Well o-dog. After I wrote my comments about the Rude mic.....I thought about reposting and backing off a bit, but it didn't seem worth it since the following posts snarfed at what I said.......but hey I guess you'll have that and I didn't take it personally..I was just trying to give the origanl post some form of info. But Getting back to you question and the post talking about the one spec.......your right it is a bit one sided on a particular spec........But as I said I didn't hear the Rude mic so I should reserve some judgement. After all its how something sounds to a person that matters. What might sound great to me may sound like shit to someone else. I stand corrected...on that.....But personally, I do Look at self noise as one of the factors in choosing a mic. But then again in a live recording situation such as concert taping your not going to hear that noise because of other factors. Acoustics have a lot to play in how a recoding sounds, location of the mics, who's mixing and from where, so on so on so on.... My taste in mics tend toward the viena style bright sounding mics like the AKG and MBHO's of the world. As for your examples you did choose some very good mics....I am familar with many of the mic specs you chose
( Yes I am a GEEK).....I can only give my opinion on what I think the mics you chose sound like.......In example 1 your talking about the Studio project C3 mic. Althought I have not heard that particular mic I believe that the capsules in that mic are used in their LSD2 stereo mic. Now I like the sound of this mic, its on the bright side, atleast in the recording or two I have heard, I know I contradict myself because this mic has a self noise of 18db, which to me is high. I wouldn't call it stellar but a good strater mic. In example 2 you picked a neumman U87. This is a classic.....This mic is probably the most used studio mic in history. Since its release it has been used on almost every vocal track defining the sixties and seventies and up to the present. However, I don't like this mic in a concert recording setting. It tends to be too dark for my taste and the promimity affect is huge when used at a distant with this mic. I prefer the U89 but only up close, FOB or stage lip. I know they are similar but there is just something about the U87 I don't like. In example 3 your talking about the DPA4023, again a good mic and a lot of people go to this mic for concert recording. Again I am not crazy about this mic. It is a very flat liniar mic. Agian prone to a lot of proximity affect. I often find myself sweetin the high end when I come across this mic. on a recording. But a lot of people like this mic. In example 4 your talking about the ADKtl's. I remember when ADK came out and no one knew about them. This was a mic I almost bought, but since I hadn't heard one and wasn't will to be a ginnypig I passed. But this mic has hit big in the taping community, I don't know That I would call it a AKG killer but it sound good for the most part on the recordings I have heard. As for spec 5 I have never heard this mic but I know that its a Blue Dragon fly.....I like the spec on this mic and Have been dying to hear a pair but its not one that I have come across in the taping circles. I find it would be hard to use outside due to "what the hell kind of wind screeen can you put on this thing factor", but I am curious.
As for what Todd R stated diagrams are a big help as well. I find myslef looking a lot for a bump in the high end of the frequency response curve to counter the proximity affect most cardiods have. A bump of 3 to 6 db around 9k is what my ears like the most, but again in the type of recording I do (concerts) there are a lot of factors as stated above. Technique also has something to do with how a mic will sound in a recording, AB, XY, DIN, ORTF, NOS.......
SO I guess YOu nailed me, using one spec (noise)is not always a good idea in choosing a mic, it just happens to be a starting point for me, followed by frequency response, dynamic range and SPL.....But the best way to choose a mic is to patch, get the different flavors out there and there are a lot.........But I am still leary of a company that doesn't make full disclosure on specs.........Maybe a Rude sounds great, maybe not, but they haven't giving me enough information to explore it further and drop cash on it so I will let someone else do it and wait...... again the above is merely my opinion agree if you want and If you don't thats cool too........Taping is fun for me and thats why I do it...........when its no longer fun I'll stop and do something else............expand if you want
Topic: Seemingly Affordable Multi Pattern LD mic (Read 6386 times)