ever used carvin mics??

D

dcptnsdcvd

New member
i asked the drum forum about this, but i always seem to get better feedback from this forum about mics and i know some of you who might know wouldn;t be looking in the drum forum.

has anyone in here ever used carvin mics?

please give opinions and clips if you can regarding ANY carvin mics. i am primarily intrested in drum recordings.

thanx,

Mike...
 
they're horrible, just like most carvin gear. You are way better off with Shure, audix, akg, AT, etc
 
show me an example.
i'm sorry to burst everyone's bubble about sure, but the SM57 is crap. how bout that? the most popular mic in the whole world has NEVER made a recording that sounds pro. at least i've never hear any recordings using an sm57 on snare that i was amazed with.
who uses it?? vinney paul? mike portnoy? ANY pro drummer on a pro recording??? if u know of a pro album that was recorded with sm57 on snare, point me in that direction.
record ur tracks using an sm57 for snare, and then go and listen to any professionally recorded cd. gee, don;t sound nearly as good, does it? no, it sounds garage. like it was recorded with a 4 track.
i dunno about carvin mics, they prolly are crap, they arn;t very highly recomended and they're cheap as hell, i don;t expect them to be supa-dupa.
but i'm sorry, i won;t waste the 150 on an sm57. it's a waste of money.
 
fenix,
i just got a listen at the carvin mics and they're crap. but i didn;t expect them to be good. ya never know, ya know? they could have been pretty good, and i woulnd;t have known.
but carvin boards, guitars, basses and custom self-building products are unsurpassed. and they're half the price of big name stuff thats no better.
what do you record with, fenix? like i said, i hate the sm57. but i'd like to hear what ur recordings sound like. i need to find the best mics i can, and i haven;t gotten many listens at too many mics. i heard the sm57 a thousand times and never thought it was worth wasting my money. i have heard the d112 and didn;t think it was very great either.
what r u usin?
Mike...
 
What are you using for preamp?

Carvin just introduced its LD mics a few years ago and it's looking for market share; not a recipe for a fantastic product. My SM57 sounds different depending on what it's plugged into.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:
show me an example.
i'm sorry to burst everyone's bubble about sure, but the SM57 is crap. how bout that? the most popular mic in the whole world has NEVER made a recording that sounds pro. at least i've never hear any recordings using an sm57 on snare that i was amazed with.
who uses it?? vinney paul? mike portnoy? ANY pro drummer on a pro recording??? if u know of a pro album that was recorded with sm57 on snare, point me in that direction.
record ur tracks using an sm57 for snare, and then go and listen to any professionally recorded cd. gee, don;t sound nearly as good, does it? no, it sounds garage. like it was recorded with a 4 track.
i dunno about carvin mics, they prolly are crap, they arn;t very highly recomended and they're cheap as hell, i don;t expect them to be supa-dupa.
but i'm sorry, i won;t waste the 150 on an sm57. it's a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Many of the big time recordings have used a 57 on the snare, many people here do and it sounds good. oh well different folks different strokes.

and Who the hell spends $150 on a SM57!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
 
dear vowelly challenged:

i don't have any Carvin gear, but I've worked with a couple of pro bass players who use some Carvin stuff in their rig, (preamps, power amps, cabinets) and it sounded pretty decent. So I've got nothing against Carvin - I just don't know their mics at all.

But your SM57 rant is a little weird. Although you can find plenty of other options, probably at least 70% of the pro recordings (at least in pop styles) in the last 40 years have used the SM57 on snare. And typically you can find it on sale for $70-$80. So I don't really understand this "compare it to a pro CD" stuff. Lots of pro use on guitar amps too.

More often than not I use an SM57 on snare, and I AM a pro - albeit not a rich and famous one. I don't get too many complaints about my snare sound. I've also used a lot of D112 on kick too. So maybe it's not the mic, but something else in your chain, or more likely, your technique.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:
fenix,
like i said, i hate the sm57. but i'd like to hear what ur recordings sound like. i need to find the best mics i can, and i haven;t gotten many listens at too many mics. i heard the sm57 a thousand times and never thought it was worth wasting my money. i have heard the d112 and didn;t think it was very great either.
Mike...
Click to expand...

im gonna have to agree w/ little dog that it may be your technique





















or your ears :)
 
Carvin makes a decent product at a more than fair price, especially if it's something they actually make themselves (guitars, amps, etc.). Mics are not their strong suit.

