I got a Revelation and found a new mic

[The Old Anglo]

Nothing wrong with the MXL900 Series,good mics and you just Need to learn how to use them. They work for me!.

[Yamaha Man]

I believe in using the best quality tools you can get your hands on. Nothing wrong with that. My "lowly" $399 Revelation mic will be considered a very expensive mic amongst my circle of friends as they rarely buy any mics. Most use the Shure 58.

I think the Revelation will be a great match for my D-35 and D-18. Maybe even vocals too.

[Yamaha Man]

This should be interesting...I just bought another stereo mic bar to hold two mics, I'm planning on matching the V-69 with the Revelation for stereo recording of acoustic guitar. Both are MXL tube mics...should sound really good together.

[Bob Womack]

A little history on the U47 in question: This mic was purchased by a well-endowed individual in the 1950s, along with an Ampex suitcase tape recorder, in order to begin making home recordings. He used it for a few hours and discovered that having the best gear didn't automatically make you capable of making good recordings. He put the stuff away in his closet and never used it again.

In 1983 my boss walked into my studio, placed a box on the producer's desk, and asked, "What do you think?" It was a Telefunken U47 in like-new condition! We plugged it up and tried it and it sounded great! It ran for about an hour and then went silent. We packed it off to Gotham Audio, then the representative for Neumann, for repairs.

Now a little background: Neumann was a small outfit in the '50s. During WWII their mics were everywhere in Germany but like so many other German companies they ended up starting over after the war. Another German company, Telefunken, had connections in the U.S. Right after the war, Bing Crosby sent his technicians over to Germany to find their tape recording technology and bring it back. They did, and founded the Ampex Tape Recording company. The result was a boom in the mic market and the U47 was a product of that boom. Neumann made a deal with Telefunken for Telefunken to distribute their products in the U.S. Neumann mics were re-badged as Telefunken and sold as a result. Eventually the agreement went south and a U.S. company, Gotham Audio, took over distribution of Neumann.

So, when we sent in our U47 to be repaired, it came back sounding great, but Gotham re-badged it back to Neumann as was the policy at the time. Same serial number, just a Neumann logo and plates. Boy was I angry but there was nothing I could do. I've been the keeper of the U47 ever since. I've worked with several vintage Neumanns over my career including a great pair of Neumann M49s back in the '80s.

By the way, the signal chain for the comparison was: mic->Avalon vt737 ->Apogee Rosetta A to D converter->DAW

By the way, I'm not one of those who think that there isn't a difference between the mics valued at $10k and those with a street price of $953. However, there aren't too many people who can afford a $10k mic for their home any more than they can afford a $400k console. I just look for items that get me into the ballpark so I don't have to drag my ragged keister out to the studio every time I want to record myself. You know why? Because I get tired of my workplace like anyone else. And when I find good items I try to pass on the word to people.

You'll notice that my preference was for the U47 over the Revelation. One of my fellow engineers felt the same way as well. It doesn't make me feel the least bit bad about purchasing the Revelation. I'm just amazed at how far things have come in creating inexpensive but pleasant-sounding gear.

Bob

[Yamaha Man]

Well I've heard a few demo's of the Revelation and I'm quite impressed, not just your demo's. A quick search on You Tube brings them up. I've heard acoustic guitar, electric guitar amped and mic'ed, female vocals, male speech, and they all sound fabulous.

The original U-47 had some parts that would wear out and would need servicing. As been stated, they cost a small fortune. Even the re-makes are quite expensive. The U-47 was a favorite mic of George Martin while recording the Beatles. Frank Sinatra used one...no question the U-47 is a top model mic. For the Revelation to even be compared with it is an honor. Reviews on You Tube are very good. No buyer's remorse here.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Bowie

No....
People like to say that just like to say that their Eastman is better than the $5k Martin they played. It's validation.

Pro studios also use SM57s on snares. They're just using what they feel is the best for the application.
There's a level of detail, richness, a sense of depth in those high-end mics that causes people to spend big money on them. When they can find a cheaper mic that does the same job, they're going to buy that. In my business, I've come to know hundreds of studio owners and I've never met any who were spending an extra $10k on image. They do it when they hear something special.

