KM140s vs DPA 4061s on flute duet - samples

[jnorman]

attached are a couple of short sample clips of a flute duo. the first clip is an ORTF pair of KM140s about 8 feet out. the second clip is a spaced pair of DPA 4061s, about 18" apart and 8 feet out.

which one sounds better to you? and how does this room sound for this kind of recording - does it need any reverb added to it? thanks.

[gehauser]

Can't tell a lot of difference. Both sound pretty good.

#1 seems a little louder, #2 seems slightly smoother and maybe slightly more natural. But as I listen back to #1, it sounds natural too.

So there you go.

[Corran]

Both sound very good. I keep expecting crazy harshness and hi-freq lift in the 184's but it isn't there. Did you EQ it? Or maybe the 184 hate around here is a little overboard?

By the way, I need to send you some flute samples from my recital last week...

[rumleymusic]

As is, I think the DPA's sound more natural, and I like them better. The Neumann's exhibit the typical upper midrange prominence of many standard SDC's that makes flute sound a little harsh.(nothing shows this more than flute and oboe). Nothing a little EQ couldn't fix, I suppose. A little more noise from the DPA's of course, either due to the mic or the extra gain needed.

[boojum]

Jim, they both sound great, there seems not a great deal of difference but the second sample is gentler on the ear. FWIW

[jnorman]

bryan - no EQ applied, but these are 140s, not 184s. though i was fairly unable to hear a significant difference between the 140s and the 184s when i tested them...please do send me some samples.

i had some fun last friday night recording a concert by marco granados, flute (sunflute) and jovino neto, piano, at Old Church (1882, wooden gothic) in portland, OR. very very nice acoustic, and managed to get a good clean pull. it was great to meet marco, and he and the pianist both turned in amazing performances, i ran both the km140s>dbx pres>lexicon converters>IBM T61 running reaper, and 4061s>forsell pres>forsell converters>SD 702. i will post some samples of that soon if it is okay with marco.

[Corran]

hmm I should learn to read

Will send samples soon...

[amfortas2006]

Well, the Neumann are around 3.3dB louder in your take. When the 4061 are added those 3.3 (well, I actually added only about 2), they become much noisier... otherwise they sound good.

Km140 is a cardiod, and the 4061 omni, so you should maybe move the 140 a bit more further away. That would also make it a bit more fair a comparision.

[7Hz]

I liked 2nd track , sound happy as the song, first one was a bit dark when listening echos.

[mljung]

I think [as many others] that they both sound very good.

Maybe 140 is what I would prefer today on my hd580 headphones, but tomorrow on my speakers, I may choose the 4061.

Nice recordings!

::
Mads

[Uncle Russ]

It is splitting hairs but the DPAs seem marginally more smooth here. The two are so close the differences are negligible. Thank you for posting the comparison.

[hbphotoav]

Agreed. And it seems, yet again, that a $400 solution seems to stand up very nicely beside a $1400 solution...

[Mark A. Jay]

I like them both. Nice work.

As far as the room goes, for me (personally)...I think it's great; I would not add any 'verb to these, unless that's the artistic / acoustic vision of the producer. They are clean, airy, and articulate.

[sunflute]

Hey Jnorman,

Please be my guest. What do you think of the forssell samples? They sound pretty great in my opinion. Thanks for putting up you DPAs with my setup.

I hope you pick some flattering samples

Peace,
Marco

Originally Posted by jnorman

i had some fun last friday night recording a concert by marco granados, flute (sunflute) and jovino neto, piano, at Old Church (1882, wooden gothic) in portland, OR. very very nice acoustic, and managed to get a good clean pull. it was great to meet marco, and he and the pianist both turned in amazing performances, i ran both the km140s>dbx pres>lexicon converters>IBM T61 running reaper, and 4061s>forsell pres>forsell converters>SD 702. i will post some samples of that soon if it is okay with marco.

[brle]

Hi there,
thanks for the nice flute samples, but i don´t get fondness on DPA-s in this case. Neumanns clearly win on my HD580 or may i say it´s more 3D.

Sascha

[mathieujm]

Nice sound and playing both.

The difference between the two come most from cordio versus omni.
Here I prefer the omni.

JMM

[ESL]

The 2nd clip seemed to treat both players evenly while the first provided more foreground/background. I guess this makes sense given the setups. I think I prefer the 4061s here (mainly because it's easier to hear the parts interact) but who knows for the complete piece.

I don't think it needs reverb but you know how folks like their reverb...

I'm curious about the heights of each pair.