Andy Stewart can't help himself. While on holidays in Fiji he came across a local band – you guessed it. Out came the stereo recorder and this is some of the results.

Gagadre Lo Fiji String Band

Late 60's Drums

50's Drums

A four-mic drum recording through the Clarett 8Pre built-in preamps with the AIR feature disabled.

Clarett 8Pre Drums — without AIR

A four-mic drum recording through the Clarett 8Pre built-in preamps with the AIR feature enabled.

Clarett 8Pre Drums — with AIR

These comparison files are taken from one dialogue recording and two piano recordings, all made with Y splits into the Zoom F8 and another recording device. The gains for each pair of files have been matched as closely as possible. No filtering, EQ or other processing has been applied to any of these files.

The files named ‘Dialogue Sound Devices 702t’ and ‘Dialogue Zoom F8’ are mono files from the same reading. The microphone was an industry standard Sennheiser 416 shotgun microphone, Y split into the Sound Devices 702t and the Zoom F8 and recorded to both devices simultaneously at 48k 24-bit.
The files named ‘Piano 1 Nagra 7’ and ‘Piano 1 Zoom F8’ are stereo files of a piano performance. The piano was miked with a matched pair of DPA 4041 large diaphragm omnidirectional microphones running through Y splits into the Zoom F8 and the Nagra 7 and recorded to both devices simultaneously at 44.1k 24-bit.
The files named ‘Piano 2 Apogee Quartet’ and ‘Piano 2 Zoom F8’ are stereo files from a second performance of the same piece of music. The signal from the microphones was Y split into the Zoom F8 and the Apogee Quartet and recorded to both devices simultaneously at 44.1k 24-bit.
The DPA 4041s were chosen for the piano recordings due to their very low self- noise of 8dBA, allowing the noise of the microphone preamps to be more discernable.

The piano composition is a work in progress, composed and performed by Jesse Dempsey Watt. Copyright © 2015 Jesse Dempsey Watt. All rights reserved. www.jessedempsey.com

Piano 2 Zoom F8

Piano 2 Apogee Quartet

Piano 1 Zoom F8

Piano 1 Nagra 7

Dialogue Zoom F8

Dialogue Sound Devices 702t

A comparison between the Aston Origin and Rode NT1 microphones on a Steinway grand piano.

Filmed and recorded at the Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts.

No EQ/processing has been applied to these tracks.

Steinway — Aston  Origin

Steinway — Rode  NT1

SSL Sigma Summing Review shootout (Issue 110)

Greg Walker: I chose a more open, acoustic jazz piece and a busy pop song to give some contrast. The songs are 'Molly's Jazz' (featuring singer Maryanne Plenkovitch) and 'Doom Boogie Ticket' by Machine Translations. Both tracks were recorded and and mixed at broadcast standard 24-bit/48k resolution and there are short gaps between each of the four source mixes. The order of mix samples is as follows:

- Straight digital
- Phoenix Nicerizer 0dB gain
- Phoenix Nicerizer +8dB gain
- SSL Sigma

You can also download individual versions of each summed output for your own double blind test party on the weekend.

Sum Mix 1 - Doom Boogie Ticket

Shootout between the Apogee Symphony I/O Mk II and the Avid HD I/O professional converters. Drums and upright piano tracks were recorded into parallel Pro Tools systems, split by Y-cables into both units.

No EQ/compression/processing has been applied to the tracks — only basic level adjustments.

Click download for hi-res 24-bit/96k file.

Piano & Drums - Symphony Mk II

Piano & Drums - Avid HD I/O

A shootout between a vintage Neve and the Warm Audio 273-EQ clone.
- Recorded into Pro Tools via an Antelope Audio Zen Studio interface at 96kHz. Recordings unmixed except for light compression on the master.

Artist is Angus Legg. Find him @anguslegg

Moving On Warm Audio 273EQ

Moving On Neve 1073

AudioTechnology Magazine's Founding Editor, Greg Simmons, puts the new RØDE TF-5 up against the Neumann KM184 and the DPA 4011 in a number of studio comparison tests. Download the files for full resolution audio.

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