ECM8000 omnidirectional mics

[PinkStrat]

Hello everybody,

I was in Banjo Center just yesterday and I saw that they are stocking the Berringer ECM8000 omnidirectional mics. Are these the same mics that everyone says sound pretty good for overheads, acoustic guitar and so on? This said it was a "reference microphone." Actually, tro be honest it looked pretty cool! Is this a microphone that I have to try out a few of to see which ones sound good or are they all okay in your opinion(s)? I remember Harvey mentioning that he liked this microphone for some things & I thought it might make a useful addition to my locker? What say you?

[lpdeluxe]

The ECM8000 is designed to use with the Ultra Curve realtime analyzer. I have one of each but I have never recorded with the mic. It ought be fairly uncolored, since it is marketed as a measurement mic.

[Wizball]

The ECM8000 is simply a small diaphragm condenser, and works for whatever you would use such a thing. Don't let the "designed for" and "reference" marketspeak fool you into thinking you can't use it for anything else. I've just bought two to use as drum overheads, and they worked perfectly. It isn't the first "measurement microphone" to be used for recording.

[lpdeluxe]

Well, I bought mine to go with the Ultra Curve. I have a pair of SM81s and an AT4041 that I use on the theory that $300 is going to sound better than $40. Of course, I could be wrong, but I just have never felt the need to use the ECM8000 for anything else other than to feed the UC.

[P Hallin]

I have used a pair of these on a whole album as the default acoustic guitar mics. And they are a dream in my opinion. They make recording ac git relatively easy to how it can be, you put it where it should sound good and it sounds great, really clear and since its omni, full to... Stereo micing with them is really real and transparent. Your there...

I saw the scottish artist Fish (formerly from Marillion) used them to...

[Paco]

i had good results with mine on acoustic guitar for 2 weeks - great sound, although a big noisy, then it started sounding like it's in a wind tunnel w/ white noise. of course GC wouldn't do anything for me and said "you can buy another one..." ... yeah, ok.

[P Hallin]

Originally Posted by Paco

i had good results with mine on acoustic guitar for 2 weeks - great sound, although a big noisy, then it started sounding like it's in a wind tunnel w/ white noise. of course GC wouldn't do anything for me and said "you can buy another one..." ... yeah, ok.

Ok, now that sucks... It sounds like its defective. They should replace it..

[cominginsecond]

If it broke you need to take it back and get a refund or an exchange credit at the very least. I know that's their policy. Don't let some salesperson give you any crap.

[Wizball]

Originally Posted by lpdeluxe

Well, I bought mine to go with the Ultra Curve. I have a pair of SM81s and an AT4041 that I use on the theory that $300 is going to sound better than $40. Of course, I could be wrong, but I just have never felt the need to use the ECM8000 for anything else other than to feed the UC.

You're probably right, but I was a bit astonished to hear someone owning an microphone and not try it out for some recording - but I guess I'm very curious by nature...

[drummercat]

I have a pair of them......
they worked like a dream before........
but I after I hit some very very loud rimshot.....they are not working properly......
seems they are not ok to handling very high spl I think.....
so....if you guys going to buy those mics.......dont hit too hard!!

[Michael Jones]

I put a lot of effort into working with these mikes.
I tried numerous positions, and a few different pres.
While they rendered plausable, usable recordings, this was the best I could get out of them:

http://artists.iuma.com/site-bin/streammp3.m3u?286662

Being an omni microphone, the room is going to influence their sound greatly.
Any short commings in the recording can most likely be attributed to the lack of proper treatment in my recording environment.
I think I can make these mikes shine when I get into the new studio.

If you liisten to the recording you'll notice a real lack of definition around 100 - 200 Hz. (Can you say "Bass Trap"?)

[chessrock]

Aside from their unusually high self-noise . . .

They seem to be rather sensitive to loud transients, and will clip easily if placed too close to a loud source.

Other than that, I think they're great for more modest sources like tamborine and/or hand percussion.