what are your opinions of the MXL 990?

  • Thread starter Thread starter grn
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grn

grn

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I got it for free when I bought my sound card but rarely bust it out? What are the best uses for it? Should I just sell it on ebay?
 
I took a MK219 capsule and put it in a 990. Sounds nice and full for my vocals now. I put the 990 capsule in the 219. Sounds decent on my acoustic guitar.

Of course neither one is a 990 now, but I think both mics were improved by the switch.
 
I got an MXL990 just last month at guit. center. After reading this forum over the last few months, the only bad "reviews" I see only seemed to exhibit such pickiness over certain coloring of sound and too much high end sizzle that I decided to give MXL an honest shot since I DO have a trusty old parametric EQ on my mixer to turn down any excessive "sizzle". I also figured I'd have a good foundation for comparison since I just got finished working in another musician's home studio with his Neumann TLM103. BUT the MXL does have a bit more signal noise than the Neumann but only when you really crank it up so loud that you can hear a gnat farting outside and neither mics are ever going to be turned up that high in a REAL LIFE musical recording session but for an instumental mic, I 'd say the MXL 990 is friggin awesome espescially for the price! First, I'm probably going to be called a heretic for saying this but in my opinion, the lowly MXL 990 sounds almost the same, if not a little better than the $1k Neumann in instrumental recording and I see nothing but gold said 'round here about Neumann but I'm sure that's because it's expensive equipment and expensive equipment gives you so much more cost to benefit advantage over the lowly "bargain" gear right? Wrong! I can distinguish a microscopic difference between the Neumann and the MXL but the difference in favor for the MXL is good...I'd much rather subtract freqencies than to boost, correct? The differences in audio capture quality to me is just spilitting hairs and matter of opinion and since the MXL does ADD something to the sound, it's a very good something and too much of a good something can always be subtracted. EQ'd or not, th MXL picks up any room or instrument just as I hear sound with my ears and as long as ANY mic can do that, I'm perfectly happy....but that's just my personal opinion and it's probably wrong simply because the MXL doesn't cost $1k. I'd say the 990 is a damn great high dollar microphone imitator if anything bad could be said about the MXL. Hopefully this will justify your want to keep it and use it....now here comes the accusations that I'm a salesman for MXL. No, I'm not. I'm just happy I got the quality of a $1,000.00 mic for $69.00.
 
Wow, I won't use quote, but I wonder what you think of the v67, since I have it. Maybe I'll try the 990 if I bump into it somewhere for $70 it's worth it even for a backup if something falls and cracks in two.
 
fritzmusic said:
I got an MXL990 just last month at guit. center. After reading this forum over the last few months, the only bad "reviews" I see only seemed to exhibit such pickiness over certain coloring of sound and too much high end sizzle that I decided to give MXL an honest shot since I DO have a trusty old parametric EQ on my mixer to turn down any excessive "sizzle". I also figured I'd have a good foundation for comparison since I just got finished working in another musician's home studio with his Neumann TLM103. BUT the MXL does have a bit more signal noise than the Neumann but only when you really crank it up so loud that you can hear a gnat farting outside and neither mics are ever going to be turned up that high in a REAL LIFE musical recording session but for an instumental mic, I 'd say the MXL 990 is friggin awesome espescially for the price! First, I'm probably going to be called a heretic for saying this but in my opinion, the lowly MXL 990 sounds almost the same, if not a little better than the $1k Neumann in instrumental recording and I see nothing but gold said 'round here about Neumann but I'm sure that's because it's expensive equipment and expensive equipment gives you so much more cost to benefit advantage over the lowly "bargain" gear right? Wrong! I can distinguish a microscopic difference between the Neumann and the MXL but the difference in favor for the MXL is good...I'd much rather subtract freqencies than to boost, correct? The differences in audio capture quality to me is just spilitting hairs and matter of opinion and since the MXL does ADD something to the sound, it's a very good something and too much of a good something can always be subtracted. EQ'd or not, th MXL picks up any room or instrument just as I hear sound with my ears and as long as ANY mic can do that, I'm perfectly happy....but that's just my personal opinion and it's probably wrong simply because the MXL doesn't cost $1k. I'd say the 990 is a damn great high dollar microphone imitator if anything bad could be said about the MXL. Hopefully this will justify your want to keep it and use it....now here comes the accusations that I'm a salesman for MXL. No, I'm not. I'm just happy I got the quality of a $1,000.00 mic for $69.00.
Click to expand...

As Ty Ford says, "If you can't hear the difference, it doesn't matter." Sometimes, hearing the difference is easier depending on what pres and monitoring chain you are using.
 
how about, I have cheap mics, cheap pres, cheap converters. I replace mic w/ reputed great mic. now I complain, b/c $1k mic same result as $60 mic. But can't hear diff. b/c of cheap pre. Sounds like either upgrade all or don't expect greatness. or I have $60 mic, but $500 pre - that might make more of a diff. b/c now I can hear more from mic. then eventually getting better mic, bigger diff. than w/ cheap pre.

Sounds like a plan. I think I could deal w/ this route. then also make sure monitors, cabling, room, and medium is decent. I wouldn't epect to hear much diff. w/ dirty cassette heads vs. anything hi Q, digital or analog.

A bit of a revelation there, I just decided, no more cheap pre's. Hey, I finally made a decision about something, I feel better now. :) ;)
 
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