Did a little "battle of the guitar amp microphones" test

[ognoy]

Last week I bought two old Electro-Voice(PL-78 and 80) mics for 35$ a piece. Needed some cheap mics that would work OK with guitar amps and vocals.
Did not expect much because of the price, but I could not afford a pair of SM57/58.

But I was curious how they sound compared to the standard Shure SM57, so I borrowed one from a friend and did this test.
Made a simple drumtrack and recorded 3 takes. One with each microphone.
The amp was my Traynor TS-25 and the guitar my EGC TT2 Baritone. Zoom R8 audio interface into Logic. No EQ/compresson/FX.

https://soundcloud.com/ognoy2/mikrofontest


So which take do you prefer? 1, 2 or 3?

[Chankgeez]

Did you play the exact same thing for each of the takes?

Because I kinda liked all of 'em (each for different reasons).

I like in order of preference: 1, 2 and then 3

Ultimately, I think I'd take what's behind door #1 though, ognoy.

[ognoy]

Not 100% the same, but almost.
The chords and "energy" is the same, but there are some small details in the playing that is different between the takes.

I'll message you the answer so some else can listen to this unbiased.

[Chankgeez]

yeah, I'm not sure if what you played influenced my decision or not. That first take may've come out the gate a little strong.

[ognoy]

The first take was actually the last one I recorded (all in a hurry before my girlfriend got home from work!), so it's possible my fingers where working a little better on that one than the other two.

[crochambeau]

I think I like 1,3 then 2. I have my suspicions on what is what, do we guess out loud?

1 seems to fit the amp within everything else in a more balanced manner, sort of a relaxed fit. Not overly aggressive, but carries enough detail

3 seems over all louder, and while I favour its lows the upper mids are a touch on the aggressive side for an over all balanced sound.

2 seems a touch laid back/rounded in comparison to the other two, though that might change with more preamp gain.

Any of the three would be a suitable grab, nice haul on the EVs!

[ognoy]

Thanks for listening!
I will say what's what in the thread tomorrow morning.

[ognoy]

Here it is:
The first round is the Electro-Voice PL-78. A condenser microphone made for live vocals.

The second is the Shure SM57.

The third is the Electro-Voice PL-80. Standard dynamic live vocals microphone.


I'm glad I bought these two cheap mics, and I'm looking forward to try them on other sources as well.

[goroth]

Very cool!

[Kacey Y]

They all sound decent, slightly different EQ curves on each. First sounded like it had a tad more high end and a little less low end than the second two, but they weren't radically different. Good showcase for how using similar, but slightly different sounding mics can work well to compliment each other in a stereo setup on a single source. If I had a single guitar band and wanted to give it some depth, I'd throw two of these down and maybe a room mic and have a nice full stereo sound without having to double track anything.

I don't see many microphone shootouts outside of recording forums, cool post!