SCD Pair for Under 1k

[Shadow_7]

It's nice to know that my impulsiveness might serve me well. With my Korg MR-1000, I was able to milk 2 hours and 49 minutes on 8x AA's NiMH rechargeable radio shack specials driving my Avenson STO-2's. I would ike to achieve 3.5 hours minimum / reliable recording times. At the moment I can do 2 hours reliable, really 2.5 hours most of the time on only batteries. I don't know if the specs you quoted will get me there. But it sounds hopeful that I could crest 3 hours.

Have at the 44, at $550 for one mic, it's out of my current reach. And I'd be wanting a matched pair anyway. If it's even still available on craigslist. That's the thing with stereo field recorders, they still record in stereo, even if you're using only one mic. I can extract that single track in post and use it. But I've grown accustomed to a stereo image, it makes the brain much happier when trying to focus on a single sound source among other sound sources in a given space. With a mono track, it's literally lost in translation.

 

[mshilarious]

Meh, I wouldn't be rushing to the 44 for a stereo pair for live recording anyway.

Let's see, STO at 5mA vs. SM81 at 1.3mA. If you have 8 AA batteries, that's 1.3V * 8 * 2500mAH, or 26WH, divided by 2.8 hours is 9W? The STO pair draw would be 0.5W of that, really a little higher due to inefficiency of the DC converter, but that's probably close to a constant so we'll ignore it. The SM81 pair is 0.125W, so you're down to about 8.6W, or just over three hours. If you're only at 2 to 2.5 reliably now, I don't think you'll get to 3.5. But hey, fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes . . . man, 8W is still a lot of power though. I wonder what is so thirsty

You'd see a bigger difference in a smaller device like a Microtrack or Zoom H4, the phantom current is just punishing on battery life there.

 

[Shadow_7]

Well the Korg MR-1000 also stores to an internal HDD (1.8" laptop hard drive). So I imagine that is thirsty too. And the AAs are NiMH which drain faster than non-rechargeables and are only 2100mAh to start with.

 

[Muyukiguki]

I just took a leap from a pair of stock MXL 603s' to a pair of Peluso CECM6's. What a difference it has made. The cardiod pattern on the Pelusos seem much tighter than the 603s', since I'm so used to that wider pattern, I'll probably end up getting the omni caps for the Peluso's. But either way, I'm extremely happy with them!

 

[Shadow_7]

I got my SM81's. Nice tank like mics. Odd pad ring towards the tip, I think I accidentally tripped it when I put on the windscreens upon on first test. My Avensons are barely more than the width of the mark on the knob different between each mic. The SM81's are over an hour hands worth of difference on the gain knob.

Other than that, nice transparent mics. Low noise floor, but seems to pick up anything transferred up the mic stand. The Avensons less so. And I seem to put the gain on H, not L for these mics. Although not quite exposed to the usual brass ensemble, just me picking up a bugle after three months of inactivity. The mics are little long to achieve XY or ORTF with my current stereo bar. And the stock windscreens are virtually non existent (relative to a "WIND" screen) but they should provide a good base for a fur overcoat. It should probably run another $200 to use them how I intend (beefier stereo bar and beefier wind foam), or the equivalent DIY. I think I'll keep my Avensons for now until I get a feel for the max SPL capabilities of the Shures.

 

[mshilarious]

I got my SM81's. Nice tank like mics. Odd pad ring towards the tip, I think I accidentally tripped it when I put on the windscreens upon on first test. My Avensons are barely more than the width of the mark on the knob different between each mic. The SM81's are over an hour hands worth of difference on the gain knob.

The SM81 pad, despite being a ring that seems like it is a gain knob, is actually just a standard switched-capacitor arrangement, so if the two aren't 10dB off, then you didn't trip the pad and they aren't closely matched. I don't recall that Shure ever did matched pairs of SM81s. On the used market, that's a huge gamble anyway, there are many tens of thousands of them out there and some have lived hard lives.

 

[Shadow_7]

These are new-ish. Supposedly only 3 hours of use. There's no visible serial number to base any age / matched decisions on.. They don't come in pairs, but the manufacturer claims QA is so good that any two could be used as a pair. And they can I suppose. I'm just worried that having a marked higher gain on one channel of a two channel preamp will impart a different color to the sound and thus make them even more unmatched.

With these SM81's at low gain I appear to be at about 9 and 10. At higher gains I'm at about one and three. On the Avensons it is more like 9 and 9:05 with no marked differences between the two at the various gain levels.

With that said, they do appear to be an improvement. More of a stereo image as hoped(cardioid instead of omni), lower noise floor as hoped. And distant sources sound less like they're in a closet. But boy are they sensitve to mic stand vibrations. I probably need to look into LDC type suspension mounts for these. Especially if I'm gonna be mounting them to a camcorder. In addition to a wider stereo bar, fake fur, heftier foam windscreen, and stuff.

 

[antichef]

I use spider shock mounts with mine. Not sure how durable they are, but I got them on ebay for not much $ - just a generic brand, and they work fine under my not-so-demanding conditions.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

I have been happy with my Peluso CEMC6s. They have a very transparent character to them that I think would be beneficial for acoustic rock. The Josephson C42s have a more rock-and-roll character to them, from what I understand (a good friend of mine uses those in his studio as his main SDCs).

 

[Shadow_7]

I'm happy to report that I got out and used the mics(SM81's) as I intend (partially). And that the difference in gain staging seems more related to proximity than anything else. One mic has higher gain at roughly the same CLOSE proximity. Once you put a couple of yards (10+) between the mics and the source, they're actually fairly closely matched. Roughly 8 and 8:30 for the source I recorded this afternoon. And fairly consistent across the range of gain levels. Definitely a better STEREO image than OMNI mics.

I'm happy with the results so far. If I can overcome the windscreen issue(s), I should be able to offload my Avensons and buy a better HD camcorder when the time comes. Or just rent a pro grade camcorder when the time comes. Mandatory 3 times a year IMO, but it'd be nice to have one regularly to help archive events as they happen instead of just the formal performances. Sorry if I hijacked the thread. I'll post samples or links to them when the group(s) okay/post it. Or at least partials to avoid any rights issues. What's the allowance? 20% for "educational" purposes? Do medleys count?