I promise I won’t start some ridiculous gear war with this… I’m genuinely open to hearing everyones thoughts
Its always baffled me how the differences in mics seem so obvious and evident when tracking, but are so hard to tell apart in a mix. I’ve sort of adopted the mindset that they play a bigger roll in getting you TO the end of the mix than they do in the ACTUAL mix.
I enjoy the versatility of the Blue Bottle mics…being able to hot swap 10 different physical capsules (with different polar patterns, frequency curves, and diaphragm sizes) is a godsend when a ~type~ of mic is needed. I like it enough to where I’d consider a Townsend Sphere if I needed another stereo pair of mics. But I have to say it has more to do with the convenience not having to manage 20 different mics than it does the sound per se. Remember that those things one with proprietary cables (many use 5-9 pins) and they require special power supplies. Just leaving 2 or 4 of them set up saves a considerable amount of headache.
So this could sort of be an argument in favor of the Townsend Sphere and Slate mics…right? I mean…its versatility vs authenticity. You think?
Regardless, I think I’d be kidding someone if I claimed it ‘sounded better’ than a high end Peluso, Charter Oak, SE, or Manley mic.
What I think, but I don’t know this and I could be totally wrong, but I think that mic is just a half decent flat condenser with some cheap looking medeoka pre and its just mainly the actual software. Just modelled the same as their comps eqs or anything else .Send audio to one of his 1176 comps and it sounds very like an 1176 .So is that nice looking mic and that pre just there looking pretty to bump up the price .
Well it is stereo mic. And I assume that would be a substantial difference…but aside from that, I agree…what you’re paying for is the software. The Steven Slate one I think is only $1000. Which is about what you’d spend on an AKG 414 or a Copperhead. I’m gonna call and see how the software licensing works.
If you have seen the video on the Slate one he talks about the microphone. Slate says his team designed it to be as transparent as possible so you could swap between each mic sound without any big interference, just tweak the software and you got the new mic. So it doesn’t matter what you record it with the setting on, it’s all done after the signal is already processed, which seems kinda odd to me. I mean, some of the natural elements of the mic are part of the recording. Some of the saturation will effect the input signal. Blech!
