theoretical question???

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stonepiano

stonepiano

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Now, here's where my wandering mind has brought me.

I need a dark sounding LD to contrast the brightness of my Rode NT1 so I'm thinking the AT4033. Here's my trouble, I'm worried about testing at the local GC for this reason.

If I'm singing into it, is what I'm hearing affected by the fact that I'm singing as well as listening?
It baffled me for the hour I spent testing it last week until I got to the point where I asked the salesman to sing into it while I wore headphones. He didn't like my approach too much.

Is this an unreasonable thing to ask? Do you trust your ears on a mic while you're singing into it? How else do you test a mic in store, seeing as most stores don't like returned mics?

thanks everybody.

stone
 
stonepiano said:
So no one has any thoughts....:(
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My aren't we the impatient one! But it's true. I have no thoughts - and do you realize how many years of intensive Zen training it took to be able to eliminate all thoughts from my brain? It's not as easy as it looks!

Moving on to your "dark sounding" LD mic - I've never heard anyone describe the 4033 as dark, so perhaps you are on the wrong track. When someone asks for a "dark" sounding mic, a lot of times they are looking for something in a ribbon or a large diaphragm dynamic. The usual suspects would apply here, depending on budget (which you didn't give us).

The best way to audition a mic in a store or otherwise is to record it to something (like a DAT) and listen to the playback.
 
Yup. yup yup...Auditioning is a pain. In addition to littlepups suggestion, you could ask if they have a rental one to try out on a daily. Or you could have a couple GC employees sing into for ya, most GC's have a pseudo studio set up and lots of wannabe's as employees. Get a female as well as a male and record it there as suggested by smalldogg. This also tells them your a serious individual and they might treat you better just out of repect. This also gives you an excuse to use thier Avalons which will probably get sold off as demo's one day. But, mics just likes guitars will always sound different at home than at the store. Good Luck and have fun :p

SoMm
 
wha??? I thought thirteen hours was plenty patient. :D sorry. I just saw my question ignored for a while. my bad.

I like the idea of trying a rental. I don't think GC does rentals, do they? Recording to dat in the store sounds good too. And I will be insisting on their avalon's to test a new three hundred dollar mic because that's what I have in my home studio, right? ;)

Interesting suggestion about the ribbon mic. To be honest, I don't know much about their usefulness or which applications are traditionally appropriate but I'll read up on them. Are they used predominantly in vocal applications?


thanks guys.
 
stonepiano said:
wha??? I thought thirteen hours was plenty patient. :D sorry. I just saw my question ignored for a while. my bad.

Interesting suggestion about the ribbon mic. To be honest, I don't know much about their usefulness or which applications are traditionally appropriate but I'll read up on them. Are they used predominantly in vocal applications?
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You have to remember that while this is an international community, the majority of participants are still in the Western Hemisphere - so while you were anxiously awaiting our answer most of us were fast asleep!

Ribbons have been used for most anything at one time or another. These days they are probably most commonly used on horns, strings, and as drum overheads. They're rather delicate, so pressing one up against a cranked guitar or bass amp may be a little dangerous. (They don't like puffs of air). Make sure if you use one on vocals that you use a pop filter.

So, if you don't mind a personal note, you talk like an American. How did you end up in Lithuania anyway? Does your name indicate you are a pro pianist? Sounds like there's a good story here somewhere!
 
littledog said:

So, if you don't mind a personal note, you talk like an American. How did you end up in Lithuania anyway? Does your name indicate you are a pro pianist? Sounds like there's a good story here somewhere!
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talk about myself! Of course!

I was actually only in Lithuania for a month this summer. I'm really from boring old Chicago and went to school not too far from you! (Williams College, western Mass) In four years, I had girlfriends at Tufts and Brandeis so I got to see lots of the big city.

The name is a reference to a good Steely Dan song who, btw, are my adopted studio idols. I'm sorry to say though that my skills on the keys are marginal at best. All I learned, I learned from Andy Jaffe (who runs the Northampton/Amherst Jazz Fest, I believe.)

Now, if you don't mind elaborating, I've got a good friend out in Boston clamoring for me to move there. She works for a decent sized promotions company and says good things about "the scene." Is LDog originally from Boston? Are you in a band there? Do you work in a studio? With how much you know, you must be working it somewhere in the field.
Oh, and I apologize for the deception if you were offended.
Cheers.

Miles
www.milesmaxwell.com
 
AT4033 is way off from a "dark" mic- Try Oktava MK319. Now that's dark!-Richie
 
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