MV7+ - The Certified Microphone for Streaming
If you want to turn your streaming into a success then you need to sound amazing. Shure speaks to streaming guru LAS Curry about the importance of picking the right mic.
“People will forgive poor video quality, but if your audio sounds bad then they’re just going to switch off”
The great thing about gaming is it’s instant. You flip the switch, grab the control, and you’re immediately transported into another world.
And the same goes for streaming – it’s the instant, unfiltered reactions that make it so much fun.
So, when you’re setting up the mic for your streaming system, that’s the key word: instant. No fiddling with settings. No messing around with menus. You want something that just works and sounds amazing every time.
“I get asked about sound all the time, more than anything else,” says professional streamer LAS Curry (real name Anthony Santana). “People want to know how I sound so good. And I tell them the first thing you need to invest in is a mic.”
That’s something Santana had to learn the hard way.
“At first, I was just using a mic that was attached to my headphones and it sounded terrible, people would complain about it” continues Santana.
“I’d compare it to watching a movie in a foreign language without subtitles – you can see the images, but you have no idea what’s going on. That’s what it’s like if you have bad audio as streamer – people will forgive poor video quality, but if your audio sounds bad then they’re just going to switch off.”
Since those early mistakes, Santana has gone on to amass a ton of followers on Twitch, turning it into a career. He’s has even become the go-to guru for streaming advice on YouTube, with millions of views.
“After a while, I realized I don't want to keep answering the same questions about streaming over and over,” says Santana. “So I started posting a new how-to video on my YouTube channel every week.”
That means when it comes to mic advice, Santana is the perfect person to turn to.
“It’s about quality,” he states. “I always encourage someone to start with an affordable option. But you’ve still got to have quality, and it’s worth paying a bit more for that. And that’s why I recommend Shure, because it’s going to last you a long time and it’s always going to sound good.”
And with Shure’s new MV7+, your money buys you more than ever before.
“I’ve got an MV7+ going straight into my computer via USB-C, and that’s pretty much all the setting up I had to do,” explains Santana. “The mic has a bunch of built in functions that make it sound good in basically any room.”
Let’s unpack those, starting with the Auto Level. That’s basically like having an audio engineer built into the mic, constantly adjusting your levels so you’re never too quiet or too loud. So, your shouts of celebration are automatically dialled down so your followers don’t end up with bleeding ears.
Next up is the Real-Time Denoiser, which is a favourite for Santana.
“The denoiser is a little thing that makes a big difference,” he confirms. “Having a noisy signal is probably the biggest mistake I see new streamers making. The denoiser fixes that for you.”
The result is a clean signal, so your followers can hang on your every word.
Working alongside the Denoiser is the Digital Popper Stopper. Now, traditionally mics had to have a big mesh screen to stop all those plosive ‘p’ and ‘t’ sounds. However, the MV7+ does it all digitally. End result: great sounding audio, and the world doesn’t miss out on your game face.
Then there’s the secret weapon: OBS certification, which is something almost unique to the MV7+.
“OBS [Open Broadcast Software] is probably the go-to streaming platform for my audience,” says Santana. “It gives you tons of features, tons of plugins, tons of opportunities. There's so much you can do with it, and about 90 percent of the content on my channel is about OBS.”
So, the fact that the MV7+ has OBS certification is a big plus.
“It’s absolutely a positive,” confirms Santana. “The fact that it’s going to work without any issues or dropouts is what you want.”
Finally, for those that do want to dive deeper, there’s the Motiv Mix app. That allows you to get down into the mic’s details, adjusting gain, EQ, compression and more.
We could go on and on about other features, from the onboard reverb, to the instant mute button, to the fact that it has both USB-C and XLR connectivity. But in the end, what Santana keeps coming back to is that instant factor – the fact that the MV7+ allows streamers to focus on what they do best: creating great content.
“I love that streamers are creating something from their passion,” he says. “When I can give them some good advice and teach them some tech along the way, that gives me a lot of satisfaction.
“If someone tells me ‘hey, I got my first viewer after I followed your mic advice’ that inspires me to do more”
“If someone tells me ‘hey, I got my first viewers after I followed your mic advice’ that inspires me to do more. I just enjoy being around other people that enjoy the same thing as me, and helping them make it happen.”
