here's a very interesting mic comparison by price range

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CyanJaguar

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FIrst off, this whimsical test showed me a lot of things. The only thing I can say right now is that some will be very surprised and others will not be surprised at all.

the mics:

shure sm58: $90
Marshall mxl v67g: $150
Audio technica 4033: $300
Blue Blueberry :$1000

Now this mics vary greatly by price range. What I was trying to test was could I pick out the more expensive mics by sound quality, in a blind test?

I mean, for a home reccer to spend $1000 on a mic, it should be significantly better than the $300 mic, and for another homereccer to spend $300 on a mic, it should be significantly better than the $150 mic.

Anyhow, here are the recordings in no particular order
Tell me which ones you think are which and why. After 30 opinions I will give the key and my opinions and we will discuss.

http://artistlaunch.com/artist.asp?artistid=2432

mic comparison by price range.


for a fair comparison I "mangled" it like any other real world recording by simple compression on the track and convertion to 16 bits with dither and noise shaping. All done in sound forge.
 
I don't know much about the 4033....

I'm going to say they appear in this order

Cut 1.) Blue
Cut 2.) Marshall
Cut 3.) 4033
Cut 4.) SM58

I went through about every possible combination before I finally settled on that. Some logic is called for I guess -

At first I thought #2 was the SM58 for some reason...but, the more I listened to it the more I thought that was one of the smoothest sounding cuts.

I hated cut 4 from the get go...and at first thought it might be the 4033...but, then figured I had misplaced the 58...and on third listen definately sounded like a dynamic. So, with that in place...I didn't care for cut 3 to much...thought it had some kind of "false warmth" to it...gave that to the 4033.

Between 1 and 2, I thought 1 sounded a tad smoother...so I gave it to the Blue. then 2 went to the Marshall...by default..but, i think it fits there.

I terms of what i liked the best...Cut 1 first, Cut 2 second, then 3 and 4 didn't care for too much...but in that order. 1 2 3 4, how original of me :)

In listening to it, I thought the most obvious difference in sound for comparison was on "(is) not the warmth"...getting into that lower range a bit...the mics had much different characters.

But alas ears decieve and I am probably way off. If I have to hear "holy moseyings (????)" one more time i will have to shoot myself. hehe.

-Wes

Oh..btw - personally i thought the compression made it a bit harder to judge the mics. I would have rather heard a dry track.
 
bleh, screw it - I listened to it again and 4 sounded better this time....could easily see swapping the Marshall and Blue in my placement as well. Who knows...just forget about my comments ok ;)
 
nah..if cut 4 isn't the 58 I will be pissed. I have heard that sound too many times. Watch that be the Blue. come on people, post some stuff so we can get to 30, I want to know.
 
Couldn't get a good stream to tell.

But the voice is great !!!
 
I liked #2, 3, 4 and 1 in that order.
I think it would have been a better test to have some music in there.
Nothing against your singing at all CJ, but an instrument is going to have a much broader range. Your vocals spanned an octave+1/3, maybe? I guess those are all vocal mics, but it would have been nice to compare them over a 4 or 5 octave range.
Any way, those are my pics because:
Mic #1, which I liked the least, seemed to have more pronounced silibance.
Mic #2, Which I liked the best, seemed fuller and richer.
Mic 3#, Which was my second choice, seemed nice and clear in the low to mid range.
Mic #4, which was my third choice, was really kind of a toss up with Mic #3, but just didn't seem quite as defined.
Hard to tell on MP3's.

I would also like to point out, that I never thought of a $1000 mic as out of the reach of the average to above-average home-recer. I mean, the mic is the first item in your signal chain, to me, thats not the place to skimp on money. Save up, buy quality, and once you have it, you'll always have it! I mean $1000, amortorized over 18 months is only about $56/month.

I think another point to bring up is the "point of diminshing returns." If no one is familiar with this, it simply says: At some point, the amount of money you spend on a given product vs. the percieved quality from it, diminishes exponentially.
For instance, a $300 microphone may sound twice as good as a $150 microphone, but don't expect a $600 microphone to sound 4 times as good as a $150 microphone. Nor should you expect a $1500 microphone to sound 10 times better than a $150 mic. You see, the return on your investment diminishes.
It's up to you to decide where to drawn the line.:)
 
smellyfuzz,

the download is only 1.5 megabytes.

about the voice, thanks. I am still taking voice classes though and my teacher think I have a horrible voice.

Michael Jones,

I forgot to mention the diminishing returns in my original post. Thats one of the goals of this test, to see if we can pinpoint a point where the returns start diminshing. The mics just happened to be perfect for the test.
The blue was mic of the year by three publications, the shure is a ubiquitous mic. The 4033 is almost as ubiquitous and the mxl v67 represents the low cost but good sounding chinese mics.

I still think the choice of preamp is as important as the mic, if not more so.
 
Yeah, I agree CJ, the price range of those mics is perfect for a diminshing return test. It would have been nice to see something in the $600 range. Can't you just go shell out 600 bucks CJ and do this thing right! Damn-it! :rolleyes:
A pre-amp, is to me, just as important as mic choice.
Maybe the next test could be a "double blind" test. Where you have to pick mic and pre-amp! hehehe!!!
 
I like 4-1-2-3

Why? #4 has everything in good balance. #1 has that semi-scooped midrange that sounds good for some voices solo. #2 is a little bright and crispy on the high end for me. #3 is muffled sounding and midrange-heavy, like so many recording I've done with the 58.

I'm guessing the mics are:

1-AT4033
2-Blue Blueberry
3-Shure SM58
4-Marshall MXL V67G (if I'm right about this, I want one, because this is definitely worth 130$)

The only thing I would want out of a comparison like this is that a little less compression be used, it definitely colors the mic character to squish them so much.
 
i had already found from my own experimentation that i would not justify, at this time, more than the cost of a v67 or c1....this test only helped confirm it form me......
 
Well, listening for the third time....cut 4 definately is not the SM58 (what was i thinking)...its a rich sound. but, I will tell you what I hate about it is "is not the warmth" - something about how it reacts to that lower pitch is yuckie.


Jag - What is this song? I have to know what the hell you are saying "Don't cry....holy _________________ "?
 
QUOTE FROM CYAN

my teacher think I have a horrible voice.
Click to expand...


DROP THAT TEACHER NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

You will never become a better singer if you have a Teacher that does not inspire & build your confidence.

Sean
 
wes480 said:
Well, listening for the third time....cut 4 definately is not the SM58 (what was i thinking)...its a rich sound. but, I will tell you what I hate about it is "is not the warmth" - something about how it reacts to that lower pitch is yuckie.


Jag - What is this song? I have to know what the hell you are saying "Don't cry....holy _________________ "?
Click to expand...

lol. Thats seal

dont cry, oh limosines and silly things.


Smellyfuzz,

I'm thinking of dropping her. Even though she sang at the met for 14 years, I dont think she knows too much about pedagogy. With her its like driving blind.
 
I have the V67 and #4 sounds like it to me. I know that #3 is the SM58. Between the first two I couldn't tell you what's what. I'd guess that the first one is the AT4033 because it's supposed to be a brighter mic, with a less scooped out sound. So, I guess that makes number two the blue, in my estimation.

Cyan, you have a good voice, but I'm hearing some unsavory throat sounds on that track. If I were you I'd take those out in Sound Forge, although with the music they might not be as noticable.
 
On my little Mac speaker, they all sounded the same to me. I'll have to try to download the file and play it through some real monitors!
 
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