? We're doing them in bedrooms, offices. Yep. There's no treated walls. Maybe you're doing your stream in your office, and then tomorrow, you're gonna do it in a basement or you know? So things like near far mode, being able to have auto level will handle all the audio for you so you get a consistent sound wherever you're gonna be doing your stream. And that's a lot of the hurdle and a lot of the roadblock is I can hear everything with my microphone no matter where. I tried the closet.

Mario Ponce [00:32:36]:
I tried bathroom, the bedroom, the garage. So having something like that really solves those problems for you. So that's, and again, it's my go to just because I'm doing a lot of different things throughout the day. And when it comes time to do the stream, I know that I'm gonna be consistent with my microphone and with the way it's gonna sound.

Chris Stone [00:32:58]:
It's so important. Audio is so so important on video. And I think a lot of people, they first go for the r two d twos and neon signs and and, mirrorless cameras and and all of those, you know, amazing things. And then their audio, you know, it's you can hear fans, and they're in big, bright, untreated rooms. And, you know, you can't sound treat everything, but I think that's why a lot of people are are sort of you know, m v seven seems to be the microphone that everyone's going towards because it solves those issues in a lot of, situations where it's like, all I had to do is plug this thing in, and I immediately sounded better. And I immediately closed the sale, and I immediately like, things just started happening better. But I think, you know, Jim and I are every day, we're we're remote broadcasting somebody else's show. We're, you know, we have we have clients that we're in.

Chris Stone [00:33:57]:
It just amazes me that there are so many people that show up and they don't have their act together, sound wise, and they're just showing up with their laptops. And, you know, not a lot of people understand that the microphone that comes in a

Mario Ponce [00:34:24]:
quality of your stream. Mhmm. You know, you can get a great camera, you can get lights, you can look really well, but audio is the other piece to that puzzle. And, you know, sometimes it's not easy. You know, sometimes you feel like you have to have more knowledge. Do I go condenser? Do I go dynamic? I didn't even know there was a dynamic microphone and condenser. I didn't even know there was a difference. So there's so many different things that come into play and, audio is is, definitely a huge part piece of that puzzle.

Jim Fuhs [00:35:03]:
Yeah. We we always say too, a lot of times, the most important thing in video is the audio because I'll forgive your your camera and other things. But if you sound bad, you know, it for some people, it really they, I mean, even mentally bad sound will drive them, you know, like, I can't take this anymore. And they've got to, they're they're they're gonna punch out, and they're not gonna come back. So

Mario Ponce [00:35:26]:
Yeah.

Jim Fuhs [00:35:26]:
You know, spend that money on a on a great microphone, like, the microphone options you have with Shure. And I think that's the other thing is people gotta look at this not so much like, oh, well, look how much it costs. It's like, this is an investment. You know, my brother has had his Shure microphone since he was 17, and he's in

Chris Stone [00:35:44]:
his forties. He's got a 57. Right, Jim?

Jim Fuhs [00:35:47]:
Yes. 57. And he loves it. Awesome. Like It takes a look and keeps on ticking. And and so Yeah. If you consider that these are gonna last you a while Yeah. You know, you you just just don't go get Starbucks for a couple months and you can afford.

Chris Stone [00:36:05]:
It's you know, the other crazy thing too and, Mario, I'd love to kinda get back into to your story and and the companies you worked for did before you got to shore. But, like, is it is it me or is it, like, the s m the s m seven b, obviously, you know, ladies and gentlemen, like, these don't go on sale that often. And I understand that not everybody has the budget. Yeah. Not everyone has the budget for an SM seven b, and I get it. But if there was ever a time you were kinda thinking about it and you were putting together your nickels and your pennies and ready to to do it, it's time because this puppy's on sale. And, you know, that's if if it weren't for that thing right here in front of my face, you know, Jim wouldn't allow me on this, on this livestream. But I think a lot of it do you think a lot of it too is, boy, they just saw a bunch of, you know, big name podcasters with that mic in front of them? And they were like, well, if that's Joe Rogan's mic, then that has to be my mic.

Chris Stone [00:37:04]:
Do you think some people have that mentality?

Mario Ponce [00:37:07]:
Oh, absolutely. It's like, you know, I mean, it's with anything. You know? You you're you see someone with a car you want or you your favorite basketball player is wearing these shoes that you want. You know? I mean, it's like, basketball player is wearing these shoes that you want. You know? I mean, it's like the thing with the SM 7 B, though, is, it's gained popularity, a lot of popularity within the last, I would say, three to four years that it's really come into its own. I think a lot of people have seen it, but I think when podcasting and content creation really sort of exploded, like in the, I don't know, like 2018, '20 '17, arena or, time frame that the SM seven b really started to come into its own. But just because you buy an SM seven b, there's a lot that goes into making this microphone sound the way that it should. I get a lot of people, I got an SM seven b, and man, I have to crank the volume up, like, super, super high, and everything's hissy and and it's because this microphone was born out of the broadcast world.

