Harvey continues to prove the value of budget priced mics....

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kidvybes

kidvybes

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...great article in this month's (Feb. 2006) Pro Sound News featuring our own beloved Harvey Gerst and his son Alex, and their production work on the upcoming new Feds album "A Touch Of Panic"...the article goes into detail about Harvey's Indian Trail Recording studio, but what is most interesting (and I believe, inspiring to those of us here on HR.com) is the Gersts' extensive use of affordable microphones, with MXL 990's, 991's and V69ME's capturing the lion's share of performances...further proof that a combination of talent, technique and product knowledge can produce high-quality results, even when employing so-called "prosumer" level products such as the MXL line of mics...

...I most enjoyed the article's description of how Harvey and Alex ended up experimenting with the V69ME tube mic (with the stock windscreen attached) as a "hand-held" mic, so as to better capture a "live" performance from the Feds lead singer and came up with very positive results...

...a 990 was also used to track vocals, and in combination with a 991 (for snare) was used to mic the drum kit (990 on all toms, positioned roughly 3" from the heads)...

...other mics used for the project (primarily on guitar cabs) were an Oktava MK012 (with a 33mm Lomo capsule), a Coles 4038 ribbon mic and a Shure SM57...

...Good Luck with the final mixing/mastering Harvey & Alex!...we can't wait to hear the final mixes...

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And we'd have probably used the Studio Projects T3 if we had a little more time to work with it.

It was a pretty nice article in their NAMM issue, so we picked up about 40 copies of the issue when we went to NAMM.
 
It's people like Harvey who make this less frustrating for me...Knowing that someone out there is using gear that's like mine and making pro albums makes me more confident that my effort is worth it!

Jacob
 
I've visited Harvey's studio. They do use a lot of lower cost mics. They also have some nice RCA and AEA ribbons as well.
 
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I've made some purchase decisions based on your recommendations harvey, thanks and keep up the good work your doing by looking after the little guys.
:)
 
ozraves said:
I've visited Harvey's studio. They do use a lot of lower cost mics. They also have some nice RCA and AEA ribbons as well.
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Someone gave me negative rep for saying nice things about Harvey. So, I'll say some more...

Harvey is a great guy. He's got a decent studio where they help develop some new talent. They've also got pinball machines to play between tracking. :) He also comes over here (and other places) and gives great advice just because he wants to help.
 
Isn't there already a band called the feds?
 
Havey's been a great and unselfish presence on this and other boards through the past several years.

Now with that said -- and I don't mean to be negative -- but I'd say most good studios will tend to have a pretty well-rounded collection that includes some mics of all different price brackets. And even the most respected engineers in the world will have a few cheaper mics that they'll carry around with them and use regularly on sessions because they work for them on certain things.

So while Indian Trail is certainly a good example, they're not totally unique in that regard. And it's not like their mic collection is some odd assortment of bargain basement cheapies like some of you guys are making it out to be. :D They seem to have a collection of mics that run the price gamut, as most good studios do. Correct me if I'm wrong.


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chessrock said:
Havey's been a great and unselfish presence on this and other boards through the past several years.

Now with that said -- and I don't mean to be negative -- but I'd say most good studios will tend to have a pretty well-rounded collection that includes some mics of all different price brackets. And even the most respected engineers in the world will have a few cheaper mics that they'll carry around with them and use regularly on sessions because they work for them on certain things.

So while Indian Trail is certainly a good example, they're not totally unique in that regard. And it's not like their mic collection is some odd assortment of bargain basement cheapies like some of you guys are making it out to be. :D They seem to have a collection of mics that run the price gamut, as most good studios do. Correct me if I'm wrong.


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You are wrong. Please don't shatter the dreams of many around here. All studios use the cheapest mics imaginable. The expensive mics are for show only.
 
chessrock said:
Havey's been a great and unselfish presence on this and other boards through the past several years.

