Note: I'm not biased on this test. To be honest, I wanted to say “This $200 plugin replaces my entire amp collection”. I WANT to be able to make robo recordings with $2 in gear! Did it happen? I'll let you decide. I want to make it perfectly clear that this test was not a big deal. I probably should have played it tighter. I probably should have taken more time. I didn't really plan on making a shootout. Oh well, here goes.

Guitar – The guitar is an Agile Telecaster. Why Telecaster? Why not! I'm playing high gain rock stuff here. I realize a Telecaster is not the most obvious choice for this. Oh well. To make matters worse, these strings are robo old. To make matters even worse, you can hear just how poorly the intonation is out when I hit the higher chords. So what does this prove? Nothing! I'm not trying to prove anything. I was goofing around and not taking this too seriously. Maybe I should have restrung it. Maybe I'll do a better shootout with more direct guitar gadgets if people like this one.

Amp Simulator – Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2. Why only this one? Because it's the only one I have. Technically, I didn't really pursue this one anyway. It came with Komplete 3 which I purchased for the synths and samples. I normally am too busy pulling crap out of my highly raised nose to ever actually purchase a direct guitar product.

Amps – The amps in this contest were all my amps I own. Peavey 5150, Rivera Knucklehead, and my trusty '71 Marshall Superlead. I considered using my Fender Bronco also, but maybe I'll save that for the next one.

Cabinet – My trusty 1x12 former floor wedge on stage turned into Celestion G12H30 mega cabinet. I REALLY like this cabinet even though it looks like death. I don't use a grill! My Marshall JCM 800 4x12 cabinet has been collecting dust for some time now.

Mic – I used my Royer R121 with this. It's clear that if I wanted more fizz than this (for metal I definitely would) I would need to make some changes. With that said, I need to remember that my Mackie's tend to hype of electric guitars a little bit so guitars come out sounding a tad boring and a tad too smooth on computer speakers.

Preamp – I used my Trident S20 preamp. Not much to say there.

Converter - I used my Mytek AD96 converter on the mic'd signal. The direct guitars were tracked through the Hi-Z input in my Presonus Firestudio.

The Results: You'll have to head to the Member's Only forum here at RecordingReview.com for those! Guitar Rig 2 vs Real, Expensive Recording Rig

My memory of the PL-20 was that it sounded like a megaphone. I remember absolutely no low end in the mic even in the flat position. Based on the way that so many experienced audio engineers spoke of the mic, I decided that mine was broken. That was the end of it.

Well, after the forum discussion today, I decided that it was stupid of me to keep on with my prejudice. I decided that I needed to try it out again. I put the mic up side by side with my Shure SM7 (another great dynamic mic) to see the difference. IMMEDIATELY it was clear that the RE-20 / PL-20 was definitely in the same league as the Shure SM7. The SM7 was a little bit more “hifi” through my Trident S20 preamp. This may sound like a good thing to the layman, but with vocals “hifi” can be the path to disaster in the world of thin vocals and sibilance. Then again, it just might be more “hifi”.

Dynamic Mic Shootout On The Way
So, I put together a super tiny little shootout between my EV PL-20, Shure SM7, Shure SM 58, and my Sennheiser MD 421. I'll be posting it soon. I must say that it was an eye opening experience to say the least. The EV PL-20 was NOTHING like I had remembered. NOT EVEN CLOSE! In fact, I was looking for a mic that was more neutral than the Shure SM7 not long ago. I was looking for a mic that didn't quite as bitey in the upper midrange. I would have been MUCH happier using the RE-20 / PL-20 in this case. Oh well. Now I know.

The Lesson Learned
The lesson from this is not to get too set in your ways with this audio recording business. Shake things up a bit. Do things wrong. You could be missing out on some exciting tools because you were too stubborn to give them another try. Hell, I paid for the damn mic. Why haven't I been using it???