Why Microphones Matter
IT STARTS WITH THE SONG
Great art starts with great songs and great performances. Let's talk about why finding the right mic can not only help you sound your best and how you want to, but how the right mic also helps you let go in the moments of creation. Would you rather worry about your mic, or be in the moment?
THE RECORDING IS THE ART
Let’s use visual art as a metaphor for music and audio arts. If the song is the idea for the painting, and the mic is one of the tools — paint, brush, and canvas — that capture and express your idea, the microphone will have a bold effect on the picture you paint. Microphones not only irreversibly affect the sound quality of the end result, they also affect how you the artist react to what you see (hear) in realtime as you create. Audio Test Kitchen’s goal is to help you understand how the sound of the tool effects what you want to express — the picture you want to paint! We want to make it easy for you to find your mic.
As artists, we’re making recordings, we’re broadcasting, we’re podcasting, live-streaming, we are amplified through gear. It’s our ideas and our performances, but they’re translated, transmitted and received by gear. That gear shapes, interprets, colors, distorts, and delivers the sound. You+gear=your art. The song, performance, and gear are inseparable. Note choices, lyric choices, instrument choices, arrangement choices… equipment choices → we want to help you with that final element. We want to make that part easier.
We want you to be confident in your choice, so at the moment you need the microphone to translate and transmit your vision, your innermost ideas, doubt leaves the room and you’re left with only inspiration.
WHEN CREATED PROPERLY, ONLINE MICROPHONE COMPARISONS TRANSFORM OUR UNDERSTANDING OF MICS
Here’s how Audio Test Kitchen’s audio content and app are intentionally designed to help you hear what it would be like to own and record with any one of these microphones:
ALL INCLUSIVE
First, you have access to hundreds of mics in every price range. Limitations that don’t serve your search — like brand or what’s on sale or industry alliances — are removed.
JUST THE MICS
Second, you’re in an environment where you’re hearing just the mics. That may sound obvious, but to do that requires a scientific approach to recording and presenting these microphones so that what you hear is what’s truly there, nothing added, nothing lost. We've eliminated all the variables: the performance, the mic placement, and the levels all stay the same so that when you're comparing the mics, you're only hearing what they contribute to the sound. I've witnessed it many times in every other existing microphone “shootout:” people confuse differences in performance, tuning, mic placement, and volume to differences between the mics, leading them to make the wrong choice.
SKIP THE HYPE
How is it possible that a microphone can be warm, bright, clear, punchy, smooth, rich, and “help your voice cut through the mix” all at the same time? Sound like any ads you’ve seen lately? Unfortunately, when it comes to describing recording equipment adjectives have lost their meaning. And when it comes to sound, instead of relying on descriptions and interpretations of what words mean, why don’t we just cut out the middleman and listen to the sound of the gear so we can form our own opinions based what we like?
Why play a game of telephone, when we can listen and choose based on our own taste?
YOUR EARS
They don’t know you like you know you. So why are the opinions of others so powerful? Because we respect their work. But those who we respect stand out from the crowd because they found their own voice, their own sound. Now you can do the same.
IF I OWNED IT
Third, you can compare the mics on multiple sources and build a picture of what it would be like to own and record with that mic yourself. We created a feature called the ‘STACKED EFFECT’ where you can hear the combination of all the instruments and vocals in the song through that one mic you’re auditioning. This gives you three huge advantages: it naturally amplifies the personality of every mic, it transforms subtle differences between mics into obvious ones, and it allows you to imagine what it would be like to own and record a whole song with that mic yourself.
IN MY SPACE
And finally, ATK's online microphone comparison comes to you, at your studio, in your familiar environment. You don't have to try to learn different speakers, headphones, or acoustics or experience the pressure of a sales environment or paid studio time.
WHY MICS MAKE SUCH A BIG DIFFERENCE
Of all the things in our signal chain (microphones, preamps, sound cards, interfaces, plugins, DAWs...) microphones tend to have the greatest impact because they change one form of energy (motion) into another (electrical). And unlike other audio tools, you can’t ‘undo’ your microphone. Even digital modeling microphones have an inherent character (You can compare the sound of the raw modeling mics for yourself, with no digital modeling applied, right here in our app.)
Imagine tasting a meal prepared with fresh ingredients — the flavors are alive, deep, and convey every nuance. This is what it’s like to record with a great microphone.
YOUR ART, YOUR TASTE, YOUR CHOICE
We want to help advance the creation of music and audio art by bringing access to information we audio creators all deserve, especially when we’re going into a purchase decision. To do this, we have to demystify the process, dismantle the marketing hype, and remove the bias of influencers’ agendas. There are lots of people out there trying to help — retailers, salespeople, friends, and professionals. Even if their top agenda is to serve you, they don’t know you like you know yourself. That’s why we’re empowering you with what you need to make your own choice. Based on your taste.
They don’t know you like you know yourself. That’s why we’re empowering you with what you need to make your own choice. Based on your taste.
We have done our job at Audio Test Kitchen if in the moment of performance, when you’re singing or playing into that microphone your knowledge that you got the right one actually boosts your confidence.
Now it’s important we talk about a related question: How much should you spend on a microphone?
I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how we can make Audio Test Kitchen a more effective resource for you. Email me at the link below.
Thank you!
-Alex Oana, Creator/Founder
Have any questions or comments about this article? Who’s bringing the dessert? Email me.
