Guess That Mic: Four Mics, Ten Listeners and One Surprise Winner
Release Date: 08/25/2026
What Makes a Microphone Directional? Part One
The Pro Audio Suite
What actually makes a microphone directional? In Part One of this seriously nerdy microphone discussion, the team dives into interference tubes, polar patterns, room reflections and the physics behind shotgun microphones. Prompted by a tour of Neumann’s anechoic chamber, George, Robert, AP and Robbo examine whether microphones labelled hypercardioid are always what they claim to be. They explore how the Sennheiser MKH 416 achieves its familiar focused sound, why that same microphone can sound horrible in the wrong booth, and what manufacturers such as RØDE and Sennheiser have done...
info_outline
If You Could Only Keep 5 Plugins, Which Ones Survive?
The Pro Audio Suite
If somebody deleted your entire plugin folder and told you that you could only put five back, what would you choose? That’s the challenge this week on The Pro Audio Suite. Robbo, George and AP start stripping their setups back to the tools they genuinely rely on, from stock Pro Tools and Apple plugins through to Waves F6, H Reverb, SSL X Limit, TDR Nova, iZotope RX Mouth De Click and plenty more. But the conversation quickly gets bigger than simply naming favourites. Do stock plugins make more sense when you need old sessions to open years later? Do you really need a dedicated loudness...
info_outline
Guess That Mic: Four Mics, Ten Listeners and One Surprise Winner
The Pro Audio Suite
AP records the same voice through four very different microphones and sends the files around without revealing what they are. George, Robert, Robbo and a bunch of trusted audio ears rank them purely on what they hear. Then the mics are revealed. The result is a pretty good reminder that price, reputation and specifications only tell you so much. What matters is how a microphone actually sounds on the voice and for the job you need it to do. And just to make the point beautifully, Robbo put the overall winner dead last. LIBSYN FULL DESCRIPTION It’s time to Guess That Mic. AP started out...
info_outline
Best Voice Over Mic for Women? It’s Not That Simple
The Pro Audio Suite
Is there actually such a thing as the best voice-over microphone for women? It sounds like a simple question, but once the Pro Audio Suite starts pulling it apart, things get much more interesting. This week, George, Robert, and AP look at why choosing a microphone based on whether the talent is male or female probably misses the point entirely. What matters far more is what the voice is actually doing. Is it bright or dark? Sibilant? Mid forward? Deep and chesty? Does it have a lot of mouth noise? And does the microphone complement those characteristics, or simply exaggerate them? The crew...
info_outline
Can You Build a Proper VO Setup in a Tiny Room?
The Pro Audio Suite
How do you build a voiceover audition setup when the room is tiny, space is precious, and you really don't want to pull the whole thing apart every time you're finished? AP's daughter has moved into a share house in Melbourne and needs something permanent enough to give her consistent audition audio without taking over the room. The gear is already pretty capable: a RØDE NTG3, CEntrance MicPort Pro, Porta Booth, TwistedWave, Source Connect and a trusty old pair of AKGs. The question is how to put it all together so it actually works. That gets the guys talking about mic placement, portable...
info_outline
In Ears for Voiceover: Brilliant Isolation or Total Overkill?
The Pro Audio Suite
Do voice actors really need in ear monitors? They offer excellent isolation and can sound fantastic, but they can also feel uncomfortable, create an unnatural sense of pressure, and make it harder to hear your own voice unless your direct monitoring is set up properly. In this episode, George, Robert, Robbo and AP look at when headphone isolation genuinely matters, including WALA sessions, radio interviews, music driven reads, remote recording, pickups and situations where headphone bleed can end up permanently embedded in the recording. They also consider the complete opposite approach....
info_outline
Mic Splitters, Patchbays and the Search for Clean Gain
The Pro Audio Suite
What is the cleanest way to connect several microphones, preamps and audio interfaces without constantly crawling behind the rack? AP starts with what sounds like a simple question about expanding the line-level inputs on his Audient iD44. That sends the team down a glorious rabbit hole involving passive switchers, mic splitters, USB converters, matrix routers, the Heritage Audio Synth Buddy, ESI interfaces, Broadcast Tools, Source-Nexus and the Passport VO. Eventually, one decidedly old-school solution keeps winning the argument: the humble patchbay. The team discusses quarter-inch, Bantam...
info_outline
Do Voice Actors Really Need a Neumann U87?
The Pro Audio Suite
The Neumann U87 may be one of the most recognisable microphones in the world, but does that make it the right microphone for voiceover and animation? This week, the team digs into the reputation, sound and real world value of the U87. Andrew is considering one for Somerset’s animation work, which sparks a much bigger discussion about why certain microphones become industry standards and whether producers genuinely require them. We compare the U87 with alternatives including the Neumann TLM 103, TLM 193, U89, Sennheiser MKH 416, Microtech Gefell models and the Austrian Audio OC818. The...
info_outline
AI Fixed the Audio, But Should We Tell People?
