Do you need a Microphone with Noise Cancellation- Lark M1 Review

Recording audio within the comfort of your studio is easy. Almost no background noise, controlled environment. But what happens if you're out in the field and try to record decent audio with all kinds of background noise? Well, normally you resort back to something like a shotgun mic, lav mic or even one of those fancy new wireless mic systems that you just clip on. All these solutions work more or less, but what if you had active noise cancellation built right into them? To answer this question, we're taking a thorough look at Holyland's new Lark M1 wireless microphone system with built-in noise cancellation. What up guys, welcome back to our episode. My name is Eddy Bear and as a follow creator, you know the pain of getting decent reliable audio. And especially if you're a run-and-gun creator, you don't want to waste too much of your precious time on post-processing your audio. You just want a simple solution that is versatile and works right out of the box. So when I heard that the new Holyland Lark M1 now has active noise cancellation, I reached out to the guys from Holyland and they were kind enough to send me a test unit to find out for myself if the built-in noise cancellation is something you actually want in a microphone. However, noise cancellation is not the only thing special about the Lark M1. This is a size comparison between AirPods Pro and the charging case of the Lark M1. This case not only contains two wireless microphones but also one receiver and it charges the microphone on the go. By the way, in today's video, I will switch back and forth between the Lark M1, the Lark 150 and the Deity D3 Pro up here and the text here in the corner will indicate which of the microphones you're hearing. With the Lark M1, Holyland created a bundle that pretty much brings all the accessories to the table that you could wish for. The whole bundle comes in a convenient hardshell case and offers enough space to store additional accessories. As I mentioned before, the M1's charging case is big enough to store two transmitters and one receiver. All three of them are super lightweight and have a very small footprint. The case and every individual unit can be charged via USB-C, so if you ever run low on battery, you can also power it off an additional power bank. If you ever find yourself in a windy situation, you can also use the two included dead cats to put on top of the two microphones. To connect the Lark M1 to various kinds of cameras, you can either use the included TRRS or TRS cable. Holyland is also selling additional adapters that allow you to connect an iPhone or Android smartphone to the Lark M1, but these are sold separately. Last but not least, you can also find a USB-A to USB-C cable in order to charge your accessories. The microphones themselves come with two big microphone drills, a power button, a button to turn on and off the noise cancellation, a clip-on so it can easily be attached to all kinds of surfaces, and a USB-C connector in order to additionally charge it. Once you place it back into the case, it will automatically charge the microphone or the receiver. The two LEDs on the receiver show you whether the microphones are connected to it. You have one USB-C port in order to charge it while using. You have a cold shoe mount, an audio output that can be adjusted with the plus and minus buttons, and you have a power button. To give you an even better understanding how small the Lark M1 is, here's the Lark 150 right next to it. Aside from the fact that the Lark 150 comes without noise cancellation and is almost three times the size of the Lark M1, it does have a display and you can fine-tune the levels of the individual microphones, and you also have the ability to attach level ear microphones directly to the transmitter. But if you don't need these let's call them pro features, you have a clear size advantage with the Lark M1. Enough talk about the product. Let me show you how the Lark M1 performed in a worst-case scenario where every single microphone would have struggled, and there's no better place to do this than at the IFA in Berlin, where you're surrounded by a million people and a gazillion of noise sources. So here I'm going to show you how well the Holyland Lark M1 performs under real-world conditions where I'm standing right in the middle of more than 100 people. There are a bunch of booths here at IFA, and we are going to see whether this microphone produces usable audio with its noise cancellation amongst this crowd of people. So now I'm using no noise cancellation. That means that the LEDs on the microphones are blue. And since I'm using both microphones, we even get stereo audio. So I'm going to switch over to noise cancellation, and you can tell that the LEDs switch now over to green. That means that active noise cancellation is applied in real time to the audio. So what do you think? How does the noise cancellation impact the audio? Did it become better or worse? Or would you use this kind of audio in your footage? Let me know in the comments. As you probably could tell, even with the default settings of the receiver paired with the already low gain settings in my camera, my audio was still clipping. So for a general rule of thumb, I would recommend you to lower the output setting of the receiver by pushing the minus button on it. Since the Lark M1 only has three settings, plus, normal, and minus, by pushing the minus button once, it will be already at the lowest settings. Also be aware, if you place the receiver back into the charging case, it will reset the settings to the stock default settings. By the way, you can also attach the Holyland Lark M1 to a smartphone, and we're going to do that in a minute on my iPhone 13 Pro. So this is the audio that is being produced by the smartphone itself, and we're going to see whether the noise cancellation can help you with your smartphone. So let's attach this. So this is how the Lark M1 sounds if it's connected to your iPhone or any other smartphone. I did lower the volume though that it is not clipping, and now we're going to switch over to the active noise cancellation to see how it is affecting your audio. Now once again, you can see that the LEDs turn green once I switch over, and this is how it sounds with active noise cancellation running. What do you think? Which of the three options you have here is doing a better job? Let me know in the comments. Now you know how the Lark M1 sounds in a worst-case scenario, but a question remains. Do you need built-in noise cancellation, or can you use the one that, for example, Final Cut has to offer for post-production? Let's find out. So here I'm going to show you how well the Holyland Lark M1 performs under real-world conditions, where I'm standing right in the middle of more than 100 people. There are a bunch of booths here at IFA, and we are going to see whether this microphone produces usable audio with its noise cancellation amongst this crowd of people. So now I'm using no noise cancellation. That means that the LEDs on the microphones are blue. And since I'm using both microphones, we even get stereo audio. So I'm going to switch over to noise cancellation. So this is how the Lark M1 sounds if it's connected to your iPhone or any other smartphone. I did lower the volume, though, that it is not clipping. And now we're going to switch over to the active noise cancellation to see how it is affecting your audio. But now the question still needs to be answered. How does the active noise cancellation in the Holyland Lark M1 hold up compared to post-process noise cancellation that you can apply, for example, in Final Cut? Please let me know in the comments. In general, I do think that the Lark M1 is an amazing product. And the simple fact that you can record stereo audio, you can use it to mic up two individuals in an interview situation, and it's so small and light, you can even slap it onto the back of an Osmo Mobile 6 in order to feed audio right into your iPhone 14. It's so versatile, and it just does not take up any space. You can pretty much bring it along to every shoot. And by the way, if you haven't seen my initial review of the Lark 150 yet, I will link it for you here so you can check it out. So with that said, thank you for watching. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe. And I see you in the next one. Peace!