My ECM8000's came with a nice case...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beezoboy
  • Start date Start date
B

Beezoboy

Home Recording Guru
I ordered some ECM 8000's from Musicians Friend and got a plastic case, a little tiny windscreen, and a mic clip. They are pretty nice quality clips too. Fit very tight on the mics. I think they justify the extra bit I paid. (34.95) I am going to try these mics out on a choir probably on Tuesday to see what I get. For comparison I am going to use 2 AKG C3000B. I always get a good sound with the AKG's so this will be an interesting test. The only problem I can see is that in this particular hall there is quite a bit of room noise. The air conditioner. Oh well. It will still be a good test. I'll post some sound clips if you guys want.

Robby
 
oops

Sorry to bust your bubble bro, but that's how they come packaged by the company :)

--Sal
 
Pull out the foam on that "nice case" and tell me what it is! It's not that it's bad, it's just kinda funny. In fact it's given me a few ideas of my own!

Also, on mine and many others, they put the foam in upside down so that when you open it normally, all the shit falls out. It's easy to reverse though.

Finally, read the specifications on the box real closely for a nice chuckle.

Really it's a cool mic for 30 bucks. I got mine from 8thstreet too because I love those guys.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:
Pull out the foam on that "nice case" and tell me what it is! It's not that it's bad, it's just kinda funny. In fact it's given me a few ideas of my own!
Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...
Ah! Thats funny!! I wont give away the secret!
 
Slackmaster2K said:

Finally, read the specifications on the box real closely for a nice chuckle.
Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...

Do you mean the part about "Outdoor Measurement"?
Yeah, thats good, I'm always needing to correct the acoustics outside!
 
Ah! Now I see! Funny!
Guess the QC guys were off the day it was printed.
 
Give Them a Break

Come on, these guys are Reverse Engineers, they are not hooked on phonics.;)
 
You know I have been thinking about the aspects of reverse engineering and have come to this conclusion. Companies that reverse engineer are both good and bad for the industry at the same time. Take for example AMD and INTEL. AMD (as far as I know) originally used the x86 technology that INTEL developed. They licensed it from them many years ago. Ever since then AMD has essentially "reversed engineered" an INTEL processor. Now until AMD came on the market, you paid over $1000 dollars for whatever Intels flag ship processor was at the time. Since AMD has released chips (based off INTEL's own x86 technology) the prices of INTEL's flagship processors has dropped to half. Now did AMD do anything illegal?? I don't think so. They paid for technollogy, streamlined the manufacturing process, and even made chips that outperform INTEL chips. So to me from a consumer standpoint, we all gain. Sure a Behringer might be a knockoff of a Mackie, and the B2 mic might be a knockoff of a much higher priced microphone (Nuemann?), but in turn you get a microphone that performs well for much less and a board that will do its job (well thats debatable I guess about the board). All in all we (the consumer) get good deals all around. I mean look at it this way. If this is hurting Mackie and Nuemann then maybe they were overpriced to begin with. This practice happens in every buisiness, from cars to clothes. And if you are looking for the best quality, you know who to go with. And if you are looking for usable, but less quality, you go the other way. Not to mention that a guy who buys the $199 Behringer B2 would prabably have never bought the Nuemann in the first place. He would have gotten an AKG C3000b or a Shure KSM27. I mean I don't think these "knock off mics" like the B2 or the C1 are doing much to effect the people they copy.

Beezoboy
 
It Helps Me

BEEZOBOY

That is why I have a Behringer B2 and the Behringer Truth monitors. I could afford them. So far they have more than served my needs and hopefully they will last for a while. I am always reminded that "You get what you pay for", but sometimes "you don't get what you pay for". I would rather loose a little money than a lot of money.

I got the B2 before I had the opportunity to read the threads on Mic's. I was using 58's for vocals for a gospel trio I am in. The 58's did not hurt my voice to much (there is not much to hurt) other than proximity affects. The two ladies in the group needed something different. The B2 made a world of difference. It has a slight upper mid boost but overall is very warm and natural sounding. I seldom have to EQ the ladies voices.