The Pro Audio Suite
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into the weirdly perfect world of AI fixing AI. Robert shares a corporate video job about AI adoption that was, rather beautifully, rescued by AI audio cleanup. Robbo jumps in with his own tale of a big corporate shoot where the lapel mics were fitted, but somehow the camera mic was what got recorded. Enter Source Elements ReGen. The team talks through where tools like ReGen sit in the real world of audio post. Not as a first choice, not as a magic button, but as a serious get out of jail option when the recording is so far gone that traditional...
info_outline
SSL One First Look: Tiny Interface, Real Knobs
The Pro Audio Suite
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, George brings out a little show and tell with the SSL One, SSL’s compact single mic preamp interface aimed squarely at the same world as the Scarlett Solo and other simple home studio boxes. The team gets into what actually matters for voice actors and home studio users, including physical gain knobs, direct monitoring, high pass filters, 4K mode, USB-C connections, headphone control, auto gain, clip protection, and why simple interfaces are sometimes the best interfaces. There is also a little live testing with Twisted Wave, a quick look at Source Elements...
info_outlineAP records the same voice through four very different microphones and sends the files around without revealing what they are. George, Robert, Robbo and a bunch of trusted audio ears rank them purely on what they hear.
Then the mics are revealed.
The result is a pretty good reminder that price, reputation and specifications only tell you so much. What matters is how a microphone actually sounds on the voice and for the job you need it to do.
And just to make the point beautifully, Robbo put the overall winner dead last.
LIBSYN FULL DESCRIPTION
It’s time to Guess That Mic.
AP started out making a sample of one microphone for someone. As tends to happen around here, that simple job turned into four microphones, multiple preamps, a pile of audio files and a blind listening test involving ten people.
The idea was simple.
Listen to four mystery microphones on AP’s voice. Don’t worry about the badge, the price or what you think you’re supposed to like. Just rank them.
The result?
Almost nobody agreed.
George liked 3, 4, 2, 1.
Robert went 4, 3, 2, 1.
Robbo went 2, 1, 4, 3.
And the more people AP asked, the more interesting the results became.
Once all ten votes were scored, the final result was:
1st, Mic 3, 27 points
Equal 2nd, Mic 2, 25 points
Equal 2nd, Mic 4, 25 points
4th, Mic 1, 23 points
So what were they?
THE BIG REVEAL
Mic 1
Microtech Gefell M 92.1 S tube condenser with M7 capsule
Recorded through a Grace m101
Mic 2
Microtech Gefell M 930 art
Mic 3
Austrian Audio OC818
Mic 4
AKG C414 EB with nylon CK12 capsule
Mics 2, 3 and 4 were recorded through a Neve 1073.
No processing or high pass filtering was deliberately added to the comparison.
And yes, the Austrian Audio OC818 won the overall vote.
Robbo ranked it last.
Which rather neatly sums up the entire episode.
This was never intended to be a scientific microphone test. It was about something arguably more useful, what happens when people actually listen without knowing the name or price printed on the microphone.
A mic one person describes as smooth and full, someone else hears as dark. One person hears useful presence, someone else hears too much top end. One listener’s first choice becomes another listener’s fourth.
HOW EVERYONE VOTED
George Whittam: 3, 4, 2, 1
Robert Marshall: 4, 3, 2, 1
Robbo: 2, 1, 4, 3
Chris Gates: 2, 3, 4, 1
Simon Murphy: 1, 2, 4, 3
AJ: 4, 3, 2, 1
Matt McKenzie Smith: 3, 4, 2, 1
Paul Baxter: 3, 1, 2, 4
Matty from Sonic Playground: 1, 2, 3, 4
Mike Aiton: 1, 4, 3, 2
MORE COMMENTS FROM THE SHOOTOUT
Mike Aiton
Mic 1: Sounds really good. Not over hyped anywhere with a good natural midrange. Mike guessed it might be a 416 and picked it as his favourite “by a country mile”.
Mic 2: Sibilant around 7.5 kHz, less lower mids and consequently less full sounding. Definitely not Mike’s cup of tea.
Mic 3: Subdued top end with a very full bottom end. Mike wondered whether it might be a ribbon.
Mic 4: Mike thought this sounded like a TLM 103, noting the bass lift and saying he would probably reduce some of that for AP’s voice.
Matt McKenzie Smith
Mic 1: Matt heard harmonic resonances around 470 Hz and 980 Hz, plus some additional energy around 2.5 kHz.
Mic 2: “Sounds lovely”, with a little more prominence around the 4 to 5 kHz area.
Mic 3: Hotter in the low end and sounding great, although Matt noticed a prominent phase offset.
Mic 4: Similar phase offset, along with great low end extension.
Matt’s final ranking was:
3, 4, 2, 1
And perhaps that is the real conclusion of the whole exercise.
There isn’t a microphone that everybody is going to prefer.
The expensive one isn’t automatically better. The one with the flattering frequency response on paper isn’t automatically better. And a microphone that sounds gorgeous solo might not necessarily be the one you’d choose when that voice has to fight its way through a commercial mix.
Pick the microphone that works for your voice and your job.
What a bloody novel concept.
Thanks to Tri Booth and Austrian Audio.
Recorded using Source Connect.
Edited by Andrew Peters.
Mixed by Robbo.
Tech wisdom from George the Tech Whittam.
Got your own audio issues? Visit justaskrobbo.com
Don’t forget to subscribe to the show and join the conversation on our Facebook group.
Leave a comment, suggest a topic or simply say g’day at theproaudiosuite.com.