Microphone Comparison: Warm Audio WA87r2, AKG C414 XLII and Shure SM7b
I’m no audio expert; however, I love home recording and I’ve tried many microphones over the years. While researching new microphones, I have found comparisons on YouTube to be very helpful. I hope that this video may help one of you! I’m recording straight into the preamps on a Zoom Livetrack L-8. Because the SM7b needs more gain than the other two mics, I do have a Cloudlifter connected to the Shure mic. I then mixed the tracks using Cakewalk by Bandlab. The only post-processing that I added comes from a bit of master bus compression and limiting from Ozone 9. I used Slate Trimmer to add gain onto the individual tracks just to make sure that all mics were at the same level. I then verified that in Ozone, getting them as close in volume as possible. I did not use any EQ at all. What you hear is what comes straight out of the microphones! To get the full frequency response, I decided not to use a pop filter. So, please forgive the plosives! If this video has been helpful, please let me know, and I’ll mic up my guitar and compare how the mics sound in a whole mix. Thanks for listening!

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