Mic Comparison - a Tutorial

[Fran Guidry]

When I started recording I used a Shure SM57 into a Behringer mixer and a Soundblaster. When I started reading internet recording forums I realized I could never make a decent recording with that gear, so I started upgrading. I always expected to hear startling improvements from new mic preamps, new a/d converters, and I have to say those big improvements were hard to find. Lately I've been trying to do careful comparisons between gear, and I'm beginning to think that most decent gear that isn't broken sounds about the same.

Certainly more the same than any two performances I could ever achieve.

Even microphones seem a lot more similar than I would have expected based on reading recording forums.

I've done a blog post describing the process of setting up a careful mic comparison, one that has one performance recorded through all the mics at once, with careful level matching and the same signal chain for all the mics. There's a two part video showing mic setup and gain staging, and there are clips from three mics, the CAD M179, Rode NT2a, and Audio-Technica AT3035 for you to compare.

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2009/...son-a-tutorial

PM or email me or post a comment on the Homebrewed Music blog with your identifications of the three mics and I'll respond with the key.

Fran

[Doug Young]

Cool, I'm watching it now. Is that the Flip you're using for video? Quality sure looks good. The volume level on the 1st video is really low, tho, I have my speakers all the way up at the moment.

Oh, man, what was the cool 3D stuff at the end? :-)

[Bob Womack]

Interesting comparison. K&L are my favs. I'm listening on the cheezo speakers and Sony cans at home, but might favor L over K... not sure.

Bob

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Cool, I'm watching it now. Is that the Flip you're using for video? Quality sure looks good. The volume level on the 1st video is really low, tho, I have my speakers all the way up at the moment.

Oh, man, what was the cool 3D stuff at the end? :-)

Yeah, that's the Flip Mino HD. They have a new one out, the Ultra HD, that has a stereo mic, double the storage, and replaceable batteries, but I'm off in another direction, looking at Sanyo Xacti HD models (audio input and wide angle lens adapters) and the Panasonic Lumix Zs3 (25mm wide angle, 12x optical zoom, 720p HD, stereo mic). Getting into Vimeo has been good for my camcorder knowledge, bad for my budget <grin>.

I need to tweak the levels on that clip and put up a new version. Vimeo is cool for a lot of reasons, one of them is that you can replace the video and retain comments and such.

The logo trailer?? Cute, huh? That's Sketchup animation. If I'm not careful I find myself spending all my guitar time playing with Sketchup instead <grin>.

Fran

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Interesting comparison. K&L are my favs. I'm listening on the cheezo speakers and Sony cans at home, but might favor L over K... not sure.

Bob

Thanks for taking the time to listen, Bob. Do you find the differences surprisingly small, or is this about what you would expect?

Fran

[Bob Womack]

It is surprisingly small. Now that I'm listening on the main monitors at work, I favor K. But you could use any of the three to get a nice product.

Bob

[rick-slo]

Many mikes do sound quite similar overall, a fact that was apparent listening to the various clips over on the Listening Sessions web site (which by the way seems to be gone now). I guess that is not too surprising considering most are trying to record accurately. I am most acutely aware of a microphone's overall clarity and detail and how it handle’s sibilant tending sounds.
In actual use quite noticeable are different microphone’s self noise, sensitivities (preamp gains needed), how they are affected by proximity to the source and how directional they are. These qualities among others affect how I position mikes in relation to the source and thus the recorded sound. This is a quite important distinction to mike comparison tests where in the interest of "fairness" they are all positioned exactly the same.

[ronmac]

Fran, thanks for taking the time to put this together.

I listened to all 3 clips on my system using a good set of headphones and, although I can detect some very small differences, none struck me as being better than the rest.

I own a NT-2A, have used it a lot in guitar recordings, and I wouldn't bet a nickel on guessing which clip of yours uses one.

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Many mikes do sound quite similar overall, a fact that was apparent listening to the various clips over on the Listening Sessions web site (which by the way seems to be gone now). I guess that is not too surprising considering most are trying to record accurately. I am most acutely aware of a microphone's overall clarity and detail and how it handle’s sibilant tending sounds.
In actual use quite noticeable are different microphone’s self noise, sensitivities (preamp gains needed), how they are affected by proximity to the source and how directional they are. These qualities among others affect how I position mikes in relation to the source and thus the recorded sound. This is a quite important distinction to mike comparison tests where in the interest of "fairness" they are all positioned exactly the same.

