Mics, preamps and technique...

[Larpy]

Originally Posted by DesolationAngel

Any Peluso users? Advanced Audio? Cascade? ShinyBox? Oktava? Avantone? Telefunken? Beyer?

I'm a relative newbie, only now starting to get results I'm happy with. But for most of the past 2-3 years, I used an Audio Technica AT4040 and a matched pair of Peluso CEMC6s as my primary mics. The Pelusos were used for fingerstyle guitar and drum overheads, the AT4040 for everything else.

The Pelusos are detailed, but it takes a fair amount of work to get them to sound natural. They're musical sounding, but in my experience, everything recorded through them takes on a distinct upper mid frequency sheen that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

Just this summer, I replaced them with a pair of Beyer MC930s, and the difference has been dramatic. The Peluso zing is gone, and my recordings sound quite a bit more professional. With the Pelusos, I found myself constantly fiddling with EQ, but with the Beyers, mixing is far easier. I'm really impressed. Caveat: I have no experience at all with the really good stuff many of you use, so take my being being impressed with a grain of salt; but for anyone reading who wonders if the difference in cost between the Peluso CEMC6 and the Beyer MC930 is worth it, I say yes it is without hesitation.

The AT4040 and the Beyers (as well as a Shure SM7B I recently picked up) go through an Apogee Quartet. After 4 or so years of gradual upgrades, I finally feel completely satisfied with my equipment. For now, no gear lust gnaws away at me.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by KevWind

At the risk of side tracking the thread a bit I found this Video about the M7 in use to be very interesting. It is Casey one of the owners of Bricasti ( sitting in the middle) using I think 3 M7's on a Jazz session. Also a bit of personal interest as the preset he is using on the vocal ( Sunset Chamber ) is the one I use.
This is a must listen in head phones or a set of system monitors and also bump the YouTube quality tool up to HD 720p at least
Fixed it

After enduring nearly an entire generation of young audio engineers that think reverb sounds like a D-Verb plug-in it's so very nice to hear game changing, sonically masterful reverb again. Want one

[rick-slo]

As far as a KM84 knock-off mike, I tried the Mercenary Audio KM-69 mikes and they were quite nice. There was a bit more self noise than I wanted so I returned the mikes. However Mercenary Audio is now defunct and the people who made that mike for Mercenary Audio now make the mike to sell themselves (the F44 mike by AMI). Also they the mike has been tweaked to have a few decibels less self noise. Worth a consideration (I'm tempted myself).

A couple of links:
http://www.m221b.com/AMI/F44/AMIF44.html
　
http://www.tab-funkenwerk.com/id141.html

[DesolationAngel]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

As far as a KM84 knock-off mike, I tried the Mercenary Audio KM-69 mikes and they were quite nice. There was a bit more self noise than I wanted so I returned the mikes. However Mercenary Audio is now defunct and the people who made that mike for Mercenary Audio now make the mike to sell themselves (the F44 mike by AMI). Also they the mike has been tweaked to have a few decibels less self noise. Worth a consideration (I'm tempted myself).

A couple of links:
http://www.m221b.com/AMI/F44/AMIF44.html
　
http://www.tab-funkenwerk.com/id141.html

I looked into those but I'm not sure they are currently available. Oliver Archut, the chap behind TAB Funkenwerk, died about a year ago. The home page of the company still has the announcement up, their FB has not been updated since 2013 and I can't find the product on the websites of their dealers...

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by DesolationAngel

I looked into those but I'm not sure they are currently available. Oliver Archut, the chap behind TAB Funkenwerk, died about a year ago. The home page of the company still has the announcement up, their FB has not been updated since 2013 and I can't find the product on the websites of their dealers...

Correct. At the moment the company is filling prior commitments and orders (mostly for mike transformers). They expect to have the F44 mike (and other mikes) back in production and available near the end of this year (either directly from them or from a dealer, and at the prior price point).

[DesolationAngel]

Good to know, thanks for the update!