5 mics - blind listening test!

[chillywilly]

Blind listening test! Here are five mics on male vocals. Which do you prefer for basic listening pleasure? It's OK if you hate them all (and feel free to say so). Plus, which would you choose if only had these to choose from?

Audio samples

[studiostuff]

Well, I'll start by sayin', Thanks for such a lengthy sample... (not).

Mics 4 & 5 have more top, so they sound better to me. I could live with 4 and 5 may be a little too much... I'm listening on my computer.

1-3 may be fine with a little EQ, but I'm not going to move them to a system where I could EQ them to see...

Seriously, couldn't you send us a little more info... and without the drums in the vocal track...?

This could be an MD-421 where you're just rolling through the low-cut filter... except it's a little too dark on the first three.

I don't have any actual guesses for you.

[fossaree]

Hey Chilly ,
How's your test done ?

I'm giving it a listening

;-)

[chillywilly]

Originally Posted by fossaree

Hey Chilly ,
How's your test done ?

I'm keeping it a secret for a little while. I'd like to see a few responses first.


(I didn't think they were that short, but ah well... sorry about that!)

[Esurreal]

mic 1 - sounds cheap to me. kinda robotish

mic 2 - not bad kinda muffled on the vocals

mic 3 - my second favorite. a little darker but pretty nice

mic 4 - not bad either. A little more open sounding, but I like 3 better

mic 5 - My favorite. Bigger, fuller. also has high hat in it which some of the others don't have. Makes it sound better to me anyways.

[chillywilly]

Here are the mics without drums, plus one more mic option. (I included the drums in the first samples because I thought it was helpful to hear the voice in a "mix").

Audio samples 2

[UPRYZ]

These are different performances right? Sorry to rain on the parade but there are bound to be significantly more audible differences due to changes in the performance and proximity to the mics than there are from the mics themselves. Better to set up multiple mics as close to each other as possible and sing in to all of them simultaneously.
In any case - what I heard:
2 - low mid resonance/quite dark
4 - thin/bright
5 - a bit compressed sounding
1 and 3 - nice body, could use some top end eq - I'd choose one of those 2. There is no "wow, that mic sounded so much better/worse than the others" in this bunch.

Dan

[chillywilly]

Really appreciate your comments. It's funny. I wonder if I had done what you say about placing all the mics around me, would I have heard from someone else that this is not the way to go because some mics would be off-axis and different distances? Ha! Probably. Oh well, there's no perfect test, but this is five similar, straight-ahead performances at proximities that are real world distances.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting test I could easily perceive the differences between the mics, and yet I find it challenging to choose one. Of course, the rest of the instrumentation is going to matter a lot.

Hopefully I'll get a few more general responses before I reveal which mics were used.

[a.beck]

Any chance of getting some uncompressed samples? (not .mp3 I mean - zipped up is fine)

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by UPRYZ

These are different performances right? Sorry to rain on the parade but there are bound to be significantly more audible differences due to changes in the performance and proximity to the mics than there are from the mics themselves. Better to set up multiple mics as close to each other as possible and sing in to all of them simultaneously.
Dan

Exactly. I don't waste my time with tests that are obviously invalid from the start.....

BTW are these WAV or MP3 files? If they're the latter that's something else I don't waste my time with on this sort of test.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by chillywilly

Really appreciate your comments. It's funny. I wonder if I had done what you say about placing all the mics around me, would I have heard from someone else that this is not the way to go because some mics would be off-axis and different distances? Ha! Probably. Oh well, there's no perfect test, but this is five similar, straight-ahead performances at proximities that are real world distances.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting test I could easily perceive the differences between the mics, and yet I find it challenging to choose one. Of course, the rest of the instrumentation is going to matter a lot.

Hopefully I'll get a few more general responses before I reveal which mics were used.

You don't put them "all around you" - you put them all in front, as close together as possible. That's what boom stands are for. Or even better, a mic bar.

[chillywilly]

Oh forget it! Shees! You guys are no fun at all.

[chillywilly]

Actually, I think I'll say a little more about this. Let's say you're in a recording studio, and you put a singer in front of a few mics and let's say you even go to the trouble of doing exactly what you said and put up a mic bar or whatever. You listen to the take and your singer selects his favorite mic. Now your singer is going to perform with the mic of his choice, but wait-- he's going to do a different take! Oh no! The previous selection is suddenly invalid!

These short samples of a reasonably consistent performances, albeit compressed to 320kB mp3, do actually convey something of significance. I know, because I heard the original 24-bit files. The character of the mics is easily preserved in the mp3s. I know enough about what I recorded to hear the differences.

I'm singing fairly close mic'd on all of these. If I were off axis, I would make a big difference in the sound. My test would be completely inconclusive if I spread the mics in a little group, even as close as their little bodies could get to each other.

If you don't like the test, don't "waste" your time then, but then don't waste my time posting your snobby reply in my thread!

[Graal]

1 - was the one i liked... which is it?

[chillywilly]

Here are the secrets...

My new preamp hasn't arrived yet (APA Juggernaut Twin is on route, woo hoo!), so I have my Mobile MIO 2882 onboard pres and a Studio Projects VTB-1.

Mic 1: Crown CM-700 (small diagram condenser)
- sharp bass roll-off engaged on mic (there are 2 options, this is more bass)
- pop filter in place
- preamp = Studio Projects VTB-1 (settings: mic imp = 200 ohms, input gain = 40 dB, blend = 100% tube, HPF = off, output gain = 10 dB
- DAC = Metric Halo 2882 (from balanced line input)

Mic 2: Shure SM-58
- preamp & DAC = Metric Halo 2882 (input gain = 30dB)

Mic 3: Electro-Voice RE-20 (large diaphram dynamic)
- flat (bass roll off was not engaged on mic)
- preamp & DAC = Metric Halo 2882 (input gain = 36dB)

Mic 4: Rode NT-1000 (large diaphram condenser)
- preamp & DAC = Metric Halo 2882 (input gain = 36dB)

Mic 5: Shure SM-57
- preamp = Studio Projects VTB-1 (settings: mic imp = 200 ohms, input gain = 44 dB, blend = 100% tube, HPF = off, output gain = 10 dB
- DAC = Metric Halo 2882 (from balanced line input)

Mic 6 (2nd batch): Electro-Voice RE-20 as above, but with HPF in the DAW set to 75 Hz.

[jsbeeth]

Originally Posted by chillywilly

Actually, I think I'll say a little more about this. Let's say you're in a recording studio, and you put a singer in front of a few mics and let's say you even go to the trouble of doing exactly what you said and put up a mic bar or whatever. You listen to the take and your singer selects his favorite mic. Now your singer is going to perform with the mic of his choice, but wait-- he's going to do a different take! Oh no! The previous selection is suddenly invalid!

Ha, this is a great point. I understand the gripes about A/B's involving different performances on a theoretical level, but what is the point of any A/B comparison if not to determine what to use on a source that has yet to be recorded?