Mario Ponce [00:38:19]:
So it's designed to give you that warm broadcast, voice, but it's actually been around for about twenty years. So there's some some classic architecture that's built into this thing. So, you have to have a little bit of audio sort of know how to really get it the way the sound the sound that yours sound. And that has to do with, you know, gain lifting, cloud lifting, or if your interface has enough gain. And the reason why it needs more gain is because the mic element is back here, And this is sort of a cage surrounding the mic element that's embedded here. So it needs a little bit more gain in order for you for it to pick up your voice. And that's what gives you, like, that really nice deep broadcast voice. So in order to do that, you need a gain lifter.

Mario Ponce [00:39:09]:
And in order to get a gain lifter to work, you need phantom power. So there's there's a lot of technical know how, not a lot, but a little bit of understanding dynamic condenser, phantom power, then why dynamics are so, well for content creation and all that stuff because condenser microphones are tech technically a little bit more sensitive. They require phantom power, which is an electric charge to activate all the circuitry, so you get, like, a they're designed for, like, the studio. So if you had, like, acoustically treated rooms, having a condenser mic would be great on your your mic cab or your base cabinet. But when you're in your room and you could pick up everything, a dynamic micron's probably a little bit better because it doesn't require a electric charge in order for it to work. However, if you wanna connect your a gain lifter to your SM seven b, the gain lifter itself requires phantom power. So it's like there's like a caveat there. And, you know, I get that question a lot.

Mario Ponce [00:40:18]:
Why doesn't my SM seven b sound the way that I hear everyone else's? And it's because, well, you what are you using? What kind of interface? Where's your gain at? You may wanna look into getting a gain lifter. And if you do, just make sure that you have phantom power to to run it. So a little bit longer conversation. Yeah. But once you get it working, you can't beat it. I mean, it's

Jim Fuhs [00:40:42]:
but I think from what I want from what I understand, though, Mario, with the new Rodecaster, Pro two, you actually can use the SM seven b without the Cloudlifter. Is that correct?

Mario Ponce [00:40:53]:
So you yes. And there are a lot of interfaces out there that will provide the right amount of gain to run an SM seven b. So, again, it's preference. Especially if you go down the road of your interface, you really, really wanna do your research if you have an SM seven beyond on, like, what the gain levels are, if it's got phantom power, if the gain's not hot enough. But I have heard of interfaces that are on the market that, run or that have enough gain to run an SM seven b.

Chris Stone [00:41:28]:
There is. And and so the the Focusrite, Vocaster one, which we also have in the, in the carousel, that is another one that provides enough gain for, for an s m seven b. I've tested that out, as well. There's a video on Amazon that we've that we've put up and and on YouTube as well. Okay. Kinda tested through that. And so, I think what a lot of people don't understand is that, like, you mentioned the Cloudlifter and there's you know, they call it a FET head. These are preamps, basically.

Chris Stone [00:42:00]:
And so, I I think there's a there's a number of interfaces that we didn't mention that say that they can, provide enough gain for, for SM seven b. And by the way, I didn't know that the the reason was the distance. That was that I just thought it was had something to do with, you know, the circuitry or or whatever, but it technically has to do with the distance the that it needs to travel, which I've I've man, I you know? Yes. This is what I love about podcasting. You can learn something every time every time you go. But, you also need to be careful too with preamps that aren't that great. Now we talked about Focusrite, and I think if I'm if I'm being honest, some of, if not, the best preamps in an interface personally that I think and that means that they they sound great, but they're not noisy. So when you crank them when they get cranked up, you don't hear any you don't hear this this kind of, like, this thing heated up.

Chris Stone [00:42:57]:
And so Focusrite makes great, preamps. And and, of course, the the Cloudlifter stuff is has been known for years to just like, if you get an SM seven b, you gotta get a Cloudlifter lifter or some other FET or whatever. Yeah. But there are some interfaces that are rolling out that are saying they have enough gain for an s m seven b. I just I would just be you might wanna test through some of that stuff to make sure that it that it still sounds, the best way that it that it can. It's sort of like, you know, like, making sure that you're putting 92 octane in a car that needs 92 octane gas or something like that. It's like you you gotta make sure that it's running properly or it just doesn't hits the point.

Mario Ponce [00:43:36]:
Yeah. Yeah. It's, but, I mean, like I said, it's been around for, gosh, twenty some odd years, I think. Awesome. It it is, you know, the it's the industry standard. You see it everywhere. And everyone that I know that has one is super happy with it. And, like you said, they don't go on discount on Justin.

Mario Ponce [00:44:02]:
So if you're looking to up your game, your audio game, now may be the time to do it for sure.