Church groups, city governments and the like often get taken to the cleaners when they purchase p.a./sound reinforcement equipment packages, ever seen the retail prices on Shures? In these instances the direct to manfacturer structure with Carvin makes their mics a pretty good deal. For recording, there's better stuff out there.

And what's up with the rant on the 57? I don't use them very often anymore but I think most anyone would agree that if it came down to only being able to use one mic for everything, and I mean every application from broadcasting to recording to p.a. use, it would be the SM 57.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:
show me an example.
i'm sorry to burst everyone's bubble about sure, but the SM57 is crap. how bout that? the most popular mic in the whole world has NEVER made a recording that sounds pro. at least i've never hear any recordings using an sm57 on snare that i was amazed with.
who uses it?? vinney paul? mike portnoy? ANY pro drummer on a pro recording??? if u know of a pro album that was recorded with sm57 on snare, point me in that direction.
record ur tracks using an sm57 for snare, and then go and listen to any professionally recorded cd. gee, don;t sound nearly as good, does it? no, it sounds garage. like it was recorded with a 4 track.
i dunno about carvin mics, they prolly are crap, they arn;t very highly recomended and they're cheap as hell, i don;t expect them to be supa-dupa.
but i'm sorry, i won;t waste the 150 on an sm57. it's a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Green Day's "Nimrod" CD, mixed by Tom Lord-Alge, featured an SM57 on top snare.

And I totally agree with you, I think the 57 is crap...there are way better mics out there--it has an "old" sound to it in my opinion. The high end sucks.

To listen to my recorded stuff go to:
http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1743&alid=-1

I encourage you to download them, but they're nothing fancy...just done on 8 tracks....everything is one take. Just a demo.
 
Carvin mics...

Carvin's LD condenser mics are made in China. Their current pricing seems high compared to other companies' similar products.

The Carvin dynamic mics are OK, but not great. I own a CM50... it was $50 4 years ago. I took it apart and it looks suspiciously like a $10 Nady SP-1 that I bought this year... sounds similar too. A SM57 or 58 is better.

SM57's work well when used properly. It may not be the mic... it might be the engineer placing it.
 
ok, all those names on the sure web site...

do you honestly think those drummers are acctually using that mic??? yea, so that means that mike portnoy is using sabian B8's too?? cuz he's endorsing them?? how about a market strategy. yea, sure, carmine apeice prolly used the sm57. somewhere. but not if he doesn;t have alan parson to fix the shit sound at the mixer.
magicians may make that mic sound good.
everyone here is right, i have so little knowledge of recording it's pathetic (hence my membership here) and i'll bet anything it's my ears and mixing and placing.
fenix, that punk recording is the best thing i've EVER heard from a 57. i'm impressed. the whole damn recording is really good too. it's radio sounding stuff. you signed?? with a recording like that you should be.
if theres some magical thing i'm missing about mic placement (how much leeway do you really have when placing a snare mic?? is there some special way to place it? i mean, you point the damn thing at the head. maybe angle it diffrently or raise it a little depending on ur taste, but it's as simple as that, right??) let me know.

i wanna hear these audix mics.
has anybody recorded with them???

and as far as mic pre's, i am using a <B>roland VS2480</B>. i have a feeling the pre's are built in and are pretty good. if anyone out there knows diffrent about the roland, like i'd have to buy pre's for the mics anyway, let me know.
god, i pray to you, show me someone who's recorded using these audix mics so i can determine wether they're just fancy mics or if they;re really as good as everyone makes em out to be.

Mike...
 
The SM57 is used in the studio for many drummers and guitarists whether or not they are officially endorsing them. The 57/58's have been used on studio vocals for Tom Petty and Bono to name a few. They are also the mainstays of just about any live sound rig.

