mic shootouts and simple tests aren't enough

[junplugged]

I've realized that, at least for my ears and brain, that I have to work with a mic for a while and listen to it for a while before I can really get an idea how it sounds. I need time for it to sink in, short clips just won't make that impression on me.

I just heard some stuff out of a mic that I didn't expect, and it was at a greater distance than I had used it before. I also have 4 different pres so it could respond differently w/ them too, I guess.

these things are more than a freq response chart, they're acting in a physical 3D space....

 

[acorec]

I've realized that, at least for my ears and brain, that I have to work with a mic for a while and listen to it for a while before I can really get an idea how it sounds. I need time for it to sink in, short clips just won't make that impression on me.

I just heard some stuff out of a mic that I didn't expect, and it was at a greater distance than I had used it before. I also have 4 different pres so it could respond differently w/ them too, I guess.

these things are more than a freq response chart, they're acting in a physical 3D space....

Well, now you understand why so many threads go south. People get a mic yesterday, post examples of the sound (only using the mic for like 1 hour) and either trash the mic or praise it as sounding just like a neuman or some such non-sense. Then others jump in and defend it/trash it based on hearing 1 example of 1 instrument. Where you are in the grand scheme of things is in the "advanced range" of audio recording. You finally can actually withhold judgement until understanding what is going on, and where will/won't this mic work. This will happen with pre-amps, EQs, monitors etc.

Great post sir.

 

[Angusdevil]

Damn, I just posted something on the board that could be something in a better direction to get a better feel for the mics and equipment. If you heard one mic on 10 different instruments at 10 different angles, would you more willing to listen to those and the results of other mics to find the mic you wanted to buy or would all that be too much to listen to?

I also agree that one or two little clips compared to a few other mics on one instrument just doesn't cut it. It only helps if you run into the exact situation that the recordings were done in. Not unless you start getting some extensive comparisons can you really weed out what you like and don't like.

Just my .02

 

[junplugged]

well, there's 2 ways I'm looking at it now, after maybe 3 years or so of slowly learning. There's the big, obvious things, and the more subtle things that actually end up being pretty big later on or in a mix or....

Big and obvious would be the differences - I'll just take my own POV here since it's all I know so far - between my sm57/58 and a condensor. Then the ECM8000 and any other condenser, then LDC v SDC, then between LDC's and between SDC's is where it gets a bit refined.

These things are sensitive and can vary a lot with placement, the source, the room, the pre, the converters, or analog, and then you convert from a wave to mp3! I can definitely hear the difference between a wave and an mp3, it took a while but I hear it now....

So then there's more obvious stuff like some LDC's are beefy in the lower end, but this is where there's a lot of stuff. I'm noticing that I can eq the results of tracks with some mics and get different results somehow even tho it's the same source and different mics. I also hear different amounts of sibillance (sp) with diff LDC's and there are different responses to proximity effect and it starts to get kind of wordy and harder to explain at this point. The vocabulary and the feeling and sound start to be a little less objective and more metaphorical and all hell breaks loose....