G
gordone
Well-known member
Just wanted to chime in with a recommendation on a great budget mic. Let me preface this by saying that this mic has just been discontinued and I might have gotten one of the last remaining ones, but if you come across a used one or if a dealer has a few sitting around, I recommend jumping on it! Further disclaimer - I'm just a hobbyist so take everything I say with a pinch of salt (or pepper), and if I say anything which is incorrect, feel free to correct me!
I do acoustic based music, some instrumental guitar, some singer/songwriter type stuff with vocals and ac. guitar. I previously had a Audio-Technica 4033, Neumann KM184, Great River MP2 pre, 2 RNC compressors, all going into a Delta 44 and recorded with N-Track.
I wanted to get an multipattern large diaphragm condenser to expand my sonic pallete and to get some better vocal and guitar tracks. I found the AT4033 didn't quite mesh with my voice and I thought having a new LDC along with my KM184, I could do some killer acoustic guitar tracks. After reading up on rec.audio.pro and talking with Fletcher at Mercenary, I settled on the Soundelux U97. I paid $575US from Professional Audio Design (http://www.proaudiodesign.com) since Mercenary had sold their last one, which included a nice wooden box and a plain mic clip (no shock mount). This mic had been compared favorably to the AKG 414, and I liked that it had 4 patterns. I also thought about the Shure KSM/44 and the Audio-Technica 4050, but I thought Soundelux would be a better bet, seeing the Mercenary Audio carried them.
I got the mic on Friday, and immediately set it up on my mic stand, plugged it into my Great River and set it up to record. I placed it in Omni (I was very excited as this was my first non-cardiod mic!), set it up about 1 foot in front of the 13th fret of my Martin D16. Recorded some simple strumming at 24bits/44.1 kHz. WOW!, I was very impressed. In listening back, it sounded like I was standing in front of the guitar as if it were played. Now my KM184 did a much better job with fingerpicking, but the U97 rocked for strumming.
Another test was using both the KM184 and U97 in a M/S configuration (I think I did this correctly, if not feel free to correct me!), pointed the KM184 towards the 13th fret and the U97 (in figure-8) pointed sideways towards the soundhole. This combination worked well for fingerpicking. The sound was quite large so it would work well where guitar was the only instrument. I think I flipped the polarity of one of the mics since they were quite close to each other. Trying the cardiod and hyper-cardiod patterns produced good results too, providing a "smaller" sound which might work better in a busy mix.
I also tried it out a little bit on my voice (which I've been told sounds like Harry Chapin). The sound was much more "focused" and less midrangey then the AT4033.
I plan on doing alot more recording once my main guitars (Taylor 710, 512, and the Martin D16) return from being set-up after the very dry winter we just had in Pennsylvania.
I feel weird posting all this since the mic has been discontinued, but I just wanted to share my good "new toy" experience. I'm suprised more HR'ers didn't mention the U97 since it seems perfect for anyone running a project studio. The mic seems very well built, and even seems more rugged than my KM184. And it sure looks nice sitting on the stand
Finally, if anyone has experience with this mic, I'd love to hear about some of the things you've been using it on. Thanks alot for reading this far!
-Evan
I do acoustic based music, some instrumental guitar, some singer/songwriter type stuff with vocals and ac. guitar. I previously had a Audio-Technica 4033, Neumann KM184, Great River MP2 pre, 2 RNC compressors, all going into a Delta 44 and recorded with N-Track.
I wanted to get an multipattern large diaphragm condenser to expand my sonic pallete and to get some better vocal and guitar tracks. I found the AT4033 didn't quite mesh with my voice and I thought having a new LDC along with my KM184, I could do some killer acoustic guitar tracks. After reading up on rec.audio.pro and talking with Fletcher at Mercenary, I settled on the Soundelux U97. I paid $575US from Professional Audio Design (http://www.proaudiodesign.com) since Mercenary had sold their last one, which included a nice wooden box and a plain mic clip (no shock mount). This mic had been compared favorably to the AKG 414, and I liked that it had 4 patterns. I also thought about the Shure KSM/44 and the Audio-Technica 4050, but I thought Soundelux would be a better bet, seeing the Mercenary Audio carried them.
I got the mic on Friday, and immediately set it up on my mic stand, plugged it into my Great River and set it up to record. I placed it in Omni (I was very excited as this was my first non-cardiod mic!), set it up about 1 foot in front of the 13th fret of my Martin D16. Recorded some simple strumming at 24bits/44.1 kHz. WOW!, I was very impressed. In listening back, it sounded like I was standing in front of the guitar as if it were played. Now my KM184 did a much better job with fingerpicking, but the U97 rocked for strumming.
Another test was using both the KM184 and U97 in a M/S configuration (I think I did this correctly, if not feel free to correct me!), pointed the KM184 towards the 13th fret and the U97 (in figure-8) pointed sideways towards the soundhole. This combination worked well for fingerpicking. The sound was quite large so it would work well where guitar was the only instrument. I think I flipped the polarity of one of the mics since they were quite close to each other. Trying the cardiod and hyper-cardiod patterns produced good results too, providing a "smaller" sound which might work better in a busy mix.
I also tried it out a little bit on my voice (which I've been told sounds like Harry Chapin). The sound was much more "focused" and less midrangey then the AT4033.
I plan on doing alot more recording once my main guitars (Taylor 710, 512, and the Martin D16) return from being set-up after the very dry winter we just had in Pennsylvania.
I feel weird posting all this since the mic has been discontinued, but I just wanted to share my good "new toy" experience. I'm suprised more HR'ers didn't mention the U97 since it seems perfect for anyone running a project studio. The mic seems very well built, and even seems more rugged than my KM184. And it sure looks nice sitting on the stand
Finally, if anyone has experience with this mic, I'd love to hear about some of the things you've been using it on. Thanks alot for reading this far!-Evan