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Link555 16 April 2007

My wife bought me a surprise present. :o
A matched pair of QTC50's.

I have been drooling over those mic's for 2 years now. I am curious to hear what other people have to say about them. I can't seem to find many reviews out there. I have the demo disc, and like what I hear. But I am just wondering how they perform for other people?

Thanks!

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Comments

anonymous Tue, 04/17/2007 - 20:56

I have the "mics-formerly-known-as-QTC1s" and use them almost DAILY. They are the cornerstone of my recording work. I do a ton of classical recording (I teach for the music department at a small College) and spaced pair setup flatters almost everything I put in front of it. I have also used them on a variety of ethnic instruments this past year as guest artists have come to campus to perform. Every single performer raved about the sound of these mics.

If you are doing acoustic music look into the cardioids as well - I have done many sessions using only my 5 Earthworks.

You got some keepers there - the wife and the mics! :) May we all be so lucky...

Link555 Tue, 04/17/2007 - 21:42

Thanks for input eveaudio, they should be in my hands in 10 days, I am so excited. Based on what you just told me they will be perfect on my next recording project. Its mostly acoustic instumentation, the band is named koLa, and they do kinda folk kinda world music, really cool songs, and instuments.

RemyRAD Wed, 04/18/2007 - 00:14

I liked what I heard at the AES shows but I thought them similar to the B&K's, I mean DPA's.

Personally I think your wife bought them for you because of the way they looked? Maybe she is trying to tell you something? Perhaps you should buy her something that looks similar?? But please, don't forget to include the batteries! She knows who you are in love with most of the time.

Personally, I like a Prelude
Ms. Remy Ann David

bwmac Wed, 04/18/2007 - 15:28

Nic looking mics

I am sorry for my ignorance in this area so I have to ask.
Why do I keep seeing everyone buying mics in pairs.
I googled it and came up with equal mics for recording in stereo.
So is it wrong to clone the track and pan lt & rt.
(I know this is going to hurt and I am really cringing as I type this)

Link555 Wed, 04/18/2007 - 15:53

The only stupid questions are the ones unasked. If you pan the same signal to both left and right you are in essence creating a mono signal. Both left and right speakers have the same waves coming out them.

However if you use two microphones, one on the left one the right they capture different signals based on there distance and angle from the source. When paned they can give your recording a natural depth that is hard to do with mono tracks.

bwmac Wed, 04/18/2007 - 16:22

A pair of sweet mics

Thanks for your answering my question Link555.

I kind of thought I might end up wearing that one along with a dunce cap.
LOL

I think I kind of knew the answer as the way you explained it, but it was good to see it in black and white, if ya know what I mean.

It makes sense and I am starting to understand the significance in mic placement.
As my gear improves, it is easier to hear the differences and understand why somethings sound great and why sometimes it sucks. LOL

Cucco Fri, 05/18/2007 - 08:46

I would love to hear some examples if you get the chance! (I'll host them if you need the space.)

I've been considering the Earthworks for a while now, but find that I have plenty of omnis as it is. Every once in a while though, I get a bug up my but and rush out and spend thousands of dollars in impulse money...(YIKES).

Link555 Tue, 05/22/2007 - 09:04

Here is a short mp3 of some samples I did this weekend.

http://www.steller-studios.com/music/QTC%2050%20gtr.mp3

The first clip is my wife playing her piano. The mics were placed in a spaced pair about 3ft from the A440 string and about 3ft from the A110. The piano is a 1970 Yamaha Upright that is need of tuning. I removed the top cover for the recording.

The next three clips are a spaced pair (about 3ft) about 1ft away from the sound hole of a Tinker Acoustic guitar.

The last Clip is MSB from the band koLA playing her nylon guitar and singing. One mic was place about 1ft away from her mouth, and one mic about 1ft away from the neck of her guitar.

These recording were done in my living room, which is very reflective. We are currently moving, so the studio is all packed up. The floor in our living room is hardwood, and the walls are bare. So it is very live.

All of these recordings were done through my Aphex 107 preamp (which I have a made a few minor changes too, I upgraded the op-amps, pre-amp ICs and the tubes.) I used my Lynx L22 card to record into Wavelab. There is no EQ, or compression used. I did do some normalization to even out any major sound level changes between the clips. As well I dithered down from 24bit 96 kHz to 16bit 44.1 kHz with Apogee UV22 dither applied.

Cucco Tue, 05/22/2007 - 12:38

Very nice!

The piano - ouch...hard to listen to, but nonetheless, an accurate picture

Guitar 1 - VERY nice sound. Immediate, clear, nice

Guitar 2 - Clearly showed the room as well as the crispness of the guitar

Guitar 3 - Again, showed the room - not as much as 2, but nice. Showed a smooth side of the mics!

Guitar/Vox - Nice. I think the lower (guitar) mic picked up a little much of the boxiness of the guitar, but it sounds like that would be an easy notch at 120 to fix. The voice sounds very natural and effortless. What a nice voice! Raw and kinda sexy but well controlled - a quality singer!

Oh...and I LOVE the Aphex 107. I've had a LOT of gear come and go through the ages, but the 107 has stayed in my rack and probably always will. I thought that I had changed out my opamps on mine when I was in an opamp soldering frenzy, but looking back at my notes (I'm anal), I see that it had Analog Devices OpAmps to begin with, so I didn't change them. I did change the tube to find a milder flavor, but still - DAMN it's a nice pre for very little money!

Cheers!

Jeremy

Seedlings Wed, 05/23/2007 - 06:12

Cucco wrote: I've had a LOT of gear come and go through the ages, but the 107 has stayed in my rack and probably always will.

Cucco, were did your gear go? I mean, if you feel the need to unload some of your never used items...well...I'd be happy to pay for... shipping :lol:

tee-hee-hee

Recordings were nice. Cucco spelled them out for you, in spot on style.

CHAD

Seedlings Wed, 05/23/2007 - 17:38

Sorry I can't offer any professional critique beyond what Cucco said (technically, I can't offer professional critique at all :oops: ). I was curious though about your using these on vocals. The QTS50s carried the female's raspy, reserved voice very well. And the mix between the guitar and her voice was exactly as it would be if she were singing in front of me, with the acoustic guitar overpowering the voice - very realistic and natural. Do you plan to use them on vocals often?

I looked up the specs for those QTS50s, and I have to ask what types of instruments create frequencies to 50kHz? I'm really not asking in jest either. What is the theory behind these? Perhaps there are harmonics that high, because there surely couldn't be any fundamentals.

CHAD

Link555 Thu, 05/24/2007 - 11:37

Hey Seedlings, no need to apologize. Thanks for taking the time to drop a line. Yes I will be using theses for vocals. When I need a mic to reproduce exactly how someone sounds in a good room. However I don't think these mics are going to help a singer who may need a little extra body or sparkle.

Oh and the 50 kHz thing is just a gimmick in my eyes. However the fast impulse response is the key. The smaller diaphragm has less mass, it’s easier to move. So it responds quicker, thus more high frequency energy gets transduced.

I don't think it hurts to extend your -3dB points of you amplifier a little past where you need. But as far as 50 kHz, I am not really sold on that.

Regardless I think these mics are fantastic, voodoo science and all.

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