mic comparisson

  • Thread starter Thread starter warmth is good
  • Start date Start date
hello folks, got a tune up on the ol' myspace, recorded with the 4040.

it's by no means finished, but i've just not had time to make it shiny, and since we were talking about comparing vocals of both mics, the track is pretty much vocals and a guitar at the minute. i'll be re-doing the vocals at some point, but it will give ya'll an idea of the sound of the 4040.

my judgement of the two mics is still pretty much the same....i'd say they are very close in sound, but the 4040 is undoubtedly quieter, so that's the one i'm going to use. and i was pretty happy with the results anyway.

the link... linky

cheers
 
Welcome to the board, "warmth is good"!

You'll find many opinions here, as you've already noticed. As a side note, you're not the only person that's discovered that the SP B1 sounds pretty amazing, especially for the money. Like others have said, each mic has a purpose, and some sound better on certain sources than others. If you can afford to keep your new AT-4040, then do it. If not, maybe you can return it, although some mail order and walk-in stores won't let you return a mic due to "health reasons".

Bottom line, at least to me, is use what sounds good to you. ;)

PS : good tune too (biscuits and cheese)... well done!
 
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warmth is good said:
hello folks, got a tune up on the ol' myspace, recorded with the 4040. linky
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Well done. You don't need any advice, my friend. It would be interesting though if you posted a bit of the same song using the other mike for the vocal.
 
thanks tim, i will put the song up with the B1 if i get the time, i'll be re-doing those vocals at some point anyways so i'll do thorough trials with both mics and decide which one i'll use.

there's no doubt in my mind the B1 is a good mic, it's just a shame that i thought the 4040 would be a big step up, when in fact it's not, which makes me think maybe i should be saving for one of those Neuman bad boys...but that could get me into all sorts of trouble!!

cheers
kevin
 
warmth is good said:
hello folks,

first off, id like to express my gratitude towards the people that run this board and also to those who contribute, as it really is a great resoarse for those less experienced people with an interest in recording, like myself.

infact, nearly all my gear purchases have been based on recomendations from this board!

so the reason i'm posting, is because i was A-Bing my new purchase, an AT4040 with my first condenser, the SPB1. for the record im using a DMP3 and delta44 also. I was hoping for AT4040 the AT4040 to become my new main vocal mic, but i doubt this will be the case.

unfortunately, i have been rather unsatisfied with the results of the comparrison and i feel that my B1 produces a more detailed, full, and clear result. considering the 4040 is 3 times the price, this is not making me feel great as i'm sure you'll understand.

i dont think you could argue that the sounds are merely different, as to my ears, the B1 is giving a far richer sound, and to my ears, is clearly the better souding mic.

so basially i'm hoping for some comments from people that maybe have the same mics, or similar, and also maybe from the more experienced guys who vouch for the 4040, as i know there are a lot of you!

could it be a case of the B1 just being more suited to my voice? which is i guess, aggressive, loud, grainy...(sort of eddie vedder, cept, obvioulsy, not as good!)

I'd find this hard to believe as the B1 is really at the very low end of the mic spectrum surely...a good mic none the less but should the 4040 not be leaving it for dead?

please note that in the comparison i made sure to keep the same distance from each mic, and get the same gain on each.

any comments would be appreciated.
cheers :o
kevin
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Use what you like and know (from experience). The problem with home recording is that every room and signal chain is different. Forget about subjective sound and think about this:
If you could record in a well treated acoustically "correct" room with a handfull of mics, you would hear how they really sound in relation to each other. Going from garage to basemant to bedroom, a handfull of mics would be rated in a random oreder depending on how bad the room is, pre-amps, A/D conv, type of tape machine (and how well aligned it is) etc.

Every thing affects everything else in this quest for "best mic"

The thing is: Until you personally try out ANY mic from $100 to $10,000 in your room with your equipment, you will never know what you like and can live with.

The other bad thing is: If you find a mic in your environment that you like, the recording results may translate on other playback systems poorly.

I have seen this as bad as bass cranked up waaay too high on mixdown only to be completely uncorrectable on my system in my treated room.

I have no idea as to your resources or skill level, but don't be dissapointed at any mic until you can correct your monitoring and recording rooms to at least be free of huge standing waves and reflections that cause phase issues etc.

Good luck
 
warmth is good said:
...it's just a shame that i thought the 4040 would be a big step up, when in fact it's not, which makes me think maybe i should be saving for one of those Neuman bad boys...
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Yeah, hard to predict the sound quality/price thing, all things considered. I've used a $19 mic that sounded better for my purpose than a particular model of Neumann I had rented to audition. Go figure.
 
MCI2424 said:
Use what you like and know (from experience). The problem with home recording is that every room and signal chain is different. Forget about subjective sound and think about this:
If you could record in a well treated acoustically "correct" room with a handfull of mics, you would hear how they really sound in relation to each other. Going from garage to basemant to bedroom, a handfull of mics would be rated in a random oreder depending on how bad the room is, pre-amps, A/D conv, type of tape machine (and how well aligned it is) etc.

Every thing affects everything else in this quest for "best mic"

The thing is: Until you personally try out ANY mic from $100 to $10,000 in your room with your equipment, you will never know what you like and can live with.

The other bad thing is: If you find a mic in your environment that you like, the recording results may translate on other playback systems poorly.

