Topic: Milab VM44-Link vs. Beyerdynamic CK930 (Moe. related) with sound samples

[Popmarter]

Hi guys,

Another great open taping experience here in The Netherlands for Eric66, Aaronji and me: Moe. at the Melkweg, Amsterdam on 27th of March 2014.

Nice opportunity to do a - bit of a - comparison: Beyerdynamic CK930 (Eric66) + Milab VM44-Link (popmarter)

Lineage:
Beyerdynamic CK930 > Edirol R44
Milab VM44 Link > SD Mixpre-D > tgakidis digital cable > Edirol R44

I know, lineage is not completely the same, so it is not a real comparison, but still nice to make up your mind about these mics. Location of the recording: balcony, left side, mics 20cm apart pointed at one PA-stack.

Both tracks were recorded 24bit/96khz, normalised to -3db peak in Wavelab and uploaded.

https://soundcloud.com/popmarter

[yates7592]

Ha ha my old CK930's, great mics! I am cheating here because I have already heard the samples. Almost a true comp, neglecting the mix-pre. Whilst they are both great pulls, I know which sample is my old mics, so I'm saying nothing, but it will be interesting to hear what others make of this.

[eric66]

Ha ha my old CK930's, great mics! I am cheating here because I have already heard the samples. Almost a true comp, neglecting the mix-pre. Whilst they are both great pulls, I know which sample is my old mics, so I'm saying nothing, but it will be interesting to hear what others make of this.

Yes, your good old CK 930's and I like them!
To my ears it's difficult to say which set I prefer, both mics has it's pros but most important both sound excellent,
the Milabs sound more crisp and have less bass response while the Beyerdynamics have somewhat less detail
but they shine in bass response.

[tim in jersey]

Nice to see you European chaps getting a chance to do some open taping. 

I'm curious, did you have to work that out with the venue before-hand?

[acidjack]

Not surprised how strongly I prefer the Milabs, which are much brighter mics to begin with, especially when paired with that SD MixPre, which is a pretty transparent-sounding pre compared to the decent but not amazing stock R-44 pres. Thanks for posting the samples.

[spyder9]

I preferred the CK930 > R-44 stock in the first shootout.

I preferred the DPA 2006s > Aerco MP-2 - Sony M10 in the 2nd shootout.

[eric66]

Nice to see you European chaps getting a chance to do some open taping. 

I'm curious, did you have to work that out with the venue before-hand?

Aaronji worked out the band's permission and also worked this out with the venue on forehand. We walked in the venue and showed the band's permission (e-mail) and we got all cooperation including a balcony just for ourselves (it was closed because it was far from a sold out gig).

[F.O.Bean]

So cool that you got to experience what open taping is like! I take it you guys would prefer to open tape in the future?

[eric66]

So cool that you got to experience what open taping is like! I take it you guys would prefer to open tape in the future?

In general there aren't any problems if the band is okay with taping and if you communicate it on forehand with the venue, most of the venues in the Netherlands are very friendly and
even sometimes we got early entrance, but that's not very common.
Open taping isn't very common unfortunately, maybe it will be someday

[aaronji]

Nice to see you European chaps getting a chance to do some open taping. 

I'm curious, did you have to work that out with the venue before-hand?

I have been arranging everything with both band and venue in advance.  Like eric66 said, most of the venues are pretty friendly and I have yet to get turned down when I have the band's OK.  Sometimes it can be pretty difficult to get a response from the venues, though (sending a mail to "info@venue.nl" isn't always very productive)...