My C-1's sound awful

[philboyd studge]

I was getting some hi freq distortion off the C1 and a focusrite voicemaster last weekend, it was peaking the highs on the pre-in and so I had to back off the gain and pump up the output to make it stop. Around 5-6K I would guess.

Seems that high end sheen characteristic really drives some pres and if they can't handle the transients you get this occurance. Alan, you seen this elsewhere?

Thats kind of what I was experiencing, but the windscreens made matters worse.

From what I've been able to put together I'd say SD condensers work better than LD's when run through a PA. By flattening out the EQ and a few other adjustments you can very clean sound out of SD's but only a little more than half the volume of a stage dynamic.

So why bother? Well, for an intimate acoustic set like a house concert or the like it would be a nice alternative to typical PA sound of a dynamic and a plugged in acoustic guitar.

 

[DJL]

As far as Tina Turner or her band using Studio Projects C1's on tour, has anyone asked Jim Ralston about this yet?

 

[alanhyatt]

I'm gonna have to back you up on that one Gidge.
Now, am I thnking about the right C1? The studio projects? I couldnt imagine Tina Turner using a project studio mic. Much less live. Am I mistaken?

Yes, you are wrong. In fact Tina used the C1 for pretty much every show she did in Europe last year. They had to modify a special holder for her to sit the mic in. She also used it on all the recording sessions she did as well.

I did not believe it either, but when I spoke to her Bass Player he confirmed the story, so believe it, or not....

 

[DJL]

Yes, you are wrong. In fact Tina used the C1 for pretty much every show she did in Europe last year. They had to modify a special holder for her to sit the mic in. She also used it on all the recording sessions she did as well.

I did not believe it either, but when I spoke to her Bass Player he confirmed the story, so believe it, or not....

Intersting... thanks Alan.

 

[Brent Casey]

philboyd,

So, you try to use the C-1 in an application for which it is sure to sound like ass and then post a subject line like "My C-1's sound awful" on a newsgroup? You know, you can do and say whatever you like, but I would prefer that you reserve such subject lines for legitimate problems with our mic - not just to announce that you got crappy results due to misuse of our product.

Sincerely,

Brent Casey
PMI Audio - Studio Projects Microphones
Torrance, Ca.
877-563-6335

Well not really, but as an experiment I brought in my EMX 860 Yamaha PA head and some speakers to see what they'd sound like in a PA application.

I tried going directly in using the onboard phantom power and no pad reduction on the input. I also tried separate pre amps.
Feedback is obviously a problem and flattening out the eq helps but still there's not much gain. At normal vocal levels the sound is very nice but if I push at all it distorts like crazy no matter what I do....something I've never run across in recording with these mics.

I wonder what it is, lack of compression? I don't know, but I'll try some other condensers later and see what happens.

 

[jet-rocker]

Bad form Brent.

And.... if you would have read the whole thread, you'd have found your boss Mr. Hyatt relating Tina Turner's success using the C-1 as a live mic.

Calm down son, we like you here.

-Jett

 

[Brent Casey]

J-R,

Call it what you will. And I did read the entire thread before posting.
Perhaps, because I am typing this instead of speaking in person, it sounds like I'm angry at what philboyd said: I'm not.

Regards,

Brent Casey

Bad form Brent.

And.... if you would have read the whole thread, you'd have found your boss Mr. Hyatt relating Tina Turner's success using the C-1 as a live mic.

Calm down son, we like you here.

-Jett

 

[chessparov]

Maybe philboyd should have had the thread title read;
"My C1's sound BAD" meaning "good" like when James Brown
says that or "superbad".

At least you didn't try to do any underwater miking-yet!

And I thought all those 60's pictures of singers handholding
Sennheiser 421's were odd...

Chris

 

[Brent Casey]

Actually, the C-1 will do fine in a sound reinforcement situation, you just have to make sure that it isn't feeding into the stacks or the wedges, which is very easy to do in a smaller room. I haven't mixed any Tina Turner-sized shows, but I have been in a lot of bars where the house has hung JBL's, etc. from the 8ft. ceiling in back of the stage riser and LD condenser mics in the announce/lead vocal position look right into these, causing havoc where a less-sensitive dynamic stage mic wouldn't.

~Brent Casey

Maybe philboyd should have had the thread title read;
"My C1's sound BAD" meaning "good" like when James Brown
says that or "superbad".

At least you didn't try to do any underwater miking-yet!

And I thought all those 60's pictures of singers handholding
Sennheiser 421's were odd...

Chris

 

[DJL]

Well, just for fun I tried our Studio Projects C1 (on vox) with our PA today and it flat-out sucked. Period!