Audix F15 condensers for overheads

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zwh

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Has ANYONE had any experience with these? There seems to be a drought of info on these mics.
They're $50 a pop new, and I'm looking to get a pair for stereo OH's. 100hz-20khz.

Or are they crap?
 
I own a pair of Audix F15 condensers and have used them in several projects. I love them. They're not expensive, and you can get a pretty decent sound out of them for what you pay. They're obviously not going to compare with the higher range SDC's on the market, but if you're only paying $50 a pop I don't know of any mic's you'd be better off with in that price range. I'm sure there's room for argument there, however.

Here's the overhead tracks for a drum track I recorded recently (not me playing) using the F15's. Left overhead is panned hard left and right overhead is panned hard right. There is no processing on the tracks other than the panning. The mics are positioned in the "recorderman" fashion, if I remember correctly.

 
doctorfungi said:
I own a pair of Audix F15 condensers and have used them in several projects. I love them. They're not expensive, and you can get a pretty decent sound out of them for what you pay. They're obviously not going to compare with the higher range SDC's on the market, but if you're only paying $50 a pop I don't know of any mic's you'd be better off with in that price range. I'm sure there's room for argument there, however.

Here's the overhead tracks for a drum track I recorded recently (not me playing) using the F15's. Left overhead is panned hard left and right overhead is panned hard right. There is no processing on the tracks other than the panning. The mics are positioned in the "recorderman" fashion, if I remember correctly.

Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch Doc.

Man, those sound pretty darn nice to my ears for $50 a piece. I'm glad to see it picks up the tones of the toms along with the cymbals. I was worried the 100hz cutoff would render these unworthy as good overheads.
What interface/preamps were you using for that recording?
 
Just a Phonic Helix 18FW MKII. It's a Firewire mixer with built in preamps, so it's definitely nothing special. They sell for about $400USD.

http://www.phonic.com/en/audio-interface/helix-board-18-firewire-mkii.html

The F15's went straight into the mixer, and the mixer then plugs straight into a Firewire port on the PC with no further processing. They sound nice raw, but obviously you can get them sounding even nicer with further EQing.
 
zwh said:
Has ANYONE had any experience with these? There seems to be a drought of info on these mics.
They're $50 a pop new, and I'm looking to get a pair for stereo OH's. 100hz-20khz.

Or are they crap?
Click to expand...
I thought at first maybe you were only interested in 100-20k, as maybe in 'just for cymbals', but I see these really do roll off very high (as well as a strong high rise?
Anywho, -not having owned them but based on their 'spec, and maybe Doctorfungi's clip too :) -that would seem to steer these into the rather 'quite specific use' category.
Another way would be to ask do you not want have a flatter mic (or the option of a full body sound for the kit for example?) -Sort of hinges on if this is a 'first or general purpose mic you're looking for.
 
mixsit said:
I thought at first maybe you were only interested in 100-20k, as maybe in 'just for cymbals', but I see these really do roll off very high (as well as a strong high rise?
Anywho, -not having owned them but based on their 'spec, and maybe Doctorfungi's clip too :) -that would seem to steer these into the rather 'quite specific use' category.
Another way would be to ask do you not want have a flatter mic (or the option of a full body sound for the kit for example?) -Sort of hinges on if this is a 'first or general purpose mic you're looking for.
Click to expand...

Good questions. Yes the mics frequency response range is 100hz to 20k. According to Audix, their response pattern is fairly flat, the biggest curve being the drop at 100hz. Slight rise at 2k and another small rise between 6k and 10k.

I'm mainly looking for just a decent pair of drum overheads. Maybe something I could use on acoustic guitar too if it sounded ok. I can see they don't give a big full bassy sound to the kit, but I have a couple other large diaphragm condensers and I could stick one of those at front for that. Hmm...
 
doctorfungi said:
Just a Phonic Helix 18FW MKII. It's a Firewire mixer with built in preamps, so it's definitely nothing special. They sell for about $400USD.

http://www.phonic.com/en/audio-interface/helix-board-18-firewire-mkii.html

The F15's went straight into the mixer, and the mixer then plugs straight into a Firewire port on the PC with no further processing. They sound nice raw, but obviously you can get them sounding even nicer with further EQing.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

So far I've been impressed with Phonic. They have cheap prices but not terrible gear. My band has one of their large PA packages with a powered head/mixer which I'm assuming has the same or similar pres to your board.

