Soliloqueen's k87(k67) and k47 capsules

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negaikast said:
What body did you put that circuit into?
Click to expand...
A cheap body from micparts. To be honest I am going to put it all into a different body because this body has RF shielding issues. Obviously it was behaving here, but sometimes I get RF interference. It’s one of those painted screw together lypes. Tried removing the paint, adding ferrite beads to the XLR wires, no luck. The body sucks. I’ll probably put the whole thing into a different body sometime soon now that the mic sounds good!
 
EarthTone said:
I hope it's OK to post this stuff here! I am just excited because I bought one of Soliloqueen's flat k47 capsules a couple of weeks ago and finally had some time to try it out and I'm very impressed. I love it.

I'm a saxophonist & audio engineer, and the thing I've noticed about recording saxophones over the years is that the 3khz range is right where saxophones usually sound really bad. At least on my sound, and my tenor especially, I really don't like it and usually end up cutting there in a mix. But ribbon mics are also not my thing on tenor, at least not by themselves, and if I use one I usually feel like it needs a 47 style condenser mic tracked at the same time to blend with it so it's not too dark and muddy sounding in the mix.

I got a great deal on a used Bock 47 some years ago which is my usual go-to on tenor. I have this other mic I built from a Micparts kit when I first started building stuff called the T-47, it's like a large diaphragm capsule + a km84 style circuit. The kit came with a RK-47, which I guess is an Asian origin K47 style capsule. I always thought this mic sucked and was too bright for my horn.

I just put the flat Soliloqueen capsule in the T-47 and was really floored with how much the sound of the mic changed. For me it became way better and especially on my tenor sax, I would actually use this circuit and capsule combination on a recording! Love it.

For the sake of anyone interested I decided to post the 3 demo files I made for myself to compare the 3 mics and especially the RK-47 capsule vs the Soliloqueen flat k47 capsule. The recording chain is the same on all 3 mics, an AML 1073 500 series preamp into a Mytek Brooklyn ADC. Tried to level match best as possible.

Hope the demos are interesting for people interested in these capsules. The Matrix picture has nothing to do with the test I just needed a placeholder image. I will be buying some more of these capsules for other projects! Very interested to hear the K-87's.





Click to expand...

Wow..Is it my ears or does the track with the flat 47 sounds like a different mic all together..?..Sounds really good..!..As stated, I'd love to hear the Flat 47 on vocals...Great job Soliloqueen..!
 
EarthTone said:
A cheap body from micparts. To be honest I am going to put it all into a different body because this body has RF shielding issues. Obviously it was behaving here, but sometimes I get RF interference. It’s one of those painted screw together lypes. Tried removing the paint, adding ferrite beads to the XLR wires, no luck. The body sucks. I’ll probably put the whole thing into a different body sometime soon now that the mic sounds good!
Click to expand...
Off-Topic but let us know what body you choose.
 
Snatchman said:
Wow..Is it my ears or does the track with the flat 47 sounds like a different mic all together..?..Sounds really good..!..As stated, I'd love to hear the Flat 47 on vocals...Great job Soliloqueen..!
Click to expand...
I have some vocal tracks I recorded on the fly just for myself but I'd be happy to post here for anyone's benefit. Let me find some time to get them together.
 
EarthTone said:
I hope it's OK to post this stuff here! I am just excited because I bought one of Soliloqueen's flat k47 capsules a couple of weeks ago and finally had some time to try it out and I'm very impressed. I love it.

I'm a saxophonist & audio engineer, and the thing I've noticed about recording saxophones over the years is that the 3khz range is right where saxophones usually sound really bad. At least on my sound, and my tenor especially, I really don't like it and usually end up cutting there in a mix. But ribbon mics are also not my thing on tenor, at least not by themselves, and if I use one I usually feel like it needs a 47 style condenser mic tracked at the same time to blend with it so it's not too dark and muddy sounding in the mix.

I got a great deal on a used Bock 47 some years ago which is my usual go-to on tenor. I have this other mic I built from a Micparts kit when I first started building stuff called the T-47, it's like a large diaphragm capsule + a km84 style circuit. The kit came with a RK-47, which I guess is an Asian origin K47 style capsule. I always thought this mic sucked and was too bright for my horn.

I just put the flat Soliloqueen capsule in the T-47 and was really floored with how much the sound of the mic changed. For me it became way better and especially on my tenor sax, I would actually use this circuit and capsule combination on a recording! Love it.

For the sake of anyone interested I decided to post the 3 demo files I made for myself to compare the 3 mics and especially the RK-47 capsule vs the Soliloqueen flat k47 capsule. The recording chain is the same on all 3 mics, an AML 1073 500 series preamp into a Mytek Brooklyn ADC. Tried to level match best as possible.

Hope the demos are interesting for people interested in these capsules. The Matrix picture has nothing to do with the test I just needed a placeholder image. I will be buying some more of these capsules for other projects! Very interested to hear the K-87's.





Click to expand...

Oh wow, sounds very smooth! I need to get me a couple of solilo's capsules soon....Thanks for sharing!
 
Tested soliloqueen against 3U M7, just wow! Improved performance all-around. More detail, better LE respons, better EQ'able and less sillibance. No small feat since 3U M7 is regarded by many as better than the previous reference Thiersch Blue.

These little capsules are breathtaking, the quality just looking at them is so evident. Even compared to an original Neumann K67 this beast wins most of the time at least for me, just such a balanced sound.
 
After hearing that sax I am seriousIy tempted to grab a coupIe of the fIat puppies in the February run. That capsuIe sounds amazing in that circuit. I gather the price incIudes shipping. What kind of mount is recommended for these, or is that incIuded as weII (that wouId be insane vaIue)?

EDIT: whoops, I bought a pair on preorder :)
 
soliloqueen said:
mounts are always included now
Click to expand...
Amazing. Excited! Thank you very much for doing this!!

Since this fIat beauty seems to sound amazing in a km84 circuit I ordered two FET847 boards as weII, and a coupIe of oId beyer 5:1 transformers from ebay. Going "fuII anaI detaiI backwards tone hunter" and putting carbon resistors and nice oiI caps in there and I figure I'II get a pretty speciaI pair of mics.....exciting indeed. OnIy thing to soIve is what bodies.
 
I don't know how I missed this thread, but somehow I didn't see it before and now it's 21 pages long,
so I have a lot of reading to do.

I was waiting for your capsules for some time, actually since the first time you told me about the work you were doing.
It's very exciting to know it really happened and it's happening now, congratulations
 
EarthTone said:
A cheap body from micparts. To be honest I am going to put it all into a different body because this body has RF shielding issues. Obviously it was behaving here, but sometimes I get RF interference. It’s one of those painted screw together lypes. Tried removing the paint, adding ferrite beads to the XLR wires, no luck. The body sucks. I’ll probably put the whole thing into a different body sometime soon now that the mic sounds good!
Click to expand...
Great shootout, thanks for doing this. As far as the RF…I had the same issue with a t12 from mic parts. I couldn’t get rid of it so I took the mic apart and built a mini u47 using that body. No RF issues. I believe the problem is in the circuit and not the body.
 
Purplenoise said:
Great shootout, thanks for doing this. As far as the RF…I had the same issue with a t12 from mic parts. I couldn’t get rid of it so I took the mic apart and built a mini u47 using that body. No RF issues. I believe the problem is in the circuit and not the body.
Click to expand...
Damn. Sorry to hear that about the circuit.

No problem about the shootout, this is the fun side of the business to me. Helps me learn also which is the main goal.

I wonder if grounding the circuit better would help. I really like the way this board sounds with this capsule so would love to solidify it.
 
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