SYDNEY Turtlerock - Next one early December

[mics]

I will be there with Veronica and 3 children. They are going to the park to play while we play. If any other significant others want to catch up with Veronica in the park just give me a call. 0419481569

[tunetown]

Thanks again Jim and Rick. I had a really enjoyable afternoon. It was great to meet some of the Trockers in person. Congrats to Ben on winning the day.

I look forward to doing it all again soon.

Cheers

[walding]

Thanks again Jim and Rick. I had a really enjoyable afternoon. It was great to meet some of the Trockers in person. Congrats to Ben on winning the day.

I look forward to doing it all again soon.

Cheers

I couldn't make it up from Melbourne but I'm glad Ben won the shootout, can't wait to hear all about it....

Cue rick.........

[Alistair]

Wow, great result! I'm sure that just means all the mic's sounded fantastic. Keen to hear the details as they come in....

[heathen]

Wow, details please. Congrats Ben, what was the weapon of choice?

[The Tasmanian]

C'mon - who is the budding journalist amongst you guys that can do a good review ?
spill the beans for those who could not be there
Really glad the Aussie's won!
Congrats Ben - you were up against some big competition.

[Chris H]

Congrats to Ben. That means his mic is a great mic.

I am not that surprised by the result and thought it likely if the Beez Neez was right up there, given Ricks judging criteria of a mic that does not need getting used to. In the many comments i have read from users of the CS1 it has been frequently stated that it is a mic that does take some getting used to.

[rick]

Well the only things that are undisputable about today
is I had absolutely no idea which mic was which when I called out the winner
and a good time was had by all

[mics]

It was great to meet all of you. I appreciate everyone's company and the barbie was great.

cheers

[DaleRoyce]

Thanks to all for today.
After two childrens birthday partys, and one end of year tap dance recital.. It was a very nice and relaxed change of pace meeting you all
this arvo, and putting some faces to names.
I cant comment on the shootout (my wife thought we were discussing a drive by..) But as ya'll may or may not be aware,
my daughter ChunDi built the best bird nest of the arvo..(after having had a great Ol time with Ben's Daughters).
Thanks Rick, i look forward to the next one.
Jim your a Gent.

[Ben M]

Wow! Nice outcome. Well done Ben.

[The Tasmanian]

What mics ended up in the shootout ?

[tunetown]

What mics ended up in the shootout ?

Just the Phelicity and the CS-1.

They were very different sounding mics. I didn't hear the sound files or listen through Ricks Headphones. Basically we placed both Mics next to each other in Cardiod only. Ben and Angus sang then Blair played guitar.

Rick flicked between the two during performances and had his results in a matter of minutes. We then cooked sausages.

Cheers

[The Tasmanian]

I thought you were going to put up the Elux 251
Peter - did it make you want a Phelicity with your great mic collection?

[The Tasmanian]

Angus - that would be great if you can upload it
They are very different mic's - the whole proximity thing as well - that's why a 3rd or 4th mic would have been good for analysis and comparison like the Elux251 and maybe a M49.

[tunetown]

I thought you were going to put up the Elux 251
Peter - did it make you want a Phelicity with your great mic collection?

I brought the Elux but it never got demoed. Rick did pull it apart though.

I'm not in the market for any more mics at the moment. Once the CS-4 turns up I'm done. At least for a while anyway.

For what it's worth, I am still extremely happy with the CS-1's. Yes, there is a learning curve. Placement is different. If it were my test, I would have engaged the rear of the capsule to tame the bottom end. 1 or 2 clicks from cardiod. I would have also moved it further back from the guitar and tweaked the pre to suit. The test was what it was. 2 Mics placed side by side capturing the same performances. We weren't chasing each mics sweet spot. As Rick said " it was a meat and potatoes test". Blind listening and Bens won. There's no doubt Ben makes nice mics. Bloody heavy too.

For those waiting on CS-1's, rest assured, you will not be dissappointed.

Cheers

[blackfoot]

Thanks to all who attended for being so well behaved. Thanks to Ben & Peter for the gifts of stability & instability ( shockmounts & red wine). Excellent! Thanks to Rick for bringing the pres & guitar. I've noticed with Rick that alot of his gear comes with a little story, something like " They only made this model for 2 years & I got the best one". That's very annoying but not as annoying as the fact that he's absolutely right. I played his guitar when he wasn't looking & it was an OMG moment. This shoot out was more like an ambush. It was like " Quick here's the instrument, which of these 2 mics would you choose?" This situation is very common in the real world. You often don't have time for much evaluation & have to make first impression decisions. Rick took very little time in making his decision. He admitted that a couple times neither of the mics were what he would reach for first. It comes back to "There is no Lord of the Mics, 1 Mic to rule them all". Ben cheated somewhat hiding behind a fortress of pelican cases & guarded by 3 disarmingly cute children. Due to a mix that was running overtime we were unable to test more than the Lucas & the Phelicity. Just to make the test difficult I tried to feed the mic's output into the line input of the Neve pres. My efforts went unappreciated. After properly running into the mic inputs we lined up the mic's using pink noise fed to a speaker in the studio. Angus did his best impression of the human speaker stand whilst I tried to alter his perception with pink noise. Ben suggested I give him a 1 k tone blast but I think he was just being mean rather than scientific. Angus, sadly, remains unaltered. The 2 mic's outputs were balanced up with the Phelicity being 2-3 db quieter. At these settings we conducted the test with Rick listening on his headphone & amp setup. I had the main monitors (Tannoy Arden) turned down so as not to interfere with Ricks critique. Even at low monitor levels it was pretty apparent that these mic's were two completely different animals. The mic's reach & proximity factors were different. The Lucus to my ears sounded like it wanted more distance to capture the image. It sounded delicate & I didn't feel like it could soak up close heavy transients. It came away from plosives a little bit shell shocked & took a little bit of time to recover. The Phelicity on the other hand sounded like it reveled in that area and soaked up the abuse but didn't have quite the same dexterity in the top end. Rick made his comments and Ben was allowed to give a short pitch on his building & component technique. Sadly I heard the words mega ohm & nano weber & glazed over into a techno apenia. My apologies. I awoke to find that Rick had scampered off to the BBQ & Ben had packed all his mics and didn't forget any of them. Dammitt. I will say this, I don't own any of Ben's products or any of the Lucus products but if I had any of the mic's I saw tested I would find good use for them on any given session. They wouldn't sit in a drawer that's for sure. Trock on to infinity

[tunetown]

Well said Jim.

Cheers

[waitup]

T'was nice to meet you all and put some faces to screen-names! Cheers!

[peat]

Thanks heaps to Rick and Nick for putting this on.

Thanks alot to Jim for letting a bunch of strangers into his beautiful studio.

And thanks to everyone that came along, had a great day, was lots of fun and great to meet you all!