• Posts
  • RSS
  • ◂◂RSS
  • Contact

  • Microphone Testing

    June 10th, 2012
    contra, experiment, music, sound
    What microphones sound good for what purposes? I have four different ones, but I didn't have a good sense of what the differences in their sound quality are or which ones I should use for which instruments. So I did a set of blind [1] tests to learn more about them.

    The mics in question were, from left to right, AKG d707e, Shure sm57, Shure bg4.1, and Griffin i58:

    The bg4.1 is a condenser microphone while the other three are dynamic. I believe all four are cardioid pattern, but I'm not sure about the d707e. Left three are low end professional mics while the i58 is a cheap sm58 clone.

    The main things I find myself micing are mandolin and voice (caller) because the other two people in my band don't need mics (fiddle with pickup, keyboard). So I decided to test three setups: mandolin chords, mandolin melody, and calling. [2] I recorded them, then before listening to any of them scrambled their names automatically so I wouldn't know which was which. I level-matched them with sox [4] and then listened to them, rating them and figuring out which ones I liked. I also got two other people [5] to rate them.

    I'd encourage you to listen for yourself and rate; these are the samples in random order:

    Mandolin Melody 1320 1469 1902 1920
    Mandolin Chords 1149 1415 1505 1774
    Caller 1085 1191 1734 1861
    (The key.)

    Impressions:

    Mandolin Chords
    d707e
    Jeff: good
    Rick: fine; good fidelity
    Danner: good
    sm57
    Jeff: muted, ok
    Rick: ok not great; too sharp; very real; not ideal for chords
    Danner: fine
    bg41
    Jeff: muted, bad
    Rick: muddy
    Danner: wider range; sounds feedback prone
    i58
    Jeff: good
    Rick: maybe too bright; find for chords
    Danner: not as good on percussion, slight dislike
    Preference
    Jeff: all good; d707e, i58, sm57, bg41
    Rick: all good except the bg41
    Danner: all good; slight dislike of i58
    Mandolin Melody
    d707e
    Jeff: ok
    Rick: more alive, high fidelity, clear
    Danner: meh
    sm57
    Jeff: ok
    Rick: quite nice
    Danner: less meh
    bg41
    Jeff: ok
    Rick: ok, not that good
    Danner: noisy; clear which note is playing
    i58
    Jeff: brighter
    Rick: better in the high register
    Danner: best of the four for studio recording; favorite
    Preference
    Jeff: d707e, sm57, i58, bg41
    Rick: d707e, sm57, i58, bg41
    Danner: i58, bg41 or sm57, d707e
    Caller
    d707e
    Jeff: eh
    Rick: muddy, bad for calling
    Danner: clear, bassy
    sm57
    Jeff: nice
    Rick: better than the others
    Danner: best
    bg41
    Jeff: breath ugh, too variable
    Rick: not great
    Danner: bad, don't like it at all
    i58
    Jeff: ok
    Rick: ok; still not great
    Danner: higher, might be better with bass eq'd off
    Preference
    Jeff: none ideal; sm57, i58, d707e, bg41
    Rick: none great; sm57, i58, bg41, d707e
    Danner: sm57, i58, d707e, bg41
    In retrospect this would have been a better test if I had eq'd each mic-instrument combination some: proximity effect is strong for some and the vocals especially could have done with less bass. I'm inclined to look for another mic to use for callers. I might start using the d707e for my mandolin instead of the sm57. I was surprised how well the i58 did: I had gotten it as a cheap spare.


    [1] Really mostly blind. I did know which mic I was using when I recorded each sample, but everything after that is blind. (I could conceivably remembered which mic I was using when I recorded each track, but I left enough time between recording and listening that I completely forgot.)

    [2] Recording: mic to phantom power box [3] to mixer to usb audio input to computer. Playback: computer to QSC K10. For calling the mic was very close (1/4") from my mouth, for mandolin it was pointed at around the 15th fret (the best spot in my earlier test, though this favors them sm57 because that's what I did that test with.). No eq on anything.

    [3] Only the bg4.1 needed power but I wanted to keep this constant for all the tests because I was afraid its small amount of hum would unblind me otherwise.

    [4] sox --norm=-6 foo.wav foo-normalized.wav

    [5] Thanks Rick and Danner!

    Comment via: google plus, facebook, r/audioengineering

    Recent posts on blogs I like:

    How much to coerce children?

    What's "for their own good"? The post How much to coerce children? appeared first on Otherwise.

    via Otherwise May 29, 2023

    Cycling Injuries Analysis in DC

    I looked at a few years’ worth of data for DC (where I live) to try to figure out how risky cycling is here.

    via Home May 19, 2023

    Some mistakes I made as a new manager

    the trough of zero dopamine • managing the wrong amount • procrastinating on hard questions • indefinitely deferring maintenance • angsting instead of asking

    via benkuhn.net April 23, 2023

    more     (via openring)


  • Posts
  • RSS
  • ◂◂RSS
  • Contact