Mic Simulator

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JonPaulP

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I was reading "Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies" and in the section about microphones, the author says there is such thing as a "mic simulator" which could match the sound of another microphone. He mentioned it could be in a system's effects patches.

Anyone know if Cubase has such a feature or is it some type of outside plug-in?
 
Antares makes the only one that I know of. It's kind of interesting, but you are not going to get a 57 to sound like a U87. It just doesn't happen. It's a waste of money.
 
I have the Antares one and i use it regularly. Not much as a simulator, but as a tool to give a different color to a mic. And you are right, you are never gonna make a 57 sound like a U87, but is useful. I like it.
 
mixmkr said:
How about a U87 -> 57? :D
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Oh, that's easy.

1. Start by EQing the U87 to be as flat as possible.
2. Add a low pass filter with a steep cutoff at about 12 kHz so you don't get any of those pesky high frequencies.
3. Add a wide 10 dB low cut centered at 60 Hz so you don't get any of those pesky low frequencies, either.
4. Add a high boost filter centered at about 6 kHz so that despite being dull, the result still sounds suitably harsh.
5. Add a wide 2dB cut centered at 600 Hz so your mids sound scooped.
6. Add a very tight parametric cut at about 8 kHz just for grins.
7. Add a slew rate limiter plug-in so that all of your transients sound suitably smeared.
 
What about a Marshall MXL 2003 Condenser Microphone into a Neumann :D

Can anyone who's used the Antares one post any samples? I'm kinda curious.
 
JonPaulP said:
What about a Marshall MXL 2003 Condenser Microphone into a Neumann :D

Can anyone who's used the Antares one post any samples? I'm kinda curious.
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I'll try to do it soon and post it.
 
Wait, that was a joke? Good thing I didn't try to attempt it! :D:D
 
JonPaulP said:
Wait, that was a joke? Good thing I didn't try to attempt it! :D:D
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You'll never get the top end to sound exactly right, but it was a rough approximation of what you'd have to do. Making a condenser sound like a dynamic is a lot more plausible than the reverse (since you'd have to fabricate lost information to go the other way).

The other thing you'd probably need to do is dice it up into frequency bands and adjust the slew rate differently depending on frequency, but....
 
JohnPaulP: Maybe the "Dummies" were referring to what Guitar POD (and other mfx pedals with amp simulator) users are familiar with when they select cabinet simulators (final, hopefully dynamic eq curves) for their simulated amp settings. Generally, there is a choice of "microphones" (SM57, U47, U87) and their placements (on axis, off axis, edge of cone) and distances from the cabinet for these virtual microphones, to simulate how the tone of the cabinet would be picked up by the actual mic on an actual cabinet.

It's hard to imagine how a mic simulator would function validly without either a reference mic or a calibration procedure for the input mic, but I'm pretty sure I remember some Roland recorders advertising mic simulators as part of their effects processors.

Inadvertent or not, I'm glad you kept dgatwood's aim away from me.

Paj
8^)
 
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The Tascam Gigapulse Convolution Reverb includes a mic simulator. It calls for the user to specify the input mic as well as the output mic, ostensibly creating a better match. Yeah, its really not going to transform your 57 into a U47 but the feature is actually pretty useful for tweaking your reverb in a fairly subtle way which is handy, especially given Gigapulse's rather ungainly set of controls. Its much more useful than the earlier Roland one that was part of the VS880's optional effects card. On its own, the mic simulator is not really the kind of things I'd spend any money on, though.
 
Marcadiablo said:
I'll try to do it soon and post it.
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I'm also Curious to see what this plug in can do... does anyone else have any experience with it?

I know you can't get a SM57 sounding into a U87 BUT what about a Condenser into a Ribbon?

Could you post like W/ and W/Out samples... That would be Great! thanks...

Julien
15 Year-Old Recording Engineer @
The Electric Blu Studio
www.electricblustudio.com
Asheville, North Carolina
 
Marcadiablo said:
I have the Antares one and i use it regularly. Not much as a simulator, but as a tool to give a different color to a mic. And you are right, you are never gonna make a 57 sound like a U87, but is useful. I like it.
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I had the Antares Mic Modeler plug a few years back when I had only a couple of mics in my collection. I thought it was a very useful tool and definitely made tracks recorded on my SM58, AT3035, and AKG Solidtube sound way better.

One additional benefit was that it pointed me towards some mics that I eventually bought. And while there is certainly a difference in using the real thing vs. the modeler software, there's also no doubt that the tracks were greatly improved when only lesser mics were available. So for someone without a lot of mics or someone just starting out, I'd say this is a definite good buy. Just make sure you own one of the mics that it lists on the input side so the software can do what it's supposed to do (and from experience, you'll want to use a LDC to mimic another LDC... it just sounds much better).
I think a CAD EQ 200 would be a good mic to go with the software.
 
JTC111 said:
I had the Antares Mic Modeler plug a few years back when I had only a couple of mics in my collection. I thought it was a very useful tool and definitely made tracks recorded on my SM58, AT3035, and AKG Solidtube sound way better.

One additional benefit was that it pointed me towards some mics that I eventually bought. And while there is certainly a difference in using the real thing vs. the modeler software, there's also no doubt that the tracks were greatly improved when only lesser mics were available. So for someone without a lot of mics or someone just starting out, I'd say this is a definite good buy. Just make sure you own one of the mics that it lists on the input side so the software can do what it's supposed to do (and from experience, you'll want to use a LDC to mimic another LDC... it just sounds much better).
I think a CAD EQ 200 would be a good mic to go with the software.
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You had a mic simulator? What's the world coming to? Next you're going to tell me you had a "people simulator"--some magical box that created people out of thin air to sing harmonies along with you...

Sheesh...
 
WhiteStrat said:
You had a mic simulator? What's the world coming to? Next you're going to tell me you had a "people simulator"--some magical box that created people out of thin air to sing harmonies along with you...

Sheesh...
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Those already exist. Digitech makes a bunch of them.
 
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