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Kick A!! Video; great explanation… question, I have a Tf51 mic rated 300 ohms with a BAE 1028 pre 300 - 1200 ohms ; which should I buy a cloud Z or AEA mic pre ?… I would highly appreciate your expertise
At 300ohms on the mic the BAE pre in 1200 mode will work fine with it and probably sound amazing. The cloud z wont pass along phantom power to that mic, which it needs. The AEA pre really excels with dynamic and ribbon mics but does still sound good on condensers. Honestly though… i think youre golden w the BAE.
@@meistudiony The mic is a telefunken tf51; it’s a tube mic that provides its own power so would a cloud Z work as far as impedance matching ?… I’m trying to have impedance 10x the 300 ohms of the microphone. So, would cloud z be any good in my situation ?
I heard it that way too. The mk.II sounded more condensor-like on toms. But was a bit edgy on guitar cab, especially driven. Reminded me almost of a 414, which I never loved on guitars. The mk.II is nice on bass cab though, it's a bit more defined and articulate, but not harsh like it can be on guitars. I suppose a mk.II mixed with a Royer 121 would probably balance that out.
I use Tascam Portastusios the DP 008 ex and DP 32sd I just got a Rode NT 2a the low self noise works well with the Tascam preamps which are weak points of the units. the sound quality is well above the price point.
In your test, the SM57 seems to be the worst. In my own experiments with the same 3 mics, I found the e609 to be the worst. But I’m using a small open back combo amp. So it actually makes sense. The SM57 is warming up my little amp but making your big 4x12 sound woolly. Likewise, the e609 is adding clarity to your 4x12 but making my combo sound thin and harsh. The e906 seems to be the Goldilocks that works on everything.
I have an update to this video thats almost done where i add in the 409 as well. Should be out soon, studios been crazy busy lately. Whatever they did to the 906 it definitely has a different sound than the 609 no matter which way you position the switch. And you make a great point about open/closed back cabs reacting differently. I think perhaps i should start adding in a quick demo of that as well. I have an open back fender combo sitting around I can use for that. Thanks for the comment and inspiration!
The high end on the 103/102 is something that can work on darker sources as theyre kinda bright. Not a fan. The soyuz sounds more full and less harsh to me.
I have a pair of 190e mics that I bought cheap out of curiousity... For me, the 190e sounds very acceptable on spoken word, as it does in this video, so I think it was an effective reporter's mic - though I'd guess it benefits from a treated room. I can't say I like either the 190e or 57 on the guitar. Today, there are so many mics that sound sweeter for that purpose; I guess times have moved on.
For modern sounds i totally agree! (a 121 for me is king) If you're looking for more of that retro sound though, these can really get it right at the mic and leave little to do on the back end to get "that" sound.
You did a wonderful job with this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as organized and comprehensive of a test, you’re truly a talent to knowing your audience, well done!
Thank you very much for this very informativ Video and the very good Audio Comparison. Particularly the proximity Test where you speaked in the Mic with diffrent distance to the mic was very usefull and of coarse the comparison with a original RCA44BX !
I have one that I got super cheap used, It is great value, but it kind of makes the tenor sound a bit honkey. I prefer another super cheap SDC CAD GXL 1200. For the tenor
hello, i've just got me a 1980s ev pl20 (re20) the mic handles vocals well but has a layer of raspy distortion, when placed on a high spl guitar amp (67' fender) could it just be the foam? or something else? can you narrow it down? this is a recording I made of it: drive.google.com/file/d/1HVnJVXDEiaQ_4zPAgHeBe2EP026JJRCp/view?usp=sharing
The Chinese copied everything without any sense of justice and everyone went crazy. Now "American" and German companies are doing it (and also produce in China) and people are talking about "honouring" a heritage. I think that's a hypocritical statement. It's still bad style at least once. For me simply wrong. They even copied the bag of AEA! Good video. The product is a problem. Get inspired by stuff, invent you own stuff and everything is ok.
