Tube condensers.....what's their "niche"?

[Tomm Williams]

I have to admit, I've never used one. What is the optimum application?

 

[Chili]

Vocals, acoustic instruments and any other application where you want to capture the subtleties of the performance.

I recorded a middle school concert band tonight with two AKG 4000's. I don't know how it came out yet.

 

[c7sus]

Blue Microphones Cactus | Sweetwater.com

 

[Mo Facta]

Good for anything where you need a warm sound with lots of detail and extended low end. Good for front of kick, vocals, upright bass, and low-transient woodwinds.

Cheers

 

[Farview]

Its good for anything that you would use a condenser for. Some tube mics are dark, some are bright sounding...Just like solid state ones. I've had a couple, they didn't sound anything like each other. I would use one on people with an "S" problem, because it was less sensitive to it, but the other mic was insanely bright and would have sounded terrible.

 

[Chili]

Oops, you were asking about tube condensers. Sorry I misread and responded about condensers in general.

I once had a small diaphragm tube condenser that I picked up from a group buy several years ago. I sold it to Moresound. I didn't like it, it sounded "too" sterile to me.

 

[moresound]

Oops, you were asking about tube condensers. Sorry I misread and responded about condensers in general.

I once had a small diaphragm tube condenser that I picked up from a group buy several years ago. I sold it to Moresound. I didn't like it, it sounded "too" sterile to me.

I like it! It's very sterile. But that is the application that I have to use it for.

 

[wtfuhz]

had a small diaphragm tube condenser... it sounded "too" sterile to me.

Just curious, what kind was it?

 

[Chili]

Just curious, what kind was it?

I'm not sure I ever knew the name of it. It was from a group buy where a Chinese company manufactured them based on a custom order that coat-tailed off a design for another company. Kind of like overstock, but planned overstock. Does that make sense? It's been quite a long time and I don't remember the details. It was a fantastic deal. That much I do remember. I swear, guv'nor.

Moresound has the mic and there might be a brand name on it, but I don't think there is.

 

[Farview]

The bottom line is, you can't buy a mic, or anything else for that matter, based on the design alone. Each individual mic will be different. There is a giant difference between an AKG C-12 and a Neumann U-47, even though they are both top shelf tube mics. It is also obvious that there is a difference between those $5000 tube mics and the $200 ones that you get from Sam Ash.

Same goes for tube preamps vs. solid state. Same with tube compressors, etc... (in that case, the tube compressors are different because most of them use a photo-electric panel to control the reduction, but its that which maks it sound different, not the tube)