I don't every try to make people feel bad about owning cheaper gear but when I see the old, "there's no difference, it's money wasted" I tend to speak up. It's very dismissive of professional engineers who use quality tools for good reasons.

Like you I get tired of people comparing the cheap acoustic guitars to known standards of the industry, but I do have a few high end tube condensors microphones (3 to 4 thousand dollar range), and I was amazed at how the Revelation hung with those. Even at it's normal selling price of $1000, the mic was getting good reviews, and at $399 it's a steal. I bought the Revelation and the Revelation X/Y at these closeout prices with the intent that I would flip them if I didn't like them and perhaps make a few bucks, but from the first time I plugged them in, I was impressed. It has a very flattering tone on acoustic guitar (as was evident in Bob Womack's clips), and a very good tone for higher pitched male and female singers adding a little body to their tone and smoothing the edges. And the Revelation X/Y is a killer drum overhead and room mic, which also sounds great a few feet back from an acoustic guitar. But good luck finding the X/Y model for a good price!!!

A few views from respect sources...

http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mxl-revelation

http://www.mixonline.com/news/microp...rophone/423099 (The Cardoid Only SOLO model)

http://recordinghacks.com/2010/02/17...lation-review/

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

Well I've heard a few demo's of the Revelation and I'm quite impressed, not just your demo's. A quick search on You Tube brings them up. I've heard acoustic guitar, electric guitar amped and mic'ed, female vocals, male speech, and they all sound fabulous.

The original U-47 had some parts that would wear out and would need servicing. As been stated, they cost a small fortune. Even the re-makes are quite expensive. The U-47 was a favorite mic of George Martin while recording the Beatles. Frank Sinatra used one...no question the U-47 is a top model mic. For the Revelation to even be compared with it is an honor. Reviews on You Tube are very good. No buyer's remorse here.

You will really like this microphone as it's useful on many sources! As you posted the normal selling price is typically around $900 and even at that price it was getting very good views from respected recording sites (see the post above this).

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

You'll notice that my preference was for the U47 over the Revelation. One of my fellow engineers felt the same way as well. It doesn't make me feel the least bit bad about purchasing the Revelation. I'm just amazed at how far things have come in creating inexpensive but pleasant-sounding gear.

This is exactly how I feel, your U47 sounded undeniably better from the clip I heard. But I can say without a doubt, alot of these new low cost condensors such as; 3U audio's GZ67, CAD's E-100, Violet's Amethyst Vintage, Neumann's TLM102, and this MXL Revelation you could, in a good room and with proper technique, easily record tracks that could hang side by side with many pro recordings.

[Yamaha Man]

I just tried listening again to the U-47 vrs the Revelation guitar samples...The Revelation sounded a bit louder but tone wise, I still couldn't hear a difference. I even tried with Sennheiser HD 650 headphones.

[Bob Womack]

I forgot to mention that the U47's output was probably four db hotter than that of the Revelation. Normalizing the clips brought them to parity.

Bob

[Yamaha Man]

The You Tube shootout I posted also included a se Gemini II mic which sells for about $1,500....I liked the Revelation's sound better than the Gemini II's sound.

[Yamaha Man]

Good news--My Revelation mic has shipped.

Heads up--according to Amazon, there's only 20 left. Who knows, they might go fast.

[Yamaha Man]

So I'm killing time waiting for the Revelation, and decided to try out the MXL V-69 tube mic with my ART Pro MPA II Pre-amp and VLA II Compressor. I was surprised, the V-69 doesn't sound bad..... here's a short clip....



I'm thinking about pairing this mic with the Revelation for stereo recordings...I think it'll work fine.

[Yamaha Man]

Deleted...........

[Bob Womack]

By the way, the link to purchase a single MXL Revelation for $399.99 directly from PSSL is back up HERE and from PSSL via Amazon is HERE.

Bob