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Post by ninworks on May 3, 2022 6:58:54 GMT -5
It took me all afternoon. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had bought a polarity testing device for checking the polarity (phase) on balanced gear. I can test cables, speakers, amplifiers, mic preamps, microphones, and any other kind of outboard gear. What I am checking for mostly is to see if everything using balanced connections are all the conventional Pin 2 Hot. The first thing I tested was my studio monitoring setup. I plugged the pulse transmitter directly into an auxiliary input on my interface and tested the speaker and amp polarity. All good. The next thing I did was to test all of my mic preamps including the ones that are built in to my RME interface. I tested the Focusrite ISA428 through both the analog and digital I/O options. All good. I then tested the API A2D mic pre through the analog and digital I/O, all good there too. Then I tested the main outputs and mic preamp in the Avid Eleven Rack. All good. Then I tested the I/O on my Lexicon PCM70 and Warm Audio WA76 compressor. All good. After that I got out all the mic cables I have out to use. About 25 in all. Most of them are ones I have made myself using Mogami cable but there are 4 or 5 of lesser quality that are left over from my old band days that I keep out of the big nasty cable bin to use as backups if needed. All of them were good. It was time to test all of the microphones. 20 at last count. I started with the dynamic mics. All good. Then I went after all the condensers. I only had one surprise. All tested Pin 2 Hot except for the matched pair of Oktava MK-012's. They were Pin 3 Hot. I tested them with both the cardioid and omnidirectional capsules just to be certain they were both the same polarity. They were. The polarity is backwards from everything else I have. That's good to know. I had no idea. I think that is the first time I ever had all my mics out at once. I love microphones. Probably more than I like different guitars these days. I can't get enough of them. There are so many different textures to be had when recording by using different microphones. There are gobs of different mics I would still like to have but only a handful of guitars. I already have a pretty good selection of them. Mics I have; Vintage AKG D12E AKG C414XLII Matched pair of Neumann KM184 cardioid condensers Neumann U87Ai Vintage Neumann U89 Matched pair of Oktava MK-012's Royer R121 ribbon Matched pair of Roswell Mini K47's Sennheiser E906 2 - Sennheiser MD 421's 3 - Shure SM57's 1 - Shure SM58 Sony ECM33P small diaphragm condenser Warm Audio Tube WA47 - U47 clone Mics I still want (that I can somewhat afford); Another AKGD12E Another AKG C414XLII AKG D112 MkII ElectroVoice RE20 Another Royer R121 ribbon Royer R10 ribbon 2 - Shure SM81 condensers Audio Technica AT4040 Another Neumann U87Ai Neumann TLM 49 Matched pair of Neumann KM185 omnidirectional condensers Sennheiser MD441 Shure SM7B Mics I'd like that I can't afford; AKG C12VR Tube Neumann U67 Tube RCA AEA R44C ribbon .......and anything else that sounds good and a little different from what I already have. $100,000 should cover it.  |
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Post by ninworks on May 4, 2022 3:29:11 GMT -5
As if I didn't have enough microphones, I pulled the trigger on a used Royer R-10 ribbon yesterday. $390 on Reverb. I saved about $100 compared to buying a new one from Sweetwater. I am intrigued by ribbon mics these days. The only ribbon I have ever messed with is the R121. It has something that typical dynamic or condenser mics don't. It's hard to describe. It seems to have a different depth for lack of a better description. Not really better or worse than conventional mics, just different. I'm hoping the R-10 has that same thing although the tonal frequency bandwidth is a little different from some of the comparisons I have heard. Not as much bottom and a little more pronounced in the upper midrange.
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gbfun
Wholenote
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Post by gbfun on May 7, 2022 2:45:30 GMT -5
Wow ninworks...calm down man ! I've never heard of anyone with so many mics. You might have a fetish there ! No one can accuse you of never getting down into the technology weeds either. We might have to form an intervention of some kind. I say this because I almost responded to one of your songwriting notes but realized it would lead to neverending songwriting weedtime(new word) and Id rather spend that time elsewhere. But after this mic explosion, no wonder you have songwriting questions ! You have so much tech info in your head and so much tech to play with, there's little left for real songwriting ! So here's a perspective about songwriting. Keep the tech simple. A song worth living will be good stripped down, and communicate EXACTLY what you feel or want to express like a hand in a glove. After you have that(everyone has a hit song inside them somewhere, though it might take 10K hours of trying first  , THEN go hog wild with tech later. Or record good songwriters that wouldn't know a ribbon mic from a rabbit. A guy enjoying the weeds of a million mics seems like a natural born Studio Engineer. Just sayin...  S |
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Post by ninworks on May 7, 2022 6:47:04 GMT -5
Hello, my name is Kenny and I am a microphone addict. Not really, but maybe a little. I am as much of a recording engineer/producer/tech as I am a guitarist. Been doing both since my teens. I tend to gravitate towards music and the guitar a little more but it's pretty equal. I used to have a lot more mics than that in my live sound system company days but they were mostly multiples of a lot of the same ones. Songwriting is the newest compulsion for me but I have been doing that for a long time as well. Since the 80's. I'm always trying to learn new ways of approaching what I can already do and expand it into something I hadn't done before or make improvements to what I do. Having many microphones is akin to having many different guitars or amps or speakers. They all have different tonal characteristics and can be used to shape the sound of whatever is being recorded in different ways. Some of them sound drastically different from others and some are more subtle. Some are suited to particular types of instruments and certain ones sound better on different singers depending upon the sound of their voices. Male or female for example. Why does someone need a steel string acoustic and a nylon string? A Guild, a Martin, and a Taylor? A Strat, a Tele, a PRS, a Gretsch, and a Les Paul? A Twin Reverb, a Princeton, a Marshall, and a AC30 etc? They all offer something different from each other that is desirable. Mics are the same way. Using a different mic on a speaker can make as much difference in the recorded sound of it as changing that speaker to a different one. The results are not exactly the same but can be just as drastic. I don't really have the luxury of having a big enough space to record bands or large projects onsite so I have to do it all myself. I do some commercial recording for projects that need guitar, bass, vocals, or keyboards on them. People email me the track, I overdub whatever is needed, and then send them the tracks I recorded back to them online. I get paid for doing that much of the time unless I am doing it for friends. I have done this for decades with clients from all over the world ranging from singer-songwriter demos to motion picture soundtracks and many things in-between. Microphones are just another tool to use in order to make good recordings. I have been buying them since the 70's so this list is an accumulation of everything since then. Since I already have a pretty good selection of guitars and amps, microphones are the area I needed to grow in order to expand my sonic recording capabilities. Here's an example of one of my older songs that I wrote, played, and recorded at home. soundcloud.com/ninworks/solitario |
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gbfun
Wholenote
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Post by gbfun on May 8, 2022 2:38:28 GMT -5
Yeah, your mic collection and everything else are a valuable tool for shaping tone, and your long term playing skills no doubt fun and comprehensive.
