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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: 6079 on July 26, 2008, 06:23:04 PM
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I'll save the mic brands for later so they don't sway anyone's opinions.
These clips have not been edited, aside from a little volume to mic 1. They all consisted of two mics to a pair, at the same location and directed at the same direction. It might be an interesting study to see what you all think sounds best and worst and offer some insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each mic.
3 flac files in a rar file. Scroll to bottom and find: "Download Link"
Song A - 8 mb
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2uyl7a
Song B - 11 mb
http://www.sendspace.com/file/y2x8fx
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The mic #2 sounds best for me. Good sound and less audience noise. Then #3, but it was close. I don't like sound of the first mic.
1 - mic2
2 - mic3
3 - mic1
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2 & 3 are the clearest. 3 sounds warmer to me than the others. That's my choice.
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SongA.rar
#1 little brighter, but I'll rate higher...some noise on my speakers
#3 best stereo image? warmest? slight boom?
#2 almost sounds like a towel is over it in the beginning
SongB.rar
#2 best
#1 sounds a little thin here
#3 too boomy on my speakers
Reserving the right to change my mind after listening on more than computer speakers....
--Michael
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mic 1 shure SM 58
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Shure-SM58-Mic?sku=270101&src=3SOSWXXA
mic 2 Audio Technica AT831C
http://www.instrumentpro.com/P-AUDAT831C.html
mic 3 Neumann U89
http://www.soundpure.com/showProduct.do?id=66
These are all very different mics. I agree with other opinions. The SM 58 obviously is brighter and lacks some of the "body" of the other mics, but I do appreciate the sense of clarity it offers.
The other mics are a truer sense of what sounds actually occured. And I think we've become accustomed to a sort of booming, bass-heavy live recording standard. The SM 58's are more like a studio mix, in their lack of low-end, but the bass still comes through well enough.
For full disclosure, I used the SM 58's and may be stuck with them for the forseeable future, so that may color my opinion, but all things considered I'm pretty happy with their performance. What they lack in some areas, I feel they make up for in their strengths and it's a tough choice, but it's my preference. This could be my immaturity in live recording and I don't consider myself an audiophile. Maybe it's the equivalent of the "yummy phase" where the guy eats peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches instead of a steak, but that's my take on it. It also does very well with acoustic sets.
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My favorites:
Song A
Sample 2 - Better soundstage and transparency
Sample 3 - Better balance and overall creamy delivery which I like
Sample 1 - Not bad sound at all, but overall more harsh and likely fatiguing to listen to for a long time.
Song B
A little harder to evaluate this one because the volume of sample three is higher than the other two, but
Sample 3 - I find the my preference in mics is largely biased by how authentic I feel the drum beats are. That percussive sound seems to be one of the harder ones for mics to really accurately reproduce...and to my ears most mics produce a harsher more brittle end result than what I hear live. Anyway, for this song, which I much more drum heavy than Song A, I prefer Sample 3 for the above stated reasons.
Sample 2 - Similar to Song A, good balance and overall delivery.
Sample 1 - Again, not bad sound, but overall balance is not there and the various frequencies/intruments aren't as distiguishable from each other in this as in Sample 2 especially (which has I think the best overall balance and soundstage), but also Sample 3.