I dont disagree with you but I draw my line in a a slightly different place. When a company copies a product that hasnt been produced in ages… im ok with that. When a company copies a product thats currently in production by the original manufacturer, thats a problem. When a company copies a product and puts the ORIGINAL companies name on it, thats a hard NO, for me. The other issue is build quality. Many of the copies from over seas/bootlegs are inferior when it comes to materials and manufacturing methods. (And subsequently sound). Warm did a great job with this mic for a price point I would say is fair. Charging $3-5k for a mic like this i feel is way over priced like some other companies are doing. Thanks for checkin out the video and leaving a great comment!
@@meistudiony I have to strongly disagree. How do you define over priced? For me, over priced means cheaply produced and artificially made expensive through greed. This is definitely not the case with AEA. At AEA, not only is everything produced in Los Angeles, all parts come from within a half-hour radius of the company. Of course, this is more expensive than assembling parts from China. You can say you can't aford it, but please don't say it's over priced. It's a small company that makes small quantities by hand, of course it's more expensive. A Swiss watch that is made by hand is also more expensive than a Chinese copy. It much more love and passion inside. And by the way: Warm Audio didn't copy RCA, they copied AEA. Watch this to get an idea of the company: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-j-YTA1OqBWM.html
@@theshill8959 fair enough. I own a few aea mics. I dont think the price they put on their recreations are in line with their more original offerings (r88, nuvo etc). All things considered, i still feel the 44 recreations are priced way higher than they need to be. Its not a matter of being able to afford it. More a matter of placing a dollar amount on something because of its nostalgia factor thats not in line with the rest of the line that doesnt have that factor. Its their decision to price it that way and thats fine. I just dont think a recreation of a mic should be more than the vintage mic that its copying. Same goes for the telefunken mics whose material sources are questionable at best. The new telefunken has pulled some questionable practices in the past.
@@meistudiony As I have already said: I don't think the 44 is about maximising profits. It's simply much more expensive to produce than a Nuvo, for example. The components are more complex to manufacture and, of course, much more expensive if they are produced locally than in the Far East. Anyway. I don't like companies like Warm or Behringer.
You already know your D202 was faulty. I have a special version that is blue and gold that I use in all my videos. I think it sounds really good with no processing at all. On top of that it's so ugly so it almost becomes cool. I tried it on drums and other sources and liked it so much that I bought the other 5 (black) D202 from the same old studio here in Stockholm. I had to repair a few of them of cause. Thanks for a good video!
I would love to know if you were able to open the head basket. I took a saw to one of the ones i had to try and figure out a way to open it to try and service it, and even after that, I couldn't find a way to do it without being destructive in some way.
@@meistudiony I couldn't open the head basket either. I had one with the same problem as yours. By comparing it to the working ones I managed to locate where the broken wire was supposed to be, did a bit of surgery on the plastic and managed find the wire and repair it. Far from easy. It also initially took quite some time to figure out that the nut at the end of the tube in the bottom of the mic was what was holding the top. Two of the mics I have someone had tried unscrew the head basket like you can do on other mics and that way tearing apart the internal wireing, that someone hadn't found the nut at the end of the tube apparently.
I enjoyed this. thank you. I like microphones and I like to mix them up. I preferred the D1000E on snare in your example. I could go either way on your other examples. I do a lot of live video and am recently collecting vintage dynamic mics because they look cooler in the shot!
I recently ran into a mic that has been on like every live music show from the late 60s into the 70s and early 80s. Electro-voice 635A. Really basic look to it but pretty cool. I'll be doing a vid on this soon hopefully if the studio calms down for a min. Thanks for checking out the videos and commenting (this one and the AKG D190), I really appreciate it!
Ive had 3 different mics from gtz. I would say the MP is definitely better quality. But the MP S87 isnt trying to be a U87. It just uses a K87 style capsule.
