VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Don G.]

Okay, folks. This has been an interesting experiment, to say the least. Many thanks to those who replied in my earlier thread regarding this mic test. As I had hoped to be able to do, I managed to wrangle a few more mics for testing and now ask for your indulgence once again. I've set up a web page where you can listen to files of all nine mics I tried. Here's the link.

If you're willing, it would be great to have you rate them in descending order of preference...even if it's just to note the top three. Of course if you'd like to make additional comments on any or all of them, that would be most welcome as well. Yes, I WILL identify all the mics and provide some other relevant info, but would like to hold off on that part of it for several days, in order to give as many of you a chance to participate as possible.

Thanks in advance if you decide to throw in your .02.

Don

P.S. I should caution you that because they are .wav files and because there are nine of them, it may take a minute to load in your browser.

[steveanthony]

I liked #6. After that, other than nuances that made them sound slightly different, nothing stood out.

[Jowillie]

Thanks again for doing this test.
In order of preferance:
4, 3, 5, 9, 7, 6 (8 seemed to match nuances in your voice)
_________________
Wild Willie Edwards
www.hometowntvtoday.com
http://vomictest.blogspot.com

[Don G.]

Steve and Willie, thanks for the updated comments. And thanks to those of you who replied with your thoughts in the previous thread. For those of you who are waiting to see exactly what you're comparing, here's a list of the mics being used. I'm not going to give away which is which just yet, but this way those of you who would rather play a matching game can do so. So in alphabetical order, they are:

AKG C414
AKG C414 (other studio)
EV RE-20
Marshall MXL990
Neumann TLM103 (other studio)
Neumann TLM103
NeumannU87ai
Studio Projects B1 (older model)
Studio Projects B1 (newer model)

Unless I indicated "other studio", they were all recorded in my home setup using the same preamp, mixer, and minimal processing. I'll lay out all the specifics at the end of the week.

Thanks again.

Don

[Bill Campbell]

I liked #7 best. I didn't notice a huge "oh my god, that's the one" difference between any of them. But, #7 had a nice presence, and didn't pick up too much mouth noise.
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www.asapaudio.com

[steveanthony]

I listened again and tried to pick out the RE 20. Darn, it holds up well against those condensers. I couldn't pick it out.

[Don G.]

Just a little update. I'll be posting the "which is which" info tomorrow so there's still time to opine for those so inclined.

I realize the link I posted in the first post takes a while to load, but if you're on a broadband connection (as I believe most of us are) it shouldn't be too bad. I just timed it at just under :30 to load. It may seem like it's dead but it's loading and then they all come up at once...at least that's how it loads the page on my computer.

Anyway, thanks again to those of you who are able to take the time to listen and give your opinion, even if it's just to say that there's not much difference in any of them.

Results tomorrow!

P.S. I'll also post the identities of the three mics in my earlier thread, in that thread.

[Dave]

Maybe its just my old tired, blown out, 60's loud music ears working against me... but like Bill... I couldn't detect a very notable difference between them either... only subtle nuances. Certainly nothing significant enough that would cause me to pay the big bucks some of those you listed go for.
_________________
. If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.

[Don G.]

MIC SHOOTOUT 9/27/07 (link is here)


Mic 1 – TLM-103 (outside studio 1)*

Mic 2 – AKG-414 (outside studio 2)**

Mic 3 – RE-20 (home)

Mic 4 – TLM-103 (home)

Mic 5 – U87 (home)

Mic 6 – earlier model B-1 (home)

Mic 7 – AKG-414 (home)

Mic 8 – MXL-990 (home)

Mic 9 – newer model B-1 (home)


Notes:

* outside studio 1, mic going through Wheatstone broadcast console, no external preamp, no compression, no gate

** outside studio 2, mic going through Symmetrix 528E compressor/expander, possibly a de-esser, unknown external preamp, Mackie console

• all mics recorded at home are going through Behringer mixer (preamp), Alesis 3630 with minimal compression and soft gate, into MBox Mini, into computer

[ConnieTerwilliger]

I liked 2, 7 and 9. I listened before reading which was which.

I use AKGs (1000 and 3000) - wonder if my ears are tuned to them?
_________________
Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger

[Jowillie]

I would really like to hear the opinions of our other "Lady" VO artists. There was once a legend that the inner ear of the female lengthened as they entered the early twenties. That physical change makes them more sensitive to high frequencies and thus their preferrence to somewhat milder forms of music (except for dbCooper).
Connie, I feel you picked the three "brightest" quality choices, and that could be a good thing. I would like to know what choices others "hear."
Willie E.
_________________
Wild Willie Edwards
www.hometowntvtoday.com
http://vomictest.blogspot.com

[Bill Campbell]

Don:

While I think all the mics sound decent, the Behringer pre-amp and Alesis
3630 are VERY low end products. and probably not doing some of those mics justice...making the $79 B1 sound similar to the $1000 TLM-103.

I'm guessing through a very good, or even just a decent pre-amp, with no processing, the mics would take on a different character.

Even the the Symetrix, especially if using the compressor and de-esser, is not a great setup for high end mics.

The whole process was educational showing that one (or two) weak links in your chain can bring down the sound of expensive microphones.

Get a decent pre and bypass the Behringer and 3630, and go straight into your interface. I'll bet it will sound better and allow the character to come out in different microphones.

Thanks for the cool post!
_________________
www.asapaudio.com

[Edo]

The only exception is when you don't fear modifying that 3630... you have to be familiar with electronic parts ofcourse, but if you are there's a neat thing you can do by just replacing the opamps for higher specs ones. It can overall mean about 26 dB less hiss, and way better compression. Merely a 25 dollar investment on those IC's and no soldering required if the opamps are in retractable 8 or 16 pin DIL-sockets. (DIL = dual in line)

[Don G.]

Edo, you've certainly piqued my curiosity. While I wouldn't consider myself "familiar with electronic parts", I have a couple of friends who are. Assuming I could buy the part and they could do the work, where would I find specifics as to this transformation?

[Edo]

My pleasure to share this with you... The mod can be found here... What the mod basically does is replacing some of the unit's components (such as the VCAs, the level detector chips and op amps) by high-quality versions. So you'll have the same functionality but a much better sound quality.

If it for some reason doesn't work, rethink all the steps, for I did this twice and it was a great improvement on both occasions. Best of luck!