Anybody wanna hear Marshall's MXL 57M, $100 condenser mic?

[windowman]

This is a one-inch diaphragm condenser mic from Marshall that sells for a hundred bucks (really, I'm not kidding.) I told Maston in another thread that I'd make a short test of it with vocal and acoustic guitar so he could see what it sounds like. I was a bit too lazy to tune up my guitar this morning and haven't played in weeks so don't expect any fret dancing here but I think you'll be impressed with the sound overall. At least for the money it'd be really hard to beat this thing. Heck, they're even cheap enough to use live and not have to worry about dropping them on the floor. I can honestly see the trusty old Sure 57's and 58's heading the way of the bargain bin if this keeps up.

I thought it was a little better on vocal myself but it was adequate an guitar. Vocal-wise this thing would be a nice radio DJ mic. Very punchy and breathy.

You'll have to click on the link below and wait for the sound file to download in the background of the page. It's the only way I have of file sharing MP3's right now. Sorry.

http://www.geocities.com/billseper/marshall_mic_test.html

 

[Dolemite]

Here's a link to the actual file:

Actually I was more impressed with your playing than with the mic, at least on guitar. Sounded cool on your voice tho just speaking. How about singing a little something for us?

And BTW, some of the stuff you were saying at first was just not true, about large diaphragm condensers having "a lot of bass end" and "not having a lot of proximity effect." Frequency response and polar pattern are not directly dependent on diaphragm size.

 

[Harvey Gerst]

And BTW, some of the stuff you were saying at first was just not true, about large diaphragm condensers having "a lot of bass end" and "not having a lot of proximity effect." Frequency response and polar pattern are not directly dependent on diaphragm size.

Wow, Dolemite, I'm impressed. Is that one of the things you picked up from the "mini-course" thread? You're absolutely right on both counts. Waytago!!!

 

[windowman]

SING! YIKES!!!

No, No, No; you don't want that.

Well, you guys might just be right about the proximity effect thing. It's not like I have tons of mics laying around. The few I've used over the years didn't seem to have near as much as something like an SM58 for instance. I would beg to differ about the bass end though. They sure seem to have a lot more to my ears. At least with a cardiod pattern I think they do. I think probably that the pattern is the key there though, don't you think?

Maybe I'm wrong. I turned 42 this year and at my age I'm starting to get used to people telling me I'm wrong. I spend the better part of a half hour every stinkin morning just trying to remember where I put my keys the night before.

Oh, and that link you gave won't work Dolemite. GeoCities has a way of stopping you from downloading MP3 files. They only let you use them for background music on your web pages. Bummer....

There is a way around it sort of though. If I wanted to share a file with you, I can just embed it as a sound file on a blank page like that and then after you download the page you can hunt around for the MP3 file in your Windows Temp directory. It takes some hunting but it'll be in there somewhere. Kind of a long way around the problem though. At least it's free anyway. And thanks for the undeserved compliment. May your camels never spit in the wind.

 

[CyanJaguar]

that sounds absolutely great. Especially for the money spent.

What board are you running into?

I won't mind getting me one myself.

 

[windowman]

Cyan,

When I'm messing around here at the house (my keyboard player and best bud has all our studio gear at his place) I go an extremely amateurish route. I just make little demos for the group here so things don't have to be all that great. You wouldn't believe it but I just plug a mic into a cheap ART Tube MP preamp (they don't sound that great but I mostly just use it to get phantom power) and then into a Boss AD-5 Acoustic instrument processor. From there, into a cheap SB Live MP3 card and I mostly use Cool Edit 2000 and CakeWalk Guitar Tracks.

As far as the Boss AD-5 goes…it's about a $400 unit that a lot of guys use to play acoustic guitar through live. There's no reason why you can't plug a mic into its magnetic input also though; impedances are the same. You may have noticed on a lot of acoustic guitar amps there's a mic input. That's because acoustic guitar amps are really nothing but small PA systems. Thus, anything you can use on acoustic guitar (effects, preamps, etc) can usually be used in your PA or recording setup just fine. Sure it's not the high tech route but it'll work. The reverb you heard was from the AD-5 also. I think the reverb and chorusing both are stunning on this thing and I've never found a DirectX plug-in yet that sounded as good.

Really, I don't understand a lot of the bickering on this board about how you have to have this or that expensive piece of gear and soundcard etc, or your recordings will suck. I heard a guy say a while back that SoundBlaster Cards just aren't good enough for studio use, that they're noisy, that the converters will make your recordings sound like crap, yada, yada, yada….

It's not what ya got but how ya use it. (Duh.) Did that file sound noisy to you? Did it sound digitized (as in a bad AD-DA conversion?) As long as you use the ASIO drivers with it (it won't keep tracks in sync very well without these drivers) the card's fine.

It's all bologna! I use to make great sounding recordings years ago with a Teac A-3440 4-track at 15 inches per second and crummy DBX Type 1 noise reduction that pumped and breathed like crazy! Bounced tracks to no end and even flew in background vocals from a cassette deck now and then when I had to. You manage to make do and work on your recording technique and things come out alright. I know Dragon used to make some pretty good recordings that way in days gone by too. A lot of the old guys here have.

Thus ends my sermon. I got to get off the web for long while. See ya guys.

Bill

 

[Dolemite]

Wow, Dolemite, I'm impressed. Is that one of the things you picked up from the "mini-course" thread? You're absolutely right on both counts. Waytago!!!

Yeah, I think I would have detected a bit of overgeneralization anyway but thanks to that thread I'm confident enough to point out the error now that I know a lot more about how microphone design affects the characteristics of the sound a microphone captures. So I might have thought that was wrong, but its much better and more useful to know why.

SING! YIKES!!!

No, No, No; you don't want that.

Heh, no problem, man. I'd say your guitar playing, even just fooling around and a little out of tune, more than compensates for any lack of vocal talent. I'm learning guitar right now and its pretty foreign to me at the moment. I've been playing sax for years but I suddenly realized I had more passion for music that doesn't translate well to that particular instrument. BTW, if you ever do track any vocals with this thing and its not too much trouble, I'd like to hear the results. From what I've heard, the MXL-V57 is some variation on the MXL-2001 design and it was made exclusively for Mars Music. Who knows though, it could be closer to the much-touted V67. BTW, does that mic include a shockmount at $100?

Well, you guys might just be right about the proximity effect thing. It's not like I have tons of mics laying around. The few I've used over the years didn't seem to have near as much as something like an SM58 for instance. I would beg to differ about the bass end though. They sure seem to have a lot more to my ears. At least with a cardiod pattern I think they do. I think probably that the pattern is the key there though, don't you think?

Maybe I'm wrong. I turned 42 this year and at my age I'm starting to get used to people telling me I'm wrong. I spend the better part of a half hour every stinkin morning just trying to remember where I put my keys the night before.

Yeah, that's more on target. Promity effect is dependent on polar pattern.

BTW, I think the MP3 sounded fine. I cast no aspersions on the Tube MP or the SB Live. Personally, I'm a bit of a gear junky but I agree with your philosophy, "it's not what ya got but how ya use it," even if I don't practice it.