RIP www.microphone-data.com ?

[Mixedup]

I know they are currently working on the plots, in an effort to make them less data-hungry.

I suspect the other things are teething issues — it is a huge database to sort for consistency.

I haven't had a chance to peruse yet, so I don't know if there's a feedback facility. But I'll gladly pass your comments to the owner directly if you like.

Thanks. Yes, I don't want to sound ungrateful. It's an amazing thing they're doing and it's never going to be perfect from the off! I suppose my biggest feedback would be that the search engine could be more forgiving... A very slight data entry mistake like the space in C 451 and something becomes unfindable.

[shufflebeat]

I'd missed this - great stuff, thanks for the info, Dr H.

The Beyer m_201_tg is a very sensitive mic used primarily for speech/vocal.

Didn't know that.

I like the search facility, if I put a unique characteristic of a name, i.e., "v7" the suggestions seem to do the rest really well.

[Bob Bickerton]

Wonderful to have this up and running again.

Having trouble logging in or creating a new account - but I'm sure that's user error!

Bob

[Micpedia]

Hi everyone, I'm pleased that we finally got it online! We've expanded the database and we're working on many improvements. First of which will be a robust search tool that ignores spaces and searches including manufacturer name. At the moment the search is technically very rudimentary, and indeed you have to type everything exactly as it is in the database, which is very hit and miss. We'll fix it, hopefully soon, it's a priority. Also the "help" section doesn't link correctly yet. On mobile ironically it doesn't work at all.

If you have difficulties creating an account let me know what is going wrong. We have tested this internally without issues, but you are the first "outsiders" I speak to about the site, so it is likely that there are bugs still.

Plots are of course essential, and we have all the old ones from the original site, plus many new ones. We have a way of displaying these live rendered on digital plots, meaning you can compare one against the other in fine granular detail. And we have a way of extracting the curves from the original images. What we don't have yet is a way of doing all of this efficiently. Each one takes 20-30 minutes or so to process (sometimes longer with multipattern), when you multiply this by 4500 mics... We're looking to find a way to extract this info in bulk automatically, and in January/February we'll have an engineer working on this project. We'll also make some serious reflections on how the curves display, since it's something I don't want to have to do more than once. But curves are coming. I was tempted to wait until they were ready before publishing, but decided against it, as some data is better than none, and since this is sort of a side project for us I didn't want to risk that it got further delayed. Now that it's public, the pressure is on...

Also planned: community shootouts library (we're conducing some big ones next year, on classical instruments), a "related mics" tab, and price comparison tab (with affiliate links yes).

Anyway I beg you patience while we finish things and iron out the issues. This is a side project for us, but we're happy to be able to give the database more life, and it's great to know that people find it useful. Please keep the suggestions coming anyway, you can write to john@micpedia.com.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Thanks for sharing your plans with us, John.

[shufflebeat]

First of which will be a robust search tool that ignores spaces and searches including manufacturer name. At the moment the search is technically very rudimentary, and indeed you have to type everything exactly as it is in the database, which is very hit and miss. We'll fix it, hopefully soon, it's a priority.

As previously mentioned, I'm finding I can type a partial title in and get relevant suggestions straight away, which I find very useful. Please don't fix that.

Great work.

[Mixedup]

Anyway I beg you patience while we finish things and iron out the issues.

Absolutely! And great to hear the search will be upgraded. That will make a big difference.

Wonderful to hear you come back with all this info, in fact. The plot approach sounds like it will be great in the long run, and it's great to see just how much thought and energy is going into this!

[John Willett]

I don’t like that they have the price of the microphones. This will be different in each country and currency.

Much better to have price ranges say 5 different levels from cheap to expensive - this will give a good idea of price which the viewer can then look up at various stores in their own country.

It also means that the site owner is not continually having to update prices as they change.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Valid point, but spoken like a true dealer!

[Mixedup]

spoken like a true dealer!

Yeah, that was my first thought on reading that

[John Willett]

Valid point, but spoken like a true dealer!

I’m not a dealer, I’m a distributor.

But what price do you put? Prices vary from country to country. And it would be an awful lot of work to keep everything up to date. And what country do you choose?

Everything is more expensive in Australia due to high import costs.

In the US home grown stuff is cheaper than imports.

In the U.K. there are exchange rate issues and the much higher costs of transport now the U.K. has left the EU. So a Euro price will not directly translate into a U.K. price.

The quoted price is only valid for the host country of the website and nowhere else.

It’s far far better to have comparison bands so people can better compare actual prices in their own country.

[Micpedia]

Prices listed are as suggested by the manufacturer. We're going to work on a way of converting it to local currencies. We will also add a tab that looks up current prices on a number of websites, with affiliate links to help support the running of the site. So there will be the "official price" and the actual prices available at various online stores.

[Mixedup]

Prices listed are as suggested by the manufacturer. We're going to work on a way of converting it to local currencies. We will also add a tab that looks up current prices on a number of websites, with affiliate links to help support the running of the site. So there will be the "official price" and the actual prices available at various online stores.

Live links to real-world prices like this seems a much better idea to me than price bands. From a user point of view, at least. Especially where the mics are only now available second hand and the prices can be volatile. (Prices of completed auctions on eBay, Reverb etc are a decent guide... better certainly than the lofty asking prices of units that don't end up selling! But prob less good if the idea is to attract advertisers who ask more!)

[Micpedia]

I doubt we will be able to show prices of completed listings. I imagine that the sites that have such archival information are interested in keeping that on site. We will probably be limited to pulling current listing prices from those sites who offer affiliate programs. So no pretense that the prices are fair market value, just whatever happens to be listed.

[tomas]

Old registered MicData users got this friendly invite via email yesterday.

Subject: Microphone Data is now Micpedia

Dear Microphone Data user,

Microphone Data has been relaunched and rebranded as Micpedia.com. The new site offers new functions and a significantly increased database (with almost 4500 models).

Please please visit this page https://micpedia.com/newsletter/ for more information and subscribe to our biweekly newsletter. We will regularly publish recording guides, microphone articles (history, responses, and recommended uses), and industry news. Create an account on the new site to save your collection to a personal "Mic Locker".

If this is not of interest, no action is required. This email is merely informative. You have not been added to a mailing list. If you take no action, no further emails from us will arrive. In any case, clicking here will delete your email from the old site's database, should you wish.

For background, I manage a recording studio named "The Spheres" in Italy, a label named Odradek Records, and a digital company called ODRATEK BV, which now operates Micpedia.

Wishing you a happy start to the new year and many successful recordings,
John Anderson

Micpedia
Your guide to microphones
Micpedia is the world’s largest microphone database and offers authoritative, neutral, technical information for audio professionals regarding vintage and new microphones. We have specifications and characteristics for almost 4500 models, normalised to the same units.
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