Topic: Mic Comp: DPA4060 vs. Nevaton MCE400

[Cheesecadet]

So when is the big reveal on the sources?

[OOK]

I know a secret......

[JD]

Sample A = DPA 4060
Sample B = Nevaton MCE400
 


I'll post more in a bit, got to shut the PC down till a storm passes.

[Gutbucket]

Doh!   

[acidjack]

Damn ... wow.  Nevaton is making some nice mics!

[tcf]

Ok now we need a mk4 - mc49 comp

[it-goes-to-eleven]

What about the location?

Why are we hearing coughing in one sample but not in the other?

[dactylus]

Sample A = DPA 4060
Sample B = Nevaton MCE400
 


I'll post more in a bit, got to shut the PC down till a storm passes.

Granted dpa 4061's are not 4060's and I guessed wrong, but I have never heard my 4061's sound that crappy.   

[JD]

OK, here are some details about the recording.
Both recordings were made in the center of the 5th or 6th row of the theater. There was three of us taping, we all sat side by side, and I was in the center seat wearing the nevatons.
The DPA recording was made one seat to my right, still very much near the center of the row.

We all ran low-pro because the theater frowns upon mics in people's sight-lines down front and I usually do just as good wearing the mics there.

When these recording were made, I had no intentions of doing a mic comp or I would have tried to be more exact.
It was months later, I realized when comparing the two recordings, that the rigs were almost identical and that it would make a reasonable good comparison.
Fortunately, Tom and I almost always swap our CF cards when we record together with our 722s, so I had a copy of each master on hand.

Now here is the biggest difference in how we ran our mics, Tom wore the DPAs on his shirt collar, probably about a 4" to 5" spread.
I wore the Nevatons on the front of my shoulders, at I think about a 12" spread, maybe as much as 14" being I was flanked on both sides by a taper.
I wear the mics slightly down on the front of my shoulders so that my body acts as a baffle giving me less audience noise from behind. I am
taller than Tom, but being I wear my mics lower, I have to say that both pairs were at about the same height.

So the biggest difference between the two was the spread of the mics, which can be clearly heard. Here is something interesting to try though,
take a single channel from each sample make a mono recording and compare. I still find that the Nevaton samples are still more pleasant to listen to
and sound more open and life-like.


A note about the room, there is a caberat seating area directly in front of the stage, about 18' deep, then the rows start, so I would guess we were about 30' from stage lip.
The PA is hung high at the stage corners and aimed somewat downward, almost directly at were we were seated (that is why I can get away with wearing my mics so low)

I love my DPA 4060's, but in this theater, especially with acoustic music, I think I consistently do better with the nevatons.
Also, I think that the 4060s sound much better with the DPA MMA6000 pre than they do with the phantom adapters into the 7xx recorders and I think
the nevatons pair very well with the 7xx recorders.  All a matter of opinion though...

Thanks for all of the excellent feedback! I'll try to do this comp again wearing both sets of mics on one hat as suggested, when I can

jamie

[dactylus]

Thanks for the details Jamie.

[Gutbucket]

A second thanks for putting this up and for the detailed explaination.

I'm suprised, since B sounds much closer to my 4060 recordings and the upper midrangy peak in A seems uncharacteristic of that mic. Never had much luck with the collar mount technique, myself.  I'm not at all as familiar with the MCE400 sound and would like to try them sometime, even more so now.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

This was a fun comp.

Though I would suggest the differences in how the mics were worn was a very significant factor in the results.  There was something not quite right about A, especially when compared to B.  Whether there was something going on with the whole lapel position, and interaction, or something else..

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Thanks! So cool that the Nevaton's seem to have "won"

I agree the mic placement sort of makes it a not so scientific experiment. Get them mics up high. I always hat mount unless security is uber tight.

[dactylus]

First off thank you for the comp Jamie!  I think that this comp was more of a mic positioning comp than anything else.  I own 4061's & the Nevaton's so I don't care who "wins".  I like them both.  But as I stated earlier my 4061's have never sounded anything like what I heard from the sample A, 4060's in this comp. 

What kind of gear would I have to use with my 4061's & mce400's to make it a somewhat equal and valuable comp?  I do NOT have the phantom power adapters for the dpa's.  I think that I still have access to two V3's that have not been modded and using the digi out on both should take care of that part, I can run both pairs of mics over-and-under, side-by-side or whatever closely matched config so that they will be very close to the same position relative to the sound source.  Any suggestions?

[acidjack]

First off thank you for the comp Jamie!  I think that this comp was more of a mic positioning comp than anything else.  I own 4061's & the Nevaton's so I don't care who "wins".  I like them both.  But as I stated earlier my 4061's have never sounded anything like what I heard from the sample A, 4060's in this comp. 

What kind of gear would I have to use with my 4061's & mce400's to make it a somewhat equal and valuable comp?  I do NOT have the phantom power adapters for the dpa's.  I think that I still have access to two V3's that have not been modded and using the digi out on both should take care of that part, I can run both pairs of mics over-and-under, side-by-side or whatever closely matched config so that they will be very close to the same position relative to the sound source.  Any suggestions?

I guess it still would not be a perfect comp but you could run the DPAs line-in to an M10.  For that matter, you could also use a pure phantom power source and run the Nevatons line-in somewhere too (i.e., to an M10). I think even the many purists on here would accept that 2 R-09s or 2 M10s are close enough alike.   How are your DPAs wired up?   Mine can power off a 9v BB, so for me that would be doable. 

Quite frankly, even if you went DPAs>DPA MMA0 (whatever that model # is of the DPA pre) > line in to some deck and Nevatons > deck (using the deck's pre) as long as the mics were positioned the same, I still think it'd be an interesting comp.