Serrano 84 SDC

[jim1960]

I mentioned in another thread that I had got in on a pre-order for this yet to be publicly released microphone. I had been kicking myself for not getting in on the pre-release deal for the Serrano 87 (which is on sale for $629 at the moment for anyone interested), and the first sound samples for this one sounded so good that I jumped in without much hesitation.

The virus situation in China, where the bodies were made, held up delivery for a long time but the mics finally arrived yesterday. The original deal was $600 for the pair which included both cardioid and omni capsules. The deal was sweetened twice because of the delay. First was the inclusion of a wooden box. Second was the inclusion of a third capsule which Carlos Serrano refers to as "dark cardioid."

Carlos also tweaked the sound a few times along the way, posting new samples each time. The mics sounded great to begin with and the final samples sounded even better to my ears. I haven't had a chance to plug them in yet but I'll eventually do a comparison sound sample with these and my Gefell M295 mics. My initial impression of the mics is a good one. These babies have some heft to them. The finish is very well done and the capsules thread on and off smoothly. I'm looking forward to testing them out and I'll post the files in this thread when I do. In the meantime, I thought I'd at least get a photograph of the microphones up.

[AcousticDreams]

What a deal you got! 3 capsules...

Can't wait to hear your review!

[anton]

Wow those look great! I'm looking forward to your review.

[KevWind]

They sure look nice and if they are anywhere close to the original Nuemann KM84 they should work well on Acoustic guitar

[jim1960]

A review of the Serrano 84 with clips is up from Seawell Studios. I don't love this guy's reviews but the clips sound good.



The 84s are now available for purchase on the Serrano website. The price for a single is $450 and a pair is $829. The mic comes with three capsules: cardioid, cardioid-dark and omnidirectional.

As I mentioned elsewhere, his 87 is on sale right now for $629 (usually $800). I'm pretty sure I'll be caving on that any minute. I really like every clip I've heard of that mic and while an 87-type mic isn't high on my list of wants, I think I'll regret not grabbing it at that price.

[AcousticDreams]

I thought this was a very nice review. I would like to know his personally thoughts about the translation of these mics to his guitar. Accurate? Slightly Colored? Or? No way for us to know unless we were there.

I So look forward to your Notes Jim1960 on how you feel these mics perform and their accuracy. As now I am even more intrigued from this review.

I heard one unmistakable character trait that I am a super fan of, the sound of a transformer. It's that solid sound I hear in all of those great late sixties, seventies and eighties recordings.

What Mic was he talking into? Looking like a Neumann 87/67 type grill.

[Doug Young]

Hmm, those sound clips would not prompt me to buy the mic... I'll look forward to seeing a demo from Jim, maybe that will be more interesting. It's certainly nice to find a multi-capsule mic at a modest price point. Do they have other capsules as well? figure-8?

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

I So look forward to your Notes Jim1960 on how you feel these mics perform and their accuracy. As now I am even more intrigued from this review.

What Mic was he talking into? Looking like a Neumann 87/67 type grill.

I have a project here at home that I have to get finished before I'll have time to really give the 84s a solid testing. But before that happens, I promised a friend I'd put a few hours aside to head over to his place with the BU67 and the 84s (he wants to sing into one of the 84s because he heard Josh Groban either uses or used a vintage 84 as a vocal mic). Depending on how things line up for that day, I may or may not bring a guitar along just to do a few quick takes, although our main focus will be vocals.

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Hmm, those sound clips would not prompt me to buy the mic... I'll look forward to seeing a demo from Jim, maybe that will be more interesting. It's certainly nice to find a multi-capsule mic at a modest price point. Do they have other capsules as well? figure-8?

On their own I don't think I'd be swayed either but, when he first mentioned this mic, Carlos Serrano had some clips up that were directly putting his mic against a vintage 84 and those files are what impressed me enough to put in the pre-order. In a thread on another board, the guy who made that video said he had the mics nearly two feet off the guitars when recording. I don't think that was great placement because it seems to have washed out the bottom end. Any mic poorly positioned isn't going to sound great. I think the guy rushed the review in order to be the first to put one out there.

I tend to prefer mics on the darker side. It's why I don't care for the U87ai or the KM184. They're both too bright for my taste. The Serrano 84 isn't overly dark but it sure isn't bright and I like that about it.

Anyway... I'll try to fit in some guitar the day I head over to my friend's studio (most likely next week sometime since UPS is threatening to deliver the BU67 tomorrow but UPS likes to play "Psyche" with me so I'm never sure if they're serious). I can't promise they'll be time for guitar but if we can make it work, I'll try to at least give you guys a taste of the 84 on steel strings.

And it's just the three capsules. No others are available.

[Glennwillow]

Thanks for all this information. The Serrano 87 at $629 sounds like a heck of a deal. I am really tempted.

Like Doug, I was not able to come to any conclusions on the Serrano 84 mics based on that video review. I'll be interested to see what Jim thinks after he's had a chance to do some recording. That Serrano 84 package that Jim got seems like a very cool deal!

- Glenn

[jim1960]

I ordered this Rode branded SM4-R Rycote Lyre shock mount for the Serrano 84s. As I mentioned in another thread, I really do like the function and quality of Rycote shock mounts so I expect I'll like this and will order another if that's the case.

