Telefunken USA Ela M 251

[SHIRK]

BlueSky-

I wish!

I did a some work at Firehouse 12 in CT last weekend and we used theirs. Both the Tele-USA 251 and U47 we amazing.

Maybe someday I'll be able to support a mic locker like that. For now, I'll settle for my 2247.

[riantide]

I just got to use one recently and was blown away. A friend has had a vintage 251 living at his studio for a while and eventually had to give it back, so before it was gone he brought in a new Tele 251 and compared them. He actually liked the new one better and bought one immediately.

I just got to use it recently on drums (mono room) and vocals, but I feel it really shone on acoustic guitar. Very cool mic, tons of detail and overall a very balanced sound, I got to use the original a couple times and found the new one more generally useful.

[judah]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

I honestly don't think we'll ever "reach an agreement" on a lot of things... but they let me work for them and I'm happy to work there as I think its a quality product and think the staff is a great bunch of guys.

I thought the product was good before I went to work there, but now that I do work there and know more about the level of detail that goes into each microphone I have an even greater respect for the product.

As for me... I will be moving to Munich [along with my 16 words of German] in a the beginning of May [2010] and will begin setting up TELEFUNKEN EU Operations [amongst other things like running a distribution company called "Analog Audio"].

Its a good move on a LOT of levels.

Peace.

Wait a minute. Do you mean you're gonna be in here in lovely EU for a long little while? If so, welcome! It would be lovely to have some recording camp with the mighty Fletcher here in Euro land, or something like that...

[GYang]

Originally Posted by judah

Wait a minute. Do you mean you're gonna be in here in lovely EU for a long little while? If so, welcome! ..

Time to meet Euro gearslutzs

[keano]

For a budget guy would the Peluso 251 or P12 be best bet to that TELEFUNKEN ELA M 250 / 251 tone male vocals.

Hear I use a 2247Se would these mic bring something noticeably different?
******//www.gearslutz.com/board/gear-...-opinions.html

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by keano

for a budget guy would the peluso 251 or p12 be best bet to that telefunken ela m 250 / 251 tone male vocals.

Hear i use a 2247se would these mic bring something noticeably different?
******//www.gearslutz.com/board/gear-...-opinions.html

tele ar51

[RKrizman]

Ha! I just ended an 8 month quest to find a good vintage knockoff that would have a 47, 49 or 251 vibe. This is a labyrinth you want to consider carefully before venturing into. There is virtually no way to determine with any objectivity what current mic best captures, say, a vintage 251 sound. First you have to compare it to a representative example, which is probably impossible to decide upon or access. Then you have to try it in a bunch of different applications, because no matter how wonderful a mic is it's appropriateness will always be application-specific. Then you have to evaluate the results--what you like one day, maybe is not so great the next day. Then rinse and repeat with another clone candidate. In my case I ended up with dozens and dozens of tracks of me reading the same poem and strumming the same guitar and playing the same piano and drumkit on a zillion different mics, plus a handful of different singers and other guitarists. Mostly different performances, different days. I could play you those tracks and I promise it wouldn't mean a damn thing.

Although a couple mics i just didn't like outright, most clones had something I liked that the other ones didn't have. In my case, I was comparing to a nicely restored and maintained U47 owned by my friend, which just has a gorgeous and smooth response. However, the couple of times I've borrowed that mic I was less than pleased with the actual results. So now I'm looking for something BETTER than the vintage item. Gaah!

Finally my eyes start to roll back in my head and the huge morass of data I'm listening to starts to mean nothing. I mean, just micing an acoustic guitar and doing some random strumming can only tell you so much. It's when you're cutting a track that matters, where you're trying to capture a performance and emotion, that the mic's suitability will manifest itself. And the only way to achieve that level of testing is to commit to a few mics and rotate them into your work flow.


So finally I give up on the whole "matching" paradigm and just go with the mics that I'm finding the most useful. It doesn't matter what I settled on, because you ultimately have to answer that for yourself.

