The Big U-47 Style Microphone Shootout
That legendary U-47 sound
I had the pleasure to test 4 beautiful microphones: the new Golden Age Premier GA-47, the new Warm Audio WA-47, the Neumann M-147 and last but not least, an original Neumann U47!
You can listen to 57 high-quality audio files in 24Bit/48Khz and watch 9 videos on different sources:
- Vocals, female and male, close and far
- Voice over, close and far
- Screaming, belting
- Piano, open lid
- Acoustic guitar, picking and strumming
About the signal chain:
Cardioid pattern was used on all samples, the microphone signal went straight into the amazing Bakermoon Studio’s Quad Eight Console and from there into Pro Tools without compression, EQ or any other effects. To stay true to the original sound, no bass roll off and no mic screen have been applied. By adding digital gain, I matched the volume as good as possible, but it’s sometimes tricky due to the different frequency response and compression behavior of the microphones.
Videos
Check the entire video playlist or choose a single video:
Downloads
- Download the audio files (file names contain mic names/~ 230MB)
- Download the audio files for blind-shootout (file names don’t contain mic names, results in .txt file/~ 215MB)
I hope you dig the result!
If you have any question, feel free to contact me.
PS: It took several days to make this shootout happen and to make all the audio and video files available. If it’s useful for you and if you want to support my work, feel free to donate via PAYPAL. This way I can organize more shootouts like this in the future!
Pictures by Tim Ho at Ed Bentley’s beautiful Bakermoon Studios in Berlin.
Thanks
Big thanks to Ed Bentley at Bakermoon Studios in Berlin, singer Emily Intsiful and photographer Tim Ho.
The cinematic cover version of “Human” feat. Emily Intsiful is available here.
Special thanks to Carsten at Echoschall, Chris at Justmusic Berlin, Bo Medin at Golden Age Premier and Martin and Steffen at Mega Audio!