What kind of mic is this???

  • Thread starter Thread starter RAMI
  • Start date Start date
Looks like a Neumann U87 or one of the dozens of U87 clones. And yes, the mic is set for figure of 8 polar pattern, so it picks up mainly in 2 directions 180 degrees apart. Using figure 8's like that is an old school bluegrass standard. If you've never used a figure 8 mic, you need to get out more.-Richie
 
and you know for fact it isn't set on "omni" ...although figure 8 would be a first logical choice. :)

and btw... I don't think there were 87 clones back then...
 
It might be an original U87 (before the ai series, which switched to using an XLR connector). It could also be a U67 if that's a Tuchel connector with the mic mount built in. The video is so grainy its hard to tell.
 
PhilGood said:
It might be an original U87 (before the ai series, which switched to using an XLR connector)...
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My 1971 U87 is not a "ai" model but it does have an XLR connector. The U67 I've used had a connector like the one in the video. A U87 could be thought of as the solid state version of the U67. My U87 came in a box for a U67 and fits perfectly.

My U87 has a 3 position switch - cardioid, omni and figure 8. In the figure 8 and omni positions the mic picks up from both sides. You've probably seen the Beatles singing in both sides of one.

Figure 8 mode is strange - it sounds like stereo on one track (?), go figure.

That, combined with the roll off switch makes these mics super useful and in a way like several mics in one. You can record the lead vocals in flat mode and the backups with the roll off switch and you don't need eq on any of the tracks.
 
dintymoore said:
Figure 8 mode is strange - it sounds like stereo on one track (?), go figure.
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:laughings:

No it doesn't.

It just picks up front and rear with virtually nothing at all on the sides - though the rear lobe is reversed polarity compared to the front.
 
RAMI said:
Not half as much as you are: I think it's obvious who the biggest joke here is. :laughings:

I'm asking a serious question. You got a problem with that????? I hope so. :)
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Why do you hope I have a problem with that?
 
The reason I thought you were joking Rami was that you seem like an experienced player and I was surprised that you wouldn't have come across the U87's double sided feature somewhere in your travels.

When I thought you were serious I wrote post #6 about my experience with those mics.

I wish you the best and won't join in negative banter - name calling and such, that's not for me. I believe in karma and if you're nasty it will come back at you. I have a good life that many would envy and think it comes from an attempt at kindness. :)
 
dintymoore said:
The reason I thought you were joking Rami was that you seem like an experienced player and I was surprised that you wouldn't have come across the U87's double sided feature somewhere in your travels.

When I thought you were serious I wrote post #6 about my experience with those mics.

I wish you the best and won't join in negative banter - name calling and such, that's not for me. I believe in karma and if you're nasty it will come back at you. I have a good life that many would envy and think it comes from an attempt at kindness. :)
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That's cool. I was definitely not going to take this in a negative direction, either. Which is why I answered your last question to me with a vague response.

When your first post comes in with "Is this a joke", considering our brief history, I think it's understandable that I assumed you were being a dick. But anyway,......

No, I've never used a U87. Or maybe I have in the past before I knew one mic from another. For all I know, I might have been surrounded by them at a session without realizing it. And I never knew they have a figure 8 or any other kind of patterns. All I knew, from what I've read, is that it's a great mic.

One has to admit, there aren't THAT many videos showing 2 people singing into a mic that way, with each of them that far from the mic. So forgive my lack of mic-brand-name-dropping ability. :D
 
One of the rotten things about "faceless" forum type talk is that you can't tell what a person's inflection is. "Is this a joke" can come off many ways, and I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. :)

I've always thought that many of the people who get into squabbles on the net would like the person they're arguing with if they met them in real life.

Plus, we all learn things in a different order. I remember, way back, seeing Paul McCartney (who always had the small spit shield attached) on one side of a Neumann and George Harrison on the other and going "WTF?".

BTW, when I said that figure 8 sounds "like" stereo what I meant was that it doesn't sum the two vocalists together because of the phase. There's an amazing separation in the vocals and it's a way you can put two vocals on 1 track and they stay separate sounding. That's what I meant by "like stereo". Of course there's no left and right.

Sometimes you'd have to write a book so that someone couldn't misconstrue your intended meaning; you just hope your intention gets across.
 
dintymoore said:
One of the rotten things about "faceless" forum type talk is that you can't tell what a person's inflection is. "Is this a joke" can come off many ways, and I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. :)

I've always thought that many of the people who get into squabbles on the net would like the person they're arguing with if they met them in real life.

Plus, we all learn things in a different order.

Sometimes you'd have to write a book so that someone couldn't misconstrue your intended meaning; you just hope your intention gets across.
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I agree with all of that. I've said the same things many times. :drunk::drunk:
 
dintymoore said:
A U87 could be thought of as the solid state version of the U67. My U87 came in a box for a U67 and fits perfectly.

My U87 has a 3 position switch - cardioid, omni and figure 8. In the figure 8 and omni positions the mic picks up from both sides. You've probably seen the Beatles singing in both sides of one.

Figure 8 mode is strange - it sounds like stereo on one track (?), go figure.

That, combined with the roll off switch makes these mics super useful and in a way like several mics in one. You can record the lead vocals in flat mode and the backups with the roll off switch and you don't need eq on any of the tracks.
Click to expand...

Well, to me the U67 has a different sound than the U87. Similar, but yet different.

Figure 8 is caused by either having (rough example) the front diaphragm to ground (0v), the back plate at 60v and the rear diaphragm at 120v, or some combination of the same. Varying the voltage of the pattern control on the rear diaphragm adjusts it from omni-directional to figure 8 and anywhere in between, including cardioid. Figure 8 could be called back to back hyper-cardioid.

Shall we list a bunch of other things that are pretty common knowledge?

BTW, most of the Beatles recordings were done with either the U47 or later on the M49.
 
I knew about figure 8 pattern but never thought about two people using it at the same time like that. Cool learned something new.:cool:
 
I'm still interested in why people think it is set on figure 8 versus omni ;)
 
I think it is figure 8 because that technique was a country and bluegrass standard in use for years with ribbon mics, and because the two singers are so obviously 180 degrees apart, facing the side of the capsule that would be right for a figure 8. If it was an omni, their positioning could be anything. That doesn't mean it isn't possible, but figure 8 was used in Nashville this way all the time for many years.-Richie
 
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