All these mics sound the same...

L

lo beam

New member
A friend lent me some small dia condensers at the weekend to try out - my Rode NT5s and Oktava MK012s being out of action, so I did a little shootout for my own curiosity.

Now, either my ears are fcked, or there's not much to differentiate between the hundreds of brands of mics down at entry level price range. Kinda hoping it's the latter.


The mics were :

SE Electronics SE1 http://download.yousendit.com/7673CA52554F0910

Behringer C2 http://download.yousendit.com/0933648874E5821F

CAD Gxl1200 http://download.yousendit.com/45CF0F613D9563F5

Same levels, same positioning ( well, as near as dammit), no eq, no
compression etc....the only thing I did was raise the Behringer level
by a few dBs afterwards because it wasn't such a hot signal as the
others.

Recorded at 24 bit/ 44.1kHz then dithered to 16 bit aiff, then
converted to highest quality Mp3.

I'm finding it hard to tell much of a difference tbh...I think the SE1
sounds a bit darker and less sparkly, the Behringer is really
surprisingly nice and I'm liking the CAD too...perhaps most of
all on this showing.

What d'ya think?


BTW - they are all different performances too, not 3 mics recording the same one.
 
use two

se-fuller with more bottom
c2-brighter, sorta thin, but nice for the acoustic
cad-kinda in the middle, not thin, but not bright enough to me

over all i would choose the c2 for this application, but for male vocals i would think the full sound of the se would shine over the c2.

i would put the c2 at the 12th fret pointed at the 12th fret 3-6in away, and the se right next to the c2 pointed toward the bottom of the sound hole as a stereo recording, then i would pan the c2 hard left and the se hard right, then off set them by one notch.
like this: "the straight lines represent the audio track in your program:
.----------......c2 panned hard left
..----------.....se panned hard right

try this and post it
---mike---:D
 
lo beam said:
Not sure what you mean? What kind of applications?
Click to expand...

Well, 2 mics might sound the same with a simple vocal test, but if you try the 2 mics on percussion or acoustic guitar, you might hear a difference in the mics properties.
 
chance said:
Well, 2 mics might sound the same with a simple vocal test, but if you try the 2 mics on percussion or acoustic guitar, you might hear a difference in the mics properties.
Click to expand...


Oh, I see. Yeah, for sure...but I expected more difference just on the gat.
 
Lo-Fi Mike said:
se-fuller with more bottom
c2-brighter, sorta thin, but nice for the acoustic
cad-kinda in the middle, not thin, but not bright enough to me

over all i would choose the c2 for this application, but for male vocals i would think the full sound of the se would shine over the c2.

i would put the c2 at the 12th fret pointed at the 12th fret 3-6in away, and the se right next to the c2 pointed toward the bottom of the sound hole as a stereo recording, then i would pan the c2 hard left and the se hard right, then off set them by one notch.
like this: "the straight lines represent the audio track in your program:
.----------......c2 panned hard left
..----------.....se panned hard right

try this and post it
---mike---:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I may well try that. I thought the CAD was ever so slightly sparklier than the C2, but there's so little between em IMO.

One thing is, though - aside from the twang of my untreated room...they all sound pretty decent to me, and certainly good enough to use in a pop mix with a lil EQ.
 
Well by listening on my headphones they sound pretty much the same. At first I thought they sounded different but the more I listened it sounded like the same recording.
 
Those tracks line up AWFULLY nice with each other, and they look identical. I didn't try subtracting one from another, but I have to ask - are those really different takes with different mics?
 
Thos mics probably are all the same. :D

I'm almost certain the Behringer and the CAD are just re-badged, off-the-shelf, made in either the Feilo or Shanghai plant.

Pretty sure the SE is the same way, but not 100% on that one.

.
 
They're all the same file, converted to mp3 three times. Either you're testing us, or you messed something up. Play two of them, one with its polarity inverted, and all you get are mp3 glitches, meaning the file was just converted 3 times. If you could upload the aiffs, then that will make it clear to us.
 
I think on male vocals the SE would make him sound like Barry White, the Behringer like Barry Gibb and the CAD like Barry Chuckle.

The differences are THAT stunning!

If you guys can’t hear it your ears suck or you must have shit monitors or something.

:D

So come on, is it the same sample x 3 or what?
 
Don't sound identical at all to me. The SE and C2 sound familiar. The CAD sounds better by far in my opinion.
 
Kevin Deschwazi said:
I think on male vocals the SE would make him sound like Barry White, the Behringer like Barry Gibb and the CAD like Barry Chuckle.

The differences are THAT stunning!
Click to expand...

That explains my strong distaste for Barry Gibb....

danny.guitar said:
Don't sound identical at all to me. The SE and C2 sound familiar. The CAD sounds better by far in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Are you using the files he just uploaded, or the ones in the original post?


I'll get to listening to these new files when my roomie wakes the f*** up.
 
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