Mic Tests - Posted on 2014-01-28 by Devin Zorn

01/27/2014

Time In: 12:10

 Today, I had brought in one of each kind of MXL Ribbon mic i had bought to compare them to the high quality Royer 121 and Coles 4038 at the studio, as well as tart talking about the EQs that we are getting into in the next lesson. I did what Rick asked me to and Play with the stock pro tools eq and see what frequencies do what and what they sound like and just get familiar with the standard eq so we can play with whatever eq we want and know what we are doing. I'm already familiar with all the parts of the EQ from having been doing audio for 2 years before but I still learned a couple cool things! Like how 1k is always kind of a honkey frequency because (from looking at a frequency chart) It is between B6 and C7 and has no definite pitch. B6 and C7 are over 100 hertz from each other, making it easy for that to get unpleasant sounding. also from watching a video about the new Andrew Schepps Neve 1073 EQ Waves plugin, i found that there is a big difference between boosting high up in the spectrum (Like 10K which is in the schematic for the 1073 on the mid frequency knob, but not accessable to it until the 1078) and just high shelfing at 10, so you can get it to sound like you want it without having everything higher getting all washy and overpowering. Anyways, My MXL 860 Microphones sound a lot like the cheap versions of the Royer 121, the big difference is, the Royer is mostly flatj except for a bump at the low end. The MXL has the entire mid range boosted, a big bump from 200-400 and more roll off on each end of the frequency spectrum which I think is why they Royer sounds much much more punchy and the MXL very flabby, but still decent. The other MXL mic sucked, so i returned it. it wasnt smooth or anything, just dull with a worse boost in the mids. but altogether a very good day! very satisfied with my new ribbon mics.

time out 1:50