3 Barbaric Amplification Mic Samples

Here are (3) samples of Barbaric Amplification microphones in action to showcase the art of science of some on here (and elsewhere) who have inspired me:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_4w9GhbUMs6mSPVtdP896DuBPJA1L6vI?usp=sharing

BA12 on piano was into a Universal Audio 2-610 Preamp
BA49b on percussion was into a Dan Alexander Neve 1272 Preamp
BAM2 on drum room was into Barbaric BA-T2 Tube Preamp

BA49b:
-SYT-5 Body
-Flea F47 Back Plates Modded for 1-micron Mylar, gold sputtered,by Allen Luke of Luke Audio
-5840w Tube
-AMI BV11r

BA12, Stephen Paul-Inspired:
-HT-11A Body with open-grill
-Tim Campbell CT-12 modded for 1-micron Mylar, platinum sputtered, by Allen Luke of Luke Audio Capsule
-5751 Tube
-Samar Audio Large-Core Transformer

BAM2:
-MXL 910 Body
-BeesNeez K7 Capsule
-5840w Tube
-Custom Cinemag Transformer made to Barbaric specs.

Taken from a forth-coming release by:
raquellily.com

Being a bit of a "devil's advocate" here, but in general, aren't recorded samples kinda meaningless, "in a vacuum"?

By "in a vacuum" i mean without, say, another (well-known?) mic as a comparison, or without a "fixed" and easily-reproducible sound-source.

For all we (ie. people at a distance) know, the (possibly greater) reason a sound sample sounds as good (or not-good) as it does may well be down to the source itself, rather than the mic Or any other of a myriad of potential variables... Plus human hearing and audio memory being the fickle beasts that they are.

Agreed, only in recent years there has started growing a belief that microphones can be demoed remotely, and this disturbs me.

Yes, there are some relative-measure things that you can hear, but the amount of actual information is very small indeed. And extremely easy tampered with, if you have a purpose - or even just a wish - of one being different in some way or the other.

I would almost go to the extent of grouping this practice with statistics - never trust one you haven't falsified yourself..  ;D

Jakob E.

gyraf said:

I would almost go to the extent of grouping this practice with statistics - never trust one you haven't falsified yourself..  ;D

Click to expand...

Arf! You got me my daily laugh. Thanks Jacob!

I think there are way too many variables with comparisons in general (even with a well-known control), but definitely can help narrow down the endless list of product to try in your own hands.

In the case of samples (no comparisons), in general, I do feel they can highlight what CAN be achieved with a product; should the stars align.

In either case, you gotta start somewhere to make you want to try it in your own hands.

Regardless, I can’t tell you how much money I’ve lost the past 25-years buying and trying for myself on great sources in exceptional studios, only to eventually not being so impressed over the course of time and loosing money in order to resell it; especially mics!

I’ve now 20 custom tube mics over the past 5-years (and still counting), mostly  using parts, recommendations, and inspiration stemming from contributors here! When I put them on an instrument on a whim and plug them into whichever preamp happens to still be available and get samples like these, I know it’s the musician, instrument, studio, mic, and preamp; and there’s nothing holding me back! At that point, hopefully what’s left is simply room for artistic opinion and changing things out to achieve that.