SDC upgrade from 603 suggestions?

[dkelley]

And as far as Akg 535,s I had one of those and got rid of it. There is another well know guy that mods recording gear that will fix that mic for you for a mere 150.00.

I'm happy you love your modded 603s, good things can be done with them for sure.

but.... there's a guy that will "fix" the akg 535???????

if anybody touches the 535 mics I use I will personally remove their teeth one by one.

how do you "fix" something that is not only not broken but is widely considered one of the best sdc mics ever made? the 535 is a total sleeper, one of the secret weapon mics. I've never heard of nor seen a modded one.

I think the only reason someone would modify an akg c535eb is to change the sound, not "fix" the design in some way (show me what's broken about it please!). there is absolutely no comparison between the build quality, design, and sound of a 535 and a 603. they're in entirely different leages. but some of the modded 603 mics I've heard are actually useful and good mics - definitely a good thing for you guys that like them. nothing wrong with that.

Cheers
Don

 

[dkelley]

I have a pair of the AKGs. Rarely use them now. Not a bad all purpose condenser, especially for vocal performance, but I'd get the Gefells. Much, much better SD mic, IMHO. There are better vocal performing condensers as well such as the Audix VX-10 and the AT AE5400.

I'd get the gefells too if I had the cash. I don't....

in my price bracket nothing beats the 535eb mics. they take eq beautifully as well, probably due to their inherent flatish response and sweet high end (not harsh at all). but yea, hell yea, give me gefells any day, any model of gefell, I'll take 'em please! Seriously, love 'em. but this isn't that sort of a price range I think in this thread, is it? I was trying to stick to the topic of 603 price range and somewhat higher.

cheers!

 

[dkelley]

ps

as marik and Mr. Joly know, I love their work and respect them immensely. Also in another thread (or maybe this one somewhere back there) Marik uploaded what I felt were much more clear demos of the improvements to the 603 that he's performed, and I admit to being wrong, he did change the overall character and improve it beyond what I've ever heard before from mic modding that didn't involve replacing the capsule.

so yes - great things can be done. I still don't "love" the 603, but I would use one particular version of his 603 mod on acoustic guitar in the right situation, I've had that proven to me now.

as someone else here mentioned, so often people claim amazing things without any backup proof. I for one tend to be skeptical about things that seem unlikely to me based on my personal experience.

it's always nice to be proven wrong with a great outcome (better music making gear) in the world as a result

I still love the c535eb and would throw it on anything and be happy. if I could afford $2000 mics then I'd get those as well, but keep the 535 for what I know it works great on. I'd sell all of my chinese capsule mics though at that point... (well ok, maybe I'd keep my cad 179 mics... wait, that's where I'm at now, only chinese cap mic left is the m179!)

cheers all
Don

 

[MichaelJoly]

...I'd sell all of my chinese capsule mics... wait, that's where I'm at now, only chinese cap mic left is the m179!

Hey Don, I have to ask - what Chinese mics did you own and sell? Why did you buy them and what did they not provide that you decided to sell them?

 

[Gidge]

If it were not for discussions in these forums i would not know who offers services to mod inexpensive mics, or to buy hand crafted mics such as the naiants at a low cost. These gentlemen seem to to offer their services to help us get decent products without having to mortgaging our houses. I'm an enthusiastic reader of their posts. If they make a few bucks at it, no big deal as long as their main interest is to honestly help us to achieve our goals.

usually, when someone has a product to offer, no matter how great it is, they buy adds on recording BBS's to let people know about it..doing it within posts is called spam..if allowed to continue, it could quickly get so out of hand that the BBS will be one big ad ruled by dealers...

 

[Marik]

I guess thats a no...

Actually not

I will be more than happy to provide plans for the mic version, which converts the mic into a "true KM84" style of the mic (i.e. transformer coupled). However, on the market the only quality dual bobbin transformers of the right size to fit the body happily... I make myself (yes, I do have a CNC winder), so that would be a spam and plugging-in my products, right?

I also don't have any problems to show pictures of my capsule mod (of course, if interested) and for DIY oriented folks even give dimentions.
However, here there are some other aspects. With this capsule I spent over a year of frustration and giving up just to start all over again next day. Behind every single dimention, every spacing, every hole diameter and hole position there are literally COUNTLESS hours of experimenting, when everything is measured by microns.
You see, even if I post all the plans and dimentions, very few people here (if any) do have the right and precision enough machinery to make them. They will need to go to a machinist to make those, and trust me, just set-up fees will be... not small.
There is however a good chance that if posted publically, somewhere in China tomorrow they will just put the capsule into production, even without giving a credit. I am not sure I would particularly love that idea.

Not that I am complaining, just explaining the situation.

Best, Mark

 

[dgatwood]

I know a guy who owns a studio with Mackie HR 824 monitors with the treble switch BOOSTED 2db.

Lots of high frequency loss from doing too many sessions under headphones cranked up too loudly?

 

[dkelley]

Hey Don, I have to ask - what Chinese mics did you own and sell? Why did you buy them and what did they not provide that you decided to sell them?

Hiya,

apex 435s (although great on toms and useful on sax with eq), apex 460 (like going through a phaser), apex pencils (OUCH that hurt my ears), had something to dislike about them all. still have a coupel 435s for toms and would use a 460 is necessary, prefer not to though without basically replacing everything in the mic (hello Dave Thomas!)

sp b1s, liked m179s better with similar but slightly improved ends of the response, didn't dislike the sp b1 mics though, I just preferred the cads.

prob more than that. in fact I know there ar emore, but those are what I can think of at the moment.

I had a radio shack electret sd that was miles better than those apex mics (any of 'em).

apex dynamics (why did I have them??????)

kept many others that are useful, other models/brands of chinese mics I mean.

Cheers,
Don

 

[dkelley]

ps - my website is particular amazing these days.. LoL, just clicked it for a laugh, it's been taken down by geocities and is totally blank now hahaha

perfect, fits in with my life just right (rebuilding studio, might as well do a proper site sometime too - I'm a frickin part time web developer anyway!)

 

[dkelley]

oh yea, apex 210... ring ring ring went the grill (205 blew it out of the water because of a smaller case and grill design - there's engineering for ya LoL)

one of the early cad ldcs I disliked, sorry couldn't tell ya which one (and I like most cads), it was very unflattering on anything but guitar cab and I already had great cab mics so I actually returned it to the store (was lucky I could)

man I've owned so many mics it's really hard to remember. if I walk into L&M I'll see a bunch that I'll avoid. I know the apex drums mics were unflattering to my particular kit, I feel that they were decent mics just not what I was looking for, very customized responses it seemed (or just cruddy responses, I'm not really sure).

of course I've tried expensive mics that I disliked also.