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mooseherman « Good Price for a Solid Tube Mic! »
Published on 04/22/11 at 14:11The RODE Classic II is a large-diaphragm tube condenser mic. It's probably one of the best-priced tube mics around, considering Rode's reputation as a reasonably-priced microphone manufacturer. It's definitely a recording mic exclusively, as with the tube technology, it's way too fragile to be used on stage with a lot of noise. It has 9 different pickup patterns, including cardioid, figure-8 and omni, along with patterns in between those. It also comes with it's own power supply and a shock mount.
OVERALL OPINION
I think that this is a pretty awesome tube mic. It's got the warmth and tone that you'd expect from a tube mic. Thus I really like using it on acoustic instruments, as well as vocals. I've definitely found that it works better for things close up than it does as a distance mic, but that's only in a low-noise situation. While the sound is detailed, it's definitely better at capturing a full-bodied sound than it is at capturing ambient noise. That said, it can be noisy so make sure you have good signal flow, as well as a room that isn't too noisy.
While it doesn't have the distinct solid all around tone of the Neumann U47, or the AKG Tube, it's still a really nice tube mic. For 2,000 it's still really expensive, and wouldn't even be fully worth it unless you were working with some nice pre-amps and converters. So I would say that unless you're rocking APIs and Lynx converters at home, you could probably do the same with something a little cheaper though. If you have the gear and room, though, this could be a highly valued asset, at a much cheaper cost than the AKG or Neumann tube mics, and with better quality than MXL.
OVERALL OPINION
I think that this is a pretty awesome tube mic. It's got the warmth and tone that you'd expect from a tube mic. Thus I really like using it on acoustic instruments, as well as vocals. I've definitely found that it works better for things close up than it does as a distance mic, but that's only in a low-noise situation. While the sound is detailed, it's definitely better at capturing a full-bodied sound than it is at capturing ambient noise. That said, it can be noisy so make sure you have good signal flow, as well as a room that isn't too noisy.
While it doesn't have the distinct solid all around tone of the Neumann U47, or the AKG Tube, it's still a really nice tube mic. For 2,000 it's still really expensive, and wouldn't even be fully worth it unless you were working with some nice pre-amps and converters. So I would say that unless you're rocking APIs and Lynx converters at home, you could probably do the same with something a little cheaper though. If you have the gear and room, though, this could be a highly valued asset, at a much cheaper cost than the AKG or Neumann tube mics, and with better quality than MXL.