I love my RE20's I have both the OG tan and the new black both with the 309A shock mounts. I love the sound and the classic sound is unmatched to me. Now I do miss the proximity effect that I used to use on my AT2040 so since I dont have "free bass" anymore I had to spend extra coin and put a DBX 131s in my signal chain to boost the bottom end a smidge.
The sm57 and 545 don’t have the same capsule. “The 545 uses an all copper voice coil, which makes it a little heavier than the SM57 coil. In fact, we started making the 545 about 7 years before the SM57. “ -Shure Unidyne iii is referring to a patented technology, not a specific capsule. The old sm57s had 3 wires connecting the capsule and the transformer. The new ones have two.
OK! Thanks for the comment! Lets take a dive into this and see if we can clarify this! From Shures website, the Unidyne I, II and III (and 4 which was in the 548 but didn't take off) refer to the cartridge types. The Unidyne I was the big boxy thing (video coming soon) found in the original 55 mic. The Unidyne II was the first "smaller" version and close to what we have now. The III was about the same as the II but had some added shock mounting features which made the handling of the mic improved over the previous version. (essentially some rubber suspensions and some sponge rings) and what we see in the 545, 57 and 58 (and probably others). "The Unidyne III microphone cartridge first appeared in the model 545 in 1960." - www.shure.com/en-GB/performance-production/louder/shure-unidyne-75-years-of-the-worlds-most-recognisable-mic Same cartridge, different assemblies. (the 57, 58 and 545 all unidyne III's). Rick, (the guy you quoted) has an interesting take. While yes the 545 came out in 1960 and the 57 in 1967, that only means that one was released before the other. When the SM57 was released, the tape ring around the head basket said "SM57 Unidyne III" and the 545 said "545XX Unidyne III". Mic model and cartridge type. In his FULL quote he mentioned that the grilles and housings were different, and, hes just wrong on that. The grilles are different in color only (silver for the 545 and grey for the 57) . Shure only makes a single head basket for both models. (www.shure.com/en-US/products/accessories/rk244g?variant=RK244G) I recently had a couple of mics in for repairs and the parts guy mentioned they've only ever had a single assembly for the baskets, so not sure where Rick got that info. I've repaired mics from the 60's all the way to the 2000s and they all use the same head basket. As far as the housings go, they too are identical, except for the material they are made out of. (545 being plastic and the 57 being all metal, to be more resilient for live use, where as the 545 was seen more as an installation type mic). The rubber at the top and bottom of the assembly is identical, the two sponge rings inside are identical, and either capsule fits into either assembly, and either assembly can screw on to either mic handle (the dimensions and threading are all identical). As far as the capsule assembly itself... again identical. The diaphragms are identical as well. The magnet assemblies have undergone some changes over the years, where some seem CNC bumpy and others smooth. Both are made from the same material and weigh in the same as well (smooth and riged). The voice coil, however IS different. So that part is at least true. The ones i had in had their diaphragms detached and i have both sitting in front of me right now. The 545 is a more reddish copper color whereas the 57 looks more "new penny" kind of. Weight wise, they both come in at less than 1g. (with the diaphragm and coil connected). The magnet assemblies both weigh in at 91g with the mesh ring and no diaphragm attached. Where he got the "the assemblies are different" thing, I dont know, but they just arent and as far as i can tell, never have been different. Ricks original comment was meant to debunk the myth that the SM57s were just 545s that passed all the QC and the 545s somehow didn't... that theory just doesn't even make sense to me. How much of a difference JUST the voice coil makes? Well, the weight COULD make a difference, but when tested, its really not a big one, as we see in the responses in the video. And in the context of a mix (recording or live) I'd go so far to say its a moot point once EQ and compression enter the conversation. Are they different? From a voice coil stand point, it would appear so. One could argue the bigger difference would be with the transformer which has multiple impedances on the 545 and a single on the 57. As far as the leads to the transformer, the black was just a ground that was connected to a washer clip on the magnet assembly. It wasn't connected to the capsule in that no signal was going through it. After shure realized that it made no difference since the entire body was grounded, it was dropped. The black lead is still used on the 545 since the upper is plastic and non conductive. Thanks for bringing this up, its been a fun dip into the knitty gritty of these mics.
