Behringer vs. Samson mic on acoustic guitar

[radkins91]

Ok.....I hope I did everything right.

I was playing my surf-green Fender Sonoran, with Elixir lights, standard tuning.

I'm poor so I have to bargain hunt for the best gear I can find. I'm only 18, so please don't make fun of my gear or how bad it sounds, I worked with what I had. Hopefully this can prove that you don't need to spend any more than $100 dollars for a condenser mic. I didn't even spend 100 bux for either

The mics used were:

Behringer B-5 Condenser mic - $30 off ebay brand new in box ($90 mic)
Samson C01 Condenser mic - free, someone gave it to me ($90 mic)


I played the same thing for each take, but I placed each mic in 3 different locations.

The positions I tried them at were 4'' from the sound hole, 4'' from the 20th fret, and 7'' from the 20th fret.

I recorded straight from the guitar> mic> mbox2> pro tools

I didnt EQ, compress, reverb or anything, I just turned the levels up. So they could sound even better, not that they're that good anyway.

[gehauser]

I preferred the B-5 over the Samson in all clips, by far. It gave the most natural sounding tone for the guitar used - I could actually hear the wood in the guitar and the high end was tamed. The Samson was simply too bright for my ears, in all positions.

I preferred position 2 in all clips, and I was surprised to find that this was the one in front of the sound hole. But it sounded good on this guitar. On my big boomy dreadnaught Martins, that is not a good position for a mic as it is way to boomy there, but it sounded best to me on this guitar - I heard no boominess there. This guitar records pretty well. The next best position, in close second, was position 3 (4" from 20th fret), which makes sense to me - I like that spot on all my guitars.

The recordings are very clear and serve the intended purpose of mic and position comparisons. Good job.

[radkins91]

Originally Posted by gehauser

I preferred the B-5 over the Samson in all clips, by far. It gave the most natural sounding tone for the guitar used - I could actually hear the wood in the guitar and the high end was tamed. The Samson was simply too bright for my ears, in all positions.

I preferred position 2 in all clips, and I was surprised to find that this was the one in front of the sound hole. But it sounded good on this guitar. On my big boomy dreadnaught Martins, that is not a good position for a mic as it is way to boomy there, but it sounded best to me on this guitar - I heard no boominess there. This guitar records pretty well. The next best position, in close second, was position 3 (4" from 20th fret), which makes sense to me - I like that spot on all my guitars.

The recordings are very clear and serve the intended purpose of mic and position comparisons. Good job.

yeah i was very happy with the b-5.ive had for only a week and this was my first time to use it. the samson does good with vocals tho

[brandondrury]

I preferred the B-5 over the Samson in all clips, by far.

Same here! Much more body. Much more tone.

Brandon

[kingtrae]

Definately B, A much fuller tone more to work with
--A seemed to be very harsh in the 1-4k range, B was better but still a little harsh but the low frequencies kind of masked that a little more

[tony93666]

I also preferred the tone of the Behringer mic.

good comparison!