RØDE NTV- my first tube mic

CoolCat

Well-known member
GAS struck. Ive thought about a tube mic for years but never test drove one here.
Its one type of mic Shure doesn't make for some reason? The kind of Chineese APHEX 460 was in the cart many times and others too...but I went for the RODE NTV.

What Application? male voice & acoustic guitar
Where? small box room HR..like a booth really in a house that has neighbor dogs barking that I can hear through the walls and windows kind of place.

GAS, sometimes the gearhead hunt is as fun in a techy historian way.
Interesting reading back into time of 1995-2000 when the HR was really sprouting up and a demand for better stuff yet affordable was becoming more common. Channel strips and desktop units, instead of large consoles for the HR market. Soon better mics , cheaper mics being sold as the prices on the legend names started skyrocketing (and dying off as they aged). Tube stuff had odd connections and worn out and expensive, maybe noisy too.
Solidstate painted with sterile, and other boring names. "WARM UP YOUR DIGITAL TRACKS!" was a motto of marketing too. Starved Plate tube designs vs old-school high plate voltage debates....

RODE NTV.
1999 ish,,,, RODE introduced a NTV after the NT1, NT2 & CLASSIC per the Mix article below. The discontinued NTV price was around $1100 per Recording Hacks.
The used is current at $350-$500.

RODE NTV has the case, two type of mic holders, and the p.s. and cables and mic.
Even more gearhead it has esoteric Black Gates, Wima, and Solen caps and a JENSEN Output Transformer....which reading tube mic articles I wanted the "transformer" Tube mic just because.:p

RODE NTV: TRUE CONDENSER VALVE MICROPHONE - Mixonline

ROEDE NTV | RecordingHacks.com

If it is too sensitive for my HR room I'll sell it and re-buy a SM7b....to keep the noise out.
Sometimes great mics need great rooms, I get that and understand that.

Tu-be or not Tu-be....that is the question!
 

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A friend bought one of those used and brought it over. It's a nice mic, but I found the whole rig (i.e., tube pre/power supply and extra cabling) a bit much for a home recording. I/we did a straight, though fairly quick (one song we were working on) A/B of it vs. my Miktek MK300 and for my voice and acoustic guitar playing, I didn't hear enough difference to make me think it would be on my list. It's very smooth, and if you're trying to find a LDC that maybe is not as bright as many in the lower (all relative, of course) price band, it's probably worth considering. Just my $.02.

P.S. You'll probably need another counterweight for that mic stand if you put it on a boom!
 
Cool input.... its all gear to me. Using the tube package stuff wont be a big deal here because it never goes anywhere. Seems well built.

Do you recall working distance? Theres some comments its shines in a bigger room further away kind of comment and well....that's not happening here. lol Further away is inches here, not 5 ft.

I read they didn't make these long and dropped the Jensen Transformer and possible went for a different price target etc..

at least you didn't report its power supply caught on fire.
been reading on Tube Mics and there does seem to be more technical issues with them in comparison to dynamics or FET condensers.


lol no boom here...only a desktop setup in a closet, I can almost sit in my chair and touch both walls.

its like a studio in a vocal booth?
 
Cool input.... its all gear to me. Using the tube package stuff wont be a big deal here because it never goes anywhere. Seems well built.

Do you recall working distance? Theres some comments its shines in a bigger room further away kind of comment and well....that's not happening here. lol Further away is inches here, not 5 ft.

I read they didn't make these long and dropped the Jensen Transformer and possible went for a different price target etc..

at least you didn't report its power supply caught on fire.
been reading on Tube Mics and there does seem to be more technical issues with them in comparison to dynamics or FET condensers.


lol no boom here...only a desktop setup in a closet, I can almost sit in my chair and touch both walls.

its like a studio in a vocal booth?
Like I said, a limited test. I had it less than a foot from either my voice (possibly closer for that) and maybe about that for the guitar. I have a small room with a fair amount of treatment but it's still best for me to close mic, as the room doesn't add anything beneficial. I do have room for enough boom stands so I can knock crap over if I get in too much of a hurry! Really, they're necessary even seated for recording acoustic, at least that's the only way to get the mic distance and angle(s) I generally muck around with.

Not sure what all you'd use that mic for in such a small space that couldn't be served by almost anything, and a good dynamic might really work well. Really, the differences between mics are slight enough that the choice comes down to which one gives you the least amount of work (to get the sound you're after) once the recording is done. I can record my vocal with an SM57 and (with my voice), nobody is going to say, "you should have used a Neumann on that," but I do know that if I use my Miktek, it's just going to be less tweaking. The RØDE probably fell in that category, but the extra stuff that went along with it struck me as just more potential headache/work/stuff-to-trip-over because I *do* change things around if friends come over and I need to mic a fiddle or dobro (e.g.).
 
Weird the seller stopped the shipment and had UPS send it back? So no NTV mic....the UPS thing made it all the way here to Texas and sender requested it shipped back....so UPS sent it back? Thats a first for me.
 
It was on Reverb. They didn't refund me yet.
I talked to UPS and they were called and sent it back per Shippers request.
Reverb Customer Support said this particular seller sells thousands of things and doubts its a ripoff.
I should get a message today and a I requested a refund....but its in limbo.

