ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 15,782
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Post by ericn on Jul 29, 2018 20:01:17 GMT -6
My Sebatron Axis is likely powerful enough for this mic but I'll probably pick up a Cloudlifter CL-2 so my other preamps can get in on the action. Don't waste your money on a cloud-of-marketing-wallet-lifter. No one needs one of those, ok maybe 5% of people need one, but probably not you. You need more gain, use compressor make-up gain / etc AFTER your preamp. Those things make more noise than the front end of your preamp, apples-to-apples. Jim Williams don't lie about that, nor does his test gear. Doug is absolutely right these things are bandaids, better gain starring and management is a far better less expensive and important learned skill, putting your cash in this type of piece before your kit is rounded out is irresponsible. But I will say this I don’t know how many times one of these things would have made life simpler. In my FOH and monitor days a couple of these would have lived in my bag, but remember this was always with a well rounded kit.
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Post by EmRR on Jul 29, 2018 20:07:35 GMT -6
Don't waste your money on a cloud-of-marketing-wallet-lifter. Doug is absolutely right these things are bandaids, In my FOH and monitor days a couple of these would have lived in my bag, but remember this was always with a well rounded kit. Yeah, I can see uses in FOH and MON positions with long cable runs and/or lower gain console pre's.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 15,782
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Post by ericn on Jul 30, 2018 0:58:48 GMT -6
Doug is absolutely right these things are bandaids, In my FOH and monitor days a couple of these would have lived in my bag, but remember this was always with a well rounded kit. Yeah, I can see uses in FOH and MON positions with long cable runs and/or lower gain console pre's. Even for a freelancer it is a quick problem solver, but not a must have, I can think of at least a dozen times I could have used one in some less than ideal room where it sure would have been quicker than re doing all of the gain staging, but it would have been just a bandaid not a real fix.
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Post by Guitar on Jul 31, 2018 11:16:17 GMT -6
I just nabbed the Softube Tape plugin for $49 since today is the last day of the summer sale.
Preliminary testing is very positive. It's got a sort of "sheen" to it, and it's not as quick and dirty as the UAD ones. Just sort of a hi-fi tape polish.
I stuck 8 of them across my drum inputs so I'm going to try "tracking drums to tape" in my session tomorrow and see how that turns out.
Something that's been in the back of my head for some time, just was waiting for the right plugin to come along (UAD is too DSP limited for this application.)
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Post by drumhead57 on Aug 1, 2018 16:05:45 GMT -6
Definitely one of the best tape plugins I've tried.
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Post by EmRR on Aug 1, 2018 16:39:52 GMT -6
updated RX5 to RX6.....it paid for itself in an hour.....
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 23:45:30 GMT -6
I've done the RX Advanced 3 to 4, and 4 to 5, but am holding out for RX7 Advanced as there doesn't seem to be enough in 6 that would warrant the upgrade fee. 5 is still paying for itself every week.
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Post by roundbadge on Aug 2, 2018 0:58:20 GMT -6
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Post by rowmat on Aug 2, 2018 3:18:29 GMT -6
Noice! Expensive dusty old things I would imagine?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2018 3:50:52 GMT -6
Mi KM84s just arrived, sound great, but different looking capsules with a 4dB difference in output level... Gonna send them off to Andreas this week.
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Post by EmRR on Aug 2, 2018 7:54:21 GMT -6
I've done the RX Advanced 3 to 4, and 4 to 5, but am holding out for RX7 Advanced as there doesn't seem to be enough in 6 that would warrant the upgrade fee. 5 is still paying for itself every week. The interpolate tool seems to work a whole lot better. I painted out chair squeaks and toe tapping on tons of acoustic guitar tracks with no undo/redo cycles at all, and that was always finicky in 5. The biggest addition for multitrack guys is composite view which allows the same edits across up to 16 tracks, rather than 1 at a time.
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Post by svart on Aug 2, 2018 9:42:47 GMT -6
Mooer ge200.
