Mics and grand pianos - expensive vs dirt cheap. Have a listen

[rob aylestone]

I fell over some boxes in my store - very cheap chinese small goosenecks - with little magnetic mounts (and one violin one too). I thought I'd sell them - I have cut down my work quite a bit ready to retire, I guess. I searched through my old videos on youtube and found a collection of mics on my piano. I had a listen - some potentially useful stuff. We spoke recently about mono vs 'stereo' and this video has mono, two cardioid's and even M/S in there - with a stereoscope running. What struck me was how well the two £25 mics stood up against the (for me) usual pair of 414s. What do you think - skip the stuff at the start and forward through to the music.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

I liked the 2 414s best.

 

[Papanate]

I enjoyed the 2 AKG 414s best - the U87 and Ribbon Mic was definitely spread to wide except on Elton Johns 'Don't Let the Sun' - I wanted to hear the 2 AKG 414s and the Ribbon Mic - which is how I think they recorded the piano - The Goosenecks were a sound - but not a great one - What was the ribbon mic?

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

An oscilloscope is a visual tool I use. So you know you are on the best part of the type of wave you are after. You see it on a tool that goes beyond what ears can hear in real time. Stereoscopics are good, but I like the O scope a whole lot.

Not trying to capture something natural. Instead make something synthetic and powerful with the tools. Take it to the next level.

O scopes are popular in synth's. You hear the sound and lock in with a visual O scope designing it. Having the 2 inputs of sight and sound, allows you copy popular sounds or try to anyway. Not blindly stab at darkness, now you have light. See.

 

[rob aylestone]

The ribbon is a really cheap citronic RM06 - I have two of them and they sound quite nice. I think I overcooked the side channel looking at the stereoscope trace. One mic is definitely rather 'boring' though. I bought those dinky goosenecks to use on stage - where the player did not want big ugly mics. With a bit of EQ they were quite nice, but on my piano - I like the pair of 414s best I think. Those little mics with the magnetic mounts are problem solvers and sound way better than they should. I notice that on 5" speakers, the difference is even less - the 414s just going down further and maybe smoother.

Going back to my thing about pianos not being stereo - the two mics are not the left hand and the right hand but more like two different sounds that blend nicely. There is plenty of bass in the right, and the high notes are certainly present in the left - just different?

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

Yeah - no question - the pair of 414's are the most pleasing option of the bunch. But I do see what you're saying about the inexpensive Chinese goosenecks - not bad.

Re: the M/S portion - where is the second microphone? I would expect it to be close to the U87. (I thought this was the second best sounding of the clips.)

 

[rob aylestone]

It was an experiment with the U87 in the 'mono' best position - with the ribbon in the middle. Just to see what happened when they were not in the usual co-incident position.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

Ah - got it, understood.