Sleeper Gear

[Davey]

Fletcher,
Is there any gear out there that perhaps is not as well known as others but still would be valuable to have in the studio. I mean, I would love to have a bunch of 1073's and V76's in my studio but that's not an option. What else is out there? I'm interested to hear your and everyone else's opinion.

 

[j.hall]

RNC.....great compressors....and cheap too
don't expect a LA-2 or a fairchild
but real versatile and solid

i dig 'em

also the ART VLA
pretty cool compressor....for the money
better for midrange stuff like guitar, toms...

just my opinions,
j.hall

 

[j.hall]

RNC.....great compressors....and cheap too
don't expect a LA-2 or a fairchild
but real versatile and solid

i dig 'em

also the ART VLA
pretty cool compressor....for the money
better for midrange stuff like guitar, toms...

just my opinions,
j.hall

 

[Jim Kuczkowski]

Urei/JBL 7110 comp/limiter
Milab Microphones(certainly not cheap, but....)
Mexican P-basses

 

[Dan Popp]

Kooch,
What Milab mics have you used? I heard a recording of one of their large diaphragm mics years ago, and I dug it a lot. Slight midrange hump, but very natural-sounding otherwise. (Don't remember the model #)

My contribution to the "sleeper gear" discussion would be Radio Shack Minumus speakers - the smaller and crappier the better. I have one hooked to a mono feed off my board and I use it more than the mains.

Yours,
Dan Popp
Colors Audio
USA

 

[petermeechanuk]

CLM Dynamic Expounder - it's a dynamic EQ. It does everything from adding extremely subtle 'glows' on vocals to serious dynamic filtering.

Also the CLM pre-amps are a steal. We recently tested them next to various channel strips (Amek/Focusrite) and they won hands-down.

-Peter
And no I don't work for CLM.

 

[hargerst]

Ok, here I am - the "King of Cheap"!!
Here are a few bargains that many people don't know about:

dbx 242 parametric eq. - This isn't even in their catalog, bit you can usually pick them up on ebay for cheap. Designed by Bob Orban, this is a killer 5 band unit.

Ashley SC or CL-50 compressors - A little noisy, but still great.

Oktava MC0-01 with the 33 mm Lomo head - The sound room sells this wonderful Russian combo, and it's great.

Marshall MXLV67 and 603S microphones - These are copies of the AKC C12VR and the Neumann KM184s and they rock, for dirt cheap. They're Chinese, but they sound and look killer.

Audix TR-40 (MBHO MB-550) omni mics - Made by MBHO in Germany, these are great small omni calibration mics for a reasonable price.

Beyer soundstar MKII - These SM58 look-alikes are bullet proof and they sound great. You find them on ebay every so often.

Beyer M201 hypercardioid mic - The "other" snare mic. Better than the SM-57 for most snare sounds.

Audio Technica ATM-25 Kick drum mic - Often overlooked because of the AKG D112, this is another great mic when you want the tight big bottom, with a lot of beater crack.

T.H.E. mic line - Unveiled at the AES show, these are gonna be real contenders from Germany. The binaural head at under $2k is amazing, and their reference mics are fantastic. The reference mics lie between the Audix TR-40 and the B&K omnis with VERY low noise. They're several steps up from the Oktavas, but built like little jewels.

dbx 120X sub-harmonic synth - If you need that big kick sound(I mean a "BIG" kick sound), try running the kick thru one of these babies.

Boss Se-50 Stereo Effect Box - ebay cheapy, but still a really useful multi-effects box, vocorder, lush chorus, fairly quiet, and a good second effect.

Beyer M260 Ribbon mic with the $125 Sank mod - This turns a 260 into a wonderful warm RCA 77DX - for cheap. The straight body works better than the tapered body.

There's more, but those are a good start.

 

[thedmc]

hey Harvey could you elaborate as to why the straight bodied beyer is better than the tapered body.Does it have something to due with the tapered body being intended for vocal use or something?-daniel

 

[hargerst]

Originally posted by thedmc:
hey Harvey could you elaborate as to why the straight bodied beyer is better than the tapered body.Does it have something to due with the tapered body being intended for vocal use or something?-danielI had Mike River's straight-sided 260DX with me when I went to have my tapered body mic modified to sound closer to his. The tapered body 260 doesn't sound the same as the straight-sided version. We got it close, but it wasn't exactly the same. The straight-sided 260DX sounds almost exactly like the 77DX.