[jim1960]

The Rycote shock mount arrived and it works well with the Serrano 84. The fit is a bit snug so it takes a little bit of effort to get the mic in the saddles but once they're in, they're going nowhere. I really like the cable notch feature which will relieve any cable weight pressure on the back of the mic. I made a short loop for the photo that is pushing the mic up a bit at the back. I didn't notice until I'd already moved the photo from my camera to my computer. A larger loop eliminates that and leaves the mic level. I'll be ordering a second of this.

For those that are wondering, the Serrano 84 is 22mm across. As advertised, these will take mics from 19mm to 25mm. As tight as it is with 22mm, I'd be doubtful that more than 25mm is workable.

[DupleMeter]

I wasn't impressed by the samples, but I also got the sense that the mic position could have been better.

For me, the exclusion of the pad is a head scratcher. One of the de facto uses of the km84i is on snare...but you absolutely need the pad for that. To me, it's not an "84" unless it can be used in all the places you'd use a real "84".

That said, looking forward to the samples.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

For me, the exclusion of the pad is a head scratcher. One of the de facto uses of the km84i is on snare...but you absolutely need the pad for that. To me, it's not an "84" unless it can be used in all the places you'd use a real "84".

That said, looking forward to the samples.

That was never important to me because I never and have no intention to ever record a drum kit. For folks that do, I can see why it could be a deal breaker if the pad is something they're normally use for that. The only thing for which I'd want an 84 is to record acoustic guitar.

I'm getting together with my buddy tomorrow night at his studio. I'm going to bring an acoustic and hopefully we'll get through all the vocal stuff with enough time to get a bit of guitar down.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by jim1960

That was never important to me because I never and have no intention to ever record a drum kit. For folks that do, I can see why it could be a deal breaker if the pad is something they're normally use for that. The only thing for which I'd want an 84 is to record acoustic guitar.

I'm getting together with my buddy tomorrow night at his studio. I'm going to bring an acoustic and hopefully we'll get through all the vocal stuff with enough time to get a bit of guitar down.

I totally understand that position. For me, as a full time engineer, anything in an 84 would need to be as versatile as a real 84. I would take your position if it were just for me & recording acoustic instruments.

I’m anxiously looking forward to your reviews & samples.

[jim1960]

Just an update for anyone that was looking forward to hearing some sound samples from the Serrano 84s and the BU67, I have some I'll share but for the past 4 days or so I've been experiencing back pain that has been sending my internal VU meter deep into the red. My PT thinks the problem is in my SI joint but whatever it is, it's making even the simplest of things incredibly painful (for example, I had to do some problem solving to figure out how to put the dogs' food bowls on the floor this morning). He told me these things typically last 7-10 days so I have even more bliss and happiness in store for at least the next several days.

I did head over to my friend's studio Tuesday night and we managed to get some tracks done but it was a much shorter session than we'd originally planned due to my back issue. We got off to a slow start because he was having some kind of routing problem that took a bit of time to get sorted. Once that issue was squared, we put the Beesneez BU67 up against his "67" (which is a U87ai with it's guts replaced by the IO Audio 67 insert which my friend modded by replacing the cloned output transformer with an actual Neumann BV12). It was his "67" that I had borrowed earlier this year to gauge how badly I might want a 67-type mic.

I really loved how that mic sounded on me and I looked into what it would cost me to have the same mic for myself. I quickly figured out that route didn't make much sense. I'd need an 87ai or a TLM67 to house the IO Audio insert. The cheapest option would be a used TLM67 and that's going to cost about $2K. The IO insert would cost at least another $1K and I'd have to wait for one to pop up. Then there's the cost of a NOS tube and on top of that, I don't believe Neumann is selling BV12 transformers to the public anymore so I have no idea where I'd get that and I suspect the price would reflect that should I happen find someone selling one.

I changed gears and started looking at the not so many 67 clones on the market, listening to as many examples of each as I could find. None of them impressed me until I heard the Beesneez BU67and, as I've said previously, to my ears, that was as close to a real 67 as I've heard. So on Tuesday night we put the BU67 up against the IO Audio 67. The first thing that jumped out when listening back was that the BU67 had a lot more low end (that was user error, explanation coming). Other than that, it was hard to hear much difference between the two. We put a frequency analyzer plugin on both and, sure enough, the graphs were nearly identical. The only differences were the low end bump on the BU67 and a very slight bump at around 10k on the IO Audio.

We didn't realize it at the time, but the low end bump on the BU67 was because the mic shipped with the S2 mod switch engaged. That's a mod that was done on a lot of vintage 67s and it gave the mics a low end bump. So it was an unforced error of sorts but we both really liked that low end bump. I have a feeling that may be my preferred setting.

The guitar tracks (Gefell M295 vs Serrano 84) are a bit noisy, however, mostly because of the strap. We did those at the end and by then my back was on fire. The mic positioning wasn't great and we only did a single mic when I had to tap out.

Anyway, sitting at the computer is extremely uncomfortable right now so it's going to be some days before I edit the tracks and create a comparison track for you guys to hear. And once my back is sorted, I'll do some better tracks in my studio.