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[palatine]

Thank you all for your observations of Milab and Pearl microphones.  Milabs have been on my list of mics to try for years, so when I had a chance to acquire a matched pair of DC96Bs in mint condition for a good price, I grabbed them.

A couple of days ago a singer/guitarist was in the studio for a broadcast during which he was going to play and sing live.  I used the U47 for his voice and figured the Milab would do for the guitar.  While setting levels and tweaking, we decided the guitar sound just wouldn't do.  It was dark in the mids, too fat in the bass and a bit lacking in clarity.  Admittedly, we didn't have time to try many variations.  We were working the DC96B fairly close to the guitar, so I would imagine its significant proximity effect was contributing to our impression.  A sigh of relief was heard when the KM254 was substituted for the Milab and all was well.  My guess is that I will like it more in overhead orchestral applications.

We did try the Milab on spoken voice and thought it quite nice...not a U47...but quite nice.  It had good clarity if it wasn't worked too close...6 inches seemed best with a pop screen a must.  The low end was warm, if not a bit fat, but nothing that didn't respond to EQ.

I look forward to other observations you all may have and will share my impressions as I use the DC96Bs in other applications.

Best Wishes,
Rob Gwynn  

[audiothings]

Quote:

Incidentally, Kavi Alexander (Water Lily Acoustics) used a custom pair of microphones built for him by Tim Paravicini of EAR and I believe the first ones employed the Milab rectangular capsule. A good deal of the recordings he made in Blumlein sound really amazing, if not superb to me.

incidentally, the mics paravicini made for kavi alexander had pearl capsules, and incidentally kavi alexander has moved to pearl microphones, an elm-b pair in blumlein config. (i might be wrong about the model, but in my conversation with him, he mentioned that he has moved to a pearl mic pair, "an elm something").

incidentally, my interest in rectangular capsules comes from hearing kavi alexander's work. such a natural top end, and full yet unfatiguing sound, i have, in my very limited experience, never heard.

.02,
jai shankar.

[Klaus Heyne]

audiothings wrote on Fri, 21 May 2004 05:23

incidentally, my interest in rectangular capsules comes from hearing kavi alexander's work. such a natural top end, and full yet unfatiguing sound, i have, in my very limited experience, never heard. jai shankar.

Maybe not so incidentally, you may give the mics a bit too much credit in the overall creation of a good sound in the final, commercially available, product?

Have you considered the contributions that Alexander's or other fine engineers' specific recording medium, recording heads or digital converters, gain increase (pre-amplification), cables, the mastering process and equipment may make?

I've heard some pretty damn good recordings made with mediocre mics, and some pretty lousy recordings made with stellar mics but bad processing.

Kind regards,

[otek]

Klaus,

Just thought I'd comment here FWIW.... Kahvi Alexander used (at least on the albums I've heard) custom tube preamps by Tim De Paravincini of EAR, and a tube 1" analog 2-track. There's no doubt in my mind that all this contributes to the sound. Not to mention a stellar AE with very big ears, such as Alexander himself.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's "A Meeting By The River" and "Tabula Rasa" (Waterlily Acoustics) are superb recordings of great music. I recommend them warmly.

[Klaus Heyne]

otek wrote on Sat, 22 May 2004 20:35

Klaus, ... Kahvi Alexander used (at least on the albums I've heard) custom tube preamps by Tim De Paravincini of EAR, and a tube 1" analog 2-track.

That was exactly my point:
anybody who has ever heard the Ampex MR70 Nuvistor Recorder with EAR headstack (I used to own one that I loaned to Paul Stubblebine for mastering) must realize that the microphone is but one part in a chain of audio excellence such has found here.

[audiothings]

thanks for the interest and all the replies.

and klaus, i did not mean to suggest that the mics are solely or even largely responsible for kavi's sound. i'm sure the other factors include his approach to the recording and every last cable. kavi alexander's work was the starting point of my interest in rectangular capsules, thats all.

incidentally, and strangely enough, he has moved to (1/4") stellavox from the 1" paravicini modified ampex. and he claims that the quality is stellar.

thanks again,
jai shankar.