First, know that I'm one who would not be satisfied with either without some EQ work. In light of that, if I had to choose one over the other, I'd most likely choose the CAs. My initial thoughts are that the smoother, less peaky frequency response of the CAs is likely to be easier to EQ into a response I'd be satisfied with. Not saying the ATs couldn't be EQ'd to satisfaction, only that higher 'Q' resonant peaks like I'm hearing in the AT sample here can sometimes be more of a challenge to deal with than starting with a flatter "low Q" response. Sometimes I can correct those resonant peaks relatively easily with targeted EQ, sometimes not. On initial listen, the CAs seem like a potentially more fruitful starting point, an easier base-line raw response to work with.
I would love a further explanation of this, because it seems important and yet I only understand about half of it. In particular, when you say "higher 'Q' resonant peaks," what are you talking about here?
Irregardless of audience chatter, that amount of height difference can be quite significant with regards to tonal EQ balance from some PAs and some rooms. I'd certainly not dismiss this variable outright, it may be quite significant here.
Next time I'll be sure to set them right next to each other. This was a last-second decision — oh, hey, I have these other mics I'm not using, I can run a comparison — and I didn't have time to mount the CA-14s on the stand right next to the AT853s.
FOB doesn't seem to be the best spot here.
Oh, for sure. My original plan was to get there early for a good spot and record from my seat, until I arrived and found that unlike the last time Freakwater played there, this wasn't a seated show. Since I already had a board feed and was just using the mics for added ambience and balance, I figured FOB would do okay, which it did, more or less.
Used up close (he has already realized the aural benefits of sitting stage lip before he started taping) [the CA-14s] are nice and have a good off the shelf sound. ... I'm happy with the CA's but they seem better suited out of the box to some situations than others.
Agreed as well — my best results with the CA-14s have been where I'm close to the stage, the stacks, or both. I've tried supercards (the SP-CMC-25s I ended up selling you, in fact) and wasn't happy with the sound, which feels kind of thin for amplified guitar music. For more acoustic shows like this one at a boomy venue like this one, they probably would have been perfect for recording from FOB, but I'm not quite in a position to invest in a different set of mics for every occasion. Yet.