[...]Sessions With Slau » Blog Archive » Shootout at Legacy Recording[...]…

Although I understand what you’re saying about cheap mics sounding good through great gear and great mics sounding crappy through crappy gear, I don’t agree with what you seem to be implying. mp3 is quite a popular delivery format these days and things sometimes sound pretty bad when compressed to one-tenth the original file size but does that mean we shouldn’t use great gear because it’ll sound bad anyway? I think not and I think you’d agree that we all try to get the best out of what we have.

I enjoy doing shootouts like this because, when they are truly double-blind tests, they reveal things that we normally don’t consider when we know what we’re listening to. It is really too bad that you’re not hearing the stuff in a full 24-bit environment when you hear the podcast. Bandwidth still prevents me from providing that. However, no matter what the resolution, whatever you hear from any podcast or studio will never sound like the results you might achieve in your own studio — different pres, different room, different source, not to mention different person making the mic placement choices. My goal was only to provide a bit of perspective to some folks that might otherwise have never held a U47 or a C-800G and offer at least some point of reference.

Again, thanks for the comment, I really do appreciate the feedback and I hope you find something that might interest you in the future.

Cheers!

I am not convinced that any of the 11 microphones tested sound any better than a 200 (or so) dollar Shure or even an MXL 990 (90 bucks, roughly). It seems to tell me that you can get a decent sounding recording out of a 200 mic and have close to the same results with a 10K mic. You are going to have different results using different recording equipment and that was not taken into consideration. A 50 dollar mic might sound great on a 100K recording console while a 100K mic may sound like crap on a 50 dollar MP3 recorder…

Thanks for the message. I’m still trying to find a balance between being too basic and getting ahead of people. There are a couple of excellent podcasts like Inside Home Recording:
http://www.insidehomerecording.com and
Sine Language:
http://www.audio2u.com
that address subjects for people setting up home studios, understanding signal flow, etc. Check ‘em out. They also take listener questions and answer them on their respective shows.

THTH

The differences are even harder to hear in an mp3 format, of course. Unfortunately, the innertube’s bandwidth for most people isn’t up to WAV files yet but… some day.

Regarding EQ on mics, of course, to a degree, it’s possible to boost and cut a little here and there to brighten up a dull mic and tame a shrill mic. I’m always a fan of changing mics or at least changing the mic position rather than reaching for the EQ knob unless, of course, we’re just talking about adding a little sparkle to a ribbon mic or something. Most of today’s condensers sound pretty good on most sources. It’s amazing what you can do with just a couple of mid-priced offerings

Since each microphone has different frequency response profiles, which makes them “brighter” or “warmer”, what is your opinion about tweaking the response with equalization? Obviously, a crappy microphone with poor response probably can’t be salvaged with equalization; but can a reasonably good quality mic be tweaked to sound similar to a more expensive mic?

Glad to know that I’ve provided food, err… audio for thought. I’ve used the RE-20 for recording upright acoustic bass where it has gotten a special reputation. I thought it sounded nice but I’ve shot it out against a Heil PR40 and I thought the Heil sounded better. BTW, that shootout was featured on PSN (I believe it was episode 58).

As far as portable recorders go, I think they’re great as long as you’re using external converters. Thing is, for most applications, even the on-board converters are at least decent. It depends on what you’re recording. If you’re doing a serious acoustic source like a classical ensemble, well, maybe it’s worth putting it through something like an Apogee AD16X, especially if it’s going to be released and distributed. You’d probably want to go with the highest quality you can get for something like that. As far as the little 2 and 4-track portable recorders go, I love ‘em. I’ve used an Edirol R-09 since they first came out. Still kicking.