It's a digital pedal with amp and cab simulation plus all the normal effects. It also has IR loading, so you can load your own..
I plan on using this to get rough approximation of amps for monitoring while getting DI guitar tracks.
This way I don't have to make final decisions during tracking since the bands always change their minds later anyway..
I haven't received it yet, but I've found all the videos and such to be similar enough to the better modeling units like the helix, and a lot better than the pod stuff.
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Post by Guitar on Aug 3, 2018 16:36:29 GMT -6
I got one of these things, that everyone is talking about. It's tiny! Like incredibly small. After a few days I should be able to give some feedback, showed up late today.
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Post by rowmat on Aug 3, 2018 16:56:41 GMT -6
Don't waste your money on a cloud-of-marketing-wallet-lifter. No one needs one of those, ok maybe 5% of people need one, but probably not you. You need more gain, use compressor make-up gain / etc AFTER your preamp. Those things make more noise than the front end of your preamp, apples-to-apples. Jim Williams don't lie about that, nor does his test gear. Doug is absolutely right these things are bandaids, better gain starring and management is a far better less expensive and important learned skill, putting your cash in this type of piece before your kit is rounded out is irresponsible. But I will say this I don’t know how many times one of these things would have made life simpler. In my FOH and monitor days a couple of these would have lived in my bag, but remember this was always with a well rounded kit. I have a few Cloudlifters and I have found that as long as you have enough preamp gain and are not running long cable distances I prefer not to use them. I would rather locate the preamp closer to the mic (especially if using passive ribbons) than use a Cloudlifter. When using high quality, low noise, high gain pre's such as a Twin Servo I find the Cloudlifter does add more noise to signal than the preamp does without it after gain matching. The preamp noise without the Cloudlifter also tends to be smoother. A lower quality, low gain preamp would benefit more but don't assume anything until you try it. I think one of their main advantages is they allow you to use a variety of preamps that may have had insufficient gain without the Cloudlifter especially with passive ribbons.
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Post by iamasound on Aug 4, 2018 9:04:19 GMT -6
This may sound silly or just plain naive on my part as I might have misinterpreted the gist in the distant past, but...I have believed up until the moment of the reading this thread that a mic like an Electro Voice RE-20 actually needed about 60dB of gain to sound as good it can and that it needed to come from the preamp. But from what I glean from comments here by a bunch of incredibly knowledgable folk is that any gain can be added later in the signal chain to bring up the mic capture to a usable level, for example from the makeup gain of a compressor. What is the lowdown on this?
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Post by Ward on Aug 4, 2018 9:49:06 GMT -6
This may sound silly or just plain naive on my part as I might have misinterpreted the gist in the distant past, but...I have believed up until the moment of the reading this thread that a mic like an Electro Voice RE-20 actually needed about 60dB of gain to sound as good it can and that it needed to come from the preamp. But from what I glean from comments here by a bunch of incredibly knowledgable folk is that any gain can be added later in the signal chain to bring up the mic capture to a usable level, for example from the makeup gain of a compressor. What is the lowdown on this? You're not wrong! And the RE20 is low output, but not as bad as the Hipster-approved SM7B But in that vein, the best sounding and highest output microphone is the Electro-Voice RE27. I allow, one could argue the 441 has them all beat but it's not a large diaphragm.
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Post by iamasound on Aug 4, 2018 12:48:46 GMT -6
Thanks for chiming in. For a moment there I was doubting my ears as well as experience using my RE-20. Even though I have preamps that have quiet gain up towards 60dB and above, I had bought a Triton Audio Fethead years back and was very happy, feeling that the mic really opened up somewhere between feeding it 65-70 dB.