Chris Stone [00:44:08]:
Now, Mario, you you were a musician for years, and you had your used Shure microphones in in your in your journey as, as an, you know, as a content creator because musicians are content creators. Yep. And then you found your way into the business world as it relates to, to what you were doing. Where your next step was Nintendo. Right?

Mario Ponce [00:44:30]:
I did. I worked for I worked at Nintendo for about five years. I was a district supervisor, I think they called it. So I had a team of, like, merchandising training sort of brand advocate, members and got Mario's face out there, not this Mario, but the other Mario. How many times did they

Jim Fuhs [00:44:53]:
make you even the manager for Mario?

Mario Ponce [00:44:55]:
You could imagine what it what it was what it was like to be named Mario working at Nintendo. Right. It's actually exactly what you thought, what you you're probably think.

Jim Fuhs [00:45:05]:
Yep.

Mario Ponce [00:45:06]:
So, yeah, I did that. And then, I, wanted to get more into the audio side of things. So, an opportunity at Bose came up. So I moved over to Bose. I was there for about nine years. I had a lot of different titles there. I was district manager. I was a regional, advocate manager.

Mario Ponce [00:45:29]:
I was a sell through manager, and then, sure came knocking. And, maybe an offer I couldn't refuse. So Yeah. So here I am. So a lot of CEs, sort of experience, a lot of brick and mortar retail experience. So that, yeah, it's a lot of doors, a lot of I've been in probably every GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Costco, from here to Maine

Jim Fuhs [00:46:06]:
Wow.

Mario Ponce [00:46:06]:
I think.

Chris Stone [00:46:07]:
That's amazing. So, you know, working at Bose with you know, the that company is known for headphones. I mean, speakers, headphones. Right? It's mostly what they know what they're known for. And

Mario Ponce [00:46:21]:
until,

Chris Stone [00:46:21]:
you know, I don't know, a number of years ago, I don't know how many years ago, I was just not that familiar that Shure had made headphones. You know, I had Sennheiser headphones. I had Sony headphones. I've I have Audio Technica headphones. And, all of a sudden, I saw these in ear monitors, that were made by Shure. And I thought, well, that's a brand I can trust. And they were on sale on Amazon of all places. And I bought a wireless pair of in ear, monitors, for that, just based on doing the research that we all do.

Chris Stone [00:47:03]:
Right? Right. Yeah. And was pleasantly surprised by that because Jim and I, for years, had used, you know, the cans over the years. Right? And Yeah. For a functional, you know, situation, you know, you don't want sound coming out of your headphones and going into your into your microphone and causing that slapback, echo delay. And so, you know, a lot of people will wear the cans still, but, you know, Jim and I were kinda like, you know, we got we wanna keep things a little more clean or whatever. And I started using these things, and I was like, Jim, you gotta get yourself a pair of those. And so I had the wireless ones, and Jim got the wired two fifteens.

Chris Stone [00:47:40]:
Mhmm. And, I don't I mean, we have told I don't know how many people, Mario, about these because everyone's just like, how come you guys don't wear headphones?

Jim Fuhs [00:47:49]:
Yeah. You guys

Chris Stone [00:47:51]:
talk about, you know, how come I have to come on your show wearing headphones? And I'm like, we do wear headphones. See? And they're like, oh, now, of course. Yeah. Now do you have the purple ones in as well?

Mario Ponce [00:48:01]:
I do. I have the 02/15 special edition.

Jim Fuhs [00:48:05]:
Yes. There we go.

Chris Stone [00:48:06]:
There we go. So that's that's the segue for for the February, which now this was something that what you guys put this up for a vote, right, for the next call?

Mario Ponce [00:48:17]:
Yeah. So I can just pull this one out so you can get a closer look at it. Ingrid. So that's the purple, that color there. And we I think it was last I think it's a year ago, like Mhmm. Last November or October of twenty one, we put out five colors and we asked our audience, if we were to make a two fifteen in one of these, which ones would you want? And they chose the purple. So it's a special edition. It's here to stay, so it's not limited or anything.

Mario Ponce [00:48:57]:
But, it was a color chosen by, all guys, all all of our fans. So we were super excited to do something like this, and it was a a really cool idea. And it just it just, you know, catapulted into this really cool, voting system that we did, and then boom, you have the purple, s e two fifteen. So

Chris Stone [00:49:24]:
Now I have the the purple ones in my ears, but I've got this clear pair here that you're seeing. And, now I know a lot of these will pop. They will they will come apart, and you can also

Mario Ponce [00:49:42]:
I think I have my pair somewhere around here. Let me see. I have so much sure stuff here. So, you can, so what you can do is, they come right off, they have a MMCX connection, and we have a wireless adapter. It's called the, secureless adapter. I think I have in this drawer. Sorry. I have so much stuff.

Chris Stone [00:50:13]:
I know the feeling.

