20+ condensers tested on my Yamaha LS16

[gmatkin]

I've made a very amateur mic comparison of fingerpicking on my Yamaha LS16 guitar. I made it for my own purposes, but rather than keep it to myself, I thought I should share it - it might be useful or interesting for some folks, and might make others smile.

I was pleased with how several of the mics worked with the guitar, and one way or another surprised by quite a few.

The mics make up a personal collection I've been slowly amassing over the years. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

My recording space is far from ideal, with noise from the road outside, a computer on a desk and books on the walls rather than acoustic treatment. It's probably much like many people's recording spaces.

The recordings were made at a distance of 10in from the 12-13th fret, and using two week old Martin Retro 11-guage strings. The eq is simple and as described in a Word file included with the sound file. There are no other effects. The tune is The Waters of Tyne, an old song tune from Northumberland in England.

Mics included in this demo are:

- Studio Projects C4 (cardioid),
- Audio Technica AT813R,
- Audio Technica AT8033
- Audio Technica AT8031
- Lewitt LCT 340,
- Audio Technica AT4033a,
- Audio Technica AT4040,
- 3U Audio CM-1 Teal,
- 3U Audio CM-1 Black,
- 3U Audio Warbler MkII voicing 2 (cardioid),
- 3U Audio Warbler MkI voicing 2 (cardioid),
- 3U Audio Warbler MkIV voicing 2 (cardioid),
- Oktava MK-219,
- CAD M179 (cardioid),
- sE4400a (cardioid),
- t.bone SC1100 (super- or hypercardiod, I think),
- sE V7X,
- Shure SM57,
- Beyerdynamic M201 N(C)
- Prodipe TT1 Instruments,
- Rode Procaster,
- Superlux R102 MkII

The zip file contains a wav file and a Word file describing the wav contents. Download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U7P...ew?usp=sharing

Have fun!

Cheers, Gavin

[gmatkin]

Depending on what you're looking for, I think there are some pretty acceptable results here, including among the options that can be found fairly cheaply on the second hand market.

Gavin

[gmatkin]

The link I shared doesn't seem to be working, so here's a new one.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U7P...ew?usp=sharing

Cheers, Gavin