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mooseherman « Gotta love Tube Mics! »
Published on 10/25/10 at 14:25This is a tube condenser microphone. As such, it really should only be used on professional grade recording projects in studios. Elsewhere, it'll either be too noisy, pick up too much ambient noise, or be in too loud an environment to work well. Not to mention that it actually is super fragile. It's a large diaphragm tube mic, with it's own power supply and custom shockmount.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like the sound of this mic very much. I tend to prefer tube mics on a lot of instruments, and this one is another great example of how well they work across a variety of different uses. The last engineer I worked with used this on everything, it seemed, as a mono room mic for drums (very spacious sounding, warm ambiance). I also tried it on acoustic guitars and got a crystal clear sonic picture with a nice amount of warm feeling to it. Similarly, I liked it a lot on vocals, particularly female vocals that are softer. I found that I could run it through the tube pre-amp for an especially solid sound. It still sounds great on male vocals too, though it probably wouldn't beat some of the other mics we had at the studio.
While this isn't the best tube mic I've used, it's certainly a lot cheaper than some of those ones that I would consider the best. I often wonder whether or not the price difference is worth it. I often doubt that it is, considering that after most projects are mixed down and mastered, most of the subtleties of each track are gone. Therefore, a good sound is a good sound, and doesn't necessarily need to be an amazing sound. The sounds with this mic are never anywhere less than great, and they should work fine for you too if you decide to pick one up.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like the sound of this mic very much. I tend to prefer tube mics on a lot of instruments, and this one is another great example of how well they work across a variety of different uses. The last engineer I worked with used this on everything, it seemed, as a mono room mic for drums (very spacious sounding, warm ambiance). I also tried it on acoustic guitars and got a crystal clear sonic picture with a nice amount of warm feeling to it. Similarly, I liked it a lot on vocals, particularly female vocals that are softer. I found that I could run it through the tube pre-amp for an especially solid sound. It still sounds great on male vocals too, though it probably wouldn't beat some of the other mics we had at the studio.
While this isn't the best tube mic I've used, it's certainly a lot cheaper than some of those ones that I would consider the best. I often wonder whether or not the price difference is worth it. I often doubt that it is, considering that after most projects are mixed down and mastered, most of the subtleties of each track are gone. Therefore, a good sound is a good sound, and doesn't necessarily need to be an amazing sound. The sounds with this mic are never anywhere less than great, and they should work fine for you too if you decide to pick one up.