 

[thedmc]

thanks for the quick reply Harvey. I think i read about you saying that your 260 sounded different whe i did a deja seach awhile back.Regretfuly i have never heard a beyer 260 or a rca 77. do you think you could explain the difference tonaly between the two.And what you tend to use your 260 dx on.I realize that the 77 is a multi pattern mic and the beyer is not so i guess it would only be relevant to the cardiod pattern.i recently got a rca varacoustic that needsa new ribbon that i'm going to send to Mr. Sank
and that will be my first ribbon mic experiance. That and the beyer will hopefuly get me aquainted with ribbon's without spending the big bucks on a royer or a coles (even though i want one real bad)-thanks for your help.-daniel mcclenaghan

 

[Jim Kuczkowski]

Hey Dan,
The Milabs I've used were (I think) 96B's--something like that. I know they are from the middle of the Milab line--and only cardioid. Didya know that the diaphragms on those are *rectangular* not round! The place I interned at had a pair of them. I used them a lot--room sound, acoustic guitar, overheads, vocals, strings--everything. These mics are very overlooked IMO. And when it comes to piano mic-ing these were just phenomenal!

 

[Davey]

Thanks for all of the responses. I have come across a mic made by the east german Geffel factory (after it was stolen from Neumann) called the MV691. It sounds cool and I know that it has interchangable capsules, but I don't know how many and what kind. Can anyone shed any light on this particular microphone.

 

[hargerst]

Contact G Prime (http://www.gprime.com/) for any Geffel mic questions.

 

[Dan Popp]

Originally posted by hargerst:
Ok, here I am - the "King of Cheap"!!



The King lives! Hail to the King!



Kooch, thanks for the Milab info. Yeah, rectangular diaphragm. I think the Senn. 416 (a very weird mic that we think of as normal because they are so common) has square diaphragms...

Yours,
Dan Popp
Colors Audio

 

[alphajerk]

harvey,

whats the deal with te DBX120's, ive used then several times in different places but for some reason they all looked different. one thati came across had 4 frequencies to boost/cut that was my favorite of the different models but i cant remember for the life of me which one it was... you have any idea? also, where can i get my hands on one to buy?

oh yeah, they sound phenomenal on bass too!

 

[Innermusic]

My sleeper contribution: The Audix 35102 mic pre-EQ module. Built in the 1970s for the BBC, the EQs are gorgeous.

 

[mats.olsson@rockfile.se]

A lot of you guys are really gonna hate & disbelieve this totally uncool sleeper-tip:

Behringer single ended noise reduction.
The people over at George Lucas´ Industrial Light & Magic can afford (and have) any gizmo in the biz such as NoNoise, Cedar etc. You know what they use most often? The Behringer!

I don´t have it myself, but will try when I find one.

Disclaimer: This is NOT information that I got from Behringer. I read it in an article that Behringer has never referenced to AFAIK.

/Mats

 

[Jon Best]

Originally posted by The Establishment:

Also the CLM pre-amps are a steal. We recently tested them next to various channel strips (Amek/Focusrite) and they won hands-down.
[/B]

OK, here's a question- what did you think of the build quality? For $759, it seems kinda like a no-brainer, but a friend of mine bought the 4 channel pre a while ago, and ended up sending it back because it just wasn't put together all that well- knobs and buttons light and not centered, all the meters different heights off the faceplate, stuff like that. Normal, you think? It'd be pretty cool to have it as MS encode/decode tool as well...

 

[petermeechanuk]

Originally posted by Jon Best:
OK, here's a question- what did you think of the build quality? For $759, it seems kinda like a no-brainer, but a friend of mine bought the 4 channel pre a while ago, and ended up sending it back because it just wasn't put together all that well- knobs and buttons light and not centered, all the meters different heights off the faceplate, stuff like that. Normal, you think? It'd be pretty cool to have it as MS encode/decode tool as well...

We had absolutely no problems with ours. It was set-up just fine. Maybe because our dealer is also the main uk distributer (Serious Audio) and they deliver/install/check all of our gear for us FOC. Having said that, its the sound that counts so I probably wouldn't be that bothered if the meters were a bit wonky. The limiters alone are worth the money.

-Peter

 

[tonewoods]

EV RE15s and 16s: listed for 365.00 in the late 70s (not that *that* matters...), but are great sounding sleepers at the pawn shop, and usually work just fine...

The Roland SP202 sampler: great, cheap, simple units for many applications, but especially useful for getting that Tchadish low-fi drum sound...

Symetrix SX202 mic-pres: 150 bucks used for 2 channels of useful mic-pre...

Berlant tape-recorder elctronics: Give-away units that, when tweaked, are nice, tubey mic pres that rival the Ampex 350s. And they look mah-velous...

Beyer Soundstars: not the one previously mentioned by Harvey, but the ones that look like a 421 to the point of copyright infringement. (I don't know which one came first). They smoke a 421, IMHO, and can be had for under 100.00...

Any of those small minuet organs that fill with air. Sound *huge* on tape, all for 10 bucks or so...

Beyer M422: I just bought one new for 60 bucks, and it's now my snare mic of choice...