MXL 990/991 Mic Package

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fivesixonesk8er

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Has anyone tried either the MXL 990 or the MXL 991 on Amps, Guitars, Drums, Vocals, ect?
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I have the MXL990 and have tried it on my guitar amp.........it's not really happening......that mic does'nt handle high spl's. It sounded fair with the amp at low volume but not great. I'd rather have an sm57 to mic an amp. I owned 2 of em in the past and they did a good job.

As for vocals, I'm really not sure how good it is because I'm running through an AudioBuddy (I'm assuming it's fairly clean), and then into onboard 16 bit sound. You can check out my page on Soundclick.com. All vocals and acoustic guitar were recorded with the MXL990. Here's the link:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/travisthompsonmusic.htm
 
It's a great mic for around $60.
Here's a link to an mp3 that was recorded with two MXL 990's set up in a living room with hardwood floors/area rugs, painted walls and 9 foot ceilings.
I fully intended to post this when I recorded it to demo the mics recorded sound to curious buyers here on the forum so here you go. :cool:
http://www.groovespace.org/freesongs/i'll_let_you_know.mp3



The drummer was on the left, two guitar amps on the right both near and far and a bass amp on the far left. I set the mics up as a concident pair about 7" apart and angled at about 110 degres, 6 feet of the floor.

The highs are a bit tricky to EQ but I could see that coming by their response curve in the spec sheet that came with them. Overall the sound is pretty good and the bass is full. Excellent bang for the buck in my opinion.
 
MXL 990 and 991

I have used the 991 for the neck mic for my breedlove acoustic and it's Great.
i have not tryed the 990 yet but i bought the M-audio Nova and the MXL stuff
came with it for Free. ya gota love that. the other mic i have is a Cad E-100.
I have had it for about 7 years and love it but having other mic's to work with is like having other collors to paint with. Enjoy
Carl :)
 
Right Now I am using an SM57 for Vocals, Snare, and Guitar. I am looking into buying the MXL 990/991 package for more mics and better sound.

I am looking at using the 990 for Distorted Guitar or Vocals.
I am looking at using the 991 for Hi-Hats or cymbals.

If someone could possibly send me a link to a mp3 they recorded of one of those mics doing eather one of those actions, that would be great! (example: Someone playing Distotion Guitar through the 990)
 
990 will do for vocals, but it's not great on distorted guitar, I've tried it. Something more neutral without the hyped high end is a lot better for a distorted guitar sound, but the hyped high end can be nice for certain vocals.

I recently picked up some cad m179's, and they do a pretty nice job on distorted guitar, although when putting it in a mix, a 57 still is the right sound at least half the time.
 
I'm strickly an amateur but I've used both on acoustic nylon string guitar and they both sound good to my untrained ears.

rpe
 
the 990 bottoms out when I try to record my amp, with volume just above practice level. I tried it with the amp very low, still not very good. That 57 should do fine for micing distorted guitar. What type of vocals will you be doing? not sure if the 990 will be good for really loud vocals.
 
at www.crapshaith.org , music page, I have a buncha stuff up that I've done. I think all of those the 990 was used on vocals, and anything with live recorded drums, the 990 is used as an overhead.

roommadness.mp3 the guitars were done with a 57 right up against the grill, and the 990 several feet back, aimed down at the wood floor (cuz the direct sound had too many harsh highs... for distortion I'd really reccomend something without the hyped highs, it's more of a "vocal mic" type response).

Other than that, I dont think I used the 990 on any distorted guitar, but it does work fairly well on clean stuff, where the nasty high end of distortion isn't a problem.


Lately I've been using my Cad m179 on vocals (with eq to make it sound more "vocally".... I've been adding just a decibel or so around 3 and 5k, and I find that I need to cut a few db from around 500hz to make it really click into place with other tracks on my vocals, but I think it has a little smoother of a sound than the 990...costs a bit more though, so it should.)

I've been wanting to try the m179 on distorted guitar, cuz I did a clip of it that I really liked..... it's on that site somewhere....
It has some compression and chorus on there that I didn't realize was left on (had it routed into a group track I'd been fiddling with acouistic on by accident), so it makes it sound more appealing to the ear than it really is...

But in the context of a mix, I just haven't been able to justify using it, as I've only done a couple things, and the 57 was the right tone.

edit: oh yeah, and for reference, all those were recorded with a tascam us-428, using the built in pre's, into cubase sx 1.0, with plusing including some of the psp stuff, tc native bundle, and some various freebie stuff like SIR reverb, kjaerhaus classic stuff, etc.
 
991 good acoustic guitar, same mic as the mxl603s
 
Ok.... Here is what my recordings sound like right now. I don't have any vocals right now but we are going to soon. PLEASE, if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the quality better (mics, EQ ing, ect.) Please let me know!!!!
Click "New Song (No Lyrics)" on http://www.purevolume.com/terminalconflict
 
I have two of the 990's. Why you may ask? Because I tried them on vocals and on a/g and was not happy at all. I tried one as a drum overhead and it was ok so I got one more to make a pair but have since retired them from that job. In short they are a pretty boxy sounding mic.

No Idea on the 991's.

F.S.
 
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Attention

sorry to shout........I made a huge mistake in not reccommending the mxl990 for micing a guitar amp........I had a bad fucking instrument chord.......just figured this out........I will come back and leave a post of how it sounds with a comparison to the XLR outs of my duoverb amp.
 
As Junplugged stated, the 991 is the same exact mic as the 603s (the newer ones with the trim pot anyway). For the price that combo is unbeatable. I'm going to buy it just for the 991 and will probably use the 990 for some DIY mods and experiments.
 
Well, As of right now my setup is.......

DRUMS
Audio-Technica Drum Mic Pack 3 (TOMS), 1 (KICK)
2 Audio-Technica Vocal/Instrument Mics (Overheads)
SM57 for Snare

GUITAR
SM57

BASS
Kick/Tom Mic from Kit

VOCALS
SM57

Any suggestions that are cheap but sound good??
****IF ANYONE COULD, SEND A LINK TO A MP3 OF A CYMBAL OR HI-HAT WITH THE 991*****

****IF ANYONE COULD, SEND A LINK TO A MP3 OF A DISTORTED GUITAR WITH THE 990*****
 
I have a 990 and I've used it for vocals. Not bad for the price, but I don't recommend using it for lead vocals. I used it with a group of background singers on a couple of tracks and it sounded fine, but it didn't work so good when I tried it on lead.
 
I read a few comments saying the 990 sounds boxy on vocals and I think that is a pretty good description.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I read a few comments saying the 990 sounds boxy on vocals and I think that is a pretty good description.
Click to expand...

I did a review on it a long time ago. I was the first one here to get one in my hands. Both of mine have a boxy or nazely sound to them and the frequency charts don't seem to add up to the sound. When I tried to EQ the boxy sound out of it I first tried scooping some mids but it did not work. Boosting the presence seemed the way to go.

I hate fighting mics. So I use the mics I don't have to EQ.

F.S.
 
I have one as well, and I think I've noticed what you're all saying. What exactly do you mean by "boxy" though? I'm sorry if I seem ignorant, I just don't know if I know exactly what you mean.

Likewise, I'd rather have a mic I don't have to EQ-fight, but it's all I have at the moment, so I deal.
 
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