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[bounce]

i just stumbled into guitar center to take advantage of a sale on short boom mic stands and ended up picking up a pair of mxl 603's for $100 (for the pair). it was hard to pass up that price on two of these if they end up being useful, ya know? i'll let you know what i think against my other SDC's.

mckay

[Gunnar Hellquist]

It is worth knowing that mics that look exactly the same are sold under other logos, at least in my homecountry. I would guess that they are made by one of the Chinese mic manufacturers and branded in whatever way you want. You could probably order them with you own name as brand, only snag is perhaps that the minimum order might be a bit above what you tend to use at home.

But there are as well a lot of things to look out for. Each company might be ordering variations on the mic to fulfill a specific market need. I guess the Mogami cable stuff is one such thing. For 5 cents more of cost you could get a free-ride on the well-known brand.

Yet another thing is that the specifications probably could be changed from batch to batch, depending on a lot of factors, such as price and availability of components on the world market.

One more thing to look out for is that the variability in the production may be on the high side. This means that two mics might sound very different. Getting a so called matched set is no guarantee in this respect, unless you know how the matching is done and what tolerances are accepted. I get the impression that the matching sometimes might be nothing more than embossing sequential serial numbers on the mics. So the two mics might very easily be on the two ends of the accepted variance.

Given this, listen to the each individual mic, and enjoy how much mic you get for very little money. The alternatives might sound marginally better, but the price difference is not marginal.

I for one have a pair of MXL 603S, except that they are branded differently, and for some recordings I preferr them to my Neumann KM184-s.

Go ahead and have fun.

[hargerst]

Gunnar Hellquist wrote on Fri, 18 March 2005 06:25

It is worth knowing that mics that look exactly the same are sold under other logos, at least in my homecountry. I would guess that they are made by one of the Chinese mic manufacturers and branded in whatever way you want. You could probably order them with you own name as brand, only snag is perhaps that the minimum order might be a bit above what you tend to use at home. But there are as well a lot of things to look out for. Each company might be ordering variations on the mic to fulfill a specific market need. I guess the Mogami cable stuff is one such thing. For 5 cents more of cost you could get a free-ride on the well-known brand. Yet another thing is that the specifications probably could be changed from batch to batch, depending on a lot of factors, such as price and availability of components on the world market. One more thing to look out for is that the variability in the production may be on the high side. This means that two mics might sound very different. Getting a so called matched set is no guarantee in this respect, unless you know how the matching is done and what tolerances are accepted. I get the impression that the matching sometimes might be nothing more than embossing sequential serial numbers on the mics. So the two mics might very easily be on the two ends of the accepted variance. Given this, listen to the each individual mic, and enjoy how much mic you get for very little money. The alternatives might sound marginally better, but the price difference is not marginal. I for one have a pair of MXL 603S, except that they are branded differently, and for some recordings I preferr them to my Neumann KM184-s. Go ahead and have fun.

As far as the MXL 603's are concerned, MXL matches them by hand in the U.S.  I know how the matching is done and the tolerances are very tight. I own 7 603's, 4 V67G's, 3 990's, and 2 V77's; they are very consistent.

[rockrev]

Well, I just picked up a matched set of 603's last week.  Gave them a try last night, XY (stereo bar) on a Taylor acoustic guitar.  Given that it's a hard thing to make a Taylor sound bad, and the guy could play, the 603's sounded nothing short of amazing.  I could not believe such a great sound was coming from a set of mics barely costing $200!  Thanks Harvey.  You certainly speak the truth.

BTW - last night was actually an experiment - not just in using the 603's, but in the way I miked the performer.  It was a "live in the studio" set, so I had to deal with bleed, etc.  For the vox I used a Rode NTK pointed slightly upward to decrease the guitar bleed.  For the guitar I used the 603's in XY, well below the Rode but pointed down at the guitar to reduce the vocal bleed.  The thing is, the 603's picked up A LOT - as everyone says - they were almost omnis (I even had to use a poper stoper on them b/c they were too sensitive to the vocal plosives).  I had never done a three mic live performance setup where the guitar mics were XY.  Usually a two mic (one vox, one guitar) setup works fine - I've also played with an M/S configuration to catch both gutiar & vox, but never tracked any serious work like that.  Anyway, everthing sounds great in the mix - absolutely no phase problems whatsover . . . between any combination of the three mics.  The 603's really shined.

