Shure MV88+ Stereo USB Mic

This mic is primarily targeted for smartphone video recording. I was looking for a USB stereo microphone to work with my VR camera, and preferably a Mid/Side one, since Mid/Side can be translated to AmbiX spatial audio quite well (and generally I'm a fan of Mid/Side stereo). I found the MV88+, and it does not disappoint.

For smartphone use, you install the Shure Motiv Audio app to adjust the microphone's settings. Various modes from mono to the widest stereo and also Raw MS are available.

The settings are saved onto the device itself, so the next time you plug it in it will default to those settings. This is very useful with my Teche 3D180VR camera, which can host USB audio devices directly but cannot have apps installed to it.

A Shure Motiv Video app is also available for video recording, it gives you direct access to the microphone and provides audio level meters while shooting. But you can also use the mic with the phone's default camera app, at least this is the case with my Galaxy S22U.

The MV88+ also works great on desktop, as a standard USB audio device. The ShurePlus Motiv app is also available for Windows but apparently not for MacOS.

The mic is solidly built and doesn't necessarily even need a shock mount - the mic housing damps handling noises better than you'd expect. The included winjammer foam ball does a decent job, but you might want to get a 3rd party fuzzy windjammer for better wind protection.

The mic can handle fairly high sound pressure level, but you need to lower the gain plenty for this (the Motiv app has a "band mode" for this particular use case). If the mic still does clip from excess SPL, it doesn't sound terrible, it's just a flat-top saturation.

There is a 3.5mm stereo TRS output for headphones for instant preview. But you can also use it as a line-out if you want to use this mic with a DSLR that only has a 3.5 mm stereo jack input - however you will need to provide the mic with USB power for this use case.

I had occasional connection issues when plugging this mic to my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra - it would disconnect and reconnect constantly when running the Shure Motiv Audio app. This caused problems when updating the firmware of the microphone. I wonder if the connector is broken on either my phone or the mic.

Ich habe mittlerweile mehrere Aufnahmen gemacht: Mein Klavier solo, mit Gesang, mit Sprache, das Gleiche mit einer Akustikgitarre. Stets liefert das kleine Shure direkt im Handy bereits brauchbare Ergebnisse.

Üblicherweise verwende ich mehrere fest installierte Mikrofone und bearbeite in Logic nach und füge dann Audio und Video zusammen, was schon einige Zeit in Anspruch nimmt. Wenn diese Zeit fehlt, bekommt man nicht zuletzt dank der hilfreichen Shure Software Aufnahmen, die vielleicht keinen Schönheitspreis gewinnen aber stets klar verständlich sind.

Insbesondere die mehrfach umschaltbare Richtcharakteristik ist extrem hilfreich. Für ein Klavier-Tutorial kann man z.B. sehr gut mid/side nehmen, wobei die Niere die Sprache und die Acht das Instrument abbildet. Toll auch, dass man in der Software wählen kann, ob man einen fertigen Stereo Mix oder zwei separate Spuren zur Nachbearbeitung haben will Nach zwei, drei Versuchen hat man die günstigste Einstellung für künftiges on-the-fly in der Software gefunden und kann seine persönlichen presets auch speichern.

Für diesen Preis ist der Klang mehr als okay, die vier von fünf Sternen sind hier im Vergleich mit durchaus teureren Lösungen zu sehen.