@@meistudiony “A lot of the variations and the basic design were before my time, but I did know the designer, Mr. Seeler. They were all variants of the original Unidyne III, designed about 1960. The patent didn't issue till 1966. The biggest change I know of was the switch to the aluminum voice coil in the 57. There were probably many minor changes in things like transformers. But the biggest difference from one to the next is the tuning. The capsule is multi chambered and the response is tuned by varying those chambers. Originally the last chamber was actually tunable by turning a little nut inside the capsule. Otherwise it's a function of things like felt density. The classical tuning was for a bass rolloff to compensate for proximity, and of course the +6 at 6K mid peak.” - some guy on GS.
@@meistudiony If the voice coil is different, the capsules are not identical. The voice coil is part of the capsule. That you would continue to call them identical after that basic fact has been established is bizarre
I have one from the 70s and one from around 2018 or so, theres pretty much no difference. (no more difference than any two bought today or back then). So if anyone is selling this at a premium because its "vintage", you're not getting anything more special or different.
So the E signifies a canon or regular xlr connector. Ive never seen the M suffix (theyre more rare) from what i can tell the M has a different setting on the 3 way switch. Instead of BMS it has BMO (possibly off?). Other than that, likely the same capsule.
For my taste & style I’m sold on the sennheiser e602ii. It really shocked me. Was & still is a big fan of the Beta52, but now I’m looking at that e602. It sounded wonderful in every application! Thank you for this video!
Thanks, great video. Really refreshing compared to all dishonest nonsense on RU-vid these days. I had it and sold it 10 years ago, hated it from day one but not because it was harsh, but because I was young and stupid, also back then I did not know how to sing properly. Few days ago I listened to some of my old recordings with this microphone and I just figured out that this was the best I ever did, and I did many different things, from AT2035, NT1, to U87. Back then I used it with the hated DBX 376 tube preamp, which has some nice deesser and the results were silky smooth. Now I am thinking about getting the K2, but not clear why everyone hate those two microphones. I tend to believe that ight ignorants like me 15 years ago could hate it.
Thanks for the comment and for checking it out. Yeah, I think its just a bunch of gate keeping BS in regards to the NTK and the K2 (K2 i think you get polar patterns on where the NTK is just cardioid, both sound amazing). I can understand the hate towards like the Neewer 800 and other really cheap, objectively BAD sounding mics... this, not so much. We live and learn and sometimes we come back full circle! Cheers!
Pags! Another great video. Great story, too. Enjoyed every minute of it. Looks like a fantastic mic. Your opinion of it being up there with the original 47's carries a lot of weight. I appreciate the quality of the comparison's also. Really nice.
Thanks for the kind words. This mic has held a special place for me for a VERY long time. It was the first mic that I used for a vocal production where I felt I didn't need to do any EQ or "work" on after recording. Obviously that depends on a lot of factors, but the way this mic operates definitely puts it as my first choice for a lot of projects. It rarely leaves the mic stand in the studio.
No, but youre the first o comment on it! The RCA (like every other RCA i've ever owned/used) is tempermental with ground. Since this mic wasn't mine i couldn't do the necessary modifications (paint removal) to make sure the mic is properly grounded all around. It wasn't terrible with this mic, (ive had some that are attrocious) but its there if you crank up the gain.
Years back I bought a pair of these for a music venue I owned and a pair for a radio station I worked at. They all came with an AB1G wind screen. Do they now only rely on the foam screens?
They don't come with the AB1G anymore just the foam. (extra $80 if you still want it) For non vocal, indoor use, neither is really needed. But for anything spoken the wind screen is certainly a preference.
Yeah, i had gone back after this video and upped the value of the cap to put a little more top end back in. (the beauty of this mod is that you can tailor it to your liking) I dont think the piano was really hitting the range where it cut off, so there wasn't much difference.