Review: Tula Microphone and Recorder
OH HI.
Been a minute. Let’s Talk Tula! A sweet little portable microphone that records to itself AND features a DAMN fine bit of noise-reduction!
Why though, you may ask.
Why do you, a POST PRODUCTION PROFESSIONAL, care about a $200 portable recorder?
What an amazing question! Because you are such an amazing reader!
The because is, things have changed.
Workflows. Methodologies. Paradigms. EXPECTATIONS.
New roles, new responsibilities, new tools! New Tula.
Podcasts have started to proliferate like we haven’t seen since the invention of the term in 2004. Businesses saw a new way to promote, and scrambled to take advantage of a new channel.
The serious places with serious money started to reach out to people familiar with recording and editing the human voice to figure out the best way to capture and deliver their material.
A lot of podcasts were started, using everything from the built in mics to full on RE20 or U87 based setups. New products were developed by all the usual RODE suspects specifically for podcasting.
Then everything chilled for, uh, a decade.
Then. THE RONA.
AND WE ARE back in a podcast frame of mind! And we have WAY better gear to do a WAY better job with!
Like the Tula. Now, I should say, you can use this little beauty for anything that requires portable recording. It sounds great, certainly good enough for broadcast.
For the purposes of this review though I am framing it in a Podcast light because that’s a request I have gotten lately.
Tula answers the question, “Do you have something I can hand to a client, have them record and upload material in broadcast quality, and is NOT COMPLICATED AT ALL?”
We don’t want to be too close to each other, so let's just MAIL them a microphone. I was doing ADR at the height of the pandemic by mailing customized Pelican Cases full of gear and instructions to actors. It was a LOT.
This microphone is well-designed enough to offer perfectly reasonable, nay, pretty darn good VO style results for anyone. There’s a ton of examples in the accompanying video.
The client can either upload the material themselves by connecting the included USB C cable, thus turning the Tula into a hard drive, or they can simply drop ship it back to you. The size also cuts down on shipping costs! The ADR Pelican was about $300 from NYC to LA. This would be under $50.
The Tula does have enough controls to be intensely useful unto itself, have a look:
The two LEDs on the front indicate Record Status (Left) and metering ballistics (right).
The back offers Battery Level, the USB C, and a hard reset. Let us all thank manufacturers for hard resets.
What makes a microphone of this nature good?
Does it accurately YET PLEASINGLY capture its intended frequencies?
Is it aesthetically pleasing? I hope so.
Is it tough?
ANSWER KEY:
Yes. Demonstrably.
Oh yes. Sea Foam!
Unless you are particularly violent.
Added perks: Records to self + noise-reduction
Speaking of noise reduction: Brusfri: Can’t treat the room? Treat the signal.
Klevgrand is a Swedish plug-in company that makes all sorts of fun. They have a sweet, chipper vibe, their UX is top-drawer, and their selection is extensive and intensely value conscious. The majority of their offerings are effects and boutique instruments.
They also have a sweet little $60 noise killer called Brusfri. It’s a standard “Listen, identify [bad noise], use clever algorithms to attenuate said [bad noise].
In the video you will hear it go up against the usual suspects, Absentia, RX9. DNS2, Clarity, and come out in a very impressive place for $60. VERY impressive.
I bring this up because Brusfri is integrated into the Tula.
And before you worry, recording with it turned on yields two files, one effected and one raw/dry.
To use it, you simply hold the NC (noise cancellation) button on the left side for a few seconds so it can listen to your environment. This is how the plug in version works as well.
From there it’s either on or off, your choice. My results seemed a little random; that is, it either did a nice job of tempering HVAC etc and cutting down on room verb, OR, seemed to do nothing at all. User error? Weird integration? I’ll keep testing. As I said above, the video with headphones will show you exactly what I heard. Also, you can enjoy my varied attempts at pronouncing “Brusfri”. (BroosFRY? BruhsFREE?) I’ll expect a chipper, vaguely Scandinavian correction from Klevgrand.
So, portable recorder, hella decent microphone, anything else?
Why yes. Plug it into your computer and it can become a far better system microphone. It has a mute button! You will be the leader of the Zoom/Meetings/WEBEX/FUZE aural pack.
In conclusion, this microphone was interesting to me precisely because the demands on my time have shifted. I don’t want to spend extra time de-noising and de-verbing and eq’ing sourced client material, and for $200 I can drastically cut down on that. The client gets a small, dramatically attractive plug and play solution, I get files that don’t require too much sweat and time. Win/win.