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safeashouses
New member
does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on the audio-technica ae3000? i just picked one up on ebay, but i haven't been able to find any reviews or other writing on it.
SRR
New member
It would be very interesting to use one of those on snare instead of the normal dynamic picks. With 158 max spl, I suppose you could use it for kick mic even.
What are you planning on using it for?
What are you planning on using it for?
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safeashouses
New member
i didn't buy this with a specific use in mind, but i was hoping it would sound good on a kick drum or bass cab. i'm just gonna try it on a bunch of different sources and see where it sounds best.
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Harley13
New member
The AE3000 is a great mic. It sounds fantastic on the snare. Try positioning it poking out just above the rim, pointed slightly down toward the center of the skin. It gives you quite a bit of attack. Also try lowering it down to mic the side of the shell. You'll get a little less attack, and get more of the shell-sound coming through. You'll get two very different sounds. In fact, it's size makes the AE3000 quite easy to position on the snare, and yet keep it out of the way. Experiment!!! I also find it to sound pretty good on the toms as well, but I suspect there are better candidates. (I thought my Rode NT-1A sounded better on the floor tom) In fact, the AE3000 is one of my favorite all purpose mics. It sounds good to great in just about any circumstance. I haven't tried it on vocals or bass cabs yet though. It sounds great on guitar cabs though(and I run a pretty low and chunky metal sound). Right now I'm just recording basic rough tracks in my unfinished basement, so I'm not getting ideal room conditions, therefore many of my mics give a very "roomy" sound, but the AE3000 has much less of this effect showing through. I can only imagine how great it will sound in a better room.
I too was very intrigued by it's high SPL rating. I think that's why it sounded so good on my Marshall half stack (with a Les Paul), but I was NOT impressed with it on my kick drum. I turned on the -10dB pad and only tried micing the kick from outside/in front. It sounded really muddy and undefined. It sounded minutely better with the roll-off switch on. I just got the mic fairly recently too, so I couldn't bring myself to mic the beater head, or even put the mic inside the kick. But by reason, it should be fine to try it. I have a cheap Apex125 that sounds better on the kick than the AE3000. Let me know if you try it, and get any good results.
I got my AE3000 on Ebay recently for $100 USD. I feel like I robbed the guy. This mic is a little gold mine, if you can find one, because nobody really knows about them, so they can go pretty cheap. I think people are confused by its size. In a back to back comparison test (I did not try them on vocals yet though), on pretty much every application, I found this mic to sound better than the Rode NT-1A, and NT-3, and Shure sm58, and BG 4.0 (really decent condenser by the way which go used pretty cheap!!!) The AE3000 is a more expensive mic than all of the above so it kinda should, but what kinda surprised me was how much better, and the fact that it was pretty much across the board.
I'm not so sure what kind of results you'll get on bass cabs and the kick, but I'm sure that if you turn the pad on, you should be fine to try it. Let me know what you find. Bass cab is one thing I don't have so I'd like to know. But I bet you'll eventually want to use it as a snare mic. That's where I think I like it best!
I too was very intrigued by it's high SPL rating. I think that's why it sounded so good on my Marshall half stack (with a Les Paul), but I was NOT impressed with it on my kick drum. I turned on the -10dB pad and only tried micing the kick from outside/in front. It sounded really muddy and undefined. It sounded minutely better with the roll-off switch on. I just got the mic fairly recently too, so I couldn't bring myself to mic the beater head, or even put the mic inside the kick. But by reason, it should be fine to try it. I have a cheap Apex125 that sounds better on the kick than the AE3000. Let me know if you try it, and get any good results.
I got my AE3000 on Ebay recently for $100 USD. I feel like I robbed the guy. This mic is a little gold mine, if you can find one, because nobody really knows about them, so they can go pretty cheap. I think people are confused by its size. In a back to back comparison test (I did not try them on vocals yet though), on pretty much every application, I found this mic to sound better than the Rode NT-1A, and NT-3, and Shure sm58, and BG 4.0 (really decent condenser by the way which go used pretty cheap!!!) The AE3000 is a more expensive mic than all of the above so it kinda should, but what kinda surprised me was how much better, and the fact that it was pretty much across the board.
I'm not so sure what kind of results you'll get on bass cabs and the kick, but I'm sure that if you turn the pad on, you should be fine to try it. Let me know what you find. Bass cab is one thing I don't have so I'd like to know. But I bet you'll eventually want to use it as a snare mic. That's where I think I like it best!