Mic shootout $100 to $1300

[CrowsofFritz]

Here I test five mics in their respective order: an SM57, an AT2020, an MXL 4000, a Neumann TLM 102, and a Telefunken TF29.

Unfortunately, I couldn't record it all at once. I could maybe do that with four mics, but not five. But I measured my mouth to the mic with each take and you can still hear massive differences.

Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q6S2_N9HFQjOjHFDCKLKPtCTTi3_W1Ir/view?usp=sharing

Here's my thoughts.

1 - SM57 ($100): Unfortunately I have grounding issues in my house, and my dynamic buzzes because of a coil wire in the mic. None of the condensers have this wire so they don't buzz. Anyway, imagining it doesn't buzz, I actually really like the sound of this mic compared to the next one. It has a body to it. But it does sound dull at times.

2 - AT2020 ($100): This mic sounds shrill. There's no body to it. I don't like it. Least favorite of the pack. I won't ever use it on vocals, ever. I've used it for deep brass instruments and it doesn't sound so bad with them.

3 - MXL 4000 ($350/discontinued) - This mic isn't so bad. It's VERY airy. And if you check out the frequency response from this mic, you'll see why. Holy hell that is a big bump in the high frequencies. Can be a decent mic with the right voice.

4 - Neumann TLM 102 ($700): Getting into a good sound here now. Nice body, fairly airy, but not too much. Shines when hitting some lower notes but not overbearing when hitting high notes.

5 - Telefunken TF29 ($1300): The sounds so far have correlated with price tags. This sounds like the best one to my ears, at least with the performance I recorded. Very warm (It is a tube mic, after all). Still has details in the highs.

Overall, you can certainly hear differences in the mics, that is true, but, aside from the shrill AT2020, I don't think the differences are great enough for me to tell a home recorder they NEED a more expensive mic like the Neumann or Telefunken. The cheaper mics still get the job done, and the SM57 (if buzzing weren't an issue) can hold its own. Bon Iver, Anthony Kiedis, Sufjan Stevens, John Lennon, and Bruce Springsteen have recorded vocals with this mic. It works, and this would be the first mic I would recommend to a new home recorder.

But this is all subjective, and the test wasn't very rigid. What are your thoughts?

 

[TalismanRich]

I don't know if the order you placed the files is the same as you listed above, but my preferences were 4&5 (extremely close) 1, 2, 3 #3 made your voice sound very nasal. 4 and 5 were more relaxed sounding.

 

[CrowsofFritz]

I don't know if the order you placed the files is the same as you listed above, but my preferences were 4&5 (extremely close) 1, 2, 3 #3 made your voice sound very nasal. 4 and 5 were more relaxed sounding.

Yep, that was the order I placed them in. I also preferred 4 & 5. 5 especially. More expensive mics DO make a difference, for sure.

I must say though, I heard a much more drastic difference in these clips than I did in your shootout, Talisman. I think that’s interesting.

and yeah, I was very surprised how nasal my voice sounded. It was almost as if I was holding my nose in some of those clips.

 

[GONZO-X]

it should be obvious, that you get what you pay for.

there are some excellent lower price clones of some famous high end mics,
and if cash is the deciding factor, i'd spend my money on one of those (you'll have to do your own homework.)

i personally use a Shure KSM44 for a lot of my vocal tracks, and also have a ADK Hamburg, and a AT4033, all of which have their strengths.

for miced guitars, tho, i almost always fall back to the good ole SM57. i have one from 1980, and one from 1995. the older one sounds best. don't know why.

 

[CrowsofFritz]

it should be obvious, that you get what you pay for.

there are some excellent lower price clones of some famous high end mics,
and if cash is the deciding factor, i'd spend my money on one of those (you'll have to do your own homework.)

i personally use a Shure KSM44 for a lot of my vocal tracks, and also have a ADK Hamburg, and a AT4033, all of which have their strengths.

for miced guitars, tho, i almost always fall back to the good ole SM57. i have one from 1980, and one from 1995. the older one sounds best. don't know why.

Definitely use a 57 for a miced guitar cab, though for my bass amp I go for my condenser about 2 feet away.

 

[CoolCat]

I liked #4 best, smooth, voice sounded consistent volume...
it also seemed to have the least noise/room in it. .or maybe that was the guitar track.

curious what was the preamp?

 

[CrowsofFritz]

I liked #4 best, smooth, voice sounded consistent volume...
it also seemed to have the least noise/room in it. .or maybe that was the guitar track.

curious what was the preamp?

An ART MPA II at high voltage setting.

 

[TalismanRich]

I still wonder sometimes about having different takes, even though you have the same person and try to do everything the same. I know that I've done different vocal takes of songs and some just sound better than others. I once did 5 vocal takes, thinking I could comp a perfect vocal. Each one had some variation, even with the same room, mic and mouth. I ended up just taking one and nuking the other 4. The same thing happens when I play guitar, slight movements, differences in fingering, etc. all seem to affect the sound at least as much as the mic. Add in the fumbles when you try to get a perfect take, rather than just letting things flow and I feel amazed if I get something usable sometimes.

That's one reason that I am glad I have the 8 mic inputs. Other than the physical space limitation, I know the performance is constant. The closest I've heard of instrumental comparisons was either using an electric guitar in a reamp situation, or using something like a Disklavier grand piano. You can set things up as perfectly as you can measure, and the performance will be constant.

I've also read that some mics and preamps don't mix well, so that might be a factor. I don't have gobs of different preamps, so I can't test that theory. It's supposed to be due to the different impedance matches.