VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Bruce · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:47 pm Post subject: Lend me an ear?

Below is a link to a quick mic test of the three mics I use (2 minutes for all 3). If you're into analyzing such things and have a few minutes I'd enjoy hearing your opinion of their technical quality and/or the quality of my setup. I used no gating or compression so you'll likely hear a couple of bird chirps from the forest or a dog scratching himself next door.

These condensers are in order: GrooveTube AM11, Sennheiser 416, AT875R

I feed them into the built-in preamps in my MOTU 828 MK II digital device and everything's Firewired into my Mac and the Audio Desk software from MOTU.

Truth be told I use the GrooveTube 98% of the time. The Senny is sounding artificial to me, which is great for the odd project that needs that, but I tend to avoid it. The Audio Technica sounds like a lightweight to me... thin... no meat.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmx9s73tra7jmni/BruceMiles_3MicTest.wav?dl=0

Thank you so much for anyone who is up for this.

Bruce
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Rob Ellis · M&M Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 2385 Location: Detroit

Bruce,

I agree that the Groove Tube sounds the best. I can see why you use it most of the time.

heyguido · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:06 pm Post subject:

Yup. Take care of that thing. They're hard to find these days.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

ballenberg · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:40 am Post subject:

Hey Bruce..I agree on Groove Tube, sounds great , though I also like the 416.

So how does the mixer for routing remote sessions figure into this setup?

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:18 am Post subject:

The groovetube sounds the best, but man, the delta between the 3 mics is so small that any of them would be perfectly fine.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

Ed Fisher · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:23 am Post subject:

GrooveTube AM11 - Sweet. Well Rounded....no discernible "harshness"

Sennheiser 416 - More Brittle.....More Flat. Not as "sweet" like the GrooveTube on your voice

AT875R - Even more "Brittle." ....EQ curve seems less on the low end. Not as much "air" as the Sennheiser. HOWEVER, I noticed that the lowly AT875R looks to not have been normalized to ZERO...like the other two microphones were.

On your voice. GrooveTube wins in my book.

I would also like to say how MUCH I enjoy hearing the NAKED sound of a studio in this way. Yes. Let me hear your "dead air". Show me your unprocessed Wav file. I would love to hear/see this from MORE of the folks who are doing well with their VO careers. I find it both educational and reassuring.

I would also very much like to know if you are sending this kind of "raw" recording out to clients? Or is it safe to assume that you do a bit of subtle "tweaking' to bring that background noise level down even more?
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FinMac · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:50 am Post subject: +1 to what Jeff wrote..

+1 to Jeff's comment. The first mic is best on your voice, which sounded great by the way, but the difference to my ears was quite small.

Makes me want to take Don's ear test on the chat forum Smile

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"If you want to get to the top, you have to get off your bottom". (Unknown)

Bruce · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:22 am Post subject:

Thank you for your input. That GrooveTube has served me well (I rotate it with a spare every couple of years). They listed at $500 back then but I got them for $350 when GT was in trouble. Proves you don't have to have a $3,400 mic and a $1,500 pre-amp.... although I must admit I salivate a little when I think of those.

I send audio to engineers (including ISDN sessions) with only a microscopic amount of gating and little to no compression. I have enough potential ambient noise that I feel it helps.

If I'm quite sure it's going to non-engineer types who will just dub it onto their video or put it direct to air, I give it a goose with as much processing as I guess they'll need. I must be guessing good 'cause I've never had anyone ask for a re-tweaking of my audio in the 15 years I've been a do-it-yourselfer.

Again, my thanks!

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Bruce · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:32 am Post subject:

ballenberg · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:31 pm Post subject:

Thanks Bruce...so there's no hardware mixer if Understand correctly. Yeah, I'd be lost without a lot of notes. Sometimes I'm lost with the notes