The One Microphone That Can Do It All? A Review of the Voyage Audio Spatial Mic

A review of the Voyage USB/Dante Audio Spatial, a second order Ambisonics microphone that doubles as a mono, stereo, mid-side, or surround sound microphone up to 7.1.4.
► Video transcript: / one-microphone-100296667
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:48 Build quality and controls
05:11 Shout out
05:48 Connecting the Spatial Mic to a computer
09:50 Spatial Mic Converter plugin
16:04 Sound test as a virtual mic
17:31 Sound test as an Ambisonics mic
20:06 Final thoughts
Video links:
► Voyage Audio Spatial Mic: voyage.audio/spatialmic/
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► Ambisonics in Ableton Live 10 Tutorial: • Ambisonics in Ableton ...
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[@johnnyszczepanski9181]

Tanks for your review. I Yes the RODE NT FS1 for my recording for live concert and nature ambient sounds.

[@michaelgwagner]

Good choice!

[@misterleif]

I listened to this with my new Sennheiser HD490 Pro headphones (thanks for your excellent review of this headphone!), and I can say that the results are dramatic. The immersiveness is very noticeable, and the overall sound quality is good. It gives a much warmer sound than the comparison mic, which I feel would be perfect for Atmos, and might compensate for the tinny, nasal quality of my voice 🙂. I would have liked to hear the sound coming from above the mic in addition to the left and right test you did. I think that you should definitely use this for your future productions.

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! Sounds from above usually do not translate well through binaural which is why I did not do it. But very good point, would have been interesting nonetheless.

[@misterleif]

@@michaelgwagner Another invaluable video! I just spent a considerable amount of time (no doubt way more than necessary) translating your method in Reaper into a workflow in Nuendo for converting the 4 stereo files that are produced by the USB Audio Recorder Pro app for Android phones (which only costs 5 dollars!) into a single 7.1.4 file. You might ask why, and since you ask, I'll tell you...I'm pretty excited by the opportunity to make immersive field recordings using only this microphone, a usb c cable, and my phone, and since the aforementioned phone app will record in 48k 24bit, these recordings can be used as ambience tracks in my Atmos projects. How cool is that!!! Thanks again for sharing your knowledge, and figuring all this stuff out so I don't have to 🙂

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks!

[@MacImPack]

Great review! Please keep using it in binaural mode for recording immersive content. And about the orientation: The missing R channel matters least if you use the mic in standard (vertical) orientation (as it then is a elevation cue for the binaural output).

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! 😊

[@peterpeper4837]

Great review and very interesting to be aware of new products like that.

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! Much appreciated!

[@zootook3422]

I think the binaural recording sounded promising (too short to make any conclusions) - and yes, I think you should record your videos in spatial audio and also upload the video audio to KZbin in first order spatial audio.

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! I think promising is the right term. :)

[@gregoryivesdolbyatmosmusic]

Great review. Thanks. This is the one I've had my eye on for a while. Not sure I need the Dante version now, but this one is nice for field recording.

[@michaelgwagner]

Glad to help

[@gregoryivesdolbyatmosmusic]

I would experiment with it for a couple of shows. Maybe incorporate some audio demos maybe with it. Ex. Try recording some things in the field and bring them in to share or maybe record some music in Ambisonic? Guitar, or whatever.

[@michaelgwagner]

I had a student do some field recordings. I’ll do a video about that in a few weeks.

[@kelvinfunkner]

wow...this was really cool! I don't have any experience with spatial audio or Ambisonics, so to hear the switch over was quite remarkable! I must admit that quality wise, I still prefer the warm tone and isolation of the Lewitt mic, but the processed version of the spatial mic may be appropriate considering your specific KZbin channel content. I will say that the unprocessed version of the spatial audio did not sound pleasing to my ears, and the actual effect was somehow minimized by the muddiness of the sound. As soon as you switched over the the "processed" version, it felt like my ears "woke up" and all of a sudden it was like being right in front of you in the room, so if you indeed decide to use this in the future, I'd recommend only using the processed version. I will say that it felt a bit janky having to convert the 8 channels to 12 channels and then to 2 channels....too bad there wasn't an app that would just give you the option to do all the math in between and you could just select the mic, and then the final output. But all in all, this was a gem of a review!

[@michaelgwagner]

Thanks! And yes, I fully agree with everything you said.

[@solarion33]

you can be the ASMR guru the internet needs :-) I don't think many ASMR creators really use all tools available in spatial audio , but definitely bring an assistant to do the demonstrations 😅

[@michaelgwagner]

Lol

[@johnmorrisproductions]

It looks like a really cool microphone!

[@michaelgwagner]

You need to have use for an Ambisonics mic, but if you do then definitely.

[@johnmorrisproductions]

@@michaelgwagner For sure! Probably not the most practical for what I do, but it definitely has use cases.

[@edwardnixon1782]

Field Recording? A range of questions: Mulit-track USB connectivity or even DANTE in the field? Wind noise protection? I think you have covered the 'studio' application very well (although I'm not in love with the sound for voice of *either* of the mics -- a lot of chest --but that's just me.) I look forward to the follow on videos. E.g., I've been thinking about that Zoom offering for years. If it's possible and you think it appropriate, some time on out of studio applications would be great. Or a pointer to somewhere that info can be found. Thanks! As always you bring great news. :)

[@michaelgwagner]

I had my student do field recording tests. We will talk about the in the not too distant future. 🙂 Ambisonic mics tend to pick up a lot of low end.

[@murraywebster1228]

It’s freaky and cool…

[@michaelgwagner]

:)

[@fieldrecordista]

A big spec difference between dante and usb version

[@michaelgwagner]

Yes, I did not have a chance to test the Dante version, unfortunately.

[@sysxtem]

i need more time and money 😄

[@michaelgwagner]

Me, too! 😂