The Reverb CS said "its probably a wrong order they sent or the items defective."
There several other NTV available....the more I read the K2 is the Dual Diaphragm and great ratings, same price and newer w/multipattern.

Ive never had an issue with Reverb before, or sellers. It was strange though...er...is strange as its not resolved yet.

edit>>>> well so much for the NTV tube mic "with Jensen transformer etc....."

Did get a full refund so no problem.
 
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Thing is, if it's a decent mic, it doesn't make any difference whether it has a tube amp or an FET amp, UNLESS you want the particular sort of distortion which a tube amp gives when it's overloaded.
 
I feel like the saturation of tubes and some FET circuits sort of clip/round the higher frequency transients more. So on those sources that might be a little "spikey" sound smoother through a FET and "warmer" through a well designed tube circuit. My personal GAS has me wanting a U87ai but being a HR I cant really justify the expense. So I've been looking at vids with the clones and while checking prices on the front runner Warm Audio WA-87 I came across the WA-47 tube U47 clone and went "ooooh, that's nice". I have to stop!
 
haha the gear design surfing can be more enjoyable than listening to my playbacks.

the U87ai and the U87...and then which year etc... I agree the onslaught of clones and name dropping on the U87 is no longer a ridiculed Behringer thing, now everyone accepts the work and engineering of the WARM and STAM and others HR priced "87"'s. Im at the GAS stage of testdriving these higher ends in my own room and that "downgrade" alone can make expensive stuff less of a reason to buy.

the NTV was a rare RODE imo, it was some early design of love and marketing to include Jensen transformers and really present a TUBE mic from them.
it didn't get rave reviews like the Classic....and marketing wise it helps to have Stars use the SM7b or a Adele using a Rode Classic by their engineers. the NTV didn't have that happen. Still it seems it was a early design and they wanted to make a good impression put some effort and hi-end into it.
With the Jensen transformer alone and a good tube, the price profit wasn't probably good enough...so I suspect they dropped it for business reasons of profit.


this idea of getting a Tube mic and a Tube channel to simulate an old-school Tube Strip to DAW....(Im not buying a tube reel to reel. lol )

but I have other problems now...the noisy room. I had a quieter room but others in the house wanted the room. For example my pc is back in here and the LDC's don't work now because they make my pc fans sound 60db louder... ive been to 4 different rooms in this place and like the 75central it seems Im still under construction15yrs later?
 
I know this is 4 weeks since lasts post but, I saw a u47 swapped out for a NTV in a pro studio. The NTV did do a better job for that vocalist. I asked the engineer about it he said for the money ( used price) it was a very usable mic, and got a lot of use.
 
I have GAS'd on another try for the NTV. This time its coming from Tokyo Japan to Dallas Tx...supposedly Free Shipping and was $265 with case and all, Very Good condition etc.. kind of strange ordering from overseas, in addition to high risk of a used mic. I think the hype of the gear with the jensen transformer and Wima caps and hi-boutique caps and resistors sucks me in at times.
Someone at Rode must have had freedom to build this short run and the accountants shut it down due to low profit margins most likely. Seems the next gen used their own stuff and got the cost down or supply chain parts changed to inhouse?

Last time a NTV got all the way to Texas and the seller called it back. We will see if this one makes it.:confused:

Rode NTV manual

http://www.interstage.dk/Sider/Produkter/Brochure_manual/RODE/RODE_NTV_man.pdf


UPDATE: first time I ordered from Japan per REVERB and it arrived! great shape, great price. Kind of going against my logic of buy microhones "new" though but oh well...
 

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Finally got the mic plugged in. The joy buzz it works was accomplished. The seller had all the stuff, the serial number and dates noted, the first runs and even had a sticker "I Want my NTV",,,,,,kind of gives the "I Want my MTV era." 1999... the keys to the case all that stuff included. etc.

The first tube mic for me and the 25 pin cable is something new. A Thick cable! I wouldnt be unplugging it a million times as advice. I do these kind of cables at work, and the tiny pins and female connectors, are very military connector like, are great, but not so simple as a XLR. If damaged not a good thing. So I was very carefully w/ light touch to wiggle the connector together and screw in the locking mechanism.

Turned ON...
The output is a basic XLR and was plugged into the LA610. I did some quick 2-3hrs some vocal and some acoustic guitar.
It was very easy to use on my vocal and that means the 800hz nasal was not present as some mics get, and my sizzling CHEEZ and SHzz were tamed in a good way. Clear mids and nice suppression of highs. I'll take others words for comparing it in a real studio but I definitely like this one aminly because its sound doesnt requite my lazyass to do anything. On acoutsic was very clear and as sounds goes I liked it.

of course being a gearhead its equally important to take it apart!! :D and so I did.
the tube is a ECC81 Telefunken tube.. very cool!
very clean build and pcb and has the USA Jensen transformer. Being anal-tech a small dent or bump in the grill had me risking working that out and I got it without damage, now its excellent shape vs very good....not easy working the mesh except for using my thumbs, tools were not getting the fine wire, the "dual thumb action" worked the bump out to normal again.

summary:
I really like it, no other tube mics to compare to.
It was very solid 15mv /pa (per Recording Hacks). 15mvpa is a great level for even just a interface preamp and no outside pre is usually needed imo.

1999....
 
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