Month: February 2019

Today I’m taking a look at the Alctron PF8 that was kindly provided by the folks over at Banggood.com. It’s a portable alternative to treating an entire room with acoustic panels which also has a much smaller footprint than other acoustic isolation shields.

The Alctron PF8 is actually a knockoff of the Kaotica Eyeball, and both products are basically spheres (or semi-spheres in the case of the PF8) of dense acoustic foam that are meant to shield your mic from audio reflections as well as prevent them in the first place. There is a sizeable cavity inside the PF8 that is more than large enough to fit a Blue Snowball, though the main focus is on side address mics in the 45-60mm diameter range.

Of course, there are plenty of acoustic isolation shields on the market that do the same thing as the PF8. However, the PF8 has a few advantages over those. First off, as I mentioned earlier, the PF8 has a smaller footprint than the other isolation shields. It’s also made out of lightweight foam, so you can easily use the PF8 without having to worry about whether or not your usual mic stand can handle it I’ve used the PF8 on my cheapo boom arm with no issue.

The next advantage of the PF8 is the price. Admittedly, the Kaotica Eyeball is a wee bit more expensive (okay, actually 10x the price), but the PF8 comes in at around $30-40 depending on how long you’re willing to wait to get it. Banggood charges a little over $35 for the PF8.

Now, as for how well it works, I’d say it does a bang up job. If you have a room that has a bit of noise reflection and you can’t put up acoustic panels due to budget or lease limitations, the PF8 will help you out. Just keep in mind that products like this work best when you’re closer to the mic. Fortunately the PF8 has a built in double layer pop filter, so plosives won’t be much of an issue at that range. I do have a couple of sound tests in the above video if you’re interested.

If you want to check out the Alctron PF8 for yourself, you can find it here:

Alctron PF8 on Banggood: http://bit.ly/2S0tAIO
Find more microphones here: http://bit.ly/2RID4sP
Download the Banggood APP to get an extra 10%off: https://banggood.app.link/sZmbUBO2HT

In this video I take a look at the Teyun A4 USB mixing console (also known as the TU04 mixing console) that can be found on many different websites. I go into a ton of detail in the above video (mostly to make up for the lack of a proper manual for this mixer) and even include some audio clips, but for those of you in a hurry I can provide a few highlights here.

First off, like the title says, this is a USB mixer. It allows you to plug multiple analog mics or other audio sources into your PC, though you are not just limited to USB audio output. Also, the mixer pulls all of it’s power from the USB cable, though if you don’t want to plug it into your PC you could just use a USB AC adapter or rechargeable power bank.

For your inputs you have an XLR & 1/4 inch mono plug combo jack on both inputs 1 and 2, while inputs 3 and 4 are actually just a single stereo input that handles both analog (using left and right RCA plugs or 1/4 jacks) as well as your digital inputs (Bluetooth, PC audio, and audio playback from a USB thumb drive). I should note that while the XLR inputs claim to have phantom power, it’s not true 48V. instead you’re looking at between 38V and 40.5V, though that is more than enough juice to drive most condenser mics.

As for your outputs, you can either go the analog route or digital. For analog, you can use either left and right RCA plugs or a pair of mono 1/4 jacks. For digital, you can output to your PC, or record directly to a USB flash drive. Sadly you can’t output your mics’ audio over Bluetooth.

Speaking of the flash drive, getting it to record is a little tricky. First off, you need to make sure you have an audio file already saved to the it. After that, with your mixer set to “line” mode, plug the flash drive into the USB port on the front of the mixer. Once you do that the mixer will switch over to “USB” mode and autoplay the first audio file it sees (or ignore the drive if you forgot to add an audio file beforehand). Once the playback has started just hold the play/pause button down for 3 seconds and your mixer will begin recording to the flash drive, and you can stop recording by holding down the play/pause button again.

If you wanted to, you could easily use a rechargeable USB power bank and a USB flash drive to turn this mixer into a field recorder for podcast interviews without the need for a PC.

Of course, there are a few limitations that you’ll encounter with this mixer. First, channels 1 and 2 are center pan mono, so you can’t isolate the mics for editing in post. Second, every analog input other than XLR is incredibly quiet, so it would be a good idea to run some audio through a preamp first. Third, the 1/4 inch jacks are not powered, so using jack powered condenser mics that aren’t XLR is a no-go. Finally, audio output either to your PC over USB or to a flash drive will be in mono. All of these are only minor inconveniences though when you consider the price you’re paying for this mixer, especially since it has the USB flash drive recording capability.

Ultimately, I believe that this mixer is a great grab if you can find it at the right price. I actually didn’t buy mine on Wish, but instead on AliExpress on sale for just under $32. As for the prices you can find it for elsewhere, there’s Amazon for $50, Banggood for $45, and Wish for $40+ after shipping. I’ll go ahead and include a few affiliate links that’ll take you to the mixer on a few of the platforms, but feel free to shop around.

Links:

Amazon
Banggood
AliExpress