14 Mics, 1 Guitar – Cheap vs Expensive – What do YOU think?

Every gear comparison should be done this way

non sense excuse me... micro solo are in same place as duo-micro... then no bass recorded!

Mike, that Taylor is a nice guitar but 12-52 strings are too much tension on such a rigidly built full sized guitar like that, they are making it bottom heavy and boomy; nice for playing in church 3' back from a dynamic mic but a pain in any studio setting. I suggest getting a set up with a new nut cut for 10-47 and experimenting with tuning it down a half step to E-flat. D'Addario Nickel Bronze are a dream with a set up like that, mellow yet bright when you dig in, dynamics and nuance in your playing go up an easy 25%, basically, it allows you to play harder relative to soft passages without worrying about bottom boom or muddy mids in chordal work. The CC8 are capturing the instrument as is, that's as life-like as it gets from that perspective, which is what gave away the incorrect set up for that model of Taylor. The KM184 only sound better because of that Neumann low-mid scoop and slow drop off (in sensitivity) from 120hz down. The 414 did ok because it is a large diaphragm, the boominess got lost in the deflection at the outer edges of the membrane, still, highs weren't as time-accurate as with any of the small diaphragms. If you want that guitar to shine on those high end pencil mics regardless of how you set them just do what I suggested above. It really does come down to the same issue as with micing drums, at a certain point you just can't do anything more corrective with mics... you have to address the drums themselves. On an electric guitar cabinet, we can play with pedals, the amp and a ton of mic positions, but when it comes to a 3-dimensional super resonant wooden box it's all about the string tension, materials and physics. Great video, by the way.

Great review! Thanks

I actually liked the C-2's lack of bass. Less boomy sample than the rest.

The best shout-out i be seen but Schopes cm 6 ???

I seem to like the stereo pairs of small condenser mics the most. CC8 and KM184 sounded great but the Rode NT5 also! I also loved the ribbon VR2 and KM184 combo.

But I wish you put a comparison for mobile phones audio recording quality. Which mobile phone records the best audio ?

I like Behringer

I just bought the Rode NT5 Pair.glad to see how it sounds compared to everything else. I’m really surprised by the Behringer though!!

what makes it difficult is the micplacement that doesnt seem to be exactly the same...

Listening only on Laptop Speakers I light the SM57 most.

The best for last :-) Neumann KM 184 is a clear winner. Imo, it's well worth the price. So natural and great sounding on all frequencies. But the Behringer wasn't too bad either!

Excellent demo 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Including the Beyerdynamic MC 930 here would hav given the Neumann KM 184 a run for the money. Very nice demo👍🏻👍🏻

Audio Technica was interesting, it will deliver and get the job done. But for me it's always Neumann. If you can afford 'em just get them. You can rely on them with just about anything.

Hey Mike, thumbs up. reading the comments so far it proves the fact you please everybody. I guess peeps use different headphones speakers and get different results. I was just usig my normal laptop and the everyday wireless jbls. I could have gone to my studio and used the studio phones. I'm lazy at times. Tha said I heard much differnce between most of them, only thing stood out to me was a lack of bass punch. there were frequesies on a cojuple that just irritated. kind of like I always get in my stuff haha. you just did a basic setup to show people differenc so I am sure you could have maxed each to get better sounds. That said I ask doe it matter asking is basic sounds compair well. I mean would not a comparison the the best achievable sound be more useful. This however would be an unrealistic goal as once again each has dofferent equipment and in reality a different idea of what the best sound is. Kinda make the point of the video meaningless yet its so entertaining. I dont know how many options you could have added. I dont know if different guitars could have changed the results. so many vairbles. so many options. I have mics you did not use as others mentioned. I will never have some you have. and the sond I look for not being able to achieve is based on recordings done in studios and mastered by the best. Then you have the options on modelers attempting to tell your sm57 its a royer ribbon. room shape and accoustics. seems no two people will ever get the same sound. I think that those people who basically said they were all except the camera useable were very correct. Who was the famous jazz guy who used a stella plywood twelve string? I am sure the sound was not great but he made it his. same with the mics or anything. The real question is can you make what you have yours? Mike you make the vidoes yours.

One of the best microphone comparison videos I've seen. The chapters help compare like against like; for example ribbon against ribbon or stereo pair against stereo pair. Way to go Mike!