That said, I did try the AR-51 and liked it. Smooth top end, but I was looking for more of a forward lean in the midrange. But I cut some real nice tracks with it.


-R

[PlugHead]

This post should become a sticky.

It's all perspective, and these are tools that require more than a cursory view into their sound: they require LIVING with you in many situations and experiences to determine their strengths AND weaknesses...

Originally Posted by RKrizman

Ha! I just ended an 8 month quest to find a good vintage knockoff that would have a 47, 49 or 251 vibe. This is a labyrinth you want to consider carefully before venturing into. There is virtually no way to determine with any objectivity what current mic best captures, say, a vintage 251 sound. First you have to compare it to a representative example, which is probably impossible to decide upon or access. Then you have to try it in a bunch of different applications, because no matter how wonderful a mic is it's appropriateness will always be application-specific. Then you have to evaluate the results--what you like one day, maybe is not so great the next day. Then rinse and repeat with another clone candidate. In my case I ended up with dozens and dozens of tracks of me reading the same poem and strumming the same guitar and playing the same piano and drumkit on a zillion different mics, plus a handful of different singers and other guitarists. Mostly different performances, different days. I could play you those tracks and I promise it wouldn't mean a damn thing.

Although a couple mics i just didn't like outright, most clones had something I liked that the other ones didn't have. In my case, I was comparing to a nicely restored and maintained U47 owned by my friend, which just has a gorgeous and smooth response. However, the couple of times I've borrowed that mic I was less than pleased with the actual results. So now I'm looking for something BETTER than the vintage item. Gaah!

Finally my eyes start to roll back in my head and the huge morass of data I'm listening to starts to mean nothing. I mean, just micing an acoustic guitar and doing some random strumming can only tell you so much. It's when you're cutting a track that matters, where you're trying to capture a performance and emotion, that the mic's suitability will manifest itself. And the only way to achieve that level of testing is to commit to a few mics and rotate them into your work flow.


So finally I give up on the whole "matching" paradigm and just go with the mics that I'm finding the most useful. It doesn't matter what I settled on, because you ultimately have to answer that for yourself.

That said, I did try the AR-51 and liked it. Smooth top end, but I was looking for more of a forward lean in the midrange. But I cut some real nice tracks with it.


-R

[Bat Head Sound]

Originally Posted by Roc Mixwell

tele ar51

I agree, it's really quite a nice sounding microphone. Useful on a lot of different things.

Honestly, I've heard the Peluso 251 compared to a new Tele 251 and two vintage 251s on male vocals. The Peluso wasn't even in the same league. The Peluso was very bright, harsh, and spitty sounding, whereas the others were smooth, silky, and not overly bright. Actually, the mics that sounded the closest were the new Tele 251, and one of the vintage 251s, they were surprisingly similar. I've also heard the AR-51 compared to the Tele USA 251 and they were very similar. You could certainly tell that the 251 had a "bigness" to it the the AR didn't quite have, but it was certainly no slouch. I have to applaud them for putting out a mic that sounds that good in the price range that it's in.

[drew]

Awesome post!! But come on..... after all that, you have to tell which mic you ended up with!!!!

Originally Posted by RKrizman

Ha! I just ended an 8 month quest to find a good vintage knockoff that would have a 47, 49 or 251 vibe. This is a labyrinth you want to consider carefully before venturing into. There is virtually no way to determine with any objectivity what current mic best captures, say, a vintage 251 sound. First you have to compare it to a representative example, which is probably impossible to decide upon or access. Then you have to try it in a bunch of different applications, because no matter how wonderful a mic is it's appropriateness will always be application-specific. Then you have to evaluate the results--what you like one day, maybe is not so great the next day. Then rinse and repeat with another clone candidate. In my case I ended up with dozens and dozens of tracks of me reading the same poem and strumming the same guitar and playing the same piano and drumkit on a zillion different mics, plus a handful of different singers and other guitarists. Mostly different performances, different days. I could play you those tracks and I promise it wouldn't mean a damn thing.

