alanhyatt said:
To be clear, I hope no one took my comment to sdelsolray as negative. I "do" find it interesting that our conclusions were that different. Room, climate conditions, and other variables just proved that.
I am concerned about the low end response sdelsolray ray said he was not getting from the C4, so I will have Brent Casey jump in on that as we get lots of low end from the C4's when comparred to the Schoeps.
Maybe sdelsolray can give us some more specifics of placement and what frequencies he thought were not there, so we can try to duplicate what he hears in his findings. Placement can also be a big factor in response. Just an inch can make a difference.
Anyway, I just did not want anyone to think I was posting anything negative to sdelsolray
Well I certainly didn't take anything you said as negative. As to the low end thing, here's some additional info of the tests I did:
1) Pairs of mic tested in X/Y, ORTF and spcaed pair (12th fret/lower bout).
2) Guitars used:
a) Bill Tippin OMT, ei rosewood/Alpine spruce; and
b) David Webber OM, quilted big leaf maple/red western cedar.
3) Source material: Several samples from light to aggressive fingerstyle, slow to fast tunes, flesh/nail technique.
4) Pres used:
a) Pendulum Audio MDP-1A;
b) John Hardy M-2; and
c) Pendulum Audio SPS-1.
5) Signal Chain: mics==>pre==>RME ADI-8 Pro A/D==>ProTools LE @ 24 bit/48k.
6) Monitoring Chain: ProTools LE @ 24 bit/48k ==>
RME ADI-8 Pro D/A==>Hafler P3000==>
Dynaudio BM6.
7) Room: 18x14X8.
Regarding the low end response of the mics, I considered 250Hz or so and below as the range for "bass". Because some of the music samples use a guitar with altered tunings, the lowest fundamental produced by the guitar is about 75 Hz.
In comparing the bass response of the Schoeps CMC6/MK4 with the Studio Projects C4, the C4 pair was less detailed in the following particulars: (i) transient responses (i.e., initial attacks) were somewhat smeared, (ii) note sustain would often bleed into another note played later, diminishing sustained note separation and (iii) clarity was lacking.
The Schoeps were excellent in detail. I could hear everything well, and the repsentation was very accurate, nothing more nothing less.
I did use eq and/or multiband compressor on the C4 (Waves Q10 and Waves C4) which cleaned the bass up, making it clearer. However, this was at the expense of making the recording sound more different than the original source, hence less accuracy.
The X/Y and ORTF samples were more prone to this problem than the spaced pair. Perhaps this is due to the off axis response of the C4 mics, when compared to the Schoeps.
I originally posted to this thread to comment that in my view neither the Marshall 603s or SP C4s mics were entirely accurate on acoustic guitar. I posted again to take issue with Alan's comment that he thought the C4 sounds very similar to the Schoeps.
Believe me, I wish the C4s did sound like the Schoeps, or even close. Because if they were, I would have purchased them instead of spending about 6 times as much on the Schoeps.
The C4 through my Pendulum tube pre sounds like a very good mic through a killer pre. The Schoeps through the Pendulum sound like the guitar.
