Good mic stands for expensive condensors

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Scott Tansley

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Does any one know of any really good brands of mic stand that make thick chunky heavy mic stands. At the moment when I use my Rode classic 2 (lucky bastard I am) Im so paranoid about it falling over and smashing the valve and well,,,well it just wouldn't be good. What I do at the moment is tie a piece of heavy string to the mic craddle then to one of the 4 hardwood rafters going accross about two foot down from my studio ceiling so if it does fall it wont hit the floor. Since I would only want two of these stands, price is not a problem.


Scott.
 
The Atlas SB36W...or something like that, is what you are after. ...casters, larger diameter tubing, just bigger all around....like de ones in da big boy studios. About 2 1/2 bills each for 'em. I saw some other ones at a music/audio store that had tripod legs on them too...kinda like the small PA speaker stands you see...like the ultimate support stands...except these fold up too. However, I don't recall the brand name. They were at Corner Music in Nashville. I'm sure you could call them, as I have ordered a lot of stuff thru them over the phone....plus, they could tell you more about them. They always BEAT any prices I could find in the catalogs. They where just over $200 also. Look @ www.sweetwater.com under Atlas. They're asking probably close to $300, but if you look around on the net, you can probably do better. BTw, I've got a couple myself, and they are cool-ass looking mic stands.....almost neater than the shockmounts that are all the rage now!!
 
Quiklok are the ones I have found to be cheaper and better.
We've got a couple of their big "tri-on-wheels" ones, the quiklok A-50, which are FAR superior then an 1100 bucks equivalent which is broken in the tool shed. They sell for just under 200 bucks. Best stands I've ever bought.
http://www.quiklok.com/
 
Take any decent mic-stand with a round base, unscrew the shaft where it meets the base and slide a 10-pound weight from your set of barbells onto the shaft. Screw the shaft back onto the base with the added weight.

Congratulations... you've just accomplished the same thing as those fancy, expensive mic-stands and saved yourself $150 + shipping + waiting time.

Or....
Take any tri-pod mic stand and fill all 3 legs with lead.... another $150 saved.

Buck
 
buck62,
That sounds like a great idea. Since I dont have $150 right now, I am definitely going to do it. I think I have seen those weights at wal-mart.

I dont want my expensive condenser to tip over either.

Scott,

You lucky bastard. You have a classic ii? Those mics rule.
 
CJ....

Check the diameter of the shaft to make sure the weight fits.
Sometimes the hole in a "standard" weight is too small.

If that's the case, get an "olympic-size" weight. The diameter of the center-hole is larger and will fit the shaft with no problem.
You'll have to go to a sports store for the olympic-size weight, though... WalMart definitely won't have 'em.

Buck
 
And for crying out loud, buy used weights at a garage sale, not new weights at the local Big Five. The garage sale prices will be less than the shipping costs on new weights!

However, I honestly disagree with Buck's basic assessment. Cheap mic stands don't just lack base-weight, they lack tight connections, strong booms, and main pole mass as well. You can tie a bag of sand to a cheap tripod and improve it somewhat, but it won't be as stable and serviceable as an expensive, heavy, well-built tripod, no matter how much mass you add.

Also, lead is both expensive and potentially dangerous. I filled my speaker stands with about 50 pounds of lead bird shot, but if I had children in the house, I'd have never done it, because small amounts of lead dust inevitably leak out where the legs meet the base.

There are always inexpensive work-arounds, but they are not necessarily equivalents, nor do they undercut the value of the real deal. You have to balance your needs and decide for yourself.

Mark H.
 
This month's Guitar Satan circular has a "studio boom stand" with wheels and all, for $69.99
It's an "On-Stage" stand, and I don't know how good the quality of this stand is.

It's on page 47
 
Quicklok....that was the name that escaped me. Those ARE nice stands...and they fold up too....get 'em out of the way when not needed.
As far as saving the $150....for home use...sure, use the weights (and the panty hose popper stopper...etc, etc.). But I'm sure I've gotten well over the price of some of my *superfluous* equipment, with "my home recording deals". Having a couple of these bad boys lined up against the living room wall, complete with some decent condensors, (in those ubiquitous, spiffy looking shock mounts), has popped the eyes out of many a customer when they first walk in the door. You gotta give some "wow" appeal...for what's worth. (..Then you hit em with 120dB on the JBL's!!).
Plus......they make killer drum OH mic stands.....mic'ing vocals (from above) with the stand out of the way....sticking out windows to capture bird sounds (ya play 'em back at half speed for Jurasic park), holding your shitload of unused cords, did I say they look cool???
 
I'm thinking of building my own mic stand base that will have a rack, a mic case built into it and be on wheels. In the rack I will have a small xlr patch bay, headphone amps and direct boxes. That will all be wired into a multi pair that will feed back to the control room. I might even put space on board for other mic stands.

What I'm going for is a two box mobile studio. On the control room side I'm going to have a rack with a PC, preamps, effects, a small mixer, patch bay, drawers for keyboard/mouse, LCD display and what ever else I need.

I should go do up a design in CAD and post it here.
 
Here is a quick litte cad drawing of what I have in mind.

Note that their are three holes on top. The mic can go in either one and a pole for a pop filter can go in one of the others.
 

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Garak, that's a cool design, but I wonder if the substantial base would be microphonic; i.e., transmit and/or mechanically amplify sounds that would be picked up by being attached to your microphone, kind of like the sound board on a musical instrument (e.g., piano)? It would be great as a separate cart, though. Thanks for sharing the design idea.

Mark H.
 
Thats what shock mounts are for. Keeping mechanial noise out of the mic.

I'm planning on building it to be very heavy. Most likely some kind of hardwood or high density fiber board. Everything will be glued and screwed together and when in use it will be open on two sides, for it to work as a sound box like on a piano or gutiar it would have to be sealed up on all but one side wouldn't it?

Its been too long since I did this stuff in physics class.
 
The heavy-duty stand I mentioned earlier (for $69.00 @ Guitar Satan) can be seen here....
http://www.oktava.com/osmic.html

Model #MS9612B+ Studio Boom Stand w/casters

I checked one out the other day @ GC and it's a nice stand for the money.... solid and heavy.
 
On stage stand!!

I bought one of those onstage stands for $69.00 with casters and everything.They are extremely sturdy and the knob to adjust the main boom works like a champ. The boom arm extends out I'd say approximately 8 to 10 feet.It also comes with a hook deal that mounts on the main stand to hold the extra mic cable to tidy things up or if you have a mic with a power supply/handle you can conveniently attach it on the hook.Well worth $69.00.I am having a hard time convincing myself to pay $30-40.00 for more regular boom stands when for $20.00 more I can get a boom stand built like a tank.The only issue is it's big and not pratical in tight micing situations.My Isolation booth is quite small so I bought an adapter to put on the end of the boom arm and it will hold two mics in a xy configuration for overheads so I only needed one of these stands instead of two.Im sure I'll buy another one down the road anyways.Peace:D
 
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