Lav Shootout! Rode, Tram, Sanken & Sennheiser

[Chadfish]

I'm not sure why the Sanken came off sort of harsh gpforet. It's like that on the uncompressed recording. Like I've said, when you don't have reference like this, that gives you such a quick a-b, or a-b-c-d comparison, the differences stand out. When you use these mics alone you acclimate to their individual sound. I just used the Sanken on a very pro shoot, and it sounded great. Same with the Tram. To me in the shootout it sounded dull, but I just did a yoga class video using that and it came off great. Round and natural.

Mangler, here's my process: No processing was done on any lav. I matched the levels as best as I could using 3 Sennheiser wireless systems on the Sanken, Rode & Senn ME-2, and a Lectrosonics on the Tram. I know, not consistent. But my gain staging was good enough to not hear much noise on any track, but the ME-2 was the only one that I did notice noise on due to it's low sensitivity, and need to turn it up 8db to match the Sanken. NO EQ OR COMPRESSION ON ANYTHING. I went into the 4 mic inputs on my MOTU Traveler - going into Cubase, and I added about 10db gain to each track of the MOTU.

My aim was to get an idea of the character, or color of each mic. Not so much the noise level. Yes Vimeo puts a slight cottony freq muffle to the airy part of the spectrum, but it's the same amount on each mic. Having been the only one to hear the original to compare to Vimeo, there is little difference. I am rocking JBL LSR4328 monitors though. Computer speakers are useless for this, and headphones can't be trusted. You must have good monitors to get a clear picture, and that picture is represented will even through the Vimeo compression. YouTube is another story though....

[dust'n the callipygous]

Awesome test. That Rode sounded good. I'm more and more impressed with the stuff their releasing.

[gpforet]

This was very information. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the time and effort you put forth making this. And I think your answer is spot on. We do get acclimated to the mics in our kit. I'm currently evaluated a Oscar Soundtech tram clone and so far, I'm very impressed. I think the big surprise in this test was how the ME-2 came across.

I'm not sure why the Sanken came off sort of harsh gpforet. It's like that on the uncompressed recording. Like I've said, when you don't have reference like this, that gives you such a quick a-b, or a-b-c-d comparison, the differences stand out. When you use these mics alone you acclimate to their individual sound. I just used the Sanken on a very pro shoot, and it sounded great. Same with the Tram. To me in the shootout it sounded dull, but I just did a yoga class video using that and it came off great. Round and natural.

Mangler, here's my process: No processing was done on any lav. I matched the levels as best as I could using 3 Sennheiser wireless systems on the Sanken, Rode & Senn ME-2, and a Lectrosonics on the Tram. I know, not consistent. But my gain staging was good enough to not hear much noise on any track, but the ME-2 was the only one that I did notice noise on due to it's low sensitivity, and need to turn it up 8db to match the Sanken. NO EQ OR COMPRESSION ON ANYTHING. I went into the 4 mic inputs on my MOTU Traveler - going into Cubase, and I added about 10db gain to each track of the MOTU.

My aim was to get an idea of the character, or color of each mic. Not so much the noise level. Yes Vimeo puts a slight cottony freq muffle to the airy part of the spectrum, but it's the same amount on each mic. Having been the only one to hear the original to compare to Vimeo, there is little difference. I am rocking JBL LSR4328 monitors though. Computer speakers are useless for this, and headphones can't be trusted. You must have good monitors to get a clear picture, and that picture is represented will even through the Vimeo compression. YouTube is another story though....

[N635DC]

For some reason the links arent working

[Chadfish]

Here's a little add on to this thread. I just tested out the Rode PinMic and posted some clips. I plan on doing a more in-depth demo after I get over my flu, and get through all the Thanksgiving hecticness. I think the PinMic sounds pretty good. No processing on these clips. I included one AT4053b clip at the beginning to have something to compair to. Later I'll compair the Rode Lav with the PinMic to see if they differ much. They do both have the same capsule.

[StudioSoundDesign]

Well said, good video!

KC
Studio Sound Design
http://studiosoundesign.com

[Ted Ramasola]

Great test! Thank you for posting.

[DrDave]

Thanks for the comparison, but if you have the time, I would suggest:
1. multitrack the SAME audio on each mic, then compare
2. rotate the mics to each others position, then compare
3. Use two different voices, preferably one male, one female
Otherwise, it isn't a comparison. If you move the mics a few inches, they will sound different.
Still, I can tell the Sanken is too bright for me, so thanks Getting rid of sibilants is time consuming.

For those who are interested in mic sensitivity, that is not the only factor in S/N ratio. You have to measure the output with the self-noise. If you have a noisy mic with high output, you have noisy output.

[Chadfish]

It was the same audio on each mic. All were multi-tracked at once. Rotation not necessary at the placement I used. All mics were the same distance from the mouth, and with an omni pattern I'm confident the sound would be the same if moved a couple inches left or right. Sorry, no ladies around to help with the test. I respectfully disagree that "It isn't a comparison" without your stipulations. The character of each mic was clearly captured and is obvious in this comparison, and with every use of each of these mics on jobs outside of the test I hear these same characteristics. Of course one could always add layers of clinical exactness to any test, but hey, I did what I did with what I had, and it seems to have helped people get a handle on the individual character of each mic.

[photonashville]

None of the original audio test web pages from first post work for me. On an iPad at the moment