MICROPHONE TESTS - THE FIRST LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The people who participate in the test recordings, are myself, my fiancee, Christina Malmqvist - and the famous Sven Bornemark (creator of Virtual Guitarist etc...) on acoustic guitar.
The song is "All I ask of You" and comes from the musical "Phantom of the Opera" - if someone doesn't recognize it... It was chosen because it contains both loud and quiet passages - and because it's a beautiful song ( ok - my singing maybe isn't the best, but listen to the original song if you don't believe me... ;) ).

All microphone tests have been recorded through an RME ADI-96 Pro preamp, where the DSP-functions have been disabled. The recordings have been made as close to the optimum as possible in the format 44.1kHz/32-bit Floating Point. I kept the WAV-format so that a conversion wouldn't risk compromising the result. The only processing which has been made, is that I've cut and normalized to -0.1dB in Wavelab. Because the recordings were made at a high input level from the start - and were recorded in 32-bit FP, this normalizing has an extremely small (or maybe even none at all) effect on the original recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE SECOND LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the first lot, but also expanded with recording from a loudspeaker. At the speaker recording, the microphone is rigged at 50cm (about 19,7 inches) from the speaker, with as close to identical placement as possible of the different microphones' membranes. The same material is played from a CD on all the speaker recordings and on the receiver (Pioneer VSX-808RDS), the eq is set to neutral. There is pink noise (20s), white noise (20s), alternating low tom + golfswing (10s), silence (10s), and a cut from one of my old songs (20s) - and there's a pause of 2 seconds between all those parts. The material may not be optimal in all respects, but it should give you some help on the road to understanding how the microphones react. The original material which was burned to a CDR can be downloaded or listened to here (about 17MB).
I hope that the playback from the loudspeaker maybe can giva some more common knowledge about the microphone than vocals and guitar, since the latter are within a more limited frequency range. Worth noting, is that the speakers are a couple of HiFi-speakers (JBL LX-44) which are placed close to the wall, which will give the sound an extra push in lower frequencies (no drawback when it comes to the music, since it's rather weak in the bass region from the start...) - but the recordings can hopefully give some good information about the relation between the different microphones.
If you think there's some strange noise in the music part, it's because the song was originally recorded on a Fostex M80 8-channel reel-tape recorder several years ago... ;)

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE THIRD LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE FOURTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE FIFTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE SIXTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE SEVENTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings, but with the difference that the Martin guitar which has been used in all the other recordings, wasn't available at this time - so a Gibson J-200 was used instead. In order to be able to compare these new recordings with the previous ones, a reference recording with my BLUE Babybottle was made. A remark was also made in the filenames, to underline that another guitar was used.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE EIGHTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings, but with the difference that the order is restored and Sven Bornemark's magical Martin D-35 is back in the game.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE NINTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...

MICROPHONE TESTS - THE TENTH LOT

OBS!!! Those who have a slow Internet connection and can't download the WAV-files in their full quality, can get the recordings in MP3-format (44.1kHz/320mbps) here.

The same setup as the previous recordings.

OBS!!! If you get distorsion when you listen to the WAV-files, it's not due to bad recordings - but rather that your player doesn't support 32-bit FP. Get a better player or update the one you have - or listen to the MP3-files instead...