The Ultimate Shootout Disclaimer

[brandondrury]

I'm making this because we seem to go through the same issues every single time and they cloud up threads that could be concentrated with more useful discussion.

Efforts Have Been Made To Be As Close To Objective As Possible
It's always a priority to minimize the changes within the shootouts. If there are changes, I make note of it. Generally speaking, I think the tests are kept as fair as fair can be.

Give Up On Science....Temporarily
Everyone wants a perfectly “scientific” shootout. It can only happen on a few, limited occasions. In 99% of these shootouts, some factor will change. It may be the performance itself. It may be the character and intended use of the piece of equipment in the first place.

A good example is comparing a Cascade Fathead II and a SM57 on metal guitars. In the same position, the Fathead II will have WAY more low end and WAY less top end. Depending on the tone, either mic could come out sounding objectively superior. If a Fathead II sounds a bit too bassy, I would pull it back to gets some proximity effect out and maybe move it towards the center of the speaker. Of course, a different mic placement throws off the validity of the test and the only real test then is the engineering ability of the person conducting the shootouts.

This occurs with ALL mics.

We could have left the mics in the same place and simply left the shootout as an illustration of character, but I question the value of posting an audio clip that is clearly engineered badly (as in not at all).

Too much “What If?”
I think so many people are asking “What if?” to discredit the audio clips before them too much. I see people all the time who are trying to rationalize why the differences aren't what they think they should be. I think these people are worried about picking the "wrong" clip.

Maybe they are afraid of picking the Karma over the Neumann. Why???? Pick the Karma if you like it and put the other $2k+ in your back pocket!

• If only acoustic instruments were used instead of electric instruments, then we would hear an obvious difference.
• If only some other links in the chain were different, then we would hear an obvious difference.
• If only we stacked a bunch of instruments, then we would hear an obvious difference.

It always makes sense to question the test methods. That's okay. However, don't cheat yourself out a of a possible lesson. I've found that if all things are equal, all things are equal.

For example, someone mentioned that if I would have used fancy preamps and fancy converters instead of just plugging into the Firestudio, that the differences would be greater in Voiceover: Neumann M147 vs Karma K58. The implication is there is some extra magic hiding out in the Neumann that isn't in the Karma and our ultra-detail oriented high end preamps and converters will expose all this.

It's not a bad theory to a person who has never heard high end preamps and AD Converters. As a person who has, I've never noticed the high end gear discriminating. A converter is a converter. It doesn't detect magic and add bias. There are no “Senator's Sons” of audio gear. A converter simply converts an analog signal into a bunch of numbers. It has a benefit, but I feel a converter benefits an SM57 just as much as it benefits a Neumann.


Take Them At Face Value
While a couple of audio clips are NEVER 100% conclusive and were NEVER intended to be, they reflect that happens in the real world. Because of that they do have value as is. That value is certainly limited, but the fun in these shootouts is we get to hear the gear as it would perform in battle.


You Are Judging The SOUND!
Going back to Voiceover: Neumann M147 vs Karma K58, quite a few people were unhappy that I had mixed the music as loud as I did. I certainly had the background music hot. This was a creative decision and ultimately it's what I, “the artist”, had in mind. My creativity can be debated, but regardless, this is location of our battle. There is no reason to cry because the battle didn't take place in a convenient location.

The idea of these shootouts is to pick your favorite clip based on (and within the confines of ) the creative vision of the creator. Some people thought I was intentionally hiding the sound of the two mics just to make it difficult. I wasn't. I WAS needing a “kick ass” voiceover to go with dumb explanation of Killer Home Recording. After showing two mic options, I need to decide which tool got me closer to the goal.