SM58 v. v67 v. C3000

[Lopp]

FWIW, I thought I'd share my highly subjective results from an experiment performed the other night.


After hearing different stories of using SM57's etc. on certain vox, I thought I'd check how the following compared:

1. SM58
2. AKG C3000
3. Marshall v67

A female singer was recorded through a Mackie 1402 into a PC running Cubase 5.1 using a Delta 66. I would have also tried a SM57, but the singer was getting burnt out.

For the subjective analysis:

The SM58 sounded warmer and more midrangey, but lacked the brightness of the C3000 and the v67. Some of the warmth can be attributed to the singer singing closer to the mic and the effects of the windscreen.

Overall, the C3000 was the brightest and was my personal favorite possibly based on the increased presence. The v67 was a close 2nd and the SM58 was third due to the reduced presence. Each mic has its place depending on vocal and mix requirements.

Take that for what it's worth.

 

[littledog]

Maybe my C3000 is too old and they've improved them in later years. But I'd have to really hate a singer before letting them record with my C3000. Or my C1000 for that matter.

Or maybe it's the difference in our monitors. If I had some broken tweeters the super hyped upper mids might be just the ticket.

 

[Lopp]

Maybe it's my monitors (very average Monitor Ones) and headphones, maybe it's my ears, maybe it complemented her voice, maybe it fit well with the mix... I'll try to get her to do another round that I can post so everyone can hear the diffs.

FWIW, mine is also a little older. Pre-C3000B.

 

[Richard Monroe]

Has anybody here compared C2000B to C3000B? As far as I know, the capsules are similar if not identical, but I've invariably gotten poor results with C3000B, but excellent results with C2000B, especially on vox, acoustic guit, and softer, clean guitar cab. The self noise is a little much, but the sound often justifies it.
I really don't know whether the 3000 I used sucked, the 2000 is a fortunate anomaly, or whether the quest for multi-pattern just muddied up a perfectly good cardioid mic. Any clues?