Recording Engineer
Moderator
This was posted by Erwin Timmerman in the rec.audio.pre newsgroup:
"Hi all.
For some time now I have my microphone shootout on line, and I have had several reactions already. Two of them really point out why the standard reaction to "what's the best mic" is: "go and listen for yourself, what works for you".
Remember, this are two persons who have listened to the same audio snippets.
> What were you referring to when you said take 5 shows why people bash > the C3000? I thought it sounded better than the Oktava.
> Thanks for the response. It was really great to hear some comparison > recordings of these mics. Even though they are .mp3 quality, I could still > tell that the MC012 smokes the C3000 in its sleep.
There you have it: two completely different tastes. When the first person wouldn't have bought a C3000 because a lot of people dislike the mic, he would have made the wrong decision. Because he actually likes it compared to other mics (he also owns a NT1 and a MXL 2001p himself and likes the C3000 best).
So, when you want to buy a new mic, it is OK to ask for advice. But the final buying decision should always depend on your own ears, recording your own instrument or voice.
BTW the website I mentioned can be found at http://www.stack.nl/~erwint/MicShootout.html
Before someone say that MP3 in unuseable for this purpose, I want to quote one reaction I got on the fact that MP3's are used for the audio:
> Interesting website... To be honest, I thought that it would be a waste > of time trying to compare between your .mp3's, but I gave it a go anyways. > I was certainly surprised to hear such a difference (even on my computer > speakers which are not exactly great monitors!)!
So while not the best medium to capture subtle differences, MP3 (160 kbps, mono, DCC quality) can still capture the not so subtle differences in the mics on display.
Greetings,
Erwin Timmerman
--
Links to a lot of recording FAQs: http://www.stack.nl/~erwint/RecordingFAQ.html "
"Hi all.
For some time now I have my microphone shootout on line, and I have had several reactions already. Two of them really point out why the standard reaction to "what's the best mic" is: "go and listen for yourself, what works for you".
Remember, this are two persons who have listened to the same audio snippets.
> What were you referring to when you said take 5 shows why people bash > the C3000? I thought it sounded better than the Oktava.
> Thanks for the response. It was really great to hear some comparison > recordings of these mics. Even though they are .mp3 quality, I could still > tell that the MC012 smokes the C3000 in its sleep.
There you have it: two completely different tastes. When the first person wouldn't have bought a C3000 because a lot of people dislike the mic, he would have made the wrong decision. Because he actually likes it compared to other mics (he also owns a NT1 and a MXL 2001p himself and likes the C3000 best).
So, when you want to buy a new mic, it is OK to ask for advice. But the final buying decision should always depend on your own ears, recording your own instrument or voice.
BTW the website I mentioned can be found at http://www.stack.nl/~erwint/MicShootout.html
Before someone say that MP3 in unuseable for this purpose, I want to quote one reaction I got on the fact that MP3's are used for the audio:
> Interesting website... To be honest, I thought that it would be a waste > of time trying to compare between your .mp3's, but I gave it a go anyways. > I was certainly surprised to hear such a difference (even on my computer > speakers which are not exactly great monitors!)!
So while not the best medium to capture subtle differences, MP3 (160 kbps, mono, DCC quality) can still capture the not so subtle differences in the mics on display.
Greetings,
Erwin Timmerman
--
Links to a lot of recording FAQs: http://www.stack.nl/~erwint/RecordingFAQ.html "