I was mixing with some SP5's for monitors, and sometimes headphones. The mixes sounded terrible on jamboxes, home and car stereo's. The Truth monitors made a world of difference. The frequency response is very flat. Nothing seems to be added to the sound. They have some adjustments for room acoustics and I have driven them painfully loud without clipping. But the bottom line is what I mix now, sounds good on jamboxes, car and home stereo's. I could have spent a thousand dollars more on more "respected" brand names but I don't think I would have gotten the return for my money for the type of recording that I do. So yes I like reverse engineering. It may not be the most "honest" way to do business but at the same time it makes the name brands realize that maybe their profit margin is a bit too much.

Jack

Still learning.:confused:
 
I agree that the misprint is funny. I luv stuff like that. I'm inclined to cut them some slack though since English is not their native tongue. Kinda like the Chinese firecrackers' safety warning that after you light them you can expect a "loud report".

And while it may be true that the top of the line stuff is overpriced, the bottom feeder stuff is probably going to have to get one heckuva lot better before posing any true market threat to the big boyeez. No, I haven't tried everything, and yes, my V67 serves me well. But I don't kid myself. It's no C12. One man's opinion. YMMV.
-kp
 
About the Behringer truths. Are those things pretty nice sounding? I have heard good and bad. I was really thinking about getting some but had never heard them. So I ended up getting Alesis m1's and an Alesis RA300. I am happy and mixes have never sounded better, but I wish I coud have heard a pair of those Truths before I got my M1's. I have heard really god things about the B2 also.

I still like Behringer. I own a board by them, the powerplay headphone amp, and two ECM8000's. All of it works satisfactory for me. I really think that the headphone amp is the best deal around. I mean 12 headphone connections, and 4 seperate mixes for 79.99. Not bad!!

Beezoboy
 
Behringer Truth

Beezoboy:

All I can tell you is what I hear through an "untrained ear". I have never heard any other near field monitors to compare to. I know that is a no-no but I ordered these through the internet. I live way out in the sticks and there are no major music stores around that carry anything other than basic PA equipment.

When I first heard the Truth's, I thought they were terrible. Every one of my favorite CD's sounded so flat on them when compared to my Surround System. Then I realized, that is how they are supposed to sound. That is the sound I aimed for in my mixes. A flat sound with no particular boost in any of the frequency spectrum. When I accomplished this, it translated to good sounds on my home, car and portable stereo's. I just had to get used to not making the mix sound bassy or brassy on the monitors otherwise it would be mud or tinny sounding on other stereo's.

I think I posted before, the first things that impressed me with the monitors was the weight, 30 lbs. each, the looks, good finish, all parts fit, well machined. I know you can't tell a book by its cover but I feel if they took care on the outside, maybe they took care on the inside. These speakers will pump some sound. They push 150 watts to the 8.75" long throw woofer and 75 watts to the tweeter. I have turned them up to painfull levels without the clip light even flickering (I'm asumminig the clip light works, I just don't want to blow them up trying to see if it does.) There are several swithces on the back of the unit to fine tune for room inadequacies.

Bottom line, for $398 I feel I got a good deal on a very usable product. It beats the heck out of the Peavy SP5's I was using for mixdown.

I went to rec.audio.pro which I was told is notorious for Behringer bashing and was surprised to find about an 85/15 split in favor of the performance/cost ratio of the Truth monitors.

I like them.:D

Jack
 
Yeah, I am new to this stuff too (sort of) and I actually ordered my monitor 1's off musicians friend.

