Making two different mics "sound" identical

This feels like something obvious, but I can’t figure out what to search for!

I recently picked up a lav mic so that I can record some short videos without my current mic dominating the screen. Of course, the lav mic sounds very different from my regular mic, and I’d like to get the lav mic to sound “better”.

I guess what I’m looking for is how to generate an equalization profile get the final output of the lav mic as close to my regular mic as possible. I can use both mics to record simultaneously, so some test clips themselves would be identical. But that’s where my limited audio knowledge comes to a screeching halt, sadly. It seems like it should be straight-forward to create some kind of difference EQ to apply to the lav mic track, but I can’t seem to figure out how to do this.

Is there a tool for this? Am I even thinking about this in the right way? I’m aware that there’s only so much you can do between drastically different mics, but I’d like to give it a try! :slight_smile:

[Audacity 3.2.2]

There is a (free) plugin for Audacity called SpectrumToEqCurve.ny which can be used to make EQs match.
Now the bad news: it is not compatible with the latest version of Audacity, (you’d have to use an old version of Audacity to take advantage of it), and it’s not simple to use.

There are store-bought “EQ matching” plugins which may work in the latest version of Audacity.
(so try before you buy).
IIRC the paid-for “Gentleman’s Edition” of TDR Nova has “spectral matching

Don’t get all excited about this. You might get ball-parky with your new mic, but nobody is going to mistake one for the other. It’s not just equalization. There are dynamic considerations as well. Some microphones follow the air currents better than others and they all pick up influences from the environment and the case around the actual element inside. Phase and timing changes, not just volume versus pitch.

You can have ordinary range issues. Some microphones just don’t pick up some musical tones, full stop, and if you try to force it, you’ll just get noises (ffffffff). You may get that anyway. The tones may match, but it will be noisier.

I was going to say if you could easily do this trick, people would only buy one microphone, but there is some of that happening now. If you pop open some common, fancy-pants home microphones, you find the same element(s) inside.


It’s almost guaranteed that’s what’s inside your lavalier. It’s tiny and works well. This one was $4.99, retail.

Post back how it goes. Also, you didn’t tell what your theatrical microphone was.

without my current mic dominating the screen.

That’s a hint. You bought a Blue Yeti, right?


Nothing wrong with a Yeti except I’ll bet a lot of chocolate that enormous case has a handful of those little elements inside.

Say how it goes. I posted before that there’s an outside broadcast show here that’s using a simple lavaliere microphone and his voice work is far better than it’s supposed to be.

Koz

it is MOSTLYy about frequency response/EQ.

Antares makes [u]makes microphone modeling plug-in[/u] to make one mic emulate another. But the catch is, the mic you are modeling and the mic you actually have BOTH have to be on their “list”. And it’s not free and Antares doesn’t officially support Audacity so it might not work. :frowning:

It’s an Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ (which, wow, was a lot more expensive early 2018), and I’d rather not take it apart, plus it’s in daily use :slight_smile:

I know the mics won’t sound the same, I’d just like to get close enough that I’m recognizable, with a reasonable sound. It’s not like I’m going to get a deep proximity effect out of a tiny omnidirectional mic, anyway.I could just play with the settings all afternoon, but that sounds like a quiet hell.

Wow, yeah, that’s expensive! Looks pretty cool, though!

The demo version of “TDR Nova GE” plugin is free … https://youtu.be/GNqfyAa1jxk?t=364
From it you could learn the “corrective EQ” necessary, and apply an approximate version manually in Audacity.

Hey, that’s really cool! I poked at Nova a while back, I think I’ll just pick up the GE plugin and feed my various little mics I’ve been trying to experiment with into the Smart stuff, and see what it can do to help me. It’s on sale anyway, so worth a try!

You can try before you buy: “Demo Edition”.
[ I can’t remember what the demo’s limitations are though ].