The SM7-B sounded surprisingly nice! If you try taking off the foam cover, it might sound even better with a bit more detail. You could also try engaging the hi-pass switch and you might have the Winner there!

Love your finger style sound of that track. Could listen to that all day. All mics sound good but have slightly different flavours. I use a sm57 or cad GXL1200 condensor mic on my acoustics. The sm57 is a slightly thinner sound while the CAD is warmer.
I sometimes record with both mics together and pan hard left and right. 😀

I like so much these kind of comparison!! Many thanks for your nicely do job.
I listen them with iLoud micro monitor in a semi-treated studio room. Sony mdr7506 and AirPods Pro

With your preamp is very difficult to get a real winner, they all sounds nice and warm. With a bit of work in DAW they maybe sounds very similar.

- [ ] Behringer sounds unload at mid and low mid freq, not so much wide sound
- [ ] SM57 weird on mid and lacks of definition on high, but hey not bad!
- [ ] AT2020 strangely good but little untrue on mid high, maybe closer to the guitar body than the neck?
- [ ] Røde nt5 single very nice, it's like Neumann but without that all around freq definition
- [ ] NT1 sounds muddy
- [ ] SM7 nasal and matt
- [ ] Røde nt5 pair just perfect price/value but too much definition on mid high
- [ ] AAcc8 maybe is superb but I think I will spend too much time on EQing, very warm rec though
- [ ] SE ribbon I would use it for room rec,
- [ ] Neumann KM184 sounds just beautiful
- [ ] AACC8 is a workable result I like it
- [ ] AKG 414 It has a special place in my heart so I can't be neutral on that but sounds nice enough,
- [ ] Experiment with ribbon and neumann nahhh not fine for me bass freq and mid high/high are unbounded, too much room.
- [ ] Pair of neumann wins they sound amazing for me.

My personal favourite for acoustic guitar is the AKG c414 XL11 - which is why I bought one.
It's also amazing on just about everything else too.
I tried the Austrian Audio OC818 as well - but it was just too 'tubby' in the lower midrange, and a shelving low-cut simply didn't rectify that.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great mic - but I definitely preferred the sound of the 414.

I have some super cheap mics all the way up to my Shure KSM-32 which cost me around $750. Sometimes a cheap $20 narrow band lavalier mic is all you need to slot into a gap in the mix.

Great work, as usual! I thought your editing with this video was fantastic, blending in each tone so you can REALLY hear the difference. Sometimes you hear mic comparison videos and the different samples aren't really back-to-back so it's a little harder to hear the subtle differences.

Hello. I'm replying in this recent vid comments section so you'll see it. I'm actually referencing "How To Program Drum Patterns" which was uploaded Aug 25, 2021. The below is posted there; included it here too for your quick read.

Great info! If I may bring to your attention though, there is something 'overlooked / missing' in your beginner's tutorials (for noobs to Cakewalk / DAWs in general, such as myself,) that probably seem so second nature to yourself and others to not bear mentioning, but they very much do need mentioned. I'm talking about the basic on-screen keyboard/touchpad/mouse commands that meaes stuff happen. For example, near the end of this vid you made drumbeats disappear. How did you do it? Was it right click > enter? Was it double click on that piece of info and it was an automatic delete? Was it a keyboard command? What??

Same thing with a track. I got rid of all the info in a guitar track but have no idea how to 'eliminate' that track. Is there a trash can it can be dragged to or is it as simple as right click > delete? I don't know, and I can't seem to find answers in documentation.

How did you / does one mark beginning and end to a section so it can be copied-and-pasted? And is there more than one way to do it?

It's little things like these that seem to get glossed over in the tutorials. And that makes me feel like I should somehow already know this stuff. But I don't know it, which in turn translates to frustration and loads of wasted time, which makes me want to bag this whole thing and keep recording on tape / in analog.

What I'm asking is for basic commands help from the get-go. The Cakewalk documentation "might" be ok, but since they've stopped showing the icons and in-documentation examples (the boxes are still there but show no information within) it's all pretty useless for us Average Joes / Josies.

Would appreciate your consideration in future tutorials (or maybe a vid on basic commands alone,) thanks. BandLab's lack of examples in Cakewalk documentation is making learning the DAW wayyy harder than necessary. It reminds me of an indicator of what a lot of companies do when a big change is a-comin' -- such as downsizing, the closing of a division, being bought out or going under for examples. To me it doesn't make sense to continue releasing updates yet not updating the examples portion of documentation. Feels like keeping old users happy while discouraging new users. Regardless, through omission it's made things noob difficult for that reason alone.

