I own the AMT LS too. Tested quite a lot in the process. But for me it clearly produced the most "natural" sound. I did a few recordings, an my wife immediately said "on this recording it sound like you play live in the room" . And it was the recording with the AMT :)
I have the Shure Beta98 and i don't recommend it, at least not in the wired version. It sounds absolutely gorgeous, but the wire is so frigile it breaks constantly.
They all sound great, but the most expensive one makes me want to bake cookies to sax music. I don't usually bake cookies, so that is a huge compliment to the quality of the sound. Your top two picks were my top two picks as well.
I have been playing with the AKG mic for about 8 years and I found it was the best sounding, which really makes me feel good as now I don't have to upgrade to the last most expensive mic you demonstrated. LOL
I play 8 or 9 gigs a month in a working commercial band. All of our horns are wireless. One sax player has AMT LS, other sax player has DPA 4099, trumpet player has Shure Beta 98, trombone player has AMT 808. All sound great. AMT & DPA both outperform the Shure, for natural horn sounds. Prefer the DPA STC4099 bell-mounting system. Shure padded plastic clip is middle-of-the-road good. AMT machined aluminum clip is rock solid, but it’s slowest to switch between horns and it has creased a horn’s bell when it lost one of its rubber pads. AMT does have the advantage of its wireless transmitter mounting to the bell clip, together with the mic. Will experiment later this week with trying to use a DPA STC4099 clip with an AMT mic. You really do get what you pay for…
I've had the AMT Technologies wireless mic setup for many years. Love it for feedback rejection, quality of sound and reproducing my true sax sound, 900Mhz which works well with no problems, high SPL and very durable.
I use cloud vocals wireless but I do feel the sound is compressed. The nice thing is the mounting system which I can utilize when I change to flute or soprano sax. I play tenor, alto, soprano, baritone and flute on most every gig. The eas of moving the microphone from one instrument to another is a great plus. The mixer allows me to adjust for each instrument as well. I would not use it for recording purposes because it is a bit compressed.
People are dissing it but I have had many horn mics including a couple$1300 ones in the last 35 yrs the WM 98 works great if you know how to use it For straight ahead jazz an RE20 or SM 57 is fine
AKG sounded best here, I think wireless adds a huge and unnecessary cost to a sax mic setup, all good stage set ups will have adequate space for cabling to the sax (including safety aspects of keeping cables safe) and as you say, a clip on so much better than dealing with inconsistency due to movements on a fixed mic (i.e. SM58/7). There are exceptions for wireless, where it is useful, but these are so rare, I'd save money and just get a clip on. A good sound engineer (the often all too underrated importance in any band) can work magic with any mic setup.
For me I could never work with a wired mic. I’m a party sax player and move around in the audience and on stage a lot. So would be very impractical and don’t give the same experience to the audience compared to a wireless setup. So really liked this video.
nice review! but it's very common for radio (wireless) systems to compress the sound somewhat, so would be more equitable to compare all in a wireless mode for an apples to apple comparison.
Any chance you might shoot out the AMT LS against the Neumann MCM 114? Also be helpful to keep apples to apples, meaning either all wired or all wireless! Thanks!!
For my ears is the AKG wireless mic sounds the best the highs or clear and the lows are the same just like to know the price thanks have a sound full day be blessed U.S.A.
The DPA if you can afford it. Actually the engineer dude at Sweetwater told me that the DPA is the one to buy and IMO it sounds best here, followed by the AMT and AKG.
Great Comparison! be careful that the Akg clip has a significative higher volume compared with the other. This might make you perceive it way more full than it actually is (but it is a really nice microphone for the price and compared to the others). My advice is to always level match this clips as much as possible whenever in order to do a proper comparison in sound :)
I concur with your assessment of the four microphones. I have to say I’ve never been a fan of the DPA, because of how finicky it is, in both sound and practicality. I know a good overall sound can be EQ-Ed, ONLY if you’ve got a good sound engineer who understands the sound scape of the saxophone. In most situation, it’s not always the case. And I can’t deal with the flimsy clip. Forget about using it on the soprano. Would love to hear the comparison of these mics with the other two strong contenders, the Shure Beta 98H and the new Audio Technical ATM 350U. Thanks for the comparison!