As I mentioned in the blog post, this comparison is completely different from choosing and placing mics for "a sound."

Self noise should be most evident in controlled comparisons like this, though, don't you think?

And sensitivity differences between condensers are usually minor, and easily managed with the gain knob, assuming a decent preamp. Is this not your experience?

Fran

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by ronmac

Fran, thanks for taking the time to put this together.

I listened to all 3 clips on my system using a good set of headphones and, although I can detect some very small differences, none struck me as being better than the rest.

I own a NT-2A, have used it a lot in guitar recordings, and I wouldn't bet a nickel on guessing which clip of yours uses one.

I wonder if anyone is trying to ABX the clips in foobar2000? When I've tried I have not been able to distinguish the clips in a blind test, even though I'm sure I hear differences in sighted comparisons.

Fran

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

As I mentioned in the blog post, this comparison is completely different from choosing and placing mics for "a sound."
Self noise should be most evident in controlled comparisons like this, though, don't you think?
And sensitivity differences between condensers are usually minor, and easily managed with the gain knob, assuming a decent preamp. Is this not your experience?
Fran

Yeah Fran, I did not indicate otherwise although regarding self noise it would be evident in a mike with significant self noise, for example a KM69 mike I liked other than that. The mikes you used for the demo are all quiet. I have figured out from past controlled comparison tests where various mikes do end up sounding fairly similar given the circumstances that unfortunately such tests do not tell me much as to how a mike will actually perform using it hands on in my recording room with the rest of my gear and where I can move it around and experiment, and thus whether it's a keeper or not.

[Herb Hunter]

Thanks for the clips. I listened to them on a pair of B&W 802s and then using AKG K240 headphones. I found the differences to be insignificant. However, what matters to me is accuracy and without hearing the actual guitar I can't discern which is the most accurate. Nevertheless, the results are so similar that any difference in accuracy is going to be insignificant at least when it comes to recording steel string acoustic guitars.

People tend to attach too much significance to minor variations in microphones. The more expensive the microphone the greater the significance attached to even the smallest nuance. I would love hear a similar comparison between a 1,500 dollar microphone and a 350 dollar one.

It is unfortunate when an inexperienced member asks for microphone advice for the purpose of making casual, but good quality, guitar recordings and someone posts that he must buy microphones costing more than $700 each. In your comparison, the performance of a 100 dollar microphone was close enough to that of a 350 dollar one.

[mellowman]

Hey Fran. Thanks for the comparison. I'm with you on the similarity in decent condenser mics, although maybe my aging ears are just not discrimenating enough.

I've been using an AKG 535EB for a long time, but it acquirer a huge hum a few week's ago. I'm going to send it in for repair, but in the interim I bought a couple of Behringer C-2 SDC's for 60 bucks (for the pair). I think they may not have quite as much bottom end, but in general they sound surprisingly similar to the AKG. Go figure...

[rdm321]

Thanks for doing this, Fran. It reinforces my life-long frugal tendencies

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by Herb Hunter

Thanks for the clips. I listened to them on a pair of B&W 802s and then using AKG K240 headphones. I found the differences to be insignificant. However, what matters to me is accuracy and without hearing the actual guitar I can't discern which is the most accurate. Nevertheless, the results are so similar that any difference in accuracy is going to be insignificant at least when it comes to recording steel string acoustic guitars.

People tend to attach too much significance to minor variations in microphones. The more expensive the microphone the greater the significance attached to even the smallest nuance. I would love hear a similar comparison between a 1,500 dollar microphone and a 350 dollar one.

It is unfortunate when an inexperienced member asks for microphone advice for the purpose of making casual, but good quality, guitar recordings and someone posts that he must buy microphones costing more than $700 each. In your comparison, the performance of a 100 dollar microphone was close enough to that of a 350 dollar one.

Herb, you're on exactly the same track I am ... when I was starting out I was convinced by recommendations I read that I had to have thousands of dollars worth of preamps, a/d, and mics to make decent recordings.

I'm preparing another comparison that will include a $1500 microphone and a $700 mic along with the CAD.

Fran