Were you using just the recorderman two mics, or do you add snare and kick too?
 
zwh said:
Thanks.

So far I've been impressed with Phonic. They have cheap prices but not terrible gear. My band has one of their large PA packages with a powered head/mixer which I'm assuming has the same or similar pres to your board.

Were you using just the recorderman two mics, or do you add snare and kick too?
Click to expand...

Yeah Phonic are great. I've never had a problem with them. So far so good, I guess.

I close mic'ed everything on the kit. The entire mic setup was:
2x Audix F15 Overheads
2x Audix F10 Tom Mics (1 for Rack Toms, 1 for Floor Tom)
2x Shure SM57 Snare Mics (1 top, 1 bottom)
1x Audio Technica AT4040 for Hi-Hats
1x Audix F12 for Kick (Not the greatest kick mic, but it was all I had at the time)

I'm going to buy a couple of Audix D2's for the rack toms, a D4 for the floor tom and a D6 for the kick drum in the near future. The other mics in the F series aren't all that hot. I'm keeping the F15's though.

Now, with list in mind, that doesn't say at all that you have to close mic the toms. I never really tried it without them, but I have a good feeling that you could get away without tom mics. Depends on what you're recording really. The band in the sample has a pretty heavy hardcore punk sound, so I really needed large sounding toms.

With that being said I would definitely mic the kick and snare. One mic on the snare would suffice in most cases though.
 
doctorfungi said:
Yeah Phonic are great. I've never had a problem with them. So far so good, I guess.

I close mic'ed everything on the kit. The entire mic setup was:
2x Audix F15 Overheads
2x Audix F10 Tom Mics (1 for Rack Toms, 1 for Floor Tom)
2x Shure SM57 Snare Mics (1 top, 1 bottom)
1x Audio Technica AT4040 for Hi-Hats
1x Audix F12 for Kick (Not the greatest kick mic, but it was all I had at the time)

I'm going to buy a couple of Audix D2's for the rack toms, a D4 for the floor tom and a D6 for the kick drum in the near future. The other mics in the F series aren't all that hot. I'm keeping the F15's though.

Now, with list in mind, that doesn't say at all that you have to close mic the toms. I never really tried it without them, but I have a good feeling that you could get away without tom mics. Depends on what you're recording really. The band in the sample has a pretty heavy hardcore punk sound, so I really needed large sounding toms.

With that being said I would definitely mic the kick and snare. One mic on the snare would suffice in most cases though.
Click to expand...

So it was the f15 picking up the cymbals though, right? That's what I'm most concerned about. I like your cymbal sounds.
 
zwh said:
So it was the f15 picking up the cymbals though, right? That's what I'm most concerned about. I like your cymbal sounds.
Click to expand...

Yep, F15 was for the cymbals and the track I posted was only the F15 tracks.
 
doctorfungi said:
Yep, F15 was for the cymbals and the track I posted was only the F15 tracks.
Click to expand...

Oh, ok! I was unsure on that. Sounds great.

Do you by any chance have the full drum mix online somewhere to hear?

Also, have you found any other uses for the F15 other than OH's? Acoustic guitar maybe?
 
Yep, I've used it for acoustic guitar. It's the guitar that's panned left (I'm pretty sure...) in this mix. The other guitar is mic'ed using an AT4040. I don't have the raw files any more, so I can't isolate the track. So this one has processing, mixing, etc. on it.



I'll get you a drum mix up as soon as I can.
 
doctorfungi said:
Yep, I've used it for acoustic guitar. It's the guitar that's panned left (I'm pretty sure...) in this mix. The other guitar is mic'ed using an AT4040. I don't have the raw files any more, so I can't isolate the track. So this one has processing, mixing, etc. on it.



I'll get you a drum mix up as soon as I can.
Click to expand...

doctor, thanks so much for all your info and help. I'm very grateful.
Great song by the way. I really dig the sound of the acoustics.
 
I was on a super tight budget and got a pair of F15s and was wondering the same thing...from those two recordings doc im thinkin I made the right choice for my starting OHs.

I havent gotten to use them yet, but Id say for the quality and price, you should deffinatly pick up a pair.
 
I'm still a bit curious about these as a choice -For 'OH's if you guys considering that to include 'the kit' (?)
What about the low end body' for the kit? This would be a low end about like using 57's up there. (give or take a few db :)
 
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