|
Post by chessparov on Apr 10, 2019 21:19:53 GMT -6
Even though I'm "Good for now" when it comes to microphones (Famous last words!)...
Thought it might be cool, to start a discussion thread about all these interesting/newer microphones.
For example, in the cheap seats here, I'm curious how the V4 came to be?
Thanks, Chris
P.S. Sorry to miss the Vanguard NAMM Booth!
|
|
|
Post by stormymondays on Apr 11, 2019 0:14:28 GMT -6
I’m getting the 44S for demo next week. Thought I doubt I’ll be sending it back!
|
|
|
Post by Ward on Apr 11, 2019 6:48:06 GMT -6
About time!
|
|
|
Post by nudwig on Apr 11, 2019 10:45:24 GMT -6
I have the v44s. Really loving this mic. Been doing simple drum setups with the v44s OH, 84 on snare and D12 on kick, plays nice with the old mics. Running mine into a Silver Bullet which seems to be a perfect match.
|
|
|
Post by the other mark williams on Apr 11, 2019 10:57:57 GMT -6
I'm looking forward to hearing more from folks who've used them. I spent some time with the samples on their site last week, and I wasn't a huge fan of the top end on the vocal samples. I don't know if it was Soundcloud doing "the Soundcloud thing," or if it's just a top end I don't prefer. I'm impressed with their representation on RGO so far, though, which is a good sign.
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 11, 2019 14:15:50 GMT -6
Even though I'm "Good for now" when it comes to microphones (Famous last words!)... Thought it might be cool, to start a discussion thread about all these interesting/newer microphones. For example, in the cheap seats here, I'm curious how the V4 came to be? Thanks, Chris P.S. Sorry to miss the Vanguard NAMM Booth! The V4 came to be from several people trying the V44S on vocals and loving it, and feeling a bit silly having clients sing into a stereo mic (although there are some cool vocal tricks with stereo mics). Another one of our earliest V13 owners, Kurt of kmusicstudios in Connecticut, specifically asked about something that he could travel light with (he does a lot of fly sessions). He loved his V13, but getting it through the TSA was always a bear and he didn't like having to take the power supply, etc. He was always pushing me to do a smaller FET mic, and after we nailed down the sound of the V44S it was a pretty easy design leap to do a "mono" multipattern version of the stereo mic. Since we already had the circuit and sound in hand, it was a pretty easy to strip it down into the exact same chassis dimensions and just use one headbasket. But because I'm a bit of an overachiever, we threw a pad/rolloff where the rear pattern switch existed on the V44S...because, you know...we could. Not having to do a bunch of new engineering work to get a new chassis going was a huge reason for it. It cut the product development effort pretty significantly. I really love design work, but it can be a timesuck for sure. Silly boring design stuff, but in order to get everything in there that I wanted, I ditched the idea of the daughterboard top PCB and the switches are mounted directly to the 2 main PCBs. Finding a quality vertical-bracket SP3T switch in the goldilocks zone of dimensions took a lot of searching, but paid off. We were really happy with how it turned out as a "workhorse" LDC, and the SPL handling is pretty bonkers. We had a V4 owner stick it inside his kick in a pinch, with the pad on, in omni mode, and it sounded pretty great. He sent me a WAV file and with a bit of standard "kick" EQ and compression, I was pretty surprised with how good it sounded. I never would've dreamt of putting a LDC condenser in a kick. Don't worry, we'll be at NAMM in 2020. We actually just finalized summer NAMM in Nashville too, we're gonna give it a go because I had a craving for hot chicken
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 11, 2019 14:32:06 GMT -6
I'm looking forward to hearing more from folks who've used them. I spent some time with the samples on their site last week, and I wasn't a huge fan of the top end on the vocal samples. I don't know if it was Soundcloud doing "the Soundcloud thing," or if it's just a top end I don't prefer. I'm impressed with their representation on RGO so far, though, which is a good sign. The soundcloud interface kind of sucks, but if you manage to get into the individual tracks by double-clicking on the title or however they do it, you can download the high-res WAV/AIFF files if we have them via a dropbox link (we have them for most of the tracks). Soundcloud is OGG 64k streaming if I recall correctly. It's definitely not the zippy high end you hear from a lot of K67-based mics. That said, our capsule is not as "peaky" as a lot of K67 clones are in the 5-8k range, as well as the 10k+ stuff. We put it directly against several different original 251s during development (among many other mics), because that's our favorite HF response of any mic ever. It's in that "just right" Goldilocks zone of smooth, but still has the air, and it it can be boosted with a high shelf if needed without having a lot of the undesirable bits n pieces come with it. When mics are designed, I think the sonic preferences of the designer kind of come with them too. Our preference is for a smoother top end than a lot of mics on the market today. If you put it up against mics like the Mojaves (which are also great), it's an apples and oranges kind of thing. Both are be useful for different genres and sources, but the Mojaves have a really significant top end. Far be it from me or any microphone company to declare their mic as a "one size fits all" solution. We just try to make really, really good ones that we like and use on our own stuff.
|
|
|
Post by chessparov on Apr 11, 2019 14:32:41 GMT -6
Thanks! Chris
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 11, 2019 14:32:54 GMT -6
I’m getting the 44S for demo next week. Thought I doubt I’ll be sending it back! well now you've jinxed it
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 11, 2019 14:33:51 GMT -6
you're welcome! Hope my responses aren't too crazy long. The Spartans had something called "laconic phrase", which is to say as much as possible with as few words as possible. I'm sort of the opposite of that.