Mario Ponce [00:50:14]:
So it's this guy right here. Just put that there. So this is the, Secure Fit wireless adapter. This will take any Shure earphone, and what it does is makes your earphones wireless. The great thing about these is that they are IPX four rated. So if you wanted to, you know, have a jog and then and it's raining, you're fine. You don't wanna dive in the pool or swim underwater.

Jim Fuhs [00:50:44]:
But Right.

Mario Ponce [00:50:45]:
They are IPX four, so they do, will give you some, water resistance. They're not waterproof, just resistant. They also have something that we call environment mode, and all of our Bluetooth, headphones and this device here will allow you to let some of the outside world in. So, you guys know when you're wearing ears, you can't hear anything. I mean, you literally can't hear anything else that's happening around you because they're designed for the stage. So, if you've ever been to a performance and you see these singers wearing these big things or these things in their ears or drummers or any musician, it's because they are blocking out everything that's happening and only getting pumped in what they need to hear. And, that's the beauty of an earphone is that you really get to hear what you sound like. And when you're doing a podcast or a stream or any kind of performance, the monitors that you wear will allow you to really focus on what you're saying, what you're doing.

Mario Ponce [00:51:44]:
You're not overtalking. You're not talking loud. It really gives you the ability to to listen. So with that said, environment mode allows some of that noise in. So if you're jogging, you're on an airplane, you're doing your daily activity, you're not completely sealing yourself off from what's happening around you with which is what ears tend to do, and you'll be able to, you know, be aware of what's happening. You can control the amount of environment mode on an app that we have that you can download for free on the, for the earphone. It's separate from the Motive app. It's called the Sure Plus Play app.

Jim Fuhs [00:52:25]:
So I actually this is the, AONIC two fifteen TW twos.

Mario Ponce [00:52:30]:
Yep.

Jim Fuhs [00:52:31]:
And I actually ran the Marine Corps Marathon with this in my ear and was listening to my playlist the whole time. And it worked like a charm. So I love I love running with these, you know, because it was like you said, they don't, they don't move. I've used other stuff before, but you kind of feel like, oh, it's gonna fall off my head, it's gonna fall out of my ear. Yeah. It is so comfortable. And the and the battery life is just amazing.

Mario Ponce [00:52:58]:
You know? Yeah. The, seven hours of battery, and then the case will actually charge the,

Chris Stone [00:53:06]:
Right. Right.

Mario Ponce [00:53:07]:
The unit, and the case holds three additional charges. So was it $32.32.

Jim Fuhs [00:53:13]:
Right.

Mario Ponce [00:53:13]:
30 2 hours? Yeah. So a lot of battery. Again, you can use different Shure earphones. So if you start with the 2 fifteens, and then later on down the road, you're like, you know what? I wanna try, an $8.46. You can they actually work, what $8.40 six's are top of the line when it comes to earphones. These, for as an example, the 215s are a single driver configuration, and the 84s are quad driver configurations. They have four drivers, and they're designed for audiophile listening. So, Chris, you probably get a kick out of those since you're the audiophile.

Chris Stone [00:53:53]:
Yeah. I'm not technically an audiophile, but Jim likes to use that word. It's a it's a It's a big word. Word. It's a dirty word.

Mario Ponce [00:53:59]:
It's a dirty word. Well, I didn't wanna

Jim Fuhs [00:54:02]:
call an audio sound. I'm just

Chris Stone [00:54:03]:
particular about how things sound that let's let's put it that way.

Mario Ponce [00:54:08]:
You have dog ears. Is

Chris Stone [00:54:10]:
Yeah. You

Mario Ponce [00:54:11]:
have dog ears? Yes. I have dog ears.

Chris Stone [00:54:15]:
It's too bad my wife's not listening to this. She can find that incredibly hilarious. That's all I have to I have to do a replay of that. So there are a number of other items here that we have yet to get to, and and, a couple that I that I'd love to be able to have you speak to are the Shure Aonic fifties and the Shure Aonic 40. So we talked a little bit about headphones. And you coming from Bose and, you know, coming over to Shure and having that experience over at Bose, was that a factor in in, why Shure came knocking?

Mario Ponce [00:54:50]:
Yes and no. I think, you know, they were looking for the right person, that, you know, understood the MI world as well. But but, they we did launch our first ever wireless noise cancelling headphones, I I think, like, within the first year that I was there.

Chris Stone [00:55:13]:
K.

Mario Ponce [00:55:14]:
And I did have a lot of knowledge, obviously, with, Bose, you know, with with noise canceling headphones, but, I would say that the the they're you know, Bose was doing them for a long time. They were the first ones to come to retail with, noise canceling headphone. Shure's approach is more from getting that stage and studio experience and putting that into a headphone like an IONIQ 40 or IONIQ 50. So it's coming from a different world. Mhmm. So for example, Shure makes headphones for studio. We have a whole line of studio headphones, and that's good for, like, tracking, mixing, mastering. We have different tiers that go all the way up to $5,600 for, our top of the line mastering, headphones.