A lot of the Behringer stuff I read is outdated too. I mean I read some post here that was like "I got them from a music store in Germany in 1998, and soon after they broke" Well I think that since then Behringer *might* have upped there quality control. I hope I don't get flamed for this, but, I have a Eurorack 2624a and it is actually serving me quite well. I am in college and on a budget, so it is a bit tough to afford a Mackie. Although I really was torn between this and an Alesis mixer. The only reason that I didn't get Alesis is that I heard they are bankrupt and may not be around much longer. I don't know how true that is, but I have heard from multiple places. Personally for me, I am going to buy a preamp I like and stick it in the rack anyway, so the preamps were really not an issue. I also do primarily computer based recording, so I knew I was not going to be using the board for much more than monitoring purposes and when I need it for live stuff. I mean I personally don't want to take a Mackie out for live stuff. I could kill two of these little Behringer boards before I could justify paying for and killing one Mackie, or Alesis for that matter. I have had no problems with my Behringer. It does get a little warm on the back, so I make sure and unplug it when I am not using it. I also plan on getting a better board when I builld my studio anyway, so in a little bit this Behringer is going to sit in a closet and be the "live only" board. All in all *so far* I really cannot complain about Behringer products.

Beezoboy
 
I'm kind of a gear head....and kind of can semi afford nice stuff (single...no gf..good stuff..hehe.) But, I think Behringer is great..personally. now, i don't own many of their products...in fact, I just bought my first today...a Composer Pro. but, i expect it to be good...

the manual is nice...the packaging..the unit seems nice and was highly reccomended. It is kind of nice to know there is a company out there that does admitadly low price equipment, but...with at least decent quality. I mean, no one is going to say that a Behringer mixer/preamp/compressor/monitor setup is worse than a few random parts from the garage or whatever.

They get a lot of heat...and, i don't know their story...I am sure most of it is well deserved. They arn't trying to be the best in terms of quality...but, i think they have an important market share. I'd like to think they have turned up their quality control as well...

After reading this thread I am going to check out the Truth monitors. monitors are something i was going to hold off on for a while just becuase i can't afford the ones I want (the mackie HR824s). But, for 400 bucks maybe the Truths would serve me really well. It isn't about how it sounds on the monitors...but, how it sounds on everything else - as noted.
 
Dude...

When I got my first ECM8000 it came in a really NICE case. I paid 35 bucks and put in a request for a second. I paid 30 for the second and not only is the case not as nice and the clip the clamp type, the mic itself is lighter. Go figure. Doesn't matter to me.
 
Beezoboy,
I'd be interested in hearing some sound clips of your choir recording. I was thinking of trying out a pair of ECM 8000s to record a solo opera singer and piano in a church.

Coleridge
 
I'll post some stuff when I get it recorded. Moday I am recording a violin and piano. I am going to try to recrod xy from about 10 feet away. I'll be comparing that sound to what I get from a pair AKG C3000B's. The next day I am going to try a Stienway miced up close. I'll post what I get soon after maybe by Wednesday of Thurs.

Beezoboy
 
Mr. Jones,

Not sure how ya did it but the ECM clip has some serious phase problems. That's exactly why the TLM103 clip sounds better. The TLM clip has a much wider stereo separation whereas the ECM clip has very little to none.

This is not a problem with the microphone but with either mic placement or even a bad mic cable out of phase.

If you playback the TLM clip (clip b) then press the "mono" button on your console or application you'll hear an immediate reduction in stereo field and a resulting "dullness".

However playing back the ecm8000 in mono result in no sound change from the original stereo clip. This tells me the recording is out of phase or at least has some severe phase problems.

Try an X-Y pattern with the ECMs or at least another position...and make sure the cables are wired right (pin 1=grnd, pin 2=+, pin 3=-).

Upon listening to both clips in mono (comparing apples to apples) the TLM was definitley "hyped". Highs were higher and lows were larger than life. the ECM8000s were fairly unhyped and accurate sounding compared to the TLM.

Personally I like both mics. Just depends on the sound I'm going for. If I wanted an accurate representation of the piano in this example I'd definitely choose the ECM. If I wanted larger than life it'd be the TLM.

OdeeOdeeOh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top