another "What to buy next".... (sorry)

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:39 am

It`s that time again... Money on the acount and its time to upgrade.

So...

My current setup:

API 3124
2 x Green River ME 1NV
TL Audio 5001 (4chn valve preamp)

UA 2-1176
Eventide Eclipse
TC Electronic Powercore firewire
Lynx Aurora 16

Royer 121
2 x Soundelux U195
Studio Projects T3 (valve mic)
Shure Beta91
3 X Milab WM44 (small diaphragm)
Shure sm57 & 58 (a bunch..)

Adam S3A

Quad core PC running Cubase 4
(acoustic treatment)

I have about 4000 to spend (might strech it to 5000)

Any suggestions, thought and ideas about what would be the next step gearwise would be appreciated...

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:26 am

Well, your mic pres, effects and monitors are in good shape there.

How are your acoustics?

If they're on par with the rest of the stuff, it's time to talk microphones.

What do you record?

A couple good, general purpose mics that are worth owning:
AEA R84
Royer 121 (either or both is fine)
AKG 414
Blue Bluebird (to contrast the darker u195)
u87

Do you do voice overs?
Perhaps an EV RE 20
maybe a TLM49

Definitely a 421 or two.

Cheers and have fun spending the dough!

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:07 pm

Well.. Originally I was thinking on the Theremionic Culture earlybird 2.2. a twin channel valvepreamp. But at over 4000 I was thinking maybe I should get something else instead. At that price I can get maybe a Chandler TG2 and still have money to buy a great mic. (maybe a Bock 151)

I allready have a royer 121, and my acoustics are decent.

hmm... Maybe a shure SM7 as well?....

I usually record pop/rock.

Any ideas?

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:23 pm

Have you checked out the T-Culture Rooster. It's more of a novelty thing I think but it's pretty cool. About half the price of the Earlybird. Anyway, consider me a bystander. There's certainly better opinions out there.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:03 pm

You 'need' nothing.....you WANT a ViPre.

Yes, yes you do. And a Distressor.

The ViPre will triple your mic collection.

And as a beginning of the golden chain for a vocal....its very...errr.....wow.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:52 pm

Twood wrote:

2 x Green River ME 1NV

I have a 1NV
but it's not green

I know he meant Great River
Razz

you do have some nice stuff there

Dave says " .....you WANT a ViPre. "
Cool

I'm going to have to get my hands on one of these to see what all the fuss is about

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:45 am

Quote:

You 'need' nothing.....you WANT a ViPre.

Yes, yes you do. And a Distressor.

LOL... I`m getting sleeeepy....

Quote:

I have a 1NV
but it's not green

Hehe... Come to think about it, neither is mine...

But on a serious note, some nice preamps would be good. I got a 4 channel TL Audio valve preamp that I`m thinking of selling. I was the first preamp i bought when I first started recording and i guessed it has served me well. The sound is "decent" (at best) but the lack of headroom is a problem.

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:50 am

If I was adding to that collection...The U87...mics before pres...after that...not enough left for the Vipre...maybe the distressor

On a less fantasy driven note - do you do a lot of recording with stereo pairs? How about a pair of 414s + stereo bar and stand? Or another pair of multipattern LDCs more to taste.

Finally, while its not very sexy. I could certainly spend a lot of cash throwing away every crappy stand, mic clip, cable, piece of furniture, etc. in the studio and replacing them with top quality stuff. (And of course $4-5K would get one fairly nice oriental carpet.) Wouldn't improve the quality of my recordings, but it would improve the quality of my life.

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:39 pm

there is part of me that agrees with Bob
...
the U87

as much as the newer and cheaper mics are so very good for the money
it would be nice to have one or two of the old industry standards

the reviews used to go " ... nearly as good as a U87 "

one day I hope to get the real thing ... I already have the 414s

perhaps just replace the TL Audio 5001 with a classier two chanel Tubed Pre

the Distressor is nice and worth having
but
perhaps an LA2 to go with the 1176 you already have
these are the two units most people are buying when they get the Distressor
... yes I know it does more than just that

how about a classy monitor controller

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:35 pm

You know what... The more I keep searching for stuf, the more I realise that it is the Earlybird I want. I just can`t get it out of my mind.

I need a decent mic as well. Something to top my soundelux U195. (witch I`m, by the way, very satisfied with)

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:19 pm

I never heard the T3 mic but I wouldn't want the u195 being my only good condenser. With the gear you have now I would definitely invest in a good tube mic of equal caliber.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:12 pm

So you guys think its time to buy a new mic?...

Hmm... well.. I can strech it to around 3000, maybe 3500. So is the U87 the natural choice? I`ve always been a bit skeptic about neuman. It seems like you pay a lot just to get the neumann name..

Am I way off here?

Will the U87 be a huge improvement compared to the U195?

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:06 pm

I have experience with both.

AND I agree on your point about the Neumann name.

Do they sound better than your average $2K+ mic......Yes, most of the time.

Are there mics in this price range that will deliver the tracks as well as the Neumann?....... Yes, and of course it depends on WHAT you want to hear in the recording.

I LOVED that thick full-bodied sound I heard with the U195. I LOVE that mic.

I prefer my U87 in every respect. On every source.

There is a sheen, a something-or-other that is so hard to explain, that you get with the Neumann. Is it the fabled "air"??? uh....maybe.....

Its like this. Everything in the sound spectrum that it picks up is clear. There simply arent any grey areas.

I think the new ones are overpriced and have said that on many different occasions.

They do sell themselves as far as time booked. Everyone wants to record on one and the vocalists pine for them while most have never used one for anything. The mystique is that big.

So is the sound. One thing a U87 does better than any other mic (excepting U47's, the Manley references, Brauners and a couple others) is react favorably to the the mic pre in the way that most of them were designed. Its the one mic that even sounds better on a cheap pre than anything should.

Then you get into true variable input impedance and thats a whole nother set of rules and sounds.

A U87 and a ViPre is just about as perfect as it gets.

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 6:35 am

This happens everytime I`m buying gear. My budget gets waaay bigger then i planned. A earlibird and a u87 will set me back about 7000usd.. That`s gonna leave a mark in my valet.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 5:36 am

Well, you do pay a price for the Neumann name, but if you are trying to attract clients the name is useful to you. It's hard to think of something more confidence boosting than putting a U87 in front of a vocalist and saying "let's try this first." And it's not as if the U87 is a recent fad. If you were just buying this for one vocalist, you could probably find a better fit for a better price. But it just seems like a pretty standard piece of equipment for a professional studio tracking any popular music genre.

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