If you don't like them don't buy one but you have heard them on more albums then you can count, you just don't know it.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:
ok, all those names on the sure web site...

do you honestly think those drummers are acctually using that mic??? yea, so that means that mike portnoy is using sabian B8's too?? cuz he's endorsing them?? how about a market strategy. yea, sure, carmine apeice prolly used the sm57. somewhere. but not if he doesn;t have alan parson to fix the shit sound at the mixer.
magicians may make that mic sound good.
everyone here is right, i have so little knowledge of recording it's pathetic (hence my membership here) and i'll bet anything it's my ears and mixing and placing.
fenix, that punk recording is the best thing i've EVER heard from a 57. i'm impressed. the whole damn recording is really good too. it's radio sounding stuff. you signed?? with a recording like that you should be.
if theres some magical thing i'm missing about mic placement (how much leeway do you really have when placing a snare mic?? is there some special way to place it? i mean, you point the damn thing at the head. maybe angle it diffrently or raise it a little depending on ur taste, but it's as simple as that, right??) let me know.

i wanna hear these audix mics.
has anybody recorded with them???

and as far as mic pre's, i am using a <B>roland VS2480</B>. i have a feeling the pre's are built in and are pretty good. if anyone out there knows diffrent about the roland, like i'd have to buy pre's for the mics anyway, let me know.
god, i pray to you, show me someone who's recorded using these audix mics so i can determine wether they're just fancy mics or if they;re really as good as everyone makes em out to be.

Mike...
Click to expand...

no, no...there wasn't a 57 anywhere on that recording. Although I do own an SM57 I have little use for it because I have better mics than that. Usually I only use it on the bottom of the snare.

A good deal of audix mics were used on those recordings. D1 was on top snare (the bottom side wasn't miked, remember I only recorded that on 8 tracks), the guitars are D3, the toms are D3, the kick is D4, the vox is AT4033, the overheads are AT4033 and AKG c1000s.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:
ok, all those names on the sure web site...

do you honestly think those drummers are acctually using that mic???
Click to expand...

Yes.

If you read r.a.p., you'll find the SM57 being recommended frequently, sometimes by people who actually work on released records. Something that neither I nor you have done, so neither of us know much beyond what people tell us (if we listen).
 
A few excerpts from r.a.p.:

I've been able to get the sound I want by using an SM57 above the snare 99% of the time.
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An SM57 is a fine snare drum microphone. It is the first thing that I reach for for that application.
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You can always count on a SM-57 for snare.
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Regarding the snare drum mic thread which might I say is a very important topic because we all know how important the snare drum is. Of coarse the 57 is the leader ....
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SM 57 ? You're in luck. That is usually the best place to start on a snare.
Click to expand...
I have always had good results using SM57 on snare. In fact you can use them on just about anything
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I always close mic (unless the producer thinks otherwise) and still to this day prefer the midrange/bottom sound of a SM57. They're cheap and they're good at pounding tacks too. I did use another mic configuration once but I can't remember the mic's ....
Click to expand...

I've used the venerable SM57 for just about all types of snare sounds: wooden, military, deep shell, piccolo.
Click to expand...
 
I am searching my memory banks for any major release I was involved in or was privvy to the details of that DIDNT use a 57 SOMEWHERE.
ESPECIALLY on sessions where the drums will be close mic'd

Its used on snare a LOT LOT LOT of the time..of course, its usually not the ONLY mic on the snare either. Personally I will sometimes use a 441 instead or if its a pain in the ass idiot drummer with too loud of a hi hat, Ill stick one of those sennheiser e-604's in its place. But something of a 57's nature.

However I cant recall a D--112 ever being used on a kick, tho I got three of them here. Usually people would use the predecessor of it, the D-12E, or instead an RE-20, or FET 47. That being said, if you CANT get a decent kick sound out of a D-112, you need to re-evaluate.

If a 57 is too expensive, I sure as hell hope you arent charging anyone
 
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