I really like the Ribbon.

Nueman 184's are best on this guitar, in this room for me, 2nd is the 414 and that's it for me. The only one's I'd use on this guitar in this room for solo work. And yeah having the right mic is soooo worth the money. Can save you years of work! Literally YEARS if you try making an album with crap gear you'll spend years trying to make it sound right with plugins. It will never work though so just give up and start over doing it the right way(meaning spend the money to have it tracked in a real studio!).

The all around sounds of each mic was really nice. The higher end mics, to me, sounded the same as the mid priced. I particularly liked the Austrian Audio cc8 at 479. It seemed to more tone then then lower prices mics, but hunt in there with the big boys. That being said, the audio Technica at2020 sounded pretty incredible for the price.

Right on 🎼🎵🎧🎤🎸🪗🎙🎶

Top video. The Neumann pair sounded clearer and more acoustic, however, I will be sticking with my Sm57 and AT2020 which were at least on par with some of the more expensive mics.

Very cool video but my main takeaway from it is how much I dislike that honky Taylor guitar sound (I'm assuming it's a Taylor lol).

Hi Mike, love what you"re doing. Regardless of the price, my first choice would be the pair of Neuman KM 184 (but would I pay for it ?), my second choice is the SM57. Great idea to compare these mikes.

How amazing that you are playing throughout the whole video without any articulation changes, so we can just hear the tonal differences of the microphones. I don't even mention the levels.

Basically, I wonder how you played every take almost perfectly identical like the one before, whilst interchanging microphones each time and setting them up.

Surely, I want to emphasise your consistency at playing guitar like this over a bis amount of time. I totally appreciate your work. Just an amazing comparison video!! I don't think that I can find any better one out there. :)

I look mainly for pairs. I find the 2 in the middle (NT5 and CC8) to be very boxy. The KM184 sounds very natural, but it has a little too much bass for my taste (which can probably be corrected with an EQ). As for the C-2 (the cheapest one), It would probably be my favorite if it had a bass to go with it as it sounds a bit thin, but otherwise very natural.

In the double mic setup, what is (are?) the mic holders called, and how much do they cost??

Great job, Mikey! The takeaways for me were the improvement that the Behringer mics had over the cam mic, and the ribbon mic was really good, too.

I'm Surprise by beringer, not so bad. Audiotechnica seems a good choice fornlow budget, even i prefer classic akg

it was a wonderful video.
the comparison was also very interesting. what i missed was the XY from the SM57, as i think it would have been only fair and would have better represented the dynamic range that the mic can record.
i also find the house brand from thomann, the t. bone SC 140, to be a good choice in the cheapest range. bone SC 140, a good choice.
unfortunately, my favourites were not featured in the video, the soyuz 013 FET and the schoeps CMC 6 and the MK 2H capsules. yes, these two mics are not of the cheap variety, but worthy of attention in studio use.
i'm already curious about what the next video will be and look forward to it.

Hey!

Hard to beat the C-2 pair for price and sound. Those are also great on cymbals and rack toms.

Very interesting video! I can't imagine the possibilities when combining some of them, that must be epic!

Of the more expensive mics I preferred the Austrian Audio CC8, but the Behringer C-2 was good enough for me and fits in my budget. In the '80's I bought a pair of Behringers. They are still working fine and all I need.

Although I prefer the two KM184s, one thing's for sure: they're not 32 times better than the two C2s; only their price is.

I owned a SM57. Sure the winner goes to SM57. I like Neumann KM184 as well. Refer back to the price, SM57 is amazing and can be same quality to KM184. This makes SM57 slightly win.

The KM184's sound sweet but worth $1550 more than the Behringers? Not for me. I think Behringer may be selling quite a few of those 😀
I have the AT2020 and it's Okay. I've often thought about buying a more expensive mic but when I watch these comparison videos I think , what's the point ? They aren't going to make me sound like Robert Plant or Elton John anyway 🤣

Have you ever tried to use a pair of NT1a in an X pattern? I think you will find it is surprisingly similar to using a pair of Neumann KM184.

I like the AKG 414 the best.

Opinion: $$$ difference doesn't equate to sound difference. Like my AT 4041s SC mics for this application - bought years ago.