Thursday, March 23, 2006
Microphone Review 1 by Simon Hall
Dear readers of AuxMix.com,
Another blog once again done by me, Simon
You're getting tired of reading my blogs right, well here is something that may interest / help you when doing part 1 of your theory of sound assignment.
My question for you to think about is: "Does a large diaphragm help, when recording voice?"
Encase you're not aware part 1 is the audio recording of you speaking which is basically an introduction to you're show reel.
Well in today's lab session me and my friend peter tested out two different types of microphones.
They were both capacitor mic's but two different types some links to details about then can be found here:
Below is a link to an expensive one made by M-audio, model is Pulsar, m-audio make some decent equipment don't get me wrong but I will explain more about that later, please click the link below for more information:
Link to m-audio pulsa microphone.
The next microphone I will talk about is a NADY SCM800. This microphone is cheaper but delivers an amazing result which I will talk about in a minute.
Link to NADY microphone.
Ok here goes....
M-Audio Pulsa Mic
The M-audio microphone was less sensitive when talking into it, it was genitive enough to get a great output don't get me wrong but I found it took a lot of effort to get a decent result.
When using the M-audio mic, you couldn't really move around a lot if it was on a stand. By this I mean you kind of had to stand still and talk directly into it without the end result sound really low and faint.
Another thing I noticed when using the M-audio microphone..... - well I am not to sure if it was BCUC's dodgy male to female connectors on our mixing board but when recording while playing yourself back in the headphones it sounded like you were talking down a drain pipe. Although when playing your recording back through your headphones it sounded OK. I say "OK" - because I wouldn’t actually say it was perfect but hey it was, well ‘ok’ you could listen to it lol. :)
NADY SCM800 Mic
Now then.... This was a beast! - for £40 you couldnt go wrong. Who said you don’t get quality for paying a low price :P
This Mic really was business; it was much heaver to hold then the Pulsar one and just generally felt like it would function better then the Pulsar one.
The NADY Mic was really dead easy to set up no need to worry about positioning with this baby as it could detect you from standing anywhere in the booth as it has a large diaphragm :)
My answer to the question I made you think about earlier was "Yes a large diaphragm does help" - it works wonders!
I can't really explain enough how much off a difference this was between the Pulsar microphone - The NADY mic really done the business when speaking while recording it would play back while recording clear and playback after recording just as good.
EDIT: to listen to the audio recording me and pete did with the microphones, please click here.
My advice.... get one! - You can’t go wrong at £40 :)
Another blog once again done by me, Simon
You're getting tired of reading my blogs right, well here is something that may interest / help you when doing part 1 of your theory of sound assignment.
My question for you to think about is: "Does a large diaphragm help, when recording voice?"
Encase you're not aware part 1 is the audio recording of you speaking which is basically an introduction to you're show reel.
Well in today's lab session me and my friend peter tested out two different types of microphones.
They were both capacitor mic's but two different types some links to details about then can be found here:
Below is a link to an expensive one made by M-audio, model is Pulsar, m-audio make some decent equipment don't get me wrong but I will explain more about that later, please click the link below for more information:
Link to m-audio pulsa microphone.
The next microphone I will talk about is a NADY SCM800. This microphone is cheaper but delivers an amazing result which I will talk about in a minute.
Link to NADY microphone.
Ok here goes....
M-Audio Pulsa Mic
The M-audio microphone was less sensitive when talking into it, it was genitive enough to get a great output don't get me wrong but I found it took a lot of effort to get a decent result.
When using the M-audio mic, you couldn't really move around a lot if it was on a stand. By this I mean you kind of had to stand still and talk directly into it without the end result sound really low and faint.
Another thing I noticed when using the M-audio microphone..... - well I am not to sure if it was BCUC's dodgy male to female connectors on our mixing board but when recording while playing yourself back in the headphones it sounded like you were talking down a drain pipe. Although when playing your recording back through your headphones it sounded OK. I say "OK" - because I wouldn’t actually say it was perfect but hey it was, well ‘ok’ you could listen to it lol. :)
NADY SCM800 Mic
Now then.... This was a beast! - for £40 you couldnt go wrong. Who said you don’t get quality for paying a low price :P
This Mic really was business; it was much heaver to hold then the Pulsar one and just generally felt like it would function better then the Pulsar one.
The NADY Mic was really dead easy to set up no need to worry about positioning with this baby as it could detect you from standing anywhere in the booth as it has a large diaphragm :)
My answer to the question I made you think about earlier was "Yes a large diaphragm does help" - it works wonders!
I can't really explain enough how much off a difference this was between the Pulsar microphone - The NADY mic really done the business when speaking while recording it would play back while recording clear and playback after recording just as good.
EDIT: to listen to the audio recording me and pete did with the microphones, please click here.
My advice.... get one! - You can’t go wrong at £40 :)
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I have purchased 2 Nady SCM-800 Microphones but they had not arrived yet. I tried to listen to the audio sample however the server would not respond. If anyone has a copy of the audio file featuring the SCM-800 I would appreciate it emailed to me at kb5efo@comcast.net Thank you
New Update, I baught 2 nady SCM-800's and use them with a Samson Zoom H4 (2GB SD Card) and I am still blown away whether inside or out, this microphone really does sound incredible! The specs don't due the SCM-800 justice as I have recorded things outside that come close to the kind of recordings on the TELARC Digital Domain Demonstration CD, including the insect recording (I had my own and I was playing back my recording and I could had sworn flies or whatever were right next to my head!) If anybody wants to contact me or hear a sample, email me at kb5efo@comcast.net and I will be happy to help. I never regreted my purchases and thus have a new respect for NADY, Studio Condensers, and digital recordings nowadays taken for granted.
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