Never had a problem with the DPA. The clip is pretty well designed and doesn't actually clamp the bell( (rather kinds of grips it) but It's never fallen off when I've been using it. It's also possible to get a thicker cable for it.
Thanks for the video. I am in the market for a clip on microphone for my saxophones since the only microphones I have for recording are shotgun mics and are too directional and way too sensitave for recording saxophones. I liked the LS the most but AKG sounded quite good also.
As a trumpet player I would be very interested if you had a friend who could test however solo wireless feels clipped to the end of a trumpet for a three hour wedding gig.
Thanks for this review. Brilliant! Currently in the process of getting a new clip-on. A couple of things. Why do you say the AMT is the most expensive? I see the AMT LS at half price compared to the DPA 4099. What models exactly are you comparing? Anything to be aware of? Also, you focus on sound only, but it would be so great if you could compare compatibility with wireless systems. Alas, it's impossible to find a store with all of them available (some are not even commercialised in Australia). I use a Sennheiser ew-d system (3.5mm jack) and my understanding is that it can get very fiddly with adapters etc. Very difficult to find comparisons, let alone unbiased. Thanks.
a) It would have been nice to have heard your regular studio mic as a baseline comparison too. b) Have AKG come up with a solution for the interference problem between their own digital wireless system and the 519? If the transmitter is too close to the mic (e.g. you mount the tx on the sax bell, rather than having it on your belt) you get a hum through the mic. There wasn't a problem between their previous generation mic and the digital wireless, or between the 519 and their analogue wireless. It was very disappointing they released it like this - their idea of a fix was to put a warning in the manual to keep them apart! - but I haven't tried their very latest digital wireless models. Or does the 519 play nice with anyone else's digital wireless?
DPA4099 sounds the best overall to me but I would love to hear it in an actual live performance setting. Also, was there any eq adjustments to any of the mics?
Akg cuts the sound a lot, you have 2/3 of your sound, I recently sold Akg and it's great. Yes, it's interesting to listen to shure 98, it may not be a bad solution.
Oh yeah, I had one in the mid-late 70's, with a Vox pickup, Octavoice, CryBaby Wah, MuTron3 envelope follower, and an Echoplex. The BB transducer gave a very hard attack, so I blended it with the Vox. The MuTron3 was for getting the sound of Sanborn on 'Butterfat', and I was heavily into John Klemmer and his use of the Echoplex on 'Waterfalls'. Good Times.
Hi, I use AKG C519, and love it, and i have a Shure 98 beta, tell me what you think aboute shure clamp mics, or Sennheiser clamps sax mics. because i use wireless akg , but now i made swith to shure or sennheiser wireless mode, and if the brands dont habe special adapters, we cant use another mics. thank you. BS
Currently we don't stock Shure mics but I am looking into changing this. I have been given Shure mics on gigs in the past, but can't honestly say how they compare at this point.
Easy breezy. You just squeeze the clip to release it and move it to your other horn! It also has the capability to lock it more solidly if you like with a few turns of a screw, but you don’t have to and it’s still quite secure if you don’t…
Thanks for the video I'm in the market for a sax mic and was seriously considering the icloud but the sound was way too compressed. Akg seems like the best option for me but I wonder if the sound quality will beat my existing SM57 that I currently record with? Or are you paying all the extra just for the mobility?
I can't say how much better (if at all) the AKG would be over the SM57 but I'd assume it should be to a degree. However, I should say that none of these mics are really designed for Studio recording - they are geared for live use. Although you can still record with them if you don't have a studio mic.
Awesome review! Love the tshirt! Can you do the same comparison of these mics when used with effect pedals? Curious how the Shure 98h would compare to these mics when going through guitar effects.
