Topic: String Quartet "Mic Shootout" Results - Audio sample included

[Jamos]

Hey all...

I've been working on a project for the last week or so that involves a standard string quartet.  We had a little "mic shootout" where we tried 5 different stereo pairs of mics on them.

The mics were:

-Royer R121 ribbons
-Neumann "klaus-modded" KMi84's
-AT 4050's
-DPA 4007 measurement mics
-Studio Projects LSD2

Having never actually heard the Royer's, I couldn't have been more impressed.  They are beautiful sounding mics...completely natural sounding, not too bright, very even sounding at all frequencies to my ears.  The KMi84's sounded very nice, not quite as fat a bottom as the km184's I've listened to...but next to the Royers they sounded kind of flat.  The 4050's held their own and like the 121's were very nice across the whole spectrum.  The DPA's sounded interesting, but didn't make anything sound beautiful.  The LSD2 in XY, then in blumlein, sounded nice, but again, against the Royer's it sounded REALLY too bright.  Everyone commented on it's large size, and sadly, it was ruled out rather quickly.
 

Anyhow, we ended up going with the Royer's set up in Blumlein, about 6' up and angled down at about 45 degrees or so...and focused a hair towards the viola.  We then ended up highlighting the cello and 1st violin a little with a 4050 on each.

Here's a yousendit.com link to a sample recording so people can check it out and comment on what they think. 
http://www.yousendit.com/download/UnlEZXR6MGN3TGg1VEE9PQ

I would definitely recommend the Royers for all kinds of things.  They really do sound incredible.

I wish I had taken some pictures before we took apart the mic trees, but that day absolutely flew by and I didn't have a chance.

Let me know wat'cha think.  It sounds even better in person!
 

[Gutbucket]

Spectacular!  Soooo smooth.  Really great, realistic bow on string quality.  Late here now, I look forward to listening again tomorrow when I can crank it up more.

[Gutbucket]

Quickly played it a little louder before I came in to work.  I did notice some background noise or hum in the silent moments from the room perhaps and I'd prefer a little more ambience overall, but I really like the sound of those mics.   How far in front of the players were the mics and what was the rest of the rec chain?

[Evil Taper]

those mics sound extremely musical.  the pre sounds a little noisy though, unless that hiss is just from the compression.  what was being used besides the royers?

[Jamos]

Hey I think any noise on the reording is just room noise since we recorded on stage in a theatre.  It's part of a play and there are lots of lighting scrollers, moving lights, and other devices in the vicinity (although where the quartet is is fairly isolated).  They play in a fairly dead little "room" that is about 10' x 10' and surrounded by soft drapes. 

Like i mentioned, it's the royer 121's blumlein with Audio-technica 4050's on the cello and 1st violin.  The royer's are centered in the quartet, so probably about 4' or so from each instrument. 

The pre's are pretty decent...they are on a Yamaha DM2000 production console.  I really think it's the room noise you hear, and not the pre's.  So it's mics > DM2000 > Tascam CD-RW2000 > protools > mp3
Certainly not a studio environment.  Also, since we're not in a chamber hall or anything, so we've added a little hall verb to it, but we didn't get that on the recording.

The royer's are sweet...so incredibly natural.

[Gutbucket]

Besides room noise and some hiss, I hear definite electrionic noise that may be from the lights, cables, grounding or power.  Only noticable in the quiet spots with the volume up.  The drapes enclosing the immediate area is probably why it sounds dry to me. 

Too bad those Royers are a bit pricey and subject to potential wind damage, they'd be perfect for some of my applications since I like them so much on acoustic music.  I've heard an outdoor recording of Nickle Creek using the stereo version of the 121 (number?.. not the active one) that also had great string tone and attack as well as a superb depth and sence of ambience.  They're not very sensative though, and can require a lot of clean gain at a distance or for quiet stuff.

Thanks for sharing.