REVIEWED: Shure MOTIV MV88+ Video Kit
Capture awesome audio on your travels with this small, easy to use and excellent quality recording rig
Your phone’s microphone is bad, and every video you’ve ever taken on your travels has bad sound. If the audio is half the experience, then those using a smartphone for video should pay attention to what microphone expert Shure is doing.
Shure MOTIV MV88+ Video Kit: overview
This high quality ‘video kit’ is, at its core, a digital stereo condenser microphone of excellent quality. It’s designed for podcasters, videographers, content creators, field recordists, and musicians looking to record high-quality audio.
Shure MOTIV MV88+ Video Kit: design and features
The package comes in four parts. As well as a small digital stereo condenser microphone, there’s a great quality Manfrotto Pixi tripod which TravGear has reviewed already, a smartphone phone clamp, and a mount to support the microphone. There are also various cables in the box (including USB‐C & Apple Lightning cables) to attach the latter to any smartphone.
Shure MOTIV MV88+ Video Kit: performance
It’s all really easy to use. Having to put your smartphone into a phone clamp on a tripod might seem a bit of a faff, but if you’re after stabilized video that’s something you should already be doing, microphone or not. Once the microphone is hooked up to a phone, it’s necessary to download an app to make recordings, though only if you want to listen to the audio you’re capturing – via your own headphones – while you film. If you don’t, you can just as easily use your phone’s built-in camera app. The results are excellent with voice; so much clearer, more distinct and with far more range and width than when relying on the phone’s week built-in mic Voice can be captured with lots of clarity even from a few meters away, while it’s easily good enough to collect more subtle sounds such as birdsong. It can also be used by field recordists for standalone audio capture, and by musicians wanting something to quickly record acoustic music on the go.
Shure MOTIV MV88+ Video Kit: conclusion
The Shure MOTIV MV88+ Video Kit should appeal to two specific kinds of people; those that take a lot of videos when they travel, and those that like to record the sounds of where they go. If you fit into one of these categories, using the MV88+ will hugely boost the audio quality. Essentially a professional-level mobile audio and video rig, the MV88+ is expensive but worth it.