Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I’ve used a few different vocal mics on George Hrab over the years. Most often, I’ve turned to the Audio-Technica AT4033/SE. Now that we’re in the middle of recording his sixth album, I figured I’d do a little vocal mic shootout and thought it might be fun to get some opinions of the listeners. Now, of course, in this mp3 of the podcast, the differences between the mics will be less pronounced but, for those who wish to download and import files into their DAW, 24-bit WAV files can be downloaded below. They’re all in sync so one can just line them up and A-B.

In alphabetical order, the mics featured are:

AKG C-1000S, medium diaphragm condenser

Apex 460, large diaphragm tube condenser (modified)

Audio-technica AT4033/SE, large diaphragm condenser

Cascade C-77, ribbon

Heil PR-40, large element moving coil

Mojave Audio MA-200, large diaphragm tube condenser

Neumann TLM-103, large diaphragm condenser

Oktava MK-219, large diaphragm condenser (modified by Oktavamod)

If you’d like to play along at home, the individual WAV files are available on this page:

We’ll tally up the results of listeners’ preferences and announce them on next week’s Geologic Podcast. In the meantime, if you’d like to know the identities of each microphone, I’ll post a comment revealing them in the next few days.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Jordan Potter (originally from Texas) had recorded at BeSharp a few years ago with his two Sisters, Lauren and Leigh. He was referred to me by the John Marshall family and I guess he was a satisfied customer because I got a call from him again, , booking some time to do two albums in just one week. He was bringing his friend, Matthew Conrad, a trumpet player from Baltimore. Matthew and Jordan would each do their own solo albums with Jordan accompanying Matthew on his album and Matthew making a guest appearance on Jordan’s solo piano album.

I had a pair of Neumann TLM-103s on the piano (which I had used on Jordan’s previous project. For Matthew, I set up four mics and we did a quick shootout while soundchecking. I set up a Mojave Audio MA200 (large diaphragm tube condenser), an upgraded Cascade Fat Head (ribbon), an Apex 205 (ribbon) and a Heil PR-40 (large element moving coil). Without telling Matthew which one I preferred, I soloed each trumpet mic and he picked the Fat Head (my choice as well — surprise, surprise).

We actually managed to get through all of the material in just over four days. I was practically editing as they were walking out the door but we did complete the project on time. I mixed it and uploaded files for them to approve before mastering both CDs.

Jordan released “Jesus Paid It All” and Matthew released “Send the Light” independently. I’ve seen it around on a few online retailers like Sacred Music

http://www.sacredmusic.com

and Hyles Publications

http://www.hylespublications.com

Unfortunately, neither Jordan nor Matthew maintain web sites that I know of. For more information about them and their projects, write to:

pianopraises [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com