Feb 14, 2018
Trying out a few different mics on snare.
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Trying out a few different mics on snare.
Here is a podcast explaining my acoustic guitar microphone shoot out. The shootout was done between an SM57, AEA A840 (which I accidentally refer to as an A84), a Blue Kiwi, and a Rode K2.
Mic Shootout Concluded
To order these mic from last preference to first it would go: SM57, A840, Blue Kiwi, Rode K2. Each mic does a particular job and represent that guitar well. This may be attributed to the excellent Chandler Limited TG2 preamp, but we know the microphones all did their part. The dynamic and ribbon just didn’t make the cut for the wow factor with the guitar. The condenser made the microphone sound clean, but I came to the conclusion that the tube gave the sound just enough color to make it the best. Make your own decision and share with me. I would love to hear your feed back.
Third is the Blue Kiwi large diaphragm condenser mic. This one always impresses me with its cleanness. It almost like being in the room with the guitar player while tracking. Every register of the guitar was represented true, but don’t get me wrong this still was not my favorite microphone.
Mic Shootout
Today I got to do one of my favorite things and that is pick out four expensive microphones and have them battle it out to earn my respect in the live room with their design characteristics. I am of course talking about a microphone shootout for comparing and contrasting multiple microphones on a single sound source. For this shootout a very talented guitarist, Anne Wesley, was able to lay out a few repetitive bars for my listening pleasure while the microphones did their work.
Before I got started I had to know what is the true proper way to record an acoustic guitar? Obviously, the microphone won’t do any good if it’s too far or to close in relation to the guitar. I did my homework to find out what the current engineers are doing to properly record an acoustic guitar. I first came across the article “The 4 Rules Of Acoustic Guitar Recording” on The Recording Revolution website. The article taught me one point that applied to this project that was, back up your microphone. This allows for a more natural sound to enter the mic like you would hear a guitar if it was being played in front of you. Your buddy would be pretty confused if you stuck your ear on the bridge of his guitar while he was trying to play his cover of “Wonder Wall” for you. Secondly, I found a “Recording Acoustic Guitar” article on the Sound on Sound website. This article explains how you must affix your microphone so that it does not get flooded with the port hole of the guitar. This will result in a booming low end that does not mix well in a song. Finally, I found a video from The Recording Revolution with Fran Graham explaining how he mics his acoustic guitar. He shows that he places the microphone directly in front of the guitar port hole but then faces towards the twelfth fret. This ensures that the mic picks up the body of the guitar while not over powering the treble from the strings. I followed all these rules making sure my mic wasn’t to close and pointed at the right spot during this mic shootout.
In this shootout, I selected an array of microphones. They list in order: SM57 (dynamic), A840 (ribbon), Blue Kiwi (condenser), Rode K2 (tube). All four of the microphones were ran through a Chandler Limited TG2 preamp that definitely carried its weight during this recording making all the mics sound phenomenal, but I still had to pick my favorite.
Small Diaphragm Condenser Mic Shootout
Neumann KM184
CharterOak M900
Josephson C42
Miktek C5
This site has information on tones of different microphones from old to new. Contains frequency graphs, descriptions, technical specifications and even audio samples of each mic!
I threw a few mics against my amp to do a shoot out. Recorded with an American SSS Strat into an Orange Dual Terror head, on the Fat Channel. This is how it sounded:
1st (Left) - Cascade Fathead II & Sennheiser 421 2nd (Right) - Beyerdynamic M260 & Shure SM57
Which do you prefer?