Mario Ponce [00:56:10]:
So, you know, we knew audio. We knew how to make a really good pair of headphones, but how do you do that within a noise canceling headphone? Because, generally, when you make a noise canceling headphone, there's a lot of processing going on with the algorithm of the, noise canceling itself, being able to shape the noise canceling around what you're actually hearing. Sometimes with a lot of noise canceling headphones, your music or your content will come across as sort of, processed is, I guess, the best word. Maybe plastic. Yep. And, Shure's approach was to make sure that your audio, or your content sounds as natural as possible. So it's taking this experience of stage studio and audio and putting them into, a, product like a noise canceling headphone, like the IONIQ 50 or 40.

Jim Fuhs [00:57:06]:
Yeah. So, Chris, I've got the forties here. So, I mean, if you wanna show the fifties, and so this is these things are extremely comfortable. I mean, I I could probably fall asleep in them. I mean

Chris Stone [00:57:18]:
Don't do that, Jim.

Jim Fuhs [00:57:19]:
I know. Not especially when I'm on a live stream.

Mario Ponce [00:57:22]:
Yeah. That that's the other thing too with studio headphones. Because you're in the studio for prolonged hours at a time, you know, you need something where you can wear headphones for an extended period of time. So right down to the fit and comfort, we were incorporating all of that stuff into AONIC forty. So, super happy with it. They sound amazing. The AONIC fifties have a LDAC built in, so you can do high res streaming. The IONIQ forties do not.

Mario Ponce [00:57:54]:
They're strictly for on the go noise canceling. Where IONIQ fifties, if you wanted an audio file, being able to to stream high res files with a 50 millimeter driver with an LDAC headphone amp, all the bells and whistles, the Anik fifty is probably the choice for you.

Chris Stone [00:58:16]:
Yeah. I love, I love the fifties. This is what I use for to do a lot of, a lot of editing. I would say, the difference in the build is, I don't wanna say I I would say noticeable. I these are the fifties are heavier because a lot of people will go, what's the difference between the fifties and forties besides the price? Yeah. Well, I mean, it it's like if if you it here. I can just you know, you just hold them side by side here. Yep.

Chris Stone [00:58:49]:
And you could just tell there's there's more plastic going on over here on the forties, and there's a lot more of, stitch, leather cushion that is going on. They're a little heavier. Yep. Right? And these, these right here are very sturdy. Right? It still is flexible enough for, for your ears. And over here, you know, I'm not saying that it's it's still as good quality, but it's just it's just different. Right? There's just a there's noticeable.

Mario Ponce [00:59:26]:
One of the things too is that the Analogue forties, they fold inward for travel.

Chris Stone [00:59:32]:
Right.

Mario Ponce [00:59:33]:
So, you can put them in a bag, they're smaller. But the biggest difference between the two is gonna be that LDAC. So, the LDAC included in AONIC 50, is not included in the AONIC 40, and that's gonna allow you for all this high res streaming. Mhmm. You can actually, plug in a USB cable to the AONIC 50 into your laptop and and do high resolution wired, listening as well. So it's more designed for the sort of high end listener, the audiophile, I guess, if you will. It's got,

Chris Stone [01:00:07]:
There's that word again, man.

Mario Ponce [01:00:09]:
There's that word. God. Keep using it. But that that's what the Aonique fifties are more, geared towards, that premium noise canceling listening experience, the premium, wireless noise canceling listening if you decide to use the noise canceling and wireless. And like I said, a lot of these noise canceling headphones out on the market will come across as real process. We've done our best to make sure the Anac 50s are very, very natural in the music. So that's the big differentiator there. And coming from that world, listening to a bunch of different noise cancelling headphones, the Ionic fifty's are by far, my top experience that I've heard, definitely.

Chris Stone [01:00:53]:
Well, I think that's the other thing people don't, you know, need to realize is that they are, you know, wireless, but you can wire you can plug them in and use them. And you cannot use the wireless functionality of it.

Mario Ponce [01:01:04]:
Yeah.

Chris Stone [01:01:05]:
And they you know? And so I'm all you know, I'm to the point now where Jim's got me, like, you know, really worried about anything wireless, whatsoever. You know? It's like, well, what happens if the battery dies? And and I'm like, oh, yeah. You're right. I need to wire this in. So, you know, upstairs where I'm doing all my editing, I have it wired, wired in just for that, you know, that kind of experience.

Mario Ponce [01:01:28]:
Oh, yeah. Yep. Definitely wireless, in streaming wireless earphones are kind of, I have yet to experience if I'm on a conference call and I have my t my, I call them TW2s, they're true wireless gen two, the secure fit adapter. If I have those in and I'm on a conference call, I think I'm fine. It it's not that bad. But if I'm trying to stream live or I'm doing something outside of that realm, I get a lot of latency. Mhmm. So I prefer wired when I do any kind of streaming, any kind of content creation so I can hear things more in real time, unless, you know, I'm on some sort of source that the connection is laser, is just right on right on key, then then I I don't have that issue.

