[alohachris]

Aloha Friends,

Some VERY interesting twists & turns in this thread. Much grist to chew on. We ALL can learn a lot here.

I hope the main thing when we ALL read online gear & mic opinions is to realize that ONLY YOUR EARS CAN TELL WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOUR MUSIC & NEEDS. You gotta listen first, baby - before ya buy.

If we buy purely due to "respected" online opinions, then we deserve whatever the results are. I mean, those GS mic discussions are Captain Insano - especially RE: U47's & their clones! Sheesh!

As the Chesire Cat said, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." If you don't listen first, that's YOUR choice/limitation - "any road."

That's why in all my 1600 some AGF posts here I have ALWAYS tried to remember to tell people to ALWAYS go put an ear on it - whatever "it" is - before you buy. AND, to ALWAYS think & choose "it" in terms of your whole signal chain before making a choice of any gear.

But I get the feeling that too many are inclined not to do that.

I know that Mic's & mic discussions are so completely seducing. But I can honestly say that I have never bought any mic in my 50 years of buying mic's based on anyone's else's opinion - without having allowed my ears to make the final choice - before I bought.

Many of you know that I go as far as to often rent gear from all over the Mainland & to do my own shoot-outs on my home rig here in Hawaii & that I also go to LA every coupla years or so just to PUT AN EAR ON GEAR. I don't trust anyone's opinions, just my ears.

We all hear differently. That's the main point & issue. The choice is in the ear of the listener. So why allow someone else's ears make the call for you? Go put an ear on lots of mic's (brands, types, price ranges) before you buy - any mic! That is especially true for younger players who may actually tend to trust online opinions - by us old futs. Don't do it.

Start simply & cheap on mic's (a coupla SDC's for stereo miking solo acoustic guitar = most consistent & complete results). Learn a lot about mic placement, room acoustics & signal chains. Then move up towards the better mic's as soon as you can.

As Doug has said, once you get into the good stuff, you can more easily trade out for other good stuff. I could provide many examples of doing that as I moved up the mic trough. It's much harder to get any $ or trade value for used, cheap mic's.

Regards,

alohachris


PS: Fran, you know what I was saying, right? That we'll always use our best mic's for the right application at hand. And for studio recording (not youtube), we just aren't going to reach for those noisy mic's of any handheld recorder. We simply aint reachin' for a 2020 for a recording for release.

To do that means making a value judgment among mic's & their different qualities. Furthermore, it is really IS true that some of those qualitative differences ARE more obvious than subtle, IMO. Don't need no demo's or null tests to hear that. That's what my ears tell me. That's it. No disparagement or hu-hu, Magoo. I'm your biggest fan, especially for sharing that "absorber" video (oughta be a sticky for every mic discussion thread anywhere, Fran, & your nahe'-nahe' style of playing kiho'alu! -alohachris-