My microphone and its quality (or lack thereof) have been the bane of our video producers’ existence for some time. Until this past year, my microphone didn’t really have to do any heavy lifting, as it was largely used for work meetings, the odd Discord chat, and not much else. Corsair’s slimmed down K65 line of mechanical keyboards gets a stylish and great-sounding new entry.
Straight out of the box, it was love at first sight. One of the things I liked the most is that it’s weighty. It feels like a quality product just by picking it up.
Don’t underestimate the happiness that a weighty peripheral gives. You can use it on the stand included, but it’s also compatible with boom mic arms if you want to get real fancy. Like all Razer products, the Seiren V3 Chroma can be as simple or as in-depth as you want it to be.
It’s easy to set up, as you just have to plug it in and it’s ready to go, perfect for those who want a decent mic without having to learn all the ins and outs of audio levels and finetuning their setup. However, for those who do want to tinker, the Razer Synapse app allows you to personalise everything from the lighting on the mic to bit rates, and you can separate volume levels to get into the nitty gritty of feeling like you have studio controls at your fingertips. There’s not a confusing clump of cables to deal with, you connect it to your PC via USB and the mic only features two ports: USB C (for the PC connection) and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
There’s an easy tap-to-mute sensor on the top of the mic. It’s nice and easy for when you need to mute quickly, but for those who want to tailor it more specifically to their needs, you can program it further. Both the double and triple tap functions on this sensor can be used to change the RGB lighting or toggle the mic’s digital gain limiter for more granular control on the fly.
My old mic was a good few years old by the time it retired, so it should come as no surprise that the Razer Seiren V3 Chroma (a supercardioid condenser mic, for those of you who want to know the specifics) was an immediate improvement. The sound quality is a substantial upgrade to what I was using previously. Supercardioid means the microphone can pick up not just sound in front of it, but also sounds directly behind it without picking up stray environmental noise, making it ideal for interviews and podcasts.
With its digital gain limiter and built-in shock absorber, it also suppresses general room noise like typing and mouse clicks. As a loud typer, I can assure you my colleagues appreciate this. I have a mechanical keyboard, so you can still hear me typing, and higher-end studio-grade mics likely have better noise suppression, but this isn’t a half-bad attempt.
The noise level is reduced to focus on the clarity of my voice, and it’s a very noticeable improvement from what I was using before. I imagine with some extra finetuning via software, you can reduce it even further to focus on your voice. I’m a loud person, too.
Indoor voice? What’s that? Another win for my poor colleagues who have to listen to me.
Since I switched to the Razer Seiren V3 Chroma, I haven’t heard a single complaint from our video producer, which is the biggest stamp of approval it can get. At £129.99, it’s not the cheapest mic on the market and you can likely find more affordable options that offer the same audio quality, but perhaps lack in other areas. For this price, you’re not just getting the sound you want, but all the style, as well as the bells and whistles via Synapse that Razer delivers.
Noise suppression could be a little better, but the Seiren V3 Chroma is a decent microphone that will last.
