Vocal mic test site!!!

Check this out, mic tests, very nice thing if ya dont know...

http://www.vocalimpactmedia.com/SoundStorage.html#2d

scroll down and you will see the mic tests.. very useful site!

Thanks for the link Lance.

Mike

Here's one:

http://www.frontendaudioforums.com/showthread.php?p=7149

yeah the sp-1 test is funny how he talks.

I actually like the sp-1 before modification because I can always sweep the lows... I like it's smooth high end. the modification didnt please me much.

wow youre the first person Ive heard that opinion from, but yes, it is all about what works for you!

A serious problem with these types of shoot-out tests is that there is so much stuff that does not get taken into account. Setting up all the mics, say, 8" from the speaker's forehead may cover up problems with plosives and essiness that affect some mics worse than others. Setting up the mics close in front of the mouth might make some great mics sound bad because of plosives/essiness that might not be a problem with different placement. Proximity effect varies hugely in both frequency and dynamic-dependent ways among different mics, and a single placement makes it impossible to distinguish how much the sound is controllable through proximity. Similarly, pickup pattern can vary quite a bit, and a mic that sounds "huge" in a studio live room might sound awful and boxy in an untreated room and flat and boring in a iso booth. Or vice-versa. Another mic with a more focused pickup pattern might sound great in a shootout but might be difficult or impossible to manage with real-world singers whose heads do not stay perfectly still. Some mics sound brilliant, but only with perfect "just so" placement and perfect gain-staging through the right preamps. Other mics sound merely adequate, but are super-easy to use and you can just point them and hit record, and it'll sound okay even if the singer swallows the mic or mumbles and screams alternatively. Which is better? Neither gets reflected in a blind shootout.

And none of that even begins to address the differences in source material (e.g. the singer), and how a mic that sounds rich and full with a gravelly deep voice might sound harsh and hissy with an airy, light voice, or how a mic that makes a bland, nasal amateur sound big and dramatic might make a genuinely good singer sound hype, tuneless, and cheesy.

These kinds of tests are interesting, and illustrative of the kinds of differences that exist, but they do not necessarily do a good job of demonstrating which mic you will like better in your studio. Any directional mic is made with a certain type of usage in mind, in terms of placement, sonic goals, target SPL levels and dynamic/frequency profiles, and so on. And recording is a real-world process, where the participants and usage are a bigger factor than the equipment. Controlling for the participant by making every usage exactly the same is not really as fair or accurate as it may seem-- it's a bit like testing a bunch of tools to see which drives a nail the quickest and then reporting that the hammer beat out the drill and saw.

I know mics can be hard to shop for for some people, but especially in a home studio setting, where you really only need to record one voice, it is almost that much less useful to have a comparison with other voices.

Cheers.