Clarifying confusion about tube mics and preamps

[Harvey Gerst]

I've seen some recent questions and answers here about when and why a tube mic (or preamp) might be desirable, and it's probably a subject that needs to be explained a little further. I'm going to add a section at the end of the "big" thread in a little while about tube mics, tube preamps, and variable pattern tube mics (since that's where it really belongs). It may be of some interest to a few of you, I hope.

I'd love to be able to slim the "big" thread down if there was some way to do it easily and remove the bump and praise posts, and update some of the links.

 

[jet-rocker]

Good to see you Harvey.

I was wondering where you went.

-Jett

 

[Randy Yell]

That'll be great Harvey.I have a question and Alan hasn't been around.I know that tube mics don't need phantom power as they have their own power supply but could phantom power damage the mic or the power supply in any way?The reason I ask is the Audio Buddy has global phantom power and I was going to run the TB-1 in one channel and my AT3525 through the other channel but the manual for the TB-1 says not to use phantom power with it.I ended up using a dynamic on the guitar but I'd like to know if phantom power will damage the TB-1.Sorry to make a short question long!

 

[Lopp]

Hey Harvey,

For the record, I'd like to see it in it's own thread. However, I'm looking forward to it!

Matt

 

[Harvey Gerst]

That'll be great Harvey.I have a question and Alan hasn't been around.I know that tube mics don't need phantom power as they have their own power supply but could phantom power damage the mic or the power supply in any way?The reason I ask is the Audio Buddy has global phantom power and I was going to run the TB-1 in one channel and my AT3525 through the other channel but the manual for the TB-1 says not to use phantom power with it.I ended up using a dynamic on the guitar but I'd like to know if phantom power will damage the TB-1.Sorry to make a short question long!

Open up the power supply and look at pins 2 and 3 of the XLR output jack. It should have a couple of 10 mfd caps in series with the wires. If not, you can wire them in and prevent any voltage from getting into the TB-1 PS from the phantom power coming from the Audio Buddy. It shouldn't really be a problem, but I don't blame Alan for putting that clause in the manual.

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Hey Harvey,

For the record, I'd like to see it in it's own thread. However, I'm looking forward to it!

Matt

Matt,

You're probably right, but it seemed to me like it was really just an extension of the big thread. If we could get rid of a lot of the extra weight that thread now carries, I think it would be a lot more useful to most of the new people here.

Maybe Weston Ray will take pity on me and let me go thru that thread and make some corrections and deletions.

 

[knownuttin]

In addition to which, this thread MUST be made into a sticky or at least archived somewhere for easy access! Enough with someone having to bump it all the time.
-kent

 

[Randy Yell]

Thank you Harvey.I'll have to have a look.

 

[chessparov]

Harvey, I was net surfing about a week ago and saw an
abridged (!) version of the "giant microphone" thread!
After work tonight I'll make a valiant attempt to locate it for you
to save you some time. It looked like they did a good job BTW.
(now if only I can remember where it was...)

Chris

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Yeah, I've seen some of those, but there were some misquoted things in them which creates an inaccurate source document from my standpoint. I'd love to just have a single source here that's accurate and concise.

There are also some great answers in there by a lot of other people in this forum and some explanations that really make this whole field a lot easier to understand.

And some people have added links to other sources, some of which were questionable in the accuracy of the information. I'd like to be able to make notes cautioning people that when visiting these other links, they disregard some of the information presented. I physically don't have the time or permission to reprint the information from some of these links and explain why some of the statements made are confusing at best, or wrong at worst.

Hell, a lot of my "facts" are gross oversimplifications, that are presented very simply, to just get a basic concept across.

 

[chessparov]

Thanks Harvey.
It's probably best to leave it up to you anyway to get it right.
(I have a hard time remembering what I ate last night!)

Chris

 

[octoruss]

Has this summary been posted somewhere?

 

[MISTERQCUE]

I'm especially curious as to the signal flow thru a pre's circuitry
and if the 12AXA7 tubes found in most common pre's today actually contibute to the so-called "warming" of the sound.
Also curious as to determine if all these var outboard pre's that have various features as compression, voc/mic modeling,limiting
db padding,graph and para eq'ing etc is really necessary as these features come in as their own outboard gear such as compressors, eq and the like! In other words, isn't it true that the majority of these pre's are nothing more than hyped-up DI box
solely intended to match the input to line-level!

Set me straight!

 

[crazydoc]

Maybe this thread got lost in all the shit last week, or maybe got absorbed into the big thread, though I didn't see an answer to MrQ's question addressed. I'd be interested too.

 

[octoruss]

I second that. I'm waiting to buy a tube mic depending on what's contained in this thread.

 

[darrin_h2000]

What would also be usefull is a list of whats a hybrid and what is a real tube pre. And your opinion on the popular ones.

 

[Beezoboy]

I had the entire mic thread on my computer in MSWORD format, but unfortunately my hard (which is less than a year old died 2 days ago). All you would have to is copy and paste it and then organize it that way.

Harvey, have you ever thought of writing a book on recording? If you did, you could sell probably 1000 of them right here on this forum. I bought Modern Recording Techniques - by David Miles Hubert and it was informative, but your thread was sooo much better. Also maybe you could throw in some home grown remedies: like making a phantom power box, and homemade pop filters and things like that. I bet you could have a bestseller in the category of recording books. Not to mention that you have hundreds of people here you can have help you proof it and add some ideas. Maybe in the back of the book, you could have a cd with a mic comparison. In fact, some one just did a post asking if anyone would be interested in one. Maybe you guys can go in together. He makes the cd and budles it with your book.

I really wish you would, cuz I would pay 20 dollars for it. Maybe more, hey and I know, you could bundle it with an ECM8000 mic and sell the whole package for 59.95. Or 3 easy payments of...and free Ginzu knives

Beezoboy

 

[crazydoc]

I really wish you would, cuz I would pay 20 dollars for it. Maybe more, hey and I know, you could bundle it with an ECM8000 mic and sell the whole package for 59.95. Or 3 easy payments of...and free Ginzu knives

Beezoboy

And that's not all - operators are standing by, and the first 100 callers will receive, absolutely free, a 15 foot mic cable.


BTW, you probably know this, but you can download the thread in Word format at
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/tekker/harveythread.html

Thanks to Tekker