Mario Ponce [01:02:22]:
But sometimes I do, with a lot of Bluetooth stuff is that latency issue. But, doing content, I always like to use by wired. That's just me, though.

Jim Fuhs [01:02:33]:
No. I I'm the same way because I have had issues in the past where going wireless with the Bluetooth, it would, like, something might happen and it, like, cuts out and then you're trying to reconnect the Bluetooth and Mhmm. I would rather be, you know, be safe than sorry. And and so, like, even with this, with these 215s, I've got a I think it's called a FireWire. And it's about, I think I got, like, six foot attached. So I could walk all over the place, still hear, you know, people talking and of course, don't look like I have headphones on. And so I think, you know, so you can give yourself that that leeway because, right, of course, always the other funny thing is when you have a headphones plugged into something and if you forget, you know, you can, like, almost, you know, rip your your head off because you forgot like,

Mario Ponce [01:03:18]:
oh, gosh. I know. Done that many times, especially with recording. Sometimes I forget. And I'm, tethered.

Chris Stone [01:03:30]:
Yes. So, one other thing, that I thought we might touch on is the MV 88. That's another that's another, microphone that I believe is on sale. Yes?

Jim Fuhs [01:03:43]:
It is. Okay.

Chris Stone [01:03:45]:
And so this is when we we talk about function. I'd I'd love taking this thing, when I'm going on the road. This thing is, this thing's killer. Let me, let me pull this up, and I'll let you kinda speak to it a little bit here, Mario, as far as, I guess, use cases for this. And I'm gonna I'm gonna plug this in so we can we can hear it, while while you talk about it.

Mario Ponce [01:04:10]:
Yeah. So this, Envy 88 plus, there are two, versions, but they are the same microphone. I'll explain that in a little bit. But it's a stereo condenser microphone, so it has three mic elements, left, right, and center. And because of that, you can manipulate the different polar patterns that the mic actually has. And you could do that through the ShurePlus Play app, excuse me, the Shure MOTIV app. You can do that, the polar pattern manipulation. So it works similar to the MV7 in terms of connecting it to thing it to.

Jim Fuhs [01:05:00]:
What did you do, Chris? I can't hear.

Chris Stone [01:05:06]:
Mario, can you, unmute yourself? I'm not sure why

Jim Fuhs [01:05:10]:
it muted you. Sorry about that. Yeah. And StreamYard muted you.

Mario Ponce [01:05:15]:
There we go.

Jim Fuhs [01:05:16]:
There you go. I was like, oh, sorry about that talking.

Mario Ponce [01:05:17]:
How did I mute? Did I do something? No.

Chris Stone [01:05:20]:
I was I think it was just a software issue. Sorry about

Mario Ponce [01:05:24]:
that. K. So, so at what point did you stop hearing what I was saying?

Jim Fuhs [01:05:36]:
Probably almost at the beginning, I think. But,

Mario Ponce [01:05:41]:
were you guys going, hey. Stop. Stop. And I'm just like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was

Chris Stone [01:05:46]:
Just in case you didn't realize this this this, this was live. So I've got I've got it plugged in here to the Sure Plus Motive app, and I have it here on the monocardioid, function. And so the cool thing about this is it is a stereo microphone. However, I was shocked at how good it sounded as a podcast microphone.

Mario Ponce [01:06:09]:
I use it, can you guys still hear me okay?

Chris Stone [01:06:11]:
Yes. Yes. Everything?

Mario Ponce [01:06:12]:
Okay.

Chris Stone [01:06:13]:
Next time, we'll wave our arms to the real crazy.

Mario Ponce [01:06:18]:
Oh, man. So, yeah. So I've done a few streams using, the NVidia class, because, well, one, I want to demo the actually, the app because the the app is actually the key factor here. So I like to think of the NVDA plus as sort of Swiss army knife, for different types of audio situations. And because you can change polar patterns, you can do all that stuff, it really is intuitive for whatever type of activity you are, trying to capture, whether it's out in the field or if it's at home. I use the MV 88 plus mic a lot as a drum overhead in stereo or in, raw mid side because it just I love the way that it sounds, and it's condenser too, so it has a lot of detail. But you can pick up you can do standard, monocardioid. You could do you could control the stereo width.

Mario Ponce [01:07:26]:
You can do monobidirectional, which, is great if you're doing, like, an impromptu podcast or an impromptu, like, interview. I put that mic right between two

Chris Stone [01:07:39]:
You have to kinda both get kinda close-up Yeah. You know, to each other. But, yeah, I mean, there's that's the other thing, you know, when we're talking about, another microphone that's very popular in the podcast world and has for, many years has that sort of thing where you could speak to either side of one microphone. So, yeah, in a pinch, you could absolutely do a do an interview without having to hand the microphone back and forth to each other, right, when that in that monobidirectional mode.

