You may have noticed a very unusual mic comparison on the VO Mic Test Page (it's near the bottom of the page). Rarely do we get to share in a compadre's revelation or discovery because sometimes we may not want the "whole" story to get out. It's that trade secrets thing.
But listen to this. One of the most unselfish people I know is Bob Souer. He regularly shares VO knowledge with anyone that ask, and he has a lot of knowledge to share. Is he talented? Well, my wife gave out DVDs for Christmas to relatives that featured Bob on narration. Wait a minute, I produced an entire series for her with me doing the narration....and she didn't give any of those out!
Back to that test. I told Bob I thought he would make any mic sound good, but I thought he would really go off the scale with a few particular models if he had the chance to try them.
Well, he tried some. And he purchased that Sennheiser MKH416 P48 from John Weeks.
Here's the telling of the tale. He recorded voice audio with both his old AT 4033 and his new MKH416 by splitting the channels so he could test both mics with one read. It's a true comparison.
Most all of us that know Bob know that he has done remarkable work with the AT 4033, but watch out now.
There are some exciting things coming in the Voiceover and Broadcast worlds concerning new microphones. That's all I am allowed to say right now. But keep watching the trades and web for announcements at the upcoming NAMM convention in a couple of weeks. I would like to get Bob Souer up to our test studio to let his fabulous tones give some of the new product a workout.
Stay tuned.
2 comments:
I liked the 416 better because of the brighter sound. However I was able to put a little EQ on the other mic and make it sound about exactly the same.
Max, I hear what you are saying. You hit on a point a lot of us forget.
When you record for an agency that will do post production to your read, they usually ask for a "dry" read. That's with no music, very little compression if any, and as flatly equalized as resonable. Of course, that is so they can bend, shape and modify the audio file the exact way they want. If they don't like the way it sounds after that, they can always go back to their original file and start over.
There are sound files from our Mic Tests that I notice can be equalized to sound very good. But I think the goal is to get as close to the most usable sound as possible "before" you start messing with it...whether to make it sound right or not. It's the GIGO thing. Start out with the best you can work with and it will be easier to make it "sit in the mix."
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