But songwriting compelling songs is a whole different world. Otherwise, the top technical singers(opera), guitar gods(you know them), and the best technical musicians of all types would be producing the most amazingly artist and commercial successes in songwriting the world has ever known... all of the time.
Nope. Not even close.
But 30 year Adele, or some hobbit from the UK, or 4 boys from the UK under 30 can make songwriting history(and tons of money) with little recording knowledge and just better-than-average chops.
That's what I was clumsily trying to say.
That, and trying to suggest that to really write compelling, interesting songs takes a different mindset...a writer's mindset...a singer's mindset...a poet's mindset...a shrink's mindset...a historian mindset...a performer's mindset...and some kind of drive to communicate something, etc. etc.
Not much of that can be found in a tech manual.
I listened to a half dozen or so of the recordings and I like the technical aspects of them, but that was about it.
Don't let that bother you though, I started this music journey late. Too late. Except for songwriting.
If I were in charge though, I'd encourage you to reapply the sad theme and whatever lyrics you can reuse, to music that reflects that sad theme. The theme is sad but the music is upbeat to my mind. This sad lyric and theme sometimes works with upbeat music but rarely. I'd take that theme and sadness and reapply it to the saddest melody and chords you can muster. And double down on the heartbreaking dispair and fear you felt. As for the rock tracks, wow, I'd grab that band and reshape those chops into much more interesting shapes and energy for my own purposes. That band is potential waiting to happen. In short, if you do come up with a great song for that skillset, the band could make it happen.
But that's as far as I got.
What I found most surprising about the music world is just how FEW people can really write a decent song(much less a real classic !). I am still stunned by this constantly but the point is...good songwriting is as much an "art" as it is a technical exercise(which it is to some degree).
So trying to write a good song might be like a professional house painter trying to paint the Mona Lisa in a few quick months. Sure.
Well, sometimes luck and inspiration creates a great song in a flash. Your subconscious is your cowriter. Let that free and stand back !
Good luck with that. You sure have the tools to bring it to life !
And you have a lifetime of experience and emotions to mine...
But it's an art to do it well I think.
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Post by ninworks on May 8, 2022 8:23:49 GMT -5
Thanks for your feedback GB.
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Post by oldfartbassplayrwalt on May 17, 2022 17:15:10 GMT -5
Ninworks- hopefully its old news to you, to switch off any phantom power
when connecting the ribbon mic?
at least that's what I was told...
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Post by ninworks on May 17, 2022 20:45:36 GMT -5
Ninworks- hopefully its old news to you, to switch off any phantom power when connecting the ribbon mic? at least that's what I was told... I was aware of that but it's not an issue. It's standard practice to NEVER plug in ANY kind of mic with the phantom power turned on. Even condensers that utilize it. I will always be using a line booster with the ribbons anyway to lower the noise floor. I have a Royer dBooster at present and am awaiting a CloudLifter I purchased on Reverb more than a week ago. That's another thread. Both line boosters run on phantom power but they are in between the mic and the preamp so the mic will never see the phantom power anyway. Not that I would ever try it but, Royer states that phantom power will not harm either the R121 or R-10 ribbon mics. I'm still not going to test it to find out. |
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Post by reverendrob on May 20, 2022 5:57:24 GMT -5
Yea, the Cloudlifter and the Behringer/Klark Technic clone were out of stock when I tried to get one for my ribbon, ended up with a Belgian Triton in-line phantom power remover that wasn't cheap but did the job.
With ribbons I learned to never take chances - I had the luxury of playing with a massive gear locker when I was in Chicago, and "don't screw around with the ribbons outside parameters" was drilled into me. Ok, a little more vulgarly than that, but...
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Post by ninworks on May 20, 2022 7:13:50 GMT -5
Another option for a Cloudlifter is the Royer dBooster. A little more expensive but does the job nicely.
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Post by reverendrob on May 21, 2022 3:58:10 GMT -5
I have one of those Oktavas as well, was a gift something like 20 years ago now when they were dirt cheap.
It's one of my go-to happy place mics - works VERY well as a guitar close mic.
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