Mario Ponce [01:08:07]:
Yeah. Monobi and then monocardioid, that's your standard cardioid polar pattern. That's great for interviews for capturing yourself. And then you've got the five band EQ. So if you wanted to roll off some of the low end, if you're out in the wind, you're outside, you can roll off for that wind frequency. Still has the compression there, has the high pass filtering, has your limiting, has five DSP presets, and your gain control, all that great stuff. So it's very, intuitive, but it's also, like I said, it's the Swiss army knock because you can you can really change up the way the mic sounds depending on what you're trying to record. And that's, I think, what's so unique about a mic like this is those three elements will allow you to do that.

Jim Fuhs [01:08:57]:
And then you also have, and I've got it here, I'm gonna bring my overhead in, this is the video kit

Mario Ponce [01:09:03]:
Right.

Jim Fuhs [01:09:03]:
Which is also really great because it comes with the cable that it'll go straight into your iPhone. Right? I so I could sit here and record, and then this is what we call the with the Manfrotto, you know, tripods. So if you wanna hold it like this and walk around, and you and same thing, you can change those polar patterns. So this is a great kit for, you know, using for, you know, if you wanna make videos and, you know, do those things. I guess the one thing I was trying to figure out, of course, maybe I could just hold it like this is, if I wanted to do vertical video, it would be nice if there was an adapter that would let me, you know, be flat, but have the phone up and down. Yeah, you can.

Mario Ponce [01:09:44]:
In terms of video, you can. So, one thing that I don't know if this will help, this piece back here, this right, actually screws off.

Chris Stone [01:09:59]:
Okay.

Mario Ponce [01:10:01]:
And you can it's its own. Where is that at? And then you could put you could do this, the bottom loss, and then top this on here like that.

Chris Stone [01:10:19]:
Okay. Oh.

Mario Ponce [01:10:21]:
So you may be able to

Jim Fuhs [01:10:24]:
Right. Because it because you can then kind of get that to to to angle. Right?

Mario Ponce [01:10:29]:
Yeah. For the angle. I don't think though the app will allow you to record in horizontal, but you may be able to do something like that. Right. So I don't know. You could try.

Jim Fuhs [01:10:44]:
Yeah. Definitely worth checking out. But yeah. But it's it's it's solid. I think it's, you know, great great for, especially because you you're able to use the apps control your but you can do video and audio, two separate apps there.

Mario Ponce [01:10:58]:
You can. And you can seamlessly kinda switch between the two. So once you configure your audio on one, you can go right to the video app, and that same audio configuration is still theirs.

Chris Stone [01:11:15]:
Right. I love that. It's a little power packed, microphone. Super versatile, and, it's USB only, ladies and gentlemen. So, you know, it's not I don't think it's big enough to for you to be to have an XLR jack in the back. But, you know, don't let the size fool you. That thing, you know, I'm sure there's a joke in there. It's it's not how it's not how deep your sound is.

Chris Stone [01:11:42]:
It's no. I don't know. We're not we're not gonna we're not gonna make any weird, weird jokes related to the to that. But, yeah, I mean, it's it's small, but it is powerful and super versatile. So if you need something that you can just take and you wanted to plug into phone or a computer via USB, that thing, that thing rocks. Love that mic.

Mario Ponce [01:12:03]:
That's

Jim Fuhs [01:12:04]:
so we do have a we do have a question I've got here in the in the app, from Phil Hill. Does Shure make us microphone set that has a receiver with one or two clip on microphones for doing content in the field?

Mario Ponce [01:12:19]:
We content in the field, wireless, we do not. So everything in terms of a lavalier would be wired. So you would need to wire that into. However, we do have items in more of our professional audio, area. We have, we have a wireless mic system, sort of ecosystem called, Accent. And that's the stuff that people use when they go on world tours, like the Beyonce's of the world. And within that ecosystem, there are some items that we have that will allow you to do, like, wireless streaming in that way, but that is more for, like, the broadcast world, more of the professional audio world in terms of doing content creation, like, on your phone and you're looking for, like, a wireless something, we, the MB 88 plus would be the only thing we would have in terms of something like that. Or we have another lavalier mic, a small one called the MBL, that plugs right into your phone, but nothing at that level.

Mario Ponce [01:13:34]:
Wireless, if you wanted to do wireless out in the field at the broadcast level, we have that kind of stuff. But, but nothing at this level yet.

Chris Stone [01:13:46]:
Yeah. I was gonna say, I mean, that might be that might be something to, you know, think about potentially in the road map because I could see a lot of content creators. You know, a lot of them are using their their phones and are out in various places and, you know, they don't have a dead cat on the on the thing, and and it's just all you hear is, you know, and, it's just not. And so, I guess, something that would be wireless and, you know, affordable, not not not so broadcast.

