Fletcher: Sorry for "highjacking" this thread but I keep hearing experienced and proven AEs like yourself praise the Beyer M-160 and the 130, but my experience with them has not been good. I've owned these for the past 5 years and I can't get them to do the trumpet sound I am searching....I have actually had more luck with the inexpensive and lowly Cascade "Fat Head" ribbon ($199).
My chain is a Great River M-1 NV (the one channel job...) and I am going to a Tascam DA-38; sometimes thru an Audioarts Engineering vintage compressor. IMHO, I can get a more "realistic" trumpet sound from the Cascade than I can from the Beyer....the Beyer sounds thin and feeble. So, two questions: Is the Beyer just NOT good for recording trumpets? or, am I using the wrong mic pre (although, I have tried the Beyer w/a variety of other mic pre flavors including a Ward-Beck 470D.....results are about the same). What am I doing wrong? Incidentally, I'm not a real AE, I'm mostly a trumpet player who has been recording at home for the past 10 years.
Oh, and I also read you really like the C&T "Naked Eye;" is it a similar sound to the Beyer? Appreciate any guidance you can give me.