Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mic Shootout - Expensive vs. Cheap

here's an interesting experiment for all the techie guys out there reading. and actually, even if you aren't technically minded you might find this interesting. below i've posted two links. both are short clips of my wife, @superchicktrish singing. One mic is an $8,000 vintage Neumann u67 ran through a vintage Neve 8068 console mic pre and then compressed with a blue stripe 1176 - the blue stripe is thought by many people to be the best vocal compressor there is. chris lord alge, the top mix guy in the US, says he uses it on almost all lead vocals.

and for those who have no idea what i'm talking about, here are some pictures:

Neumann u67

Neve 8068 Concole

UA 1176 Blue Stripe
the other mic is a $200 rode NT2 run through a Vintech x81 (a modern copy of the Neve 1081) and an Empirical Labs Distressor (which claims to emulate classic compressors). and here's the accompanying pictures:

Rode NT2

Vintech x81

Empirical Labs Distressor


i've mixed them up and labelled one Mic A and the other Mic B. listen to both and post a comment with what you think is the expensive mic and which one is the cheap mic. to vote, just leave a comment telling which one you think is which.


11 comments:

supersonic-gabi said...

Mic A is the cheap one.

Anonymous said...

Mic B sounds cleaner. The guitar is bleeding (only slightly) into Mic A. Both sound fantastic, just you can tell Mic B is the more expensive one.

Anonymous said...

I'm going with mic B as the expensive one. There's more life to it. Regardless, both sound great!

Anonymous said...

I think mic B is the expensive one, the sound is just a bit clearer

Anonymous said...

Mic b sounds expensive.

Nathan Thomas said...

Mic A is the Neumann (expensive one). Mic B is the Rode (cheap one). The top end tells all...
Of course, I have been known to be wrong before....once... :)

Wayne said...

Mic B!
-Wayne

Anonymous said...

Since i'm in radio and I know how the cheap stuff works...I'm going with B. Either way I like that sound way more.

Hailey said...

Mic A is cleaner, but it sounds like it is cutting off and Mic B you can hear Tricia's breathing more. So in my not so expert opinion im going to say that Mic B is the cheap one. But i really have no clue, I just love how your blogs always teach me something!!

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"What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos; that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" --Hi Fidelity


Hey guys, my name is Nick Baumhardt. I help write and record music. I also play guitar for Thousand Foot Krutch and FM Static.

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