Chandlersonic - OK. Words don't really work all that well do they?
I understand your thoughts a bit more now - and I tend to agree. I'm going to post the results soon, but I'll tell you guys a bit more right now :
We all unanimously chose Mic 2 as the keeper. I've used Mic 1 before for previous albums for Jeff and it's been stellar as well, but Mic 2 helps me out in a couple of areas. (see below) Mic 3 was out of the loop from the very first listen.
Listening to solo piano all day just wears me out. The complex harmonics coming off the piano somehow just tax my ability to listen critically and enjoy. Mic 2 was noticeably better in this respect. The lower mids were cleaner and the transient response seemed to be more pleasing. No, it didn't have the incredible richness that Mic 1 has in spots (especially when only a few notes are played - pp or ppp), BUT it is definately more defined and clearer when Jeff plays LOUD, AND it is still very rich and warm. And he does play loud - although there's not much of that in the clips. That's my bad. Second, the lows on Mic 2 are unbelieveable. Just thunderous. Really a stunner. Also the highs are more "open". Now, that's not to say that Mic 1 is bad. It's not. Just that I prefered Mic 2 for this artist, this piano. Every mic has it's inherant positives and negatives, and like I said earlier, I'm still looking for the perfect microphone.
Another thing not to overlook is the D&R mic pre's. Excellent for this application IMO. Lots of gain, very transparent and not cloudy or "phat". Perfect for this application. I feel incredibly lucky that after looking for close to 5 years I found a cool D&R Vision Rackmountable sidecar mixer for a reasonable price. I'll try to post a pic of that as well. Cheers, bp