Shaker Loops - 8 mics on a standard plastic Egg Shaker (WAVs attached)

[James Lehmann]

Been meaning to try this out for a while.

Here's the rig:



From left to right: Gefell M930, Gefell M300, Shure SM57, Shure SM7B, Avenson STO-2 (obscured under SM7B!), Beyer M160, Beyer M201, Beyer M130

Recording chain was:

Microphones >> Belden/Neutrik cables >> Audient ASP-008 pre >> Metric Halo 2882 A-D >> Mac

I wound up the (usefully variable) HPF on the Audient to 250Hz

All files 24/44.1k mono WAVs

Shure SM57.wav
Beyer M160.wav
Beyer M130.wav
Shure SM7B.wav
Beyer M201.wav
Avenson STO-2.wav
Gefell M300.wav
Gefell M930.wav

Recording Notes: In terms of self-noise I can tell you that the Gefells are jaw-droppingly quiet, orders of magnitude quieter than everything else I tested, while the Avenson is slightly noiser than the rest which were all fairly similar. Until I engaged the HPF the Gefell M930 and the Shure SM7B were picking up some noticeable LF background noise which the others missed.

You may just grab whatever's around for your shakers which may well be fine in a dense pop mix, but if you like your shakers out front it might be worth taking some time to choose the tone you want with a prudent mic selection. Pretty much anything here is 'useable' but the sonic differences are substantial.

I like to keep my WAV shoot-outs ruthlessly focussed on one source, so tempting though it was to rattle and hit just about anything in reach while I had it all set up, I'll save that for another day and another thread!

[mprewett]

This is way awesome. I've been super frustrated by my own attempts at recording egg shakers so it's great to be able to have something to compare with. I love how absolutely different they all are. The 930 almost sparkles, while the 57 is really woody. Super cool, thanks man!

[space2012]

Originally Posted by James Lehmann

From left to right: Gefell M930, Gefell M300, Shure SM57, Shure SM7B, Avenson STO-2 (obscured under SM7B!), Beyer M160, Beyer M201, Beyer M130

Recording chain was:

Microphones >> Belden/Neutrik cables >> Audient ASP-008 pre >> Metric Halo 2882 A-D >> Mac

I wound up the (usefully variable) HPF on the Audient to 250Hz

All files 24/44.1k mono WAVs

Shure SM57.wav
Beyer M160.wav
Beyer M130.wav
Shure SM7B.wav
Beyer M201.wav
Avenson STO-2.wav
Gefell M300.wav
Gefell M930.wav

I like to keep my WAV shoot-outs ruthlessly focussed on one source, so tempting though it was to rattle and hit just about anything in reach while I had it all set up, I'll save that for another day and another thread!

in this test:
I like Beyer M201, Gefell M300, Gefell M930, & Avenson STO-2.
ok--to-->best .

I thing the worse are SM57 & Beyer M160.
bad--to-->worse.

[AnthonyRochester]

nice one, this is cool

[delonien]

One of the most useful shootouts I have seen! Often the performance of different tracks varies too much or is out of tune or simply too poorly played to allow me to really concentrate on the gear. The differences here are beautifully clear and the files are uncompressed, yet not 100mb each.

I don't see the M160 last however. I think as soon as the mixing starts I could be happy with exactly that sound.

Thanks for a great shootout!

[soundgeezer]

Can't download the files ?

[didier.brest]

After normalizing the RMS levels at -39 dBFS (they vary from -36 to -42), I found this ranking from the thinnest and/or brightest to the fattest and/or darkest:

M93O
M300
SM57
SM7
STO-2
M201
M130
M160

Great differences indeed. I like the balance of the STO-2. Both ribbons are very different from the other ones. Their color may be interesting, depending on what you are looking for.