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Post by EmRR on Aug 4, 2018 19:44:25 GMT -6
This may sound silly or just plain naive on my part as I might have misinterpreted the gist in the distant past, but...I have believed up until the moment of the reading this thread that a mic like an Electro Voice RE-20 actually needed about 60dB of gain to sound as good it can and that it needed to come from the preamp. But from what I glean from comments here by a bunch of incredibly knowledgable folk is that any gain can be added later in the signal chain to bring up the mic capture to a usable level, for example from the makeup gain of a compressor. What is the lowdown on this? It absolutely does not all have to come from the preamp. Sticking a Fethead in front of it is apples to oranges, for one thing you are now using a different input circuit which is noisier than your preamp input circuit so 1) noise is higher 2) sound is different. Set your preamp for max usable gain on it's own, then record a sample. Then stick the fethead in line and lower the preamp gain until the 2nd chain total gain matches the first. Use an iphone test tone or something in front of the mic if you want it done crudely, or use a test tone from something like a Shure A15TG, or a DAW send at very low levels to the XLR input. Record sample 2. Compare sound and noise. You may like the sound better with the Fethead, you may not....that's a personal preference. Whatever it sounds like, it will SOUND like THAT moreso with any preamp option than it did; it erases the interaction between mic and preamp transformers, for better or worse. The noise WILL be higher. Now reverse the test and set the levels as you would with FH and preamp, then remove the FH and take another sample. Raise the levels in your DAW to match the FH version, compare. Next test, replace the FH with comp makeup gain after the pre, compare to FH before the pre with matched levels.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 4, 2018 22:16:12 GMT -6
2 Triton Audio True Phantom 48V Supplies Matched pair of Schoeps M221B Tube SDCs with M934b and MK26 caps Pair of CAPI VP28 Platinums MicPre/DI
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Post by EmRR on Aug 5, 2018 13:41:12 GMT -6
Haven't driven one of those in a looooong time.....have fun!
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Post by EmRR on Aug 5, 2018 13:47:58 GMT -6
KM 131. Suspect I'll find it much more useful than the KM 140's I sold recently.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 5, 2018 18:37:36 GMT -6
KM 131. Suspect I'll find it much more useful than the KM 140's I sold recently. Interesting. I was shooting out SDCs on acoustic guitar today and was surprised how well the KM140 hung with some of the real classics (84, 86, 88, 451eb)! Can’t argue with a good Omni though. I’d love to snag a pair of KK31 capsules for my KM100 amp bodies. There’s something really special about the Schoeps 221b tho...
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Post by EmRR on Aug 5, 2018 18:54:26 GMT -6
KM 131. Suspect I'll find it much more useful than the KM 140's I sold recently. Interesting. I was shooting out SDCs on acoustic guitar today and was surprised how well the KM140 hung with some of the real classics (84, 86, 88, 451eb)! Can’t argue with a good Omni though. I’d love to snag a pair of KK31 capsules for my KM100 amp bodies. There’s something really special about the Schoeps 221b tho... I'll try to stop saying it....really.....I kinda despised the 140 on acoustic guitar....had 20 years to confirm that conclusion. All metallic string noise and too much bass.....sounds good 12 feet away......same on OH's, bright and nasty, works if angled 90º away from the drums! Please no one take it personally, I just don't like'm! Plenty of people do!
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Post by spindrift on Aug 6, 2018 0:05:32 GMT -6
Haha Doug, I get it. And 20 years is a lot more time than my 6 months of owning them. I wonder if it’s capsule or amp circuit revision related? Mine are later models if that makes any difference. Still sound better than my 184s but only slightly.
I was really surprised overall though with my tests, you could make a great sounding track out of any one of those SDCs. The weakest of the bunch on steel strings was the 451 but it was the winner on the nylon string guitar. Go figure.
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Post by mcirish on Aug 6, 2018 8:40:36 GMT -6
Yesterday I bought something I've waited 20 years to buy. I got a Yamaha U3 piano. I could not afford a new one but found a refurbished U30B1 (same as U3 but not for the US market). It plays like new and looks great with just a little finish checking. I've used samples forever and my favorite samples were always the Addictive Keys upright, which is a U3. Very forward and present sound. For the type of recordings I do, (singer songwriter) it's perfect. Now I have the real thing. The only big problem is that I have to find storage outside the studio so I can make a place for the piano. Can't wait to have it delivered.
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