I have seen this as bad as bass cranked up waaay too high on mixdown only to be completely uncorrectable on my system in my treated room.

I have no idea as to your resources or skill level, but don't be dissapointed at any mic until you can correct your monitoring and recording rooms to at least be free of huge standing waves and reflections that cause phase issues etc.

Good luck
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Excellent advice here. Any one who plans to buy more than a single mic and hasn't worked on their environment would be wise to stop buying mics and 'fix' their room. No amount of expensive mics... yada yada yada...
 
warmth is good said:
which makes me think maybe i should be saving for one of those Neuman bad boys...
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What, does your neighbor mr. jones have one of those?????????????


Any mic/singer combo is a your mileage may vary situation. just for fun, add the extra variable of changing rooms!


http://www.gcmstudio.com/acoustics/acoustics.html



Don't think those mic frequency charts are going to bail you out either:
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showpost.php?p=236037&postcount=288


You have already found out by doing, not by calculating, that the price is only a small possibly significant indicator of how well it will perform in a given application



good luck




:D
:D :D
:D :D :D
 
Warmth....

I have been saying for years...mics are tools, no more and no less. What works for you will not work for someone else. The one suggestion I can offer you as someone new to recording is to get a good book and learn the process of recording correctly. Then, spend any additional money on treating your room acoustics and not spend it on gear yet. You can submit your room dimensions to Auralex and they can give you suggestions to get your room acoustics in order using their fine products, or you can get creative and build your own treatment.

This is the best information you can get in my opinion. The rest is not important right now. If you have a good song, reasonable talent, and know what your doing, the use of any decent gear including ours in a decent room will get you a great recording. You do not have to have a mic that is $5k to make a good recording.

In the end, the one you have to please is yourself. If you are happy, then its not broke...so don't look to fix it. Searching for something better is not always the answer if the manner and room it will be used in is not right.

You are a student and have plenty of time to learn the craft first. When your ears are more tuned in to how things should sound, you can always start your hunt for more gear. If you can, never sell your stuff. It will always have a use and they are already paid for. I hope this helps you...
 
Hey Alan,
Good to hear from you!!
know your probably one busy person , but it's sure great when guys with your experiences chime in here and enrich the forum!!! :)
 
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thanks for the info guys, and i pretty much agree with, accept and appreciate what you're saying Alan. i'm fully aware that i'll no doubt never get THAT studio quality sound (i wasnt being entirely serious about getting a Neuman (just yet at least), but i did expect an increase in quality from the 4040...that's all i'm saying.

although again, i'm not going to say it's a bad mic at all, i think the key here is that yourself and your company have created a pretty impressive product in the B1 that i wouldn't hesitate for a second in recommending to anyone starting out in recording.

to be honest i was pretty much happy with the sounds i was getting from it in the first place, but i just thought, that SURELY a product 3 times the price would be better. however in my case at least, the margin of difference is so little that i couldn't say that's true. maybe this is down to the room treatment, but then you'd have to say that the B1 takes advantage of poor acoustics of a room, while the 4040 suffers? hmm.....

anyway, the song is by far the most important part of the whole thing for me, but i think i'll be concentrating more on technique etc before im in a better financial and experienced position at least.

cheers
 
warmth is good said:
thanks for the info guys, and i pretty much agree with, accept and appreciate what you're saying Alan. i'm fully aware that i'll no doubt never get THAT studio quality sound (i wasnt being entirely serious about getting a Neuman (just yet at least), but i did expect an increase in quality from the 4040...that's all i'm saying.

although again, i'm not going to say it's a bad mic at all, i think the key here is that yourself and your company have created a pretty impressive product in the B1 that i wouldn't hesitate for a second in recommending to anyone starting out in recording.

to be honest i was pretty much happy with the sounds i was getting from it in the first place, but i just thought, that SURELY a product 3 times the price would be better. however in my case at least, the margin of difference is so little that i couldn't say that's true. maybe this is down to the room treatment, but then you'd have to say that the B1 takes advantage of poor acoustics of a room, while the 4040 suffers? hmm.....

anyway, the song is by far the most important part of the whole thing for me, but i think i'll be concentrating more on technique etc before im in a better financial and experienced position at least.

cheers
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Well, I would love to say that the B1 takes advantage or poor room acoustics, but that is not the case. It just happens to work in your room, with your voice...So luck of the draw. Not to say I do not think the B1 is a fine mic, but I have to be careful here or the SPAM police will start ripping me a new...you know what.... :eek:

The new B1 which was recently upgraded is levels better for vocal than the old one was. In fact, the B1 was never known for its vocals despite many getting great results from it as a vocal mic. In the end, it is about the room and what works best inside it...
 
old thread but what the hell, i got my karma k35 and haven't plugged i the b1 since. I feel like I've got a "real" condesor now. I could use words like open, detailed, tight etc...Idon't know if that's it, but it just sounds a lot better to me, espcially the bottom end.

The last thing I used my b1 for was micing a bright cab from a bit back where it worked great.

I think a lot of it is the room and the recording chain. The b1 is probably better at dealing with bad rooms than better mics, and if your recording chain can't capitolize on the better mics then it's probably hard to beat the b1. Not that I've got a great setup or anything but it's evolving slowly.
 
heh, just read the last post more carefully. I would say the b1 is better at bad rooms, although that's just an untrained opinion.
 
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