Today I was recording some vocals in the control room with a very gentle singer. I had him set up with fairly nice AKG headphones and an AKG C414 and we were recording that way for a while. I went out to make a cup of tea and when I came back the guy was sitting singing into my current talkback mic which I left on by chance, which is a t.bone SC 300 (the t.bone SC 300 - Thomann UK Cyberstore)

I came in and he said "what's this mic, it sounds way better than that one"!

I laughed and said there was about a €800 price difference but to please him, gaffer taped both mics together.

After recording whole song take (fairly spare gentle vocals) we listened back and compared and it was obvious the SC 300 sounded way better for his voice and the song.

Obviously this doesn't mean my 414 is now on ebay, however, interesting result - and shows that even the cheapest condensor in the universe has a use aside from being used as a cheapy talk back mic.

Form my experience a cheap mic can certainly sound better than expensive mics.
We did a blind test in a studio, while ago - compared different mic, only by sound (we didn't know the routing), really opened my eyes to "price/performance ratio".

If you have a very good preamp, even cheap mics can sound pretty impressive.
Did you use the same preamp for both mics?


Btw - check your PM box, I have a question for you.

Yeah I used the same preamps. Although I'm not sold on the whole high end preamp thing. People will spend thousands on a preamp and claim it transforms their entire life but when you double blindfold A/B, hardly anyone can tell the difference.

I'd rather have equipment of a good enough quality to be low noise, full frequency reproduction and artifact free, and have 16 mics and I/O rather than spending the same amount of money on 1 mic and a single I/O and not hear the difference anyway.

Yes, I agree, with preamps it's the same story - but it must be a good one: you don't have to spend a fortune, but you also can not cut costs where it can sacrifice sound quality.

I mean, most "prosumer" pre's are just crap, especially if you use dynamic mics.

Also not sold on the idea that some pre's give this magical sound - even though a majority of sound engineers claim it to be true, no one can prove it with measurements or blind test comparisons. actually, they prove quite the opposite.

It has a lot to do with marketing - some artists would never rent a studio, if it doesn't have any major brand names in it.

Agree. And the argument is usually "you don't hear the difference on one track, but stack 50 tracks and you'll hear a night and day difference".

Problem is, nobody to my knowledge has ever posted any clips comparing stacking theories on a cheap preamp and a high end preamp.

Don't get me wrong, you need a quality preamp. But a quality preamp can be purchased for under 500 bucks.

Soon I will post a poll of a blind test of a $2000 preamp and a $40 behringer preamp both using the same mic model, position, converter, xlr lead manufacturer and length, both recording the same sound at the same time and I'll eat my balls if the votes are 100% correct.

Hahaha! Don't eat your balls.

So are you putting your talkback mic back in with your regular use mic's?.

I've found out that it sounds good under the snare as it is quite bright and can take some SPL. It can't be used as a top close mic due to poor rear rejection. Not bothered on guitar or bass.