A fun mic comparison

[Sam Inglis]

This is something I did for my own amusement, but I thought others might find it interesting.

In this folder you'll find three versions of me murdering Lefty Frizzell's country classic 'Saginaw, Michigan'. My voice and all the acoustic instruments were miked with three mics, placed as close together as I could get them, so you are hearing the same takes, but with different mics. (The bass was DI'd, as I don't have a bass amp.) Everything was recorded separately as overdubs.

The three mics are as follows (not necessarily in this order):

* Neumann KM84, included as a control, since it is more or less a standard.
* Another vintage mic that I am fond of.
* A modern-day recreation of the same vintage mic.

There is some compression and automation on the vocal. Everything else is flat, and there is no EQ other than a high-pass filter. There's a stereo plate reverb on everything except the bass. I've done my best to match the level of each instrument in the different versions, although the varying tone of the mics makes that quite hard.

Which do you prefer? Can you guess what the mystery mics are? And which do you think is which?

[Martin Walker]

Just had a quick listen, and my preferences (mostly based on the vocal sound) are:

A (the most natural, slightly warmer, yet a little 'forward' in placement)
C (well balanced, sits slightly further back in the mix)
B (sounds recessed, slightly nasal/hollow, and a little 'distant')

I've no idea which is which, as I'm not a microphone afficionada

Martin

[Sam Inglis]

I've no idea which is which, as I'm not a microphone afficionada

I'm sure your bank balance is much healthier than mine as a consequence...

[Drew Stephenson]

Nice little bit of work that!

To my ears, A) is the brightest of the bunch and I think a touch louder than C, which definitely has the least top end. B seems to be a bit more mid-rangy and I'm a bit less keen.

I've never heard a KM84 in the flesh so I'm going to guess it's the A option, with the vintage mic being C (possibly even a ribbon?) and B being the recreation.

[Wonks]

Fun? It has bloody banjo on it!

[Drew Stephenson]

Don't let him bully you Sam!
Not everything needs a 335 and a Marshall stack.

[amanise]

Don't let him bully you Sam!
Not everything needs a 335 and a Marshall stack.

Tell that to Bill Nelson!

[amanise]

To my unsophisticated ears;

A - the best suited to the voice and the backing material. I liked that the best.
B - Meh. Dull
C - Meh, nice esses.

Nice lyric. No smell of Ozone when the music stops.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

A harsh, really did not like the esses. I suspect this is the Neumann?
B Murky, did not like the esses.
C warm, sounded the most natural to me. I nejoyed this version, despite the banjo

[Sam Inglis]

I'd just like to state categorically that there is NO banjo in this recording.

The instrument in the left channel is a (very small) nylon strung guitar. The instrument in the right channel is a mandolin.

[James Perrett]

I'm going to say that both A and C are usable - depending on the sound that you are looking for - but B was my least favourite as it sounded like it had a sucked out high midrange.

[Drew Stephenson]

I've just had a look at the ReaFIR graphs and I'm now thinking the KM84 might be C with B being the recreation of A.

[jimjazzdad]

'A' does best for the vocal. Strings are reasonably good on all three. 'C' sounds close to 'A', second choice. 'B' sounds scooped in the mids. At least to my seven decade-old hearing apparatus (my ears must be equivalent to valve equipment, if they're that old!)

Thanks, that was fun!

[Smellthevalve]

Version B has more sizzle on the high frequencies, A and C are darker, A seems to cut through the mix more than C which sounds a bit more veiled in the highs compared to A. I couldn’t really hear much of lower freqs in the vocal due to the backing.
Not having heard the vocalists voice in real life means I lack that basis for comparison; I’m assuming it sounds similar…
Listening on Sennheiser HD600 *Age means I cant hear much above 13Khz

p.s. my comments were about how the vocal sounded not the instruments, just noticed my observations seemed to differ from others but possibly my listening level was different (higher than i would have it on speakers)

[Sam Inglis]

Thanks for listening everyone. So here's the story.

Last year I reviewed Warm Audio's WA-19, which is intended as a copy of the old AKG D19 dynamic mic. Once upon a time I had quite the collection of D19s, but unfortunately, I'd traded them all to a well known studio before the WA-19 came out, so was relying on memory and the one rather tatty example I could lay my hands on when I did the review.

Recently I managed to buy another D19 that's in absolute mint condition, so I thought I'd see how the WA-19 compares. If this test is anything to go by, I have to say the answer is not as well as I'd hoped. Drew's guess is absolutely right:

A is an AKG D19 B200, I guess from the late 1950s.
B is the Warm Audio WA-19.
C is the Neumann KM84.

To be fair, this is probably the best sounding D19 out of the ten or so I've ever owned, and I suspect that if you compared the WA-19 with some of the others, the contest would have been much more even. Whatever its musical failings I think this test does do quite a good job of demonstrating what it is that I like about a good D19. It has a sort of cheerful, bright, present quality without sounding aggressive or gritty.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Brilliant! That was fun, thank you.

[Martin Walker]

Fascinating, but slightly damning for the Warm Audio WA-19 by the sound of it (on this comparison at least).

Thanks Sam!

[Drew Stephenson]

Interesting reminder, for me at least, how what you hear first sets a baseline for what comes after, and how that can potentially mislead. (And why it's important to check with the tools as well as your ears.)

[amanise]

There was a really stark difference (to my ears ) with A. It stuck out a country mile.