MXL 960 Tube Condenser Mic - Looking for Feedback

M

Metal Marc

Pretend Action Guy (PAG)
Anyone used these? What did you use it for/with? Here's why I wanna know: my friend has an excellent, high-end project studio. This weekend, he recorded some guitar tracks with a band in their little project studio. He brought in a rough mix (pre-mastered) to work this morning. It all sounded good. He told me to pay attention to the drums. They sounded great: excellent high-end. Very clean. He told me they did it with MXL 960's.

He said they used two MXL 960's as overheads. The stock tubes in the mics and in the preamp (an ART MPA Digital Gold, something I've been looking to buy) were all NOS Mullard 12AT7's. The software was Cakewalk 8. Seriously, guys: the overheads sounded excellent. I wouldn't have believed it unless I heard it.

Any experiences with MXL 960's?
 
I own one, and it is indeed a decent mic for the money. Especially with a better tube in it. And seeing as how it's no longer produced you can probably get some great deals on the used market, that's the only place you'll find one now I'm thinking.
 
IMHO this is one of the best mic buys around right now. Especially with a tube swap (consensus seems to be that the Mullard 4024 is the tube of choice), it is a very good sounding mic, with a very nice round low end, so I'm not surprised that your friends got a great drum track out of a couple of them.

On Pylet's advice, I'm getting ready to put a Peluso CEK89s in mine... I'm just waiting on a new soldering iron to show up!:D
 
The 960 wasn't discontinued, that was an assumption because the used the same body for their Genesis mic. You can get it at Musicians Friends for $199.

This mic with a tube change holds up very well and I use it more often than some of my "better" more expensive mics.

I use 2 different tubes depending on the source. The 6072 for most voices as it's full and open. The 12AT7 changes the character for a more mid-forward sound with more color.

And the tube change smooths the capsule sound out. The stock 12AX7 tube adds a bit of upper mid brightness to the sound that goes away with the 6072 as well as an increase in low end fullness.

For anyone looking for a good tube mic this is a no-brainer, especially with a couple tubes and I'm using inexpensive Electro-Harmonix tubes.

Lucio
 
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