Although a couple mics i just didn't like outright, most clones had something I liked that the other ones didn't have. In my case, I was comparing to a nicely restored and maintained U47 owned by my friend, which just has a gorgeous and smooth response. However, the couple of times I've borrowed that mic I was less than pleased with the actual results. So now I'm looking for something BETTER than the vintage item. Gaah!

Finally my eyes start to roll back in my head and the huge morass of data I'm listening to starts to mean nothing. I mean, just micing an acoustic guitar and doing some random strumming can only tell you so much. It's when you're cutting a track that matters, where you're trying to capture a performance and emotion, that the mic's suitability will manifest itself. And the only way to achieve that level of testing is to commit to a few mics and rotate them into your work flow.


So finally I give up on the whole "matching" paradigm and just go with the mics that I'm finding the most useful. It doesn't matter what I settled on, because you ultimately have to answer that for yourself.

That said, I did try the AR-51 and liked it. Smooth top end, but I was looking for more of a forward lean in the midrange. But I cut some real nice tracks with it.


-R

[RKrizman]

Originally Posted by drew

Awesome post!! But come on..... after all that, you have to tell which mic you ended up with!!!!

Flea 47 and Flea 49.

-R

[Greg B]

I just realized I never actually posted our Telefunken mic comparison on this thread, after promising I would.

Tube Microphone Comparison - Telefunken 251, U47, C12, and More

We discussed it quite a bit on another thread already though:
******//www.gearslutz.com/board/high-...elam-251e.html

[Slipperman]

I had one of the first *new* Telefunken 251's kicking around here for several months a few years ago(2003).

Great mic. Used it like a madman on vocals while we had it.

Sounded... Clear. Detailed. Neutral in a wonderful way.

Close. Sounded CLOSE.

Way less hyped than all the ELUX and MT Gefell and whatnot. Not that there's anything wrong with "hype". It's just not a mic that sounded like it was "adding" much. More like it was just CATCHING IT ALL.

I thought it DESTROYED the vaunted Brauner VM-1(the money one with all the designer do-dads) and the BLUE bottle(the comes with everything and the kitchen sink version). The Brauner sounded very clear, but somehow WAY too "distant" for my taste on Male LdVox. And I just thought the BLUE Bottle was TERRIBLE overall. Just COULDN'T figure out what all the buzz was about. AT ALL. A staff of a dozen guys here tried that thing on everything under the sun for about 4 months and NOBODY had anything good to say about it.

I dunno. We returned it. I still think it might have been defective.

I mean it was... DREADFUL.

Like AT4030 dreadful.

Cheap condenser dreadful.

OK. Enough.

I feel like a jerk talking sh*t about it. Thing MUSTA been busted.

If memory serves me, the ELAM251 "re-issue" was $10kUSD at the time(I don't know what they cost these days) and I had just bought about $50k worth of mics in that year, so we eventually passed on it.

Kinda sorry I did.

Can't even remotely afford one these days.

HO-HO-but-not-really-too-funny-HO.

SM.

[billby]

Anyway,

I just read that Sammy used the 251 on Chickenfoots latest.

Does anyone care to enlighten us potential buyers of the (main sonic) differences, aside from what's already been written, between the 251 and e ?

Cheerin'

billby

./

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Greg B

I just realized I never actually posted our Telefunken mic comparison on this thread, after promising I would.

Tube Microphone Comparison - Telefunken 251, U47, C12, and More

We discussed it quite a bit on another thread already though:
******//www.gearslutz.com/board/high-...elam-251e.html

AMAZING SHOOTOUT...

Thanks a bunch!

[walth]

Originally Posted by denial

Has anyone here used one of these mics?
What was the verdict?

they're great

[toneguru]

I have one of the USA 251's. Got it around 2004. Really a great mic and pretty reliable too.

If you are curious and in LA call up Pete at Platinum and use it on your next session.

- Cheers

[raal]

have a 251E that we compared to friend's pristine specimen of a vintage 250. yes the tubes are different - 6072a (E) vs. AC701 (250) - no one in the room could reliably tell the difference.

my 2¢ but YMMV.