Mix and match mic shootout

[WhiteStrat]

For as long as I’ve been reading this board (and it’s much longer than my meager post count would indicate) I have closely followed the threads about recording electric guitar. That would be because I play a lot of electric guitar.

I’ve picked up a ton of good advice on mics, and I’ve also picked up a lot of mics. So as much as people seem to groove on a good ol’ shootout, I’ve made a mix and match mic shootout for guitar cabs, using the following mics:

Shure SM 57 (an early seventies Unidyne III)
GLS ES57 (the SM57 clone often mentioned on this board)
Sennheiser e609 (the newer silver one)
ACM 3 (sorry no Royer, but at least there’s a ribbon)
Sennheiser e835 (another vocal mic sometimes suggested for cabs)
Audix i5 (Audix’ answer to the SM57)

A few things make the shootout interesting. First and perhaps most important, the comparisons are all of the same takes. That’s right, I mic’d the amp with all of them at once—and it took a while to get everything in a sweet spot! This removes a lot of variables. All tracks use the same preamp. Everything went through an eight channel Octane (the same pre’s as a DMP-3). Not my favorite pre for electric, but it’s fairly transparent and the only 8 channels of the same thing I have.

There are lots of clips, in a few styles. Heavy, distorted guitars, clean guitars, chunking, strumming, picking, rhythms, leads, etc. Some were with my Epi LP, some were with my Strat.

Except for one, they’re all in a mix with drums and bass (the same drums & bass for each)—again, good for comparing. The rhythm tracks are dry—just as they were recorded—but double tracked and panned hard left and right. (Just because that’s closer to real life for me). And the leads are wet—because that too, is closer to real life for me.

Perhaps best yet, is that I also mixed down and included all the individual tracks, every left, right and lead track (along with a sub mix of drums & bass) so you can download ‘em and mix and match. Wanna hear a SM57 on the left, an e609 on the right and an i5 on the lead? Go for it…

http://www.spottedmuse.com/shootout/index.html

Thanks and let me know what you think.

 

[buckkillr8]

Awesome! This is one helluva way to do a shootout. That GLS57 sounds nice.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Awesome! This is one helluva way to do a shootout. That GLS57 sounds nice.

Thanks! Yeah the GLS ES-57 really holds it's own. I do live sound too, and bought 3 of those and 3 of their 58's for the live rig--and now I'm using the 57's on toms and cabs in the studio. At $30 each or 3 for $80--not bad at all.

 

[buckkillr8]

Yeah I've heard clips of the GLS's before and was sold on getting some, but after this extensive and "done right" shootout I'm sold! Thanks again.

 

[xstatic]

So far I just listened to track one. Personally, I liked the Sennheiser 835 the best, either of the 57 versions second, the 609 third, the Audix fourth, and the ribbon the least. Then again, with some processing this order could change Good little shootout though

 

[xstatic]

Just listened to the clean stuff on track 4 (with the strat). My mic order still remains the same, it has through the whole test, although some things remian close. However, with the clean stuff on the strat, I do like the way the rhythm guitars sit better on the ribbon mic than the other mics. It sounds a bit dark, or muffled on the highs on the lead part though. However, knowing how much easier ribbon mics seem to be to EQ my gut tells me that the end result, at least with the strat, would be better on the Ribbon mic. As it stands though, I still ike the 835 the best, the way it is currently sitting in the mix. The 57's still sound a little pointy to me, where the 609 seems to mid shy, and the Audix seems to rough.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Just listened to the clean stuff on track 4 (with the strat). My mic order still remains the same, it has through the whole test, although some things remian close. However, with the clean stuff on the strat, I do like the way the rhythm guitars sit better on the ribbon mic than the other mics. It sounds a bit dark, or muffled on the highs on the lead part though. However, knowing how much easier ribbon mics seem to be to EQ my gut tells me that the end result, at least with the strat, would be better on the Ribbon mic. As it stands though, I still ike the 835 the best, the way it is currently sitting in the mix. The 57's still sound a little pointy to me, where the 609 seems to mid shy, and the Audix seems to rough.

Dude, I'm loving your analysis. I gotta tell ya, the 835 was the surprise for me too. I'm not sure it's my favorite, but I didn't even think it would hang with the others and it sure does.

I think the ribbon suffers the most in this shootout, and I almost wish I had left it out--I had an SM7b I could've put it in its place. It just needs such a different approach from the amp than the dynamics that this experiment didn't do it justice. But it has a smooth silky tone that makes it worth tweaking the amp a bit...

 

[professor_m]

Thanks for the time and effort to put this shootout together, WhiteStrat. I actually use the e835 for most of my own electric guitar recording. I got the mic for live vox--it fits my voice and vocal style better than the sm58.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well it did on electric guitar. Its response is slightly flatter and more extended than a 57, particularly on the low end. On my Chubster combo, that's perfect.

Approach to the amp certainly matters, though. I do find myself setting the amp knobs a bit differently when I record with it. Or switching more to humbuckers.

 

[rayc]

This is well set up & thought out with lots of work on your part.
Perhaps there should be a stickie that is "best practice" for mic shoot outs but, I hasten to add, not quite at this standard as many folk wouldn't have the pre set up to do so.
I made the mistake of doing a shootout & running all the mics through the same pre - one at a time - & copped a lot of flak for not setting each up with their best match.
What would be "BP" for this process?
The 2nd Senn was the winner for me in track one. No technical understanding mind, just sound GOOOOOOD.

 

[pohaku]

Interesting. I have a couple e845s that I bought and never particularly liked on voice - at least compared to the Audix OM6 or the MD431. Maybe I need to try them on cabs. They've been gathering dust for the last three years or so.

Thanks for doing this!

 

[WhiteStrat]

This is well set up & thought out with lots of work on your part.
Perhaps there should be a stickie that is "best practice" for mic shoot outs but, I hasten to add, not quite at this standard as many folk wouldn't have the pre set up to do so.
I made the mistake of doing a shootout & running all the mics through the same pre - one at a time - & copped a lot of flak for not setting each up with their best match.
What would be "BP" for this process?
The 2nd Senn was the winner for me in track one. No technical understanding mind, just sound GOOOOOOD.

I can see matching mics up with their best pre's--the Octane wouldn't be my choice for most of these. And that would be valuable for really showing each mic's best potential. But I was going for showing each mic's flavor compared to the others, and thought eliminating the preamp variable would serve that purpose.

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[WhiteStrat]

Interesting. I have a couple e845s that I bought and never particularly liked on voice - at least compared to the Audix OM6 or the MD431. Maybe I need to try them on cabs. They've been gathering dust for the last three years or so.

Thanks for doing this!

Yep--I bought three e835s for live vocals a while back as well. I'd never tried 'em on the cab before this. Just heard it mentioned as a possibility on the forum a few times. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.