Jump to content

Mic blind test.


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Shure SM57 vs MXL V67G

 

So in my quest for trying to get the best tone out of my amp, still being overly dark no matter where i place, i tried a mic vs test. It's kinda short, but i cut it down to the first two samples i lic best. So first is mic a and then mic b.

 

http://soundcloud.com/glasssteven/mic-test-mic-a-first-then-b

 

Which do you like best?

 

EDIT: Wow i didn't realize the difference in volume sorry :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steven, I have a suggestion and a question.

 

First, the question. What are your amp settings? And just out of curiosity, what type of speakers are in that Quad?

 

As far as the suggestion, if it sounds too dark to you, adjust it at the source or at the mic positioning. If you already have the mic in the brightest sounding place (center of the dustcap), then my suggestion would be to adjust the EQ on the amp. I kept wanting to reach over and push the treble knob up a click or two. Other than that, and gain staging / setting your levels properly (hint: when tracking, set your recording levels to average at about -18dBFS, or roughly half way up the meters. Occasional peaks higher than that are okay just as long as it never clips.) I thought it sounded pretty good, although you have something clipping at one point on the condenser track, but it could have been the mic preamp too for all I know. When gain staging, the idea is for each stage to be set high enough so it provides a healthy amount of level for the next stage or device down the line. If it's set too low, then you get a noise, and if it's set too hot, you get distortion. Setting it so it's reasonably loud, but not clipping; with a decent amount of headroom to safely manage any sudden unexpected peaks without distorting, is the goal...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Steven, I have a suggestion and a question.


First, the question. What are your amp settings? And just out of curiosity, what type of speakers are in that Quad?


As far as the suggestion, if it sounds too dark to you, adjust it at the source or at the mic positioning. If you already have the mic in the brightest sounding place (center of the dustcap), then my suggestion would be to adjust the EQ on the amp. I kept wanting to reach over and push the treble knob up a click or two. Other than that, and gain staging / setting your levels properly (hint: when tracking, set your recording levels to
average
at about -18dBFS, or roughly half way up the meters. Occasional peaks higher than that are okay just as long as it never clips.) I thought it sounded pretty good, although you have something clipping at one point on the condenser track, but it could have been the mic preamp too for all I know. When gain staging, the idea is for each stage to be set high enough so it provides a healthy amount of level for the next stage or device down the line. If it's set too low, then you get a noise, and if it's set too hot, you get distortion. Setting it so it's reasonably loud, but not clipping; with a decent amount of headroom to safely manage any sudden unexpected peaks without distorting, is the goal...

 

 

Ahhhh. Thanks for the tips phil. The amp has 4 mojotone speakers, that's all that i can read on them.

Bright switch off.

Volume 4

Treble 5

Middle 8

Bass 4

Reverb 3

master 4.

 

I think i should back down on the mids a little and give it a go tomorrow. I tried moving a few place, mainly back and forward a little but i'll keep trying and see if i can get good results.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

if you have a looper pedal and some good isolation headphones, you can have a loop going through the amp and move the mic around to hear in real time what different mic positions sound like. just something to try, to familiarize yourself with it a bit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

if you have a looper pedal and some good isolation headphones, you can have a loop going through the amp and move the mic around to hear in real time what different mic positions sound like. just something to try, to familiarize yourself with it a bit

 

 

Wow...that's {censored}ing brilliant. Thank you so much for this idea. I'll def try it tomorrow!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

if you have a looper pedal and some good isolation headphones, you can have a loop going through the amp and move the mic around to hear in real time what different mic positions sound like. just something to try, to familiarize yourself with it a bit

 

 

I do this at soundcheck at gigs so I can walk out FOH and make sure the sound guy isn't making us sound like {censored}. I mean I suppose it would be easier with a long cable or wireless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...