Ragan - which mic do you favor for overheads between the IV & V? Or do you prefer the I over both?

Thanks!

For me it would be between the MKI and the MKIV. Kind of corresponding to the U87 and the 414. And for that choice I think it kinda comes down to what you want out of the midrange, forward or relaxed. I like mid forward so my choice is the MKI. Either of them will serve up really nice results though.

I’m a big fan of scooped mids on OH mics. I just dig the tone of the kit. But I also like a slightly dark-ish sound. I’ve used the IV. It wasn’t bright and I liked it, but was curious if you found the V better.

Guess I’m gonna have to get another IV

I was looking for more of a U87 midrange forward, perhaps the MK1 might be better than the CM1 black for that instance.

The MK1 will certainly have a nice Neumann-ish midrange, but I think the CM1 will, too... I might be mistaken, but I think the black CM1 is the same capsule as the MK1 (K67-style design), just with a simple, clean, transformerless circuit. And probably some less high-end resistors/capacitors. The teal CM1 should be the same capsule as the MKIV (CK12-style design) with the same transformerless circuit. The circuitry after the capsule is what differentiates the Warblers from the CM1s, as far as I know. So if you have the CM1 black already, moving to a Warbler MKI will probably mostly be a more "vintage" sound, with tamed highs and some mild transformer color. You could emulate that pretty easily with something like the Neold Big Al without having to buy a new mic.

Going for a Warbler MKID, on the other hand, would give you multiple pattern options, which explodes the versatility of the mic! That's what I would do if I were looking to upgrade from a CM1.

To be honest I’m gonna have to buy multiple microphones from 3U ( MKID ). The real star in my opinion seems to be the 67.

Right on! I certainly encourage supporting Guozheng's work as much as possible, he's great.

I just bought two.

MKI / MKIVD

I've made a mic comparison of fingerpicking on a Yamaha LS16 guitar.

https://youtu.be/74gBJarOMC8

I was pleased with the work several of the mics did and one way or another surprised by quite a few. Overall, I thought the Warbler Mk IV came out particularly well.

Mics included in this demo are:

- Studio Projects C4,
- Audio Technica AT813R,
- Lewitt LCT 340,
- Audio Technica AT4033a,
- Audio Technica AT4040,
- 3U Audio CM-1 Teal,
- 3U Audio CM-1 Black,
- 3U Audio Warbler MkII voicing 2,
- 3U Audio Warbler MkI voicing 2,
- 3U Audio Warbler MkIV voicing 2,
- Oktava mk-219,
- CAD M179,
- sE4400a,
- t.bone SC1100,
- sE V7X,
- Shure SM57,
- Prodipe TT1 Instruments,
- Rode Procaster,
- Superlux R102 MkII

With the Warblers, I find I often like voicing 2 the best. Has anyone else found the same thing?

Gavin

Warbler I & IV sounds best to me.

waiting for re-upload. But I think you sold me on the V7X.

I'm just making a new version of this - I was hearing too much distortion. I'll render it shortly and will change the link in my post. Sorry about this - it was doing well until it hit YouTube.

It's going up now, at higher quality and a lower volume level.

Gavin

I'm defeated. I can't find a way to upload this file to YouTube and get a usable result, free from gritty distortion and fluctuating volume.

I'm sorry folks. Perhaps it will all come clear tomorrow.

Gavin

I appreciate you trying. You're a legend for letting us hear all of those mics on the same source.

Much appreciation, either way.

I'm a fan of the V7X. In real - non-YouTube - life the contrast with the SM57 is much greater.

But the whole thing on YouTube seems to be dogged by what this morning I think is intermodulation distortions that I don't get when I play the rendered video on my PC.

I'm outputting a still higher quality faster frame rate file. If it's no better, I'll have to abandon the whole thing.

Gavin

It's no better.

I'll upload a wav file to a website so that it can be heard properly. I think it's interesting. I'll post a link when it's done. I'm not sure what to do with the eq curves, but I guess I could post those as well. It all makes work for the working man to do, as they say...

Gavin

Gavin

You're a legend for doing all that, Gavin! I'd love to hear WAVs of your samples, I always enjoy your shootouts. This one seems to have been quite the undertaking. Shame that YouTube isn't up to the task!

It turned out that YouTube wasn't the source of the distortion, but was introduced when I rendered the file in Movavi. I've asked their support folks for advice on the issue.

But... I have a surprise for everyone in my next post to this thread.

Gavin

My mic demo comparing the way 19 different mics record me fingerpicking my small bodied Yamaha LS16 guitar is available from the link below.

The mics include five 3U Audio models, the CM-1 Black and Teal, the Warblers MKI, MkII and MkIV. My favourite among them all from this hearing might be the MkIV, but there are some other interesting contenders, and probably a few surprises good and bad.

The whole thing - a wav file and a Word doc explaining a few things and providing the eq curves I used are contained in a Zip file. I'm quite sure anyone who heard the YouTube will find this package a huge improvement. Naturally, I'll be interested to learn what folks think. At some stage I'll have to trim down this ridiculous mic collection... But not just yet. ;-)

Get the Zip file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B6d...ew?usp=sharing

Have fun!

Gavin

As I said... Legend! That's a very thorough survey, thank you!

I agree with your take, and I think the MKII does well too. I love my MKI but I don't think its frequency profile is ideal for that particular guitar. The others sound more natural.

Regardless, the Warblers do themselves VERY proud in this comparison (as does the CM1). 3U stands out as the champion here, pretty thoroughly.

Cheers Progger!

Now for everyone else - including those with a different view, I hope!

I guess I could add to this over time, at least until I run out of my current store of 11-guage Martin Retros.

Gavin

I've made a small correction today. I originally mislabelled the third of the Warblers as the MkI, when it should have been the MkIV... My apologies!

It's important because in my mind the MkIV is one of my favourites from this sample of mics. Quite probably my favourite.

Listening again this morning, I'm struck by how rarely we get to hear how a large selection of mics work with the same sound source.

I should probably also explain that in practice I tend to use a stereo pair of the Lewitt LCT 340s for micing guitar because they seem to have the best rejection of any of the mics I own. A single LCT340 can be used effectively to mic my guitar while I'm also singing. I haven't found that to be true of many of the mics on this list; two exceptions are the CM-1 Teal and the Warbler MkIV.

Gavin

I have a mint (just-opened) Warbler I in the UK if anybody in UK / Europe is interested. PM me.

I've updated this test to include three more mics - the AT8033, the AT8031 and the Beyerdynamic M201 N(C).

The link to download the zip is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U7P...ew?usp=sharing

Again, have fun with it!

Gavin

Does anyone have sound clips comparing the Warbler 127 C to the C-Flat?

I've listened to Ragan's great demos comparing the C-Flat to the KM84 and the Octava mics, and in both cases the C-Flat seems a little more full in mids and less bright in higher frequencies.

I may order the C-Flat and just scoop some mids or boost highs if needed, but I was curious if the regular C (not Flat) was actually closer to the KM84 upper detail.

One 3U thread is just for demos and the other is just for large diaphragm mics with multiple voicings, but I'm curious what other mics their small diaphragm capsules fit on. I'm putting this in the wrong place no matter what.

On their "news" pages this is the most recent news.

http://www.3uaudio.com/Show.asp?id=701&dh=3

Thanks, I haven't seen them yet.