Hand Crafted Labs_ Faust Mic_ Shootout

[filltrate]

A few weeks ago GS member Azzzy told me he would be in town and that he wanted to meet me as well as bring his HCL Faust Mic with him so that i could check it out. Since Ive recently bought both the Mic Pre & Compressor from HCL (Both of which i really like) Ive been real curious about the mic. So we agreed to me at the studio Im currently working at here in LA.

We did a simple mic shoot out to see how the HCL Faust mic held up against some of the other industry standard tube mic's. We put the Faust up against a Neumann U47, Neumann U67, Sony C800G, and a Telefunken Elam 251.

I ran the mics each into an SSL mic pre came direct out of each pre right into protools. No EQ's no compression and recorded the vocals at 24bit 48KHz. There are only two clips the first clip is singing and the second is a rap vocal. Unfortunately there were no female singers at the time we did this test. Lets see what happens, shall we?


First up are the singing clips

[filltrate]

Here are the rap vocal clips

[mr jkn]

song:
1 b
2 c
3 e
4 d
5 a

rap:
1 a
2 e/c
3 e/c
4 d
5 b

fun! ..but hard without a musical context surrounding the voice

[Claude G.]

The First and the last in the singing one (Fly me...) were my favorites

[Koed]

Song B
Rap A

[filltrate]

Ok i got a few responses, thanks guys. Anyone else? come on people lets no be shy now....

[Stisse]

Hard to say which I do like...they all seem to be quite good and similar in some sense, except for D that in both recordings has a mid that is not so pleasant.

A and B are probably my favs.


All the best,
S

[babacar]

hard to tell without musical context....however

singing clips:
depending on the style of the music I would go for C or A....B on third place

rap vocal clips:
A, B
E on third place

my guess concerning the mics:

singing clips:
A: 47, B: 67, C: 251, D: 800, E: hcl

rap clips:
A: 251, B:47, C:800, D: hcl, E: 67

cheers!

[filltrate]

To those who responded thanks for taking the time. Yeah I wish we had some musical content but we didn't.... Anyways time to unveil what mic is what.

Song:
A - U67
B - U47
C - 251
D - C800G
E - Faust

Rap:
A - 251
B - Faust
C - C800G
D - U47
E - U67

Personally i thought the 47 sounded best on both vocals with the 251 in second and third was a toss up between the C800G and Faust. I think that 67 we were using wasn't in the best of shape cuz i really didn't like the way it sounded.

[Fuel]

I will comment about the mic only in the singing ....not in the Rap, because rap is not my thing .

I prefered the U47 and 251
then the C800

also did not like the u67 here and the Faust does not have any excitement..sounds sterile and boring..also very small....

[azzzy]

Crap. I was hoping to post this before Filltrate unveiled the mics' identities... Oh, well.

Anyway, I listened to the clips blindly 'cause I was curious what I will really like without the hype factor. My choices were:

B
C
E
A
D

So I liked the C800 the least. I'm thinking I liked U67 better than the C800 because in these particular clips it sounds kinda like my old R0DE NTV, which I'm quite used to. But I liked U47 the best when we were listening to the mics in the studio and then again when doing the blind test. I must say considering the Faust is just over a grand it did pretty well against mics 7-10 times the price.

I wish we had a better vocalist than me. There are some people whose voices just sound record-ready through any mic. Mine requires a bit of processing to make it good enough even for a trash can, let alone for a record.

I was hoping I'd have the pics from the studio by now but the girl who took the pictures is being very slow to upload them. It will probably be another week before I get the pics.

Mad props to Filltrate for letting me into the studio and allowing to breath on $30000 worth of mics. Totally kick-ass!!!

[filltrate]

Originally Posted by Fuel

I will comment about the mic only in the singing ....not in the Rap, because rap is not my thing .

I prefered the U47 and 251
then the C800

also did not like the u67 here and the Faust does not have any excitement..sounds sterile and boring..also very small....

Yeah after using both HCL's compressor and mic pre which i think sound GREAT!! I was hoping for a mic that would sound great but i was a little disappointed. The only reason I say it was a tossup between the Faust and C800G is that the C800 has way to much hi end, sounds unnatural to me but most people i work with love that sound.

Originally Posted by azzzy

Mad props to Filltrate for letting me into the studio and allowing to breath on $30000 worth of mics. Totally kick-ass!!!

Hey Azzzy anytime it was fun i only wish that we had more time we probably could have gotten some different singers male and female to help out.

[Docmattic]

i did the test blindley and did hiphop vocals

i liked

1 a/e
2 a/e
3 d
4 c
5 b

i thought a and e sounded very similar. i lowered the sound on e and i could barley tell the difference

d was ok
c has too much sibilance for this particular artist
E was just dull compared to the other mics

I must thankyou for this ive been looking for a comparison between the u67 and 47. thanks

[azzzy]

Originally Posted by filltrate

Hey Azzzy anytime it was fun i only wish that we had more time we probably could have gotten some different singers male and female to help out.

I don't know when I will be able to make it out to LA again but when I do, I'd love to get together and do some more recording (if you have time that is ). Perhaps have some background tracks (a simple arrangement - maybe even just a stereo mix) and try different mics in the mix. Or at least we could try different tubes in your preamp/leveler (I just scored another Amperex PQ 6922 that you liked in your S2).

[HandCrafted Lab]

well, opinions are very different.... and before/after of mics naming, in particular. Our opinion also, how for manufacturer, if honestly. But we proud that FAUST is involving such different opinions.
I think pic can make discussion more demonstrative (filltrate copyrightthumbsup) >>>