And what shall a "tube sound" be?

 

VaAcCuUmM TuUuUBbEeEeEesSsS

 

The Gearspace thread on this video was an absolute shitshow. Boomers couldn't accept that their precious golden era 20k$ mic are not that exceptional, so they started insulting the guy, and pointing out every flaw possible in his methodology trying to say he isn't "scientific", but completely disregarding the fact that he went 1000 miles beyond whatever tests they ever did in their life.

 

Soo true. Pseudo-Snob-elitists everywhere.

 

I remember having seen his Where does the guitar sound come from?, revealing as this one.

 

The significant aspect with this cannel is, that in the end he always creates a product by himself on a super cheap basis (not just some random other bought product) and compares it with whatever holy grail and it sounds exactly the same.

So he proves that parts, or products do not matter soundwise, only due to visual proof, not a really scientific proof. In the end one could also explain how a tone is created and explain the connection to how those things physically can not matter soundwise. But people would argue with esoteric stuff or "what they hear" anyways.

However here it is some kind of a blind test, unbiased from price and other factors. It at least has more impact.

 

Everyone knows that the older the mic, the more expensive it is, and that if your individual power cables cost more than your girlfriend's new tits your mixes have to infinitely sound better, will attract new high paying clients and will get you a gold record on the wall. Only fools will fall for videos like this made by a 28 year old vegan virgin. Dude should eat a friggin' steak and finally get laid already!

Sincerely...Lois daBoomer

 

Last edited: Oct 11, 2023

ironically Lois la Boomer used a cheap USB mic and wrote that using text to speech. eyes too old to read the keyboard

 

From Ethan Winer - The Audio Expert

 

There are mics that are shit, mics that are good and mics that are very good. The difference between mics that are shit and those that are good is usually much greater than the differences between mics that are good and mics that are very good. Mics that are good can usually be made to sound very good but mics that are shit usually can't be made to sound good. The price to performance ratio for mics that are good is generally much much better than mics that are very good.

 

Also true of audio interfaces, rack effects, monitors, and headphones. You have "cheap", "average", "getting a little pricey!", which are all relatively incremental compared with increase in quality; and after that the prices become multiplication of 3x,4x,10x, etc, and drastic examples of diminishing returns. It's the case with lots of products, but it is painfully obvious with pro audio gear.

 

Your statement could apply to just about any musical instrument or audio gear.
It's a universal truth.

 

At the end of the day, it's all diminishing returns. A $100 mic sounds much better than a $10 mic, but a $1000 mic doesn't sound $900 better than a $100 mic. The only point I can see where "this mic" is absolutely essential for your work is if you want to get whatever you're recording into a much better shape "naturally" into the recorded track, simply because that's the sound you're used to, or you know that a frequency response bump into the lows can result in less EQing by the time it's mixed. But even that is hardly a problem since nowadays mixing ITB basically has no flaws in getting shit done.

When you stop to really think about it, you'll notice that tech nowadays just sounds great at a much lower price point... A $300 mic/headphone/audio interface/whatever released 15 years ago hardly sounds that much better than something coming out today that is half as expensive.

 

Physics..

 

With computer tech, and chips; the comparison between 2 points in time is known as Moore's Law. "Why was that 400 mhz Pentium 1000$?" while diminishing returns compares 2 things at the same time. " Is the Mac Pro really worth $15,000 more than a Mac Studio?"

What is the Moore's law theory?
The observation that the number of transistors on computer chips doubles approximately every two years is known as Moore's Law. Moore's Law is not a law of nature, but an observation of a long-term trend in how technology is changing. The law was first described by Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel, in 1965.

 

I'd call this an adjunct of Moore's Law. ML deals with the change of quality over time and this with quality relative to cost at any given time.

 

The cool thing about the Moore's Law is that we don't really see people happy to buy a Pentium II today for $1000, while on the audio side dudes will swear that their Neumann is totally worth 20 grand and nothing sounds like it

 

In my experience, the price often equates to being multipurpose. I have a some mics worth a few 1,000 and they sound incredible on nearly everything I put in front of them; from acoustic guitars through to different talent male/female etc. I can't say the same for mics that cost 100's. Usually they sound good on one thing and one thing only.

 

Funny, I've been researching some mics today to see if there are any new mics I should know about, as it's been years since the last time I've done it, and then I see this thread. I found an interesting UK based company "Sontronics". They have some pretty interesting mics for not much money... I like weird mics with character and they make quite a few of those. Check them out: Orpheus, Saturn, STC-20 mics.

Anyway, I've been using my SM58, SM57, and Zenhiza MD-431 for more than a decade now (I only record vocals-singing and spoken word, sometimes some experiments/ideas), and I still remember saying "I should buy a large condenser next" a decade ago. It still sounds like a good idea... Good mics seem to have come down a bit in price lately, and I might bite an AT-2035 or Senn MK-4, finally... but there's no rush.

What matters the most is definitely creativity, ideas, talent, knowledge. But having a quality mic or two does help, too. Nothing that breaks the bank, though. Like some of you said, cheapest stuff is usually cheap for a reason, so buy something more expensive that's still not filthy expensive, and you will surely get yourself a great product. No need to go broke because of a mic. Or cables... omfg!

 

Last edited: Oct 11, 2023

I have an AT2035 for almost half a decade and it sounds great. I don't need the pad and hp filter because I record into a mixer that already have these built-in, but it's nice to see the option there. Just a few days ago I was shopping for a dynamic mic, and I might get a Fifine K669D just for fun, goes for about $30 new and seems to be punching way over its price point. Competition seems to have picked up quite a bit in the last few years, and prices for good gear are consequently going down. Can't say I'm not happy about that.