Now with that said -- and I don't mean to be negative -- but I'd say most good studios will tend to have a pretty well-rounded collection that includes some mics of all different price brackets. And even the most respected engineers in the world will have a few cheaper mics that they'll carry around with them and use regularly on sessions because they work for them on certain things.

So while Indian Trail is certainly a good example, they're not totally unique in that regard. And it's not like their mic collection is some odd assortment of bargain basement cheapies like some of you guys are making it out to be. :D They seem to have a collection of mics that run the price gamut, as most good studios do. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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No, you're not wrong; we do have some pretty nice mics available to us.

BUT, most of the vocals we do are either on the MXL V69, our Neumann TLM103, or an old Shure SM-7, and we still find some vocals work best on the MXL V67. I suspect our new Studio Projects T3 will also get used a lot.

Drum overhead choices range from a pair of Behringer ECM8000's, to the Oktava MC012's, to the MXL 603's, to the AEA R84 ribbon mics. He'll also use the Shure SM81's at times. High tom mics are usually the Sennheiser 604's, athough lately, the MXL 990's have become Alex's favorite choices.

I mostly use the 604's for high toms, although I'll sometimes use the Shure SM57's. Floor toms are usually a 421 or an AT25. The kick usually gets an ATM25 or the D112, but sometimes Alex will use a tunnel on the kick with the Coles 4038.

Guitars amp mics can range from the SM57 to a Heil PR20 to a MC012, with the 33mm Lomo head (Alex's favorite choice). When we mic a bass cabinet, it's usually the D112 that works best.

All in all, it's really about getting the "right sound"; whatever mic works best. Alex and I really don't think in terms of price; we know what our mics sound like, and we use whatever mic we think will do the job best. It's all about doing justice to the music and helping the musicians realize their vision.

Kinda like guitars - we have quite a few, ranging from cheap to expensive. Sometimes the cheapest guitar we own has just the right sound - for the music.

The fact that it was purchased cheap is not important.

What is important is that it is exactly the right sound for the music.
 
Where can I get a copy of the Pro Sound News article? I'm in the Seattle area. Thanks.
 
Yes, it is a very nice article. Congrats to Harvey and Alex! Always nice to see friends make the (good) news.

Keep on inspiring us, Harvey!

Joel
 
ProSound has a link to the MXL website at the end of the article. It may all be very innocent - or ProSound is getting paid every time that link is clicked :cool:
 
nuemes said:
ProSound has a link to the MXL website at the end of the article. It may all be very innocent - or ProSound is getting paid every time that link is clicked :cool:
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I doubt it. I imagine that MXL sent that out as a PR piece. It's customary to put weblinks at the bottom of the press release. For example, here's one I ran on AIR Studios being sold... http://mojopie.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1321

Yes, it's essentially a free ad. But, I'd rather let the reader have the convenience of being able to click through if they want rather than forcing them to go to a search portal and find the page for whatever was referenced in the press release.
 
nuemes said:
ProSound has a link to the MXL website at the end of the article. It may all be very innocent - or ProSound is getting paid every time that link is clicked :cool:
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Pro Sound News also have a link to our studio, but they sure as hell ain't getting paid by us. We wanted to put the article on our website, but they wanted $500 for that privilage. Yeah, right. Like a guy in Barstow, California is gonna run out to record at our studio in Texas.

It was a PR piece for MXL. I happened to be talking to Wayne Freeman of MXL about another matter, and I mentioned that we used a lot of MXL's on The Feds, including the 990 as a hand-held vocal mic, and the 990's on toms. They thought it would be an interesting article for publication. We grabbed about 50 copies at the NAMM show.

An article about MoreMe headphones would have put money in my pocket, but hey, any publicity is better than no publicity. The fact that Widespread Panic used MoreMe's for their new album is way cooler.
 
MANY many thanks to Harvey and Steve and so many others who take the time to help us out.

You rock.
 
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