Review of the Sennheiser MD421-II
A Rather Strange Day in TweakLand
by Tweak
Appearances are deceiving
sometimes. Tweak presses a button on Tweakland's Magic
Console and a glass display case of microphones rises out of the floor.
Tweak says, "think of the microphone as a marriage". Yes. As
something you want to spend the rest of your life with. "Choose
carefully". Newb thinks back to high school and his failed attempts to
ensconce (i.e., attract) the Class Hottie, also known as Ms Purrfect.
"If I only had a decent mic when I sent her that demo..."
Wake up. You are handed a rather long cardboard box
marked Sennheiser. You open it and the black plastic case slides out.
"Mmm. Plastic?" Already a shade of disappointment. Oh well. You
spin it around. Not only a plastic case, but plastic hinges on the
plastic case, the kind that might break off rather easily. Noob starts to
grumble.
Newb carefully opens the case hoping not to
break the hinge and be forced to buy it. There it is, the 421 lying there,
completely jet black (not silver, like it looked in the ad) and ugh, its
body is all plastic and lightweight at that. If you were the
type of person that relied only on appearances you'd smile at the MD421 and
say "maybe we can be penpals". Marriage? to that! C'mon
now.
Tweak intervenes: "Just check it out
dude, here, lets do a little song". In the space of 0:00:43 in
SMPTE time Tweak has it rigged to his new RNP preamp, has Logic in record
ready mode and sticks the MD, oh, OK, lets just call it the Mad Dog, in Newb's
face.
"Go ahead, dude, shout at it! Tell it how
you really feel!" (Tweak quickly pops in his always ready
ear-plugs and nods, while he starts up Logic. Suddenly newb screams
out years of pent up aggressions over not getting a date with missus so
and so, we'll call her Ms. Perfect, in high school.
|
Lyric Sheet
"Why I didn't Marry Ms Purrfect"
by Noobly S. Noob
Verse:
How
could you do this to ME you BEEEAAATTTCCCHHH.
You
said you wouldn't go out wid ME you WIIIIITTTTCCCHHH
I
DON'T think my hands will every stop this TWWWIIITTTCCHHH!
Chorus:
you
wouldn't go out wid ME
you
wouldn't go out wid ME AGAIN
How
could you do this to ME
How
could you do this to ME AGAIN
|
Tweak presses stop. "Now didn't that feel
good?" Looks like we got an Emo tune. Now lets bash the heck out
of it.
Tweak pushes a button an a lone beat up
floor tom rises out of the floor on cue. "OK, I'll hold the Mic and
you give the tom a good 'ol whacking. Noob starts the drum solo to
ina-godda-davida, but with such unrestrained passion it quickly denigrates
into ape-like thrashing till he is out of breath. "ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, track 2 is done". Now
slap this on. Tweak hands noob an out-of-tune single coil electric
guitar and plugs it into his V-Amp and out the V-amp into a monster Marshall
stack. MD421 is bone to the cone, let it rip O Noble Noobly One! The out-of- tune,
position one C chord is enough to make our teeth fillings drop out
like hail in a hailstorm.
"Alright, now we need some feedback!"
shouts noob and he lunges at the bass cone of Tweak's HR 824 with the MD421,
expecting the monstrous roar of the Mackie's feedback to suck the air out of
the room. But nothing happens. "Heh-heh" says Tweak, "you got to get
really close for that!" This is a dynamic, not a condenser.
"Dynamite? Condensed? I want dynamite!" shouts the
sweaty noob, who is now temporarily half deaf from his audio carnage.
"No, no, no", Tweak whispers "shh, now go back and read the Mic page in the
guide". See, with a dynamic mic in
the cardioid pattern, like the MD421, you have to get pretty close to the
source. It doesn't pick up the whole room, just what you point it at,
and it drops off fast as you move away. That's why drummers like the
MD421, because they can not only take a loud thwack but they reject sounds
from the nearby drums. Better isolation. Dig?
 This Sennheiser microphone is a low-impedance (200
ohms) balanced output unit terminating in a standard 3-pin XLR-type
connector. It features rugged professional construction and a
5-position bass roll-off switch.
Sennheiser
MD421II Dynamic Cardioid Microphone |
Now lets go back and listen to the vocal we
just did. Hear how nice those screams came out, with that sheen on
top? And check out the 5 position bass roll off. This
lets you tailor the mic to your voice. You can dial in the amount of
bass you want to pass. Guys doing voiceover and radio work like that
feature cause they can control how their voice fits in the mix at the
source.
"Hey I didn't know my voice sounded that
good, Tweak! Its got some kind of cool crispness"
"Well actually, Mr. Noob, you don't sound
that good in real life, sorry to say. Your voice is rather
un-interesting by itself, but don't worry, most of our voices are rather
drab. See, the MD421 has almost a full 10db rise in presence from
around 1.1 kHz to 10 kHz. That is going to enhance the crispness
of you voice. And when you dial out the bass with the rolloff you can
get real close to the mic to the point where your lips are kissing the
Sennheiser logo in front of the mic. I'll let you kiss it but you'll
have to promise to marry it first. Whaddya say o Noob?"
"Well it sure would make an ugly mate" newb
brightens, 'but I'll bet my buds at the studio won't always be trying to bag
it and it will never leave me" And I could never scream at Ms. Purrfect like that.
Note the
frequency readout of the MD421
OK, Really Now
Lets get serious. You can with this
mic. My first test run with the mic left me quite pleased. I
tried nylon acoustic guitar and really liked the tone on chords and solo.
Lots of hi frequencies came through cleanly. No surprise, this dynamic
is rated to go as high as 17kHz (compared to 16 kHz on the immortal SM57).
While specs don't mean a whole lot, in this case, the ear verifies it.
For vocals I found the mic a strong performer. I liked adding a little
compression while recording. It made the mic seem to "grab" notes out
of the air like a magnet, even if i was 16" away. The directionality
seemed tight.
I deliberately ran the TV in the living
room, turned on an air filter in the room, recorded 2 feet away from the
aquarium-like hum of my G5, and even with the monitors on at a low level to
see how much bleed there would be on tracks. When I recorded with
compression, there was some. But without the compressor on very little
environmental noise ended up in the recording.
It did well with an ensemble of hand drums.
I probably will continue to use condenser mics on the delicate stuff like
chimes and bells. But I was pleased with the way the MD421 handled the
dynamic drums that can get loud and soft.
Summing it all
Ok, I had a little fun with this review but
i hope it brought forth the goods, albeit in a strange way. The MD421
is a strong mic able to take a lot of punishment. Things you would
never do with a condenser are fair game here. For my studio, I will
call it "The Mad Dog" for these characteristics. Only had it
a few days and
we are still on the honeymoon, but i think this marriage will work better
than my previous ones.
A year later...
The MD421 is now one of my favorites.
I have found it useful on many things. When i am using my multitrack
recorder in the living room to sketch out ideas, its the only Mic I take
with me. It can do my acoustic guitars, amps, anything i bash
resembling a drum, and of course my voice. Would I buy one
again? You bet. Its a classic mic. Think Long-Term
with mics and only get the classics--that is a strategy that can't lose.
Rich The Tweak
Revised slightly, June 2007
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