|
|
|
Post by chessparov on Apr 11, 2019 14:34:45 GMT -6
Me too! Chris
|
|
|
Post by jcoutu1 on Apr 11, 2019 14:40:46 GMT -6
Where are the capsule from? Are they your own or outsourced?
|
|
|
Post by brenta on Apr 11, 2019 14:59:02 GMT -6
One peculiar thing about Vanguard is their secrecy. They won’t say who the designer is, although he is supposedly well known. They won’t say what kind of tube the V13 ships with. And I doubt they’ll tell us anything more about the capsule besides what’s listed on the website. Not bashing them for this, just making an observation. It’s peculiar.
|
|
|
Post by chessparov on Apr 11, 2019 18:46:38 GMT -6
Well Daniel Day-Lewis also is a shoemaker, in his off time. Hmm... Chris
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 11, 2019 19:41:23 GMT -6
One peculiar thing about Vanguard is their secrecy. They won’t say who the designer is, although he is supposedly well known. They won’t say what kind of tube the V13 ships with. And I doubt they’ll tell us anything more about the capsule besides what’s listed on the website. Not bashing them for this, just making an observation. It’s peculiar. "Peculiar" is definitely a word that applies to me. I'll wear it with honor Without going into the gory details, we've been burned before, and there's an abundance of caution born from past experiences. Perhaps even an overabundance. I try to be as open as I can without giving away what we could consider to be "key ingredients" in the secret sauce. I will say all our capsules are custom voicings of our own design, and nothing "off-the-rack", if you will. I don't make them here, but we do check and test every single one here, as we do with every microphone. Ken is a bit more willing to be open about being the designer than before, and has been at NAMM the last 3 years. That said, I also understand that: 1. as engineers and gear geeks, we tend to be inquirers, so there's always going to be a thirst for more knowledge about the tools we use; and 2. There's a (healthy!) skepticism when it comes to audio gear and manufacturers playing coy, because there've been some well-documented instances of snake oil over the years. So I'll never fault people for asking! In the case of #2, I hope the quality and uniqueness of our mics will continue to speak for itself. -DEREK
|
|
|
Post by tskguy on Apr 12, 2019 6:54:47 GMT -6
Let me know if you ever want an American made capsule
|
|
|
Post by sean on Apr 12, 2019 7:24:10 GMT -6
Hit Vanguard up about a demo unit of the V44S here in Nashville. I'd be interested to try it on drums, fiddle, and vocal groups.
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 12, 2019 10:44:17 GMT -6
Let me know if you ever want an American made capsule I love your guys' capsules and would be interested in a premium capsule set for our planned V7 in the future. It's something I've mulled over, but first I have to actually finish development . I've done a few mods for friends mics where our capsule is not the best fit for the circuit, and I usually end up going with the Heiserman 47.
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 12, 2019 10:47:39 GMT -6
Well Daniel Day-Lewis also is a shoemaker, in his off time. Hmm... Chris Abe Lincoln made shoes?
|
|
|
Post by chessparov on Apr 12, 2019 11:14:50 GMT -6
Well his father really was a shoemaker. (not to be confused with Willie, the Jockey).
And Abe could mend shoes-good practice for later mending a Nation! Chris
|
|
|
Post by vanguardaudiolabs on Apr 12, 2019 12:10:29 GMT -6
I have the v44s. Really loving this mic. Been doing simple drum setups with the v44s OH, 84 on snare and D12 on kick, plays nice with the old mics. Running mine into a Silver Bullet which seems to be a perfect match. Personally, I love that engineers are reverting to simpler techniques instead of like 32-input drums where every tom has a top mic, bottom mic, and shell mic. It's super cool to be able to do that, but I think the sheer amount of choices come mixdown would be overwhelming plus with all the phase considerations, etc. My personal style is to follow the KISS rule whenever possible - in design and in audio engineering. In studio, it's probably just out of streamlining the process. In design, it's because I've owned German cars that are overengineered and they were obnoxious to work on I was at a MixBusTV drum recording video shoot at Echo Bar in LA where David was running over 2-, 3-, 4-, and 8-mic drum tracking techniques, it was actually a lot of fun and I loved hearing the same kit and groove and room on the different setups. I think he used our V44S on OH duty for the 8-mic setup IIRC, the video should be out soon.
|
|
|
Post by brenta on Apr 15, 2019 15:38:51 GMT -6
Someone posted a shootout on the “other” gear forum and the v13 caught my ear. All the clips I’ve heard of it and the V1s sound great. I’m gonna have to try one out eventually. I’ve got a nice NOS 6072a just laying around looking for a home too.
|
|
|
Post by tskguy on Apr 16, 2019 14:06:51 GMT -6
Hey man thanks for the kind words... I would love to discuss more! Please let me know if you ever want to chat.... Your stuff looks great by the way.. Eric
|
|
|
Post by stormymondays on Apr 16, 2019 15:55:03 GMT -6
My v44s is here! Looking forward to shooting it out on OH against the Avantone later this week...
|
|
|
Post by chessparov on Apr 16, 2019 16:52:35 GMT -6
Yep, I've heard Shannon Adkins audio clips there, with the V13 and it sounded terrific for him. It also sounded excellent, on his daughter's vocals... Who also has a beautiful singing voice-like her Daddy. Cbris
|
|