The Listening Sessions

  • Thread starter Thread starter noisedude
  • Start date Start date
Guys, Session 1 is all over the place. No apologies here. We even mention that on the session notes. We had no idea we'd even be posting anything online for public consumption at that point.

If you want to do some comparisons in a thread like this you might wanna use some of the other sessions where the performances, levels and mic placement are more consistent.
 
noisedude said:
Ok - let's just make one thing clear, my mistake. This isn't about deciding about microphones - I certainly wouldn't advocate making any buying or recording decisions based on these mp3s!!! I'm not that stupid!
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Nobody thinks you're stupid, it's just that some people take this stuff for the gospel when it's not. Just putting things in perspective is all. Again, clips can help but you have no idea what's making that AKG mic sound better than another.

You understand the flaws so yeah, no worries.

War
 
Dot said:
Guys, Session 1 is all over the place. No apologies here. We even mention that on the session notes. We had no idea we'd even be posting anything online for public consumption at that point.
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No apologies needed. For what it is, it's still an amazing resource. I'd like to hear someone else try to compile that without any bitching from the peanut gallery. :D
 
Dot said:
Guys, Session 1 is all over the place. No apologies here. We even mention that on the session notes. We had no idea we'd even be posting anything online for public consumption at that point.

If you want to do some comparisons in a thread like this you might wanna use some of the other sessions where the performances, levels and mic placement are more consistent.
Click to expand...
I deliberately chose them because I wanted to hear the differences between the tracks and I wasn't too fussed at what was causing them. I only chose ones of all the same singer and preamp because the tracks seemed otherwise so different.

The other thing is that they needed to be different because then I can hear it - when we get onto bass DI-ing ... I can't tell the difference between the Behringer MIC2200 and some of the really expensive stuff yet! :eek::eek:
 
C3000 sounds great, but there doesn't seem to be any real consistency in the recordings themselves. Levels change, the singer's proximity to the mic changes...

The thing is, with some know-how and a little tweaking, they'd all get similar results. None of them sound spectacular and none of them suck -- although I agree that the C3000 leans more toward the good side.
 
noisedude said:
The other thing is that they needed to be different because then I can hear it - when we get onto bass DI-ing ... I can't tell the difference between the Behringer MIC2200 and some of the really expensive stuff yet! :eek::eek:
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IMHO Nik you never will, nothing to do with your ears but when listening to competently designed and built equipment there really is not that much variation*. Note I am talking here about electronics NOT transducers i.e. Mic's and Loudspeakers that do show enormous variations.

I have some friends that will argue for hours about the pro's & con's of various cable types, they even reckon that they can hear differences in the types of plugs!! To me all of that is just "Horse Manure".

Tony

* Some gear does have a signature sound, like Neve pre's but really that is because it adds a type of distortion that is pleasing to the ear.
 
Well I deliberately went looking for opinions on the MIC2200 as a DI because I was surprised by how good the results I was getting were. So I was kinda expecting the Behringer to be slaughtered by the Great River and the Manley but apart from what I would ignorantly call 'finger noise' there aren't many differences I can hear.

Of course, give me a set of Adam monitors and I will tell you anything you want to hear :)
 
What I'm amazed is the difference in the responses from people.

Granted, I used my Headphones because my little Altec Lasings have too much N/S ratio as it is, and are not flat enough to really do an assessment.

This would probably change the 'coloration' of some mics based on room acoustics, monitors, and the db level at which each was played. I agree that not two tracks were the same, and yet you can hear clear differences on the mics. Some of the positioning like the B3 it's hard to tell because the singer looks to the side while singing at one moment, and there is some proximity effect because she get's closer and backs out again.

Anyway, it would be nice to know what monitors, soundcard, signal chain each person used to listen the mp3. I'm sure if we were all in the same room, playing the mp3's we would probably have a very slight variation on our feed back (based on our own hearing capabilities and location in the room).
 
Dracon said:
What I'm amazed is the difference in the responses from people.

Anyway, it would be nice to know what monitors, soundcard, signal chain each person used to listen the mp3. I'm sure if we were all in the same room, playing the mp3's we would probably have a very slight variation on our feed back (based on our own hearing capabilities and location in the room).
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Windows Media Player 10
Audiophile 24/96 card
Berry MX802A Mixer
Sennheiser HD580 "Jubilee Edition" Headphones
Small glass of Southern Comfort

Tony
 
LOL! Tony's a funny guy.

Delta 44 --> Yamaha MG10/2 --> Alesis M1A MkIIs and Sennheiser HD280 Pros.
Small glass of water
 
noisedude said:
LOL! Tony's a funny guy.

Delta 44 --> Yamaha MG10/2 --> Alesis M1A MkIIs and Sennheiser HD280 Pros.
Small glass of water
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I'll try to route mine as you did and the only difference would be the Headphones, see how that changes the sound. I'll have to look back and see what you said on each mic.

Tonight I'll try Delta 44-->Yamah MG10/2 -->Beyerdynamic DT 770
 
Fletcher said:
That wouldn't make it "harder" it would make it "impossible".......
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Do you ever get tired of sitting on the fence?

Fletcher said:
and the loudest product wins [hence why we have all this crap that is overly bright... because "bright" is considered "loud" which is often thought of as "good"].
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You might notice that people are not picking the Z5600 which I think falls firmly in the 'bright' and 'loud' category.


Noisedude said:
3) Z5600 - Too much crackle at the top end
4) C3000 - kinda ok except for the ear-piercing sibilance ... the other mics
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I don't get the ear peircing sibilance here, the Z5600 would be closer to that description - could be a different decoder, sound card, headphones (on my laptop here)
 
paddyponchero said:
I don't get the ear peircing sibilance here, the Z5600 would be closer to that description - could be a different decoder, sound card, headphones (on my laptop here)
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Yes! I agree, that's why I was wondering what everyone else was listening to. However, it was nice to see that people considered the B1 & B3 somewhat muffled. Although, if I remember correctly there was way too much white noise on the B1? I'll have to go back and read my post.
 
This is all good. I'll have a listen to some more of the sessions and try to choose another that'd be useful to discuss.
 
My crappy signal chain:

Windows media player --> Stock HP soundcard (Realtek 97, I think) --> Logitech Z3000 computer speakers & Audio Technica M30 headphones.

I listened to each track multiple times through both speakers and cans. After about 10 times, it became a little harder to judge. I guess my ears were getting tired.

I was, perhaps, a little hard on the AKG 3000. I wanted to hate it, but it actually was decent. The B1, however, was incredibly disappointing. I hope it was just a bad mic they used for the test, because people around here really seem to like that mic and I've recommended it to others based on that reason alone.
 
scrubs said:
I was, perhaps, a little hard on the AKG 3000. I wanted to hate it, but it actually was decent. The B1, however, was incredibly disappointing. I hope it was just a bad mic they used for the test, because people around here really seem to like that mic and I've recommended it to others based on that reason alone.
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Based on what I heard of the AKG Solid Tube (which I was very dissapointed with) I didn't have very high expectations for the C3000. However, in my list it ended at the top (based on the recording - not real life).
 
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