Mario Ponce [01:14:18]:
You

Chris Stone [01:14:18]:
know, anytime someone uses the word broadcast, like, uh-oh. You. Like, where's the budget? You know? Right?

Mario Ponce [01:14:24]:
Yep. Yeah, no, noted. It's, you know, we're always looking ahead for new things. We always listen to our customers and what they're looking for, what they want. And that's something that's definitely been asked of us.

Jim Fuhs [01:14:40]:
Well, and, you know, we've got some comments too, where folks really like what the MV 88 has done and are are using. And I think, you know, that in and of itself is really helping people with their audio on Yeah. On their phones. It's which is, you know, always been somewhat of a challenge.

Mario Ponce [01:14:58]:
Yeah. For sure. For sure.

Chris Stone [01:15:01]:
Well, awesome stuff. I know we're, we've gone long. I hope, you know, we haven't, made you late, for

Mario Ponce [01:15:07]:
Angel Mario. But been an honor to, be kind of a deal cast in the show. Are you kidding me?

Chris Stone [01:15:13]:
Let's go another six hours. I don't know

Mario Ponce [01:15:14]:
if there's hour, man.

Jim Fuhs [01:15:16]:
There you go.

Mario Ponce [01:15:17]:
Just going.

Jim Fuhs [01:15:18]:
He's on West Coast time. Right?

Mario Ponce [01:15:19]:
He's everywhere. I know. No. I'm just getting started.

Chris Stone [01:15:25]:
Yeah. Awesome. I you know, and, again, those that are are listening, watching, live or on team replay, there are, pretty much everything that Shore has on sale for the holiday season is here, in the carousel, including the Shure SM seven b, and, you know, the SM, 58, m v seven, m v seven x, you know, Ionic 40, Ionic 50, headphones. Just a ton of great options for you. And if you have a content creator on, on your holiday list, you this is the time to, to grab it, make sure it gets shipped to you in plenty of time. I'm sure Shure has plenty of stock, to get you. And a and a drone will drop it on your porch, and it'll be ready for, for the holiday season. And, so make sure you, take a look.

Chris Stone [01:16:22]:
And and, Mario, this has just been great. I mean, I I really do love it when I'm able to, you know, do a show and, learn along with our audience. And today was definitely one of those days. So, sir, thank you so much for, for joining us and and, you know, giving up your valuable time to, to talk nerdy shop with us.

Mario Ponce [01:16:48]:
Anytime, man. Yeah.

Jim Fuhs [01:16:49]:
Yeah. Definitely. We did some live solving for for people today. So that was always that was a lot of fun. And,

Mario Ponce [01:16:55]:
Yeah. It's been and and well, I went on mute weirdly and came back. I can only hear I you guys are no longer in my ears. You're coming out of my computer speaking. So

Jim Fuhs [01:17:08]:
It's we're gonna blame it on we're gonna blame it

Mario Ponce [01:17:10]:
on streaming. It's that's what happens, and you just gotta roll with it. So, hopefully there's no echo, but, like, I'm constantly adjusting, like, like it was perfect, and then I went on mute for some reason, and came back. And so that's a real, real world experience right there.

Jim Fuhs [01:17:28]:
Well, we had we had the problem with the with the chat, you know, having to look at the phone for me to see what comments we were not seeing them on, on screen. So, hopefully, that'll all be better before next week when there'll be a lot more viewers on, Amazon. So, I

Mario Ponce [01:17:45]:
don't know what happened. But Yeah.

Jim Fuhs [01:17:47]:
It's worked out great.

Mario Ponce [01:17:48]:
Yeah. Well, anytime, guys. And thank you both for your support. You know, I really appreciate it. And you guys are amazing. And if you're just tuning in for the first time and you're watching these guys, make sure that you follow them because they put out some great content. They just don't do product. I mean, they do all kinds of really, really interesting topics.

Mario Ponce [01:18:11]:
So just make sure that you take the time to follow them because they always have some great content, and I really do appreciate you guys having me on, for sure.

Jim Fuhs [01:18:18]:
Thank you.

Chris Stone [01:18:19]:
Thanks so much, Mario. It won't be the last. And as always, everyone, don't fear the gear.

Jim Fuhs [01:18:27]:
Thanks for listening to Dealcasters. Congratulations. You've taken another step forward in your content creation journey. Please don't forget to hit the subscribe or follow button here in your favorite podcast player so you can be reminded every time we drop an episode. We love hearing from

Chris Stone [01:18:44]:
our listeners and viewers. And if you're wanting to watch our shows live on Amazon, feel free to follow Dealcasters Live as well at deal casters live. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel where we also included added content that you cannot find anywhere else. If you

Jim Fuhs [01:19:04]:
have questions about this episode or have something you want us to review, you can also email us at Dealcasters@Dealcasters.live. Thanks again for listening, and you know the deal. Don't fear the gear.