Recording Test: Baggs iBeam vs Mi-Si Magpie

[guitaniac]

https://soundcloud.com/guitaniac/rec...social_sharing

This is a test to compare the pickups in my old Martin D28. I've been working with a Zoom A1-Four to try and find the optimum EQ for each of these pickups. No other effects were applied. The iBeam comes first in these three sample pairs. Normalizing for the same amplitude for each pair, it was obvious to me that the Magpie signal is somewhat more compressed. I'm not sure that will be apparent here as Soundcloud will compress these samples.

[SpruceTop]

Thanks, Gary, you give me new hope for the Ibeam as it sounds pretty good! I think I like the tone of the IBeam better than the Magpie.

[guitaniac]

Ken,

I agree with you on tone, but I suspect the Magpie will work better, in my own case at least, for playing with bare fingers in noisy settings. SoundCloud and/or YouTube definitely compresses the sound and you can't really tell that the mag samples are more compressed from the SoundCloud demo. I can sure hear it and see it, however when the sound waves are in Audacity.

I originally recorded these sound samples simultaneously with the signal from an iRig stage mic, but the iRig mic sound was so in-the-well that I'd much rather use your Trans Amulet SBT or the HFN or even my iBeam for direct recording where I want some isolation between guitar and vocal. At least I have the sound samples to try and see if there are any EQ tricks in Audacity that can help.

I'm having better luck with the Lyric, but it still has some of that in-the-well sound which drives me nuts. I'm not hearing that with your Trans Amulet recordings or the recent HFN recordings. It's also apparent that the HFN has good potential for blending with a mag for live use.