Noisivitca Special - Heil PR-40

Finally got my Heil PR-40, and I'm already in love with it. What a great sounding mic! My hat's off to Bob Heil and the rest of the gang over at Heil Sound for making such a great sounding mic!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• heil
• pr-40
• pr40
• sound
• bob
• re-20
• re-27
• electrovoice
• EV

[sterwing]

That PR40 blows the MXL out of the water, around Jupiter, and into the Sun, hearing your previous podcasts. It's one of the best, and hundreds of Ham Radio operators like myself agree. If only our station had one.

73 de N0SSC

[DavidPwnsVlog]

@sterwing Thanks for the kind words! I'm currently studying for my HAM license as we speak. Maybe I'll catch you on the air one day!

73

Dave

[driftapex]

What audio interface do you use?

[DavidPwnsVlog]

@driftapex Mic goes to an Alesis MultiMix8 Firewire - but I'm not using the Firewire portion. It goes out of the mixer from analog to my sound card. Hope that helps!

[driftapex]

@DavidPwnsVlog I currently have a Behringer Xenyx 502 mixer and UCA202 USB with the Heil PR-40. I'm not impressed with my sound. All of the Twit guys, your audio, and most PR40 users have this one sound characteristic that you can hear - not sure what it's called but you probably know what I'm saying. Does the preamp play a big part in the sound?

[DavidPwnsVlog]

@driftapex What I'm betting on you hearing is compression. Compression helps get that really fat low end, and some good treble into the mic (or that's what I use it for anyways). I can't remember if I used compression on this video - I bet I did. I, however don't use a hardware compressor. Depending on what audio software you use (I use Adobe Audition), the software may come with plug-ins for compression. Watch "How I Record Noisivitca" which shows how I use Audition and its various plug-ins.

[sterwing]

I got myself one too!! It's amazing on the ham bands!

[nublackmusic]

Heil makes great mics

our artist Niva uses the heil PR-20 on all of her shows.

Everywhere she goes no one has ever heard of heil.

They are left very impressed. watch?v=Odp6_DKKlDM

[thewii552]

What headphones are you using and how do they sound?

[TheCrypticPie]

@driftapex I wish you luck. My knee-jerk reaction is to tell you to keep the PR40 (I just love the sound isolation). If you haven't taken a look at the "artofpodcasting" review of the PR40 you'll be able to hear the difference between processed and unprocessed sound from the mic (there's a download link for unprocessed audio on the review page). Go ahead and email that guy if you want to know how he gets that sound.

[driftapex]

@TheCrypticPie I own both microphones. They both have different sound signatures. The weakest parts of my audio chain may be my preamp and the audio interface. In some of my tests, the Blue Yeti sounds better. In other tests, the PR40 does the job better. It takes a lot of time to figure out which mic will work the best for you really. If I can live with the Yeti, then selling the PR40 will save a lot of money, but it's hard to tell without lots of trial and error.

[TheCrypticPie]

@driftapex As far as the other stuff in a good audio chain (amp, compressor, mixer, etc.) I haven't explored those options yet so I can't recommend products in those areas. Of course even the preamps I mentioned in my prior post should be taken with a grain of salt since I haven't tested them. I'm just going off of reviews and the occasional audio example I can find. Even then I don't have any training in audio, so that's fair ground for questioning my judgment.

[TheCrypticPie]

@driftapex If I were lazy I'd just go with one of those "XLR to USB" devices, like the Blue Icicle. Actually, I'd probably go with the Shure X2U. However, I've been eyeing the ART Tube MP USB Project Series Preamp. It seems to offer more features/quality for less money than the X2U. The M-Audio Fast Track would also work for voice over. Then there's always Behringer if I want to take a look at their options.

Lot's of options, but as of right now I like the ART.

[driftapex]

@TheCrypticPie What kind of preamp and/or audio interface would you buy then?

[TheCrypticPie]

If I were going to lay down the $700-ish for a good audio chain the mic would probably be the pr40. Other than it sounds great on pretty much everyone (check out the TWIT network to hear a lot of different voices on it) it has great rejection of unwanted noise. Also it's difficult to pop even without a filter (talk off axis). Right now I'm working on my voice using a Blue Yeti, but once I feel I have a marketable product the investment in a pr40 will be a no-brainer.

[YeahImAWizard]

I could hear your voice on the radio. Thanks for the review