[bounce]

i just picked up 2 603's for a total of $100 at guitar center in sherman oaks, ca. brand new (makes you wanna buy a bunch, huh?)! i'll let ya know what i think. a few years ago, i hand picked an oktava mc 012 (tried 8 on a taylor acoustic all into the same preamp into pro tools miked exactly the same way playing the same open g chord on the guitar. the difference in the 8 were huge. the one i got sounds amazing) and want to compare the 603s as an option to replace my AT 4033's for overheads on drums. the oktava- AT4033 combination yields excellent results on acoustic guitars. i often use the oktava (with the cardioid capsule) close at the 12th fret and the 4033 above the players right shoulder pointed towards the body of the guitar. great sounds.

mckay

[bounce]

alrighty then...i just finished a test of the 2 mxl 603's i picked up new at guitar center for 100 bucks for the pair : ) noted, at that price if they sound good on just one instrument, it's simply a great deal. i tested them against 3 oktava 012's that we hand picked a couple of years ago. the acoustic i have here right now sounds like a bad wad of tangled up rubber bands so i opted for one of my nice electrics on a very clean amp with a very clean single coil pickup selected. i had my lovely fiancee (unfortunately not wearing a bikini which would have made the test more interesting-hee hee, she would kill me for saying that- AAAAAH! here she comes!) play an open g chord one at a time every 10 seconds with the same speed and force straight into poor tools. i placed the mics at exactly the same spot right at the grill just off center from the cone of the speaker. i ran all of the mics (2 603's and 3 oktavas) into the same pre and did not adjust gain for any of them differently (wanted to check the output as well). here are my findings:

the oktavas definitely sound very fine (i have one fave in particular, but the 2 that are "matched" sound great as well). these have a very nice full bottom end (but not muddy) and the highs are very pure not overly hyped or unpleasant, much closer to a km84.

the 603's seem to match each other well sonically but it is possible there could be a slight difference in output (do you think that my true love was actually inconsistent with her guitar strumming? what the?!). however...

the 603s definitely had a different lower midrange with a bump around 250 hz that made them a little more cloudy-ish (not something that couldn't be worked with; these may just need different placement...now there's a concept). the high end is different as well-definitely a shelf going on there starting at around 8k maybe? it's a bit hard to tell with my electric guitar amp test but it was just to see if these 2 brands sounded alike. i'm anxious to see if i can use them as drum overheads. we've had great results with the oktavas, some 4033s at times, and 2 rode ntks (1 above the hi tom pointed at the snare and 1 near the floor tom pointed toward the snare (thanks, dana!). i'll update soon. interesting test. i also matched all the playback levels when listening so as not to misjudge based on volume. over.

[bigbone]

Harvey (or anybody who had experience )

will you try 2 MXL 990 as drums overhead ?????

Thanks

Bigbone  

montreal ,canada

[GoobAudio]

David Das wrote on Sat, 11 December 2004 12:25

I have the MXL V69 (Mogami Edition). <snip> I also have some MXL 603's. I've used them as hi hat mics, drum overheads (REALLY nice room sound), and acoustic guitar neck mics (picks up some detail). The 603's are extremely economical and I really like them for these purposes.

I have a pair of the 603's Mogami Edition too! Like them alot. Once I opened one up for a look and was surprised to see that the length of the Mogami wire inside the mic was shorter than the name Mogami printed on the mic.

Phil

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Here's a song where the piano was recorded on a pair of V69 mics.

http://chrisfitzgeraldmusic.com/mp3/fifthbusiness.mp3


I'd like to thank Harvey again for teaching so many of us so much about microphones!

[hargerst]

Wow Chris, what a great recording!!!  I love the sound of your bass!! And the guitar!!  And the piano!!  Great job!  I'm impressed.

[Han S.]

hargerst wrote on Sun, 15 May 2005 03:31

Wow Chris, what a great recording!!!  I love the sound of your bass!! And the guitar!!  And the piano!!  Great job!  I'm impressed.

Not even to mention the drums!

Great sound Chris, great band too! Well done.

[Chris Cavell]

Here's another one...in the same genre really, 1st take success.

I charged these guys next to nothing really...an experiment on my part more than anything...a test to see how good a recording I could make with the cheapest gear I had at my disposal:
MXL 991's on piano, and Drum OH's into a 002...through a couple of cheap ass behringer T1953 pres.

In a normal session I would have used api 3124 pre's, an AKG C426b on piano, and oktava 012's on overheads.

I think the cheap gear held up pretty well...
http://s94172706.onlinehome.us/resume/music/River_Sea_Ocean. mp3

Cheers,
Chris

[Chris Fitzgerald]

hargerst wrote on Sun, 15 May 2005 03:31

Wow Chris, what a great recording!!!  I love the sound of your bass!! And the guitar!!  And the piano!!  Great job!  I'm impressed.

Heh...thanks, but I can only take credit for writing the tune and playing the bass part. The recording itself was done at a local studio by Philil Sturgwolt, whom I consider to be something of a genius when it comes to recording acoustic music. Phil's the kinda guy who asks me to play for 15 minutes every time I come in while he crawls around on the floor listening to find the *exact* place he wants the mics in relation to the bass, even though he's recorded me a million times before. Between Phil and you, Harvey, I figure I've got two of the best teachers imaginable. I think I told you earlier that the two-mic setup you asked me to try years ago is exactly what Phil came up with after crawling around listening? If so, sorry for the repeat. If not...damn, man, you really know your ****. My home recorded stuff is really coming along because of you guys.

Sorry for the ramble, but apropos of this forum, Phil chooses his gear based on how he likes the sound rather than how much the price-tag reads. It's funny to see how he'll choose a $300 mic over a $3000 mic if he likes the sound - pretty inspiring, actually.

P.S. - I'm not blowing off anybody's clips by not responding: I'm just still on dialup at home.