Finally got my dream mics
 

A few months ago I finally wised up and bought the pair of mics I always wanted, a stereo set of Gefell M300's.

A number of years ago Sedelsorey here on the forum lent me a pair of KM 184's and Gefell M300's he was planning on selling. I demo'd them for a week and liked them both. I would have bought the Gefells, but didnt quite have enough money without unloading some other musical gear, which I didnt want to do.

I went through a few other sets of mics that were a couple hundred dollars less, always regretting not buying the Gefells. A pair would occasionally pop up used on Reverb, but I never quite had the cash on hand to pull the trigger. Then I sold the pair of mics I was using at the time, had some extra additional money, and told myself I was going to wait till a pair of Gefells came up used, or if that didnt happen I would buy two new single mics.

It took a few months of waiting but this matched stereo set came up on Ebay for $1300 and I got them. They came in the original wooden box and included the stereo bar, mounts, riser for ORTF/XY, and even the plastic transparency to overlay on the mics and ensure they are in the right position for ORTF.

Its a bit redundant given the included accessories, but I got a 3d printed mic mount from https://www.shapeways.com/shops/srsrecordingservices and a Rycote INV-7 to attach it to the mic stand. I just find this setup so convenient. I can leave it up, pop the mics in, and know they are at the right angle/distance for ORTF.

http://antonemery.com/photos/gefells1.JPG

http://antonemery.com/photos/gefells2.JPG


Here is a recording I did a few nights ago. ORTF mic position, 15" or so away in line with the upper bout of the guitar, centered on the sound hole. I am using acrylic nails. I raised the overall level of the track a bit and cut all the lows below 50hz. I am using a RME Babyface Pro and Logic on the Mac.



I think this is about as good a sound as I am going to get. I recently did some recording in a pro level studio with all the fancy mics, outboard gear, etc and I still pretty much sound like me.

If I have learned anything from all this is that get the best you can afford, even if you have to save a bit longer. Buy once cry once.

Congrats! That recording has clarity and nice warmth.

They are great mikes. I have used a matched set of M300 mikes for a number of years now.

Congratulations! Very nice mics. I have a pair of the M295 and I also picked up the ORTF mount from Shapeways. Gefell is just top notch stuff.

Congrats on the mics! It's always nice to close a circle like that.

Bob

Hello Anton,
I somewhat remember your threads about your mic research/purchases for your home recording gear. Glad to hear you got what you've been striving for. Haven't yet listened to your recording, but if you feel your home recording represents your sound well, compared to the professional recordings of your playing, then that seems like quite an accomplishment.

I've also gone through some mic upgrading for home recording. My personal preference is using omni mics instead of cardioid, so I ended up upgrading my omni mics to a pair of Gefell M296S.

Congrats on the Gefells! The recording sounds great. I like ORTF a lot for solo acoustic fingerstyle guitar.

That's great news, Anton. Hopefully, they work as well as you remember them.

Yea I am pretty happy with my home results. I think a pro studio obviously has the edge in room acoustics and sound isolation, here at home I have to deal with inside/outside noise at times.

My band recently finished tracking for our next cd at Dead Aunt Thelma's, a small studio south of Portland in the Sellwood neighborhood. Its the real deal, a main control room and three separate rooms that are acoustically separated. The whole thing is totally decoupled from any noise outside, its dead quiet in there.

http://antonemery.com/photos/studio1.jpg

For recording the band, (bagpipes, fiddle, guitar), the studio and expertise of the engineer was absolutely necessary. But for the few solo guitar cuts we did I guess I did not notice a huge difference compared to what I can now get at home. I wish I could post a track to compare, but I dont want to put the upcoming band album stuff out there yet.

Here I am recording in the studio with a pair of holy grail KM 84's, modified by Klaus Heyne. He also lives here in Portland, which I did not know.

https://i0.wp.com/www.celticfingerst...zed.jpeg?w=846

For the band recording the studio was a great time, so much fun to have all those mics and gear to try.

Speaking of the KM-84 mikes, Mercenary Audio (now out of business) came out with a clone of those, the KM-69 mikes.

I tried out a pair of those here:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=137339

If you see a used pair somewhere it might be worth checking it out.

Very, very good sound with the Gefells, Anton.

Did you go straight to ORTF, and decide not to muck with the setup given that the results were so good, or have you compared against a spaced pair arrangement before settling?

Kym

I remember those--always wanted a pair but could never afford them.

I mostly remember Fletcher, though.:D

That sounds really good, Anton!

Very nice recording. Congrats on the mics.

Kym, I have not tried these particular mics in spaced pair yet. I guess I should. For years previously whenever I recorded with my other mics it was always spaced pair. I thought it sounded fine enough, but I always had trouble getting a balanced signal left to right. That is probably user error on my part. Then one day I tried my then set of Miktek C5's in ORTF and it just sounded great. Much easier to get a balanced stereo signal, and I thought the sound was a good bit warmer, maybe due to the proximity to the sound hole.

I like that I can just use one mic stand and things are less likely to get moved around if I leave them setup.

Way to go Anton! The recording sounds great even on my laptop speakers. I know you're really going to enjoy your new 'toys'.