Between Octava and Schoeps - Good A B Mains SDC's

[zarembo]

Daniel, the followup posts that quote from the aforementioned deleted posts do keep the thread fairly intact.

Perhaps not precisely, but enough to get the gist.

BTW--loving this thread and especially loving the Remote Possibilities forum.

When I need schooling this is where I turn.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by Plush

Greetings SlutZ,

I have deleted my posts of today as I find that they do not add anything to the discussion.

wishing all a good day,
cordially,

HudSonic

I hear you Hud, but I wish you would have edited (and addressed the fact that you edited) your posts rather than deleting them completely.
IMO, you had a lot of good information to say along with the other stuff you felt didn't add to the discussion.

Editing is not a totally bad idea, especially when it's explained.

Originally Posted by matyas

That's frustrating to those of us who are interested in what you have to say.

The good and valuable information is an important part of this forum.
I can do without the negative stuff.
I know excepting the negative stuff is up to the individual, but it's also (arguably) valuable.

Originally Posted by d_fu

Deleting posts that have been quoted and referred to by others is not a very good idea. There was no real reason to do so and it leaves the thread in a mess...

Daniel

I agree with you on this one.
I could reverse the deletions if Plushy wants me to.
I also understand the other point of view.

What about the folks that get offended?
In the future, I say, take it with a grain of salt unless it goes way too far out of bounds.

Originally Posted by zarembo

Daniel, the followup posts that quote from the aforementioned deleted posts do keep the thread fairly intact.

Perhaps not precisely, but enough to get the gist.

BTW--loving this thread and especially loving the Remote Possibilities forum.

When I need schooling this is where I turn.

Originally Posted by Plush

My comments are directed at Gearslutz as a whole.

Mr. Remoteness--you run an excellent forum here and I think that discussion here is of a much higher quality than Gearslutz in general...

Yeah, but Plushy deleted the cool things he said about the forum and me. Just kidding!

With all that said, why don't we get back to the...

serious mud slinging, err --- I mean the original topic!!

Now back to the show.

Enjoy!

[mrsteaks]

Back to the show, indeed!

Plushy is a good man with a huge bank of experience, and I for one want to hear from him. He's one of those folks, as well, that can keep people (especially me) "on point". A good scolding now and then doesn't hurt, either!

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[mosrite]

There is an awful lot of ill informed nonsense written in forums but I don't think it matters that much.

At the end of the day you use your own knowledge base to be able to determine who is talking crap and who has something of meaning to add.

Plush is one of the ones who has something of meaning to add.

[klaukholm]

Originally Posted by mosrite

This interests me. Is it the M222 you are referring to? And with what capsules?

I am referring to the M222.
We were trying out a whole slew of mics for an upcoming harp solo cd.

In the end we had it down to the M150's and the M222 with the MK6 in omni.

The m222 has a wonderful light touch yet with an appealing richness.

[mrsteaks]

I did some work with an associate last night recording a jazz flute ensemble with piano accompaniment. There was also a vocalist. I had opportunity to use AKG c451's, and a Peluso CEMC6, along with a Studio Projects LSD2.

The 451's were placed on the eight foot grand piano (spaced pair, around 18 inches, just under the lid), the Peluso (cardioid cap) was used as a spot on the lead flute, and the LSD2 was used in XY to capture the rest of the ensemble. The vocalist used an SM58. The recording chain was less than stellar, a Mackie 1202 for the SDC's and the LSD2 into Grace 101's, which also fed the Mackie. We picked up a feed from the house mixer for the vocal mic. An on the fly mix was done into a Masterlink. However - the results were respectable.

The 451's were very good! A little dark, but quiet, clean and fast. They sounded nice on the piano, catching the attack of the hammers and harmonic complexities of the instrument quite well. The Peluso had a probem. Besides sounding a bit bright, it would "spit" and get noisy on transients - not a nice thing. I'm sure the mic was broken. The LSD2 was surprisingly good - smooth, quiet, and a bit dark. The bloody thing was huge, though!

Quite an audition! The surprise, to me, were the 451's. I was not familiar with them, and I was pleasantly surprised. The Peluso was dissapointing, and I hope was not indicative of how these mics really fare. I'd heard them before (with the omni cap) and they were quite a bit better than this one was. Another surpise was the LSD2. Much more mic than I expected.

Cheers!
~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[zarembo]

Originally Posted by mrsteaks

The recording chain was less than stellar....

as it often is for many of us!

thanks for sharing your experience with this cool test.

I am always pretty stoked with the akg 451.

if you get a chance to upgrade that mackie to an onyx (if you haven't heard it yet) I think you may be surprised. they really stepped things up from the sound of the 1202...

peace

walter

[mrsteaks]

Originally Posted by zarembo

as it often is for many of us!

thanks for sharing your experience with this cool test.

I am always pretty stoked with the akg 451.

if you get a chance to upgrade that mackie to an onyx (if you haven't heard it yet) I think you may be surprised. they really stepped things up from the sound of the 1202...

walter

Hey, thanks, Walter! I wish I'd had more mics to try!

I've heard the Onyx, in fact I have one, an 800R. The system we were using last night belonged to my associate. We were lamenting during setup that he hadn't called me to bring my stuff! One of those "oh, wells..."

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[zarembo]

it's a rather large rig but we have an Onyx 1640 for remotes and when I use good microhpones it sounds good. period. done some jazzy stuff for a horror sound track recently using schoeps cmc441/gefellm294/sf12 (all borrowed). The Mackie preamps aren't my dream rig, but hey!

I bet your 800 is far more portable than this beast of a 1640...I heard somewhere they were releasing a 1200 but that was just a rumour...

[mrsteaks]

It is quite portable, but it's heavy - around 10 pounds. I've got it in a 4U rack with my HD24. It feeds the HD24 (when I want it to) via the ADAT lightpipe. I use it mainly for A to D conversion for the HD24 (it doesn't have the EC2 upgrade - yet), although I have been happy with the pres in it for "less critical" recordings. They aren't bad!

I thought the 1200 was out. Maybe not?

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[zarembo]

not to totally hijack this thread into mackie land but...oh well

hey Mr. Steaks, I did a remote recording of two rock bands this last weekend using the onyx 1640 and Hd24xr....sounds pretty good...some of it sounds excellent.

I did finally manage to bottom