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Post by Martin John Butler on Jun 12, 2016 20:58:37 GMT -6
It's really worth a shot for $24. I think it's one of those things that might just help a track or two just a little occasionally, but a little can be a lot if a part that was bugging you is improved enough to stop bugging you. It will be a godsend for people who really only have one of those $100 mics.
I think I trashed the tracks Ward, or I'd post a "with and without" for you. I'll take a look.
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Post by c0rtland on Jun 12, 2016 21:45:49 GMT -6
1966 b15n
Re-201 space eecchhoo so fresh it still has the factory plastic wrap on the knobs. Thanks reverb!
Rca 77 dx
Another Ampex 601
Telefunken d19
Fluke
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Post by Guitar on Jun 13, 2016 8:16:53 GMT -6
Sean, the Cub III is incredible. My Bad Cat Bobcat is cool for playing at home, but the Cub is different, better, and amazing. That said, if you really want the best reverb sound there is, go to Louis Electric's "Columbia", formerly known as the Princetone, I never heard anything better ever. This guy's obnoxious, but hang in there and listen: Wow, what a killer amp. That is like, my dream amp. I love a 1x12 and I love a Fender 6V6 power section. It's like a champ that you could actually gig with. I wonder how you would choose between this one and a "Deluxe." |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jun 13, 2016 8:34:44 GMT -6
Depends on where you're playing, headroom matters live in a big club. I'd take the Colombia and just mic it.
My little 5 Watt Bad Cat is based on the 57' fender circuit, so it's not too far of that amp, but the Louis Electric is clearly something special.
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Post by Guitar on Jun 13, 2016 8:47:26 GMT -6
Depends on where you're playing, headroom matters live in a big club. I'd take the Colombia and just mic it. My little 5 Watt Bad Cat is based on the 57' fender circuit, so it's not too far of that amp, but the Louis Electric is clearly something special. My Silvertone 1484 used to run out of headroom at louder gigs so I know what you mean. That is about a 20 watt amp. 30 or 40 watts seems like a versatile zone. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jun 13, 2016 8:54:43 GMT -6
Those Fender reissue 68 Custom Princetons are great...prob get one used for $600.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jun 13, 2016 9:48:44 GMT -6
Man, that's a good price for that amp if they did it right John.
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Post by dandeurloo on Jun 13, 2016 22:15:26 GMT -6
Dan everybody told me these were a must here, the bargain of the century, well every time I walked into a room and see one I just had to hear them and they were either DOA, great at producing hiss or doing a great impression of a distortion pedal. I do believe this had more to do with the owners lack of any tech skills rather than the unit. MXR had a reputation of great products low price, but in the late 80's early 90's I always found MXR in the racks of those who didn't have nor care to have a a good tech! I can't wait to hear some samples of yours ! I messed with my MXR 136 all day today. Mine worked correctly when I turned it on! It sounded ok, like a really ok 200 usd compressor. A little bandwidth limited and thick sounding from old slow opamps and weak PSU. Not the thick sound that I like. Sadly, it was nothing that excited me. So, I decided to dig into it. I only know of 3 other PWM comps (STC 8, PYE and the PWM 501) and I LOVE all of them. So I had hoped that this would be cool either stock or with a little tweaking... I started tweaking. I tried a number of different things while listening to the effect it had on the sound at each tweak. In the end, I beef'd up the PSU massively, changing out the 5534's and tl072 in the audio path, pulling some caps in the audio path and changing a few. I ended up swapping in some high end IC's in 3 of the stages and put a Red Dot on the input stage in place of one of the 5534. Now the comp has excitement and some really cool smack. The bandwidth is wider and more musical and the tone has a nice "push" sound to it. It also has a thick sound I like, mostly from the PWM circuit and the compression sound. I will live with it like this for a while and see how I get along with it. I can widen the bandwidth more along with making the overall sound smoother, but I have a bunch of comps like that already so I think I will like the smack sound. I wanted this comp for some interesting color. It will probably be great on individual drums, drum groups or drum rooms. If I don't end up liking the push/smack sound I am getting, I can easily change a few things and get a smoother sound that would be more useful for more things. LONG LIVE PWM COMPS! |
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Post by dandeurloo on Jun 13, 2016 22:17:49 GMT -6
1966 b15n Re-201 space eecchhoo so fresh it still has the factory plastic wrap on the knobs. Thanks reverb! Rca 77 dx Another Ampex 601 Telefunken d19 Fluke Space echo's rule, I love RCA ribbon, the D19 is great on acoustic and I love my Fluke. I have a pair of 601's I still need to bring back to life. Tell me what you use yours on and how they sound? |
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Post by c0rtland on Jun 14, 2016 0:46:59 GMT -6
1966 b15n Re-201 space eecchhoo so fresh it still has the factory plastic wrap on the knobs. Thanks reverb! Rca 77 dx Another Ampex 601 Telefunken d19 Fluke Space echo's rule, I love RCA ribbon, the D19 is great on acoustic and I love my Fluke. I have a pair of 601's I still need to bring back to life. Tell me what you use yours on and how they sound? Sounds like we have similar tastes! Unfortunately, to be honest I have yet to hear my 601's. I became interested in them lately because of a local here paul mahern. He records entire albums with one. I really enjoy ribbons mics and supposedly it's a good match for them. We shall see. I got both of them for (relatively) cheap on eBay. One has the tape machine and the other does not. They both need work and both have power cords that need replaced. I'm about to send them to christian ruggiero for work. He did a bang up job on my 1567a and specializes in tube gear. He was referred to me by Thomas gruning. I found this website on the net as well. It has some educational info that I will be basing my refurb/mod requests from. fixthatmix.com/ampex601.phpHow do you like the 601? |
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107 
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Post by ericn on Jun 14, 2016 6:16:30 GMT -6
Dan everybody told me these were a must here, the bargain of the century, well every time I walked into a room and see one I just had to hear them and they were either DOA, great at producing hiss or doing a great impression of a distortion pedal. I do believe this had more to do with the owners lack of any tech skills rather than the unit. MXR had a reputation of great products low price, but in the late 80's early 90's I always found MXR in the racks of those who didn't have nor care to have a a good tech! I can't wait to hear some samples of yours ! I messed with my MXR 136 all day today. Mine worked correctly when I turned it on! It sounded ok, like a really ok 200 usd compressor. A little bandwidth limited and thick sounding from old slow opamps and weak PSU. Not the thick sound that I like. Sadly, it was nothing that excited me. So, I decided to dig into it. I only know of 3 other PWM comps (STC 8, PYE and the PWM 501) and I LOVE all of them. So I had hoped that this would be cool either stock or with a little tweaking... I started tweaking. I tried a number of different things while listening to the effect it had on the sound at each tweak. In the end, I beef'd up the PSU massively, changing out the 5534's and tl072 in the audio path, pulling some caps in the audio path and changing a few. I ended up swapping in some high end IC's in 3 of the stages and put a Red Dot on the input stage in place of one of the 5534. Now the comp has excitement and some really cool smack. The bandwidth is wider and more musical and the tone has a nice "push" sound to it. It also has a thick sound I like, mostly from the PWM circuit and the compression sound. I will live with it like this for a while and see how I get along with it. I can widen the bandwidth more along with making the overall sound smoother, but I have a bunch of comps like that already so I think I will like the smack sound. I wanted this comp for some interesting color. It will probably be great on individual drums, drum groups or drum rooms. If I don't end up liking the push/smack sound I am getting, I can easily change a few things and get a smoother sound that would be more useful for more things. LONG LIVE PWM COMPS! In my best dr Evil voice "excellent@ |
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Post by EmRR on Jun 15, 2016 10:30:31 GMT -6
A nice new bakelite headphone with a tight metal band to clamp it to your head:  |
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Post by popmann on Jun 15, 2016 15:20:10 GMT -6
I just picked up an old Aphex 661. Part of my ongoing effort I call "becoming British"....vocals and bass guitar always get compression--and they're always set in ways that pre VCA vintage units without full control of attack/release time can't do.
First vocal track...color me impressed.
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Post by drbill on Jun 15, 2016 17:31:09 GMT -6
Most people I know with 661's end up with several. I'm rocking 4.
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Post by rowmat on Jun 15, 2016 20:14:27 GMT -6
2x 661's, 4x 651's, 2x Compellors and a Dominator here.
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Post by henge on Jun 16, 2016 8:28:08 GMT -6
My Samar VL37 arrived yesterday ( ordered her in November ) and I did some vocal testing last night.
What a great sounding mic!! Going to put her through her paces on the weekend by recutting a bunch of vocals done with an SM7B
I'll post the songs for comparison purposes.
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Post by Guitar on Jun 16, 2016 13:38:36 GMT -6
I don't know if this counts as gear but I got a new Sony CD player for $15 from Goodwill to complete my "hi-fi" system in the control room. Sometimes you just gotta jam out or reference some tracks without touching the computer. It even came with a "free" CD that someone left inside of it, which I am listening to right now. Some dreamy orchestral schmalzy kind of soundtrack. Really sets the mood. Running the "Bigs" for this purpose. Sounding great.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jun 16, 2016 13:58:14 GMT -6
I heard that mic ay AES and was seriously impressed. i had to convince myself I still need an LDC it was so good. Can't wait to hear the files, congrats Henge.
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Post by rowmat on Jun 17, 2016 4:27:17 GMT -6
Warm Audio WA2A, Radial JS3 mic splitter and a pair of Avantone Pro MP1 headphones. Spent an hour auditioning the following closed back headphones against our set of Beyer DT770 Pro's: AKG K271 MKII's - Kind of thin and papery sounding. Worst of the lot IMO. The right hand side distorted easily so maybe they were stuffed/kaput? (Reminded me a little of our clapped out Sony MDR-7506's) Charter Oak SP1 - Detailed but lacking in the lows making them seem a little thin. Sounded like they were heavily high passed about 80hz. Telefunken THP-29 - Fairly well balanced overall but a little boxy sounding to my ears. Not as open sounding as most of the others. NOTE: These appear to be rebadged 'Extreme Isolation EX-29 cans. Focal Spirit - Detailed, well balanced and I suspect non fatiguing. Probably the best overall but the earpads were too small and didn't cover the ears well. Avantone Pro MP1's - Evenly balanced with good overall detail. Nothing nasty seemed to poke out. Half the price of the Focals and IMO 90% of their sound. Beyer Dynamic DT770 Pro's - These were my reference for the comparison and replaced our excruciatingly bright Sony MDR-7506's about two years ago. The DT770's have more beef in the low's and a little less sizzle in the highs than the Sony's but are still rather bright in the the tops. Somewhat scooped but quite good sounding and capable of decent levels before running out of steam. Need to be aware of the bass boost and upper mid presence. A pretty good sounding pair of headphones in spite of not being particularly accurate. I was looking for another set of cans with a flatter response than our Beyer DT770's mainly as another option for vocalists who are sensitive to the high end sizzle most headphones provide. The Avantones seemed to fit the bill. www.avantonepro.com/avantone-mixphones-headphones.htmlAlso, if had to choose a pair of headphones to mix on I think the Avantones provide an overall response that is closer to many monitors than most typical headphones. They seem well made but are the heaviest of the lot by quite a bit. They are also fitted with a switch which can be toggled between stereo, mono and MixCube (Auratone style) response mode for checking the critical midrange.   |
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Post by pope on Jun 17, 2016 7:39:45 GMT -6
Also, if had to choose a pair of headphones to mix on I think the Avatones provide an overall response that is closer to many monitors than most typical headphones. They seem well made but are heaviest of the lot by quite a bit. They are also fitted with a switch which can be toggled between stereo, mono and MixCube (Auratone style) response mode for checking the critical midrange. Hey rowmat, how comfortable are they for long sessions? Are they heavy? |
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Post by rowmat on Jun 17, 2016 11:26:59 GMT -6
Also, if had to choose a pair of headphones to mix on I think the Avatones provide an overall response that is closer to many monitors than most typical headphones. They seem well made but are heaviest of the lot by quite a bit. They are also fitted with a switch which can be toggled between stereo, mono and MixCube (Auratone style) response mode for checking the critical midrange. Hey rowmat, how comfortable are they for long sessions? Are they heavy? That will be the question until we try them out for an extended period and could well be their main issue. They appear to be made from die cast aluminium and are very well isolated acoustically so spill shouldn't be a problem. They are quite comfortable padding wise but lightweight they are not. Also none of these headphones checked all the boxes. If the Focal Spirits had been more comfortable and snug I would have probably picked them as the sounded very good. I have seen quite a few similar comments concerning the Focal's sitting on top of your ears rather than around them. If you had large ears the Focals would be a problem. The Charter Oaks were disappointing considering they were more expensive than the Focals and seemed to be missing the lower bass octave. I also found it hard to fathom just how bad the AKG K271 MKII's sounded and may try another pair next time I'm in the store in case the one's I demoed were faulty. They really did sound similar to our 'broken' Sony MDR-7506's which is why we changed the the Beyer DT770's. I often wonder what some of these designers are on when they get something 90% right but the last 10% very wrong. |
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jun 17, 2016 12:16:29 GMT -6
My friend designed those headphones! I haven't tried them yet, but they seem cool.
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Post by rowmat on Jun 17, 2016 12:26:15 GMT -6
My friend designed those headphones! I haven't tried them yet, but they seem cool. Yeah they certainly look and sound good and are very well made. As I said my only concern is their weight and how that will effect the wearer over longer periods. |
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Post by Guitar on Jun 17, 2016 12:27:44 GMT -6
Wow I want those just based on how bad-ass they look. Thanks for the tip.
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Post by EmRR on Jun 17, 2016 13:52:48 GMT -6
Whatever happened to the good old days (I should stop right there) when studios tried to have the most crap uncomfortable headphones so no one would steal them? : ).
I wonder about the durability question. I keep 7506's going because they don't die often, and they are easy to cannibalize and keep going when they do. Use the Beyer replacement ear covers on them and they don't fall apart. Take some treble out of their feed. Half the price of some others. Etc.
I've definitely blown up some others more quickly that sounded better.
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