What are your underestimate pieces of gear ?

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evilcat

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
396
Location
France - Paris
A thread for fun !  ;)
The 1st thing that comes to my mind is a UHER mic, the M538. I got it from ebay for mabey 50€ incl. ship. It was made in the 70's, looks like it comes from Star Trek, solid like a tank and is one of my "go to" mic for recording electric guitars. It has a wonderful midrange, rich and never agressive :eek:. I also had excellent result on a rock femal voice.
For only 50€, you can't go wrong !
 
My modded dolby 360´s

I got them in exchange for some technical advice !

Now, i cannot mix without them.

Studio have another modded pair of 361´s.

 
An old Ampex stereo 'tv' mic.  Don't know the model #.  They're little square mics mounted on a small tripod stand and came with an Ampex cassette recorder.

Very cool for recording acoustic guitar with.  They have a special zingy, silvery rolled-off mid range sound (somewhat like the quality of the SSL listen comp plug in from Logic) that nothing else quite approaches.  One trick pony but a good one.

Also a Precision Electronics 30W PA head - makes a great guitar head in stock condition - just plug in the mic input and GO!
 
lassoharp said:
An old Ampex stereo 'tv' mic.  Don't know the model #.  They're little square mics mounted on a small tripod stand and came with an Ampex cassette recorder.

Yeah those cassette recorder's mics are great ! The Uher M538 included a tripod stand to and was made for an Uher cassette recorder. I also have a Revox M3500 who is actually a copy of the Beyer M201 made by Beyer for the Revox cassette recorder, of course it cost nothing !  If you ever found a Studer mic, take it, it's actualy a Schoeps one !!!
 
Green Pre.
I hear people saying that once they have Neve or 312's, they dont get any use.
When tracking vocals trough my tube mic 460, with new tube and transformer....thats what i've been using lately.
Never underestimate the power of simplistics aproaches.
Thanks.
 
The SM7b. Killer workhorse that never sounds bad. High gain pre needed but so many uses no studio should go without one.
 
Couple of weeks ago my friend and I recorded a demo of one of my songs in our living room. It was a simple Senheiser reporter mic plugged into a portable mini disc and the line out of the mini disc straight into his Mac. I sat in front of the mic with the acoustic guitar, played slide and sung. We still can not believe the guitar sound we got. Slide solos are screaming. Of course, as bloody usual the tempo is wrong and the guitar track naturally has vocal leak in it. Otherwise I would have cut the solo and use it on the final recording. Anyhow, we'll do it again under the same conditions to try to capture it.
 
Morning_Star said:
The SM7b. Killer workhorse that never sounds bad. High gain pre needed but so many uses no studio should go without one.

I have 1 or 2 in the studio. I did a shootout few month ago on electric gtr with a Beyer M69, a Uher M538,, SM58 and SM7b and, for my taste, the M69 and M538 are way better than the Shures, I found them to be much more precise and clear. The M69 gives big bottom and beautiful Hi-mids and the M538 gives gorgeous Mid freq.

One tool I use a lot with multiple mic recording is the Vari-phase of the Rupert Neve Design Portico 5016. It's now discontinued (maybe a 2 years life only !!!) but it's a great piece. And the preamp section is also really good (like the 5012). The Vari-phase makes life easier and gives you big sounds !
 
StudioSQ said:
I also don't get the SM-7 thing. Beyer m-69 might be my "secret weapon" dynamic.

I wouldn't consider the SM-7 in the sleeper category.  More of a desert island piece.  I've seen it get the call on vocals when a number of other higher priced condensers weren't getting the desired results. I believe it even made the top all time fav-go-to voc mics in a Mix article some years ago - whatever that's worth.
 
Sennheiser 441 - love em. Could easily make a record with only that mic, easily!  Have 2 would like a 3rd.

Cheers,
Ruairi

(Also SSL9K pre, love it dearly)

 
SM7 wins 90% of the time, in terms of satisfaction and usefulness, when thrown up in front of the average random client you've never tracked, who of course has no budget and needs it done yesterday.  When it's wrong for the singer, it clearly sounds broken. 

The Dolby 740 is one of those things I forget I own, because it entered a position in my arsenal and I've cruised along with it for 14-15 years now, virtually unaware of it's presence and significance.  Every now and then I turn it off, and feel the pain.  I virtually never touch it, and the clients don't know it's there either. 
 
Shure SM99 Podium mics. 
My brother used to do all the A/V setup for a high-end hotel.  They were throwing out some stuff and he ended up grabbing me 4 of these things.  I love them.  Great for drum overheads and I usually X/Y them.  I'll use one on the bottom side of snare and roll off everything below 3K with 6DB per octave slope.  It also sounds killer on this seemingly dull Silvertone single 12" combo I have.  Small, cheap and maneuverable. 

Calrec PQ-15 Pre-EQ
While not cheap, these aren't given the respect they deserve.  I'll put them up against any old Neve module.  My friend and I were both thinking about buying racked pairs.  He dove in first, and right after hearing his, I bought mine the following day.  I don't like raving about preamps, but these have a "thing".  The EQ is so smooth too.  Not enough low mid frequency options, but the top and bottom are super special. 

Audio Technica ATM-25
One of my favorite floor tom mics.  I like floor toms.  So does this mic.
 
MikoKensington said:
Audio Technica ATM-25
One of my favorite floor tom mics.  I like floor toms.  So does this mic.

...as a kick drum mic this gets pulled out first for me - for live sound it's incredible - very little eq needed, full, fat sound.  Awesome.

That, a beyer m201 on snare and a single 414 as an overhead gives a fantastic drum sound!
 
MikoKensington said:
Audio Technica ATM-25
One of my favorite floor tom mics.  I like floor toms.  So does this mic.

I totally agree. And for bassdrums it's a great one too.

Oh, and to throw another in : My 70's phonic graphic eq. Used in the guitarchain, after the distortion of course. Wicked.... it comes in a housing comparable to those ugly stereo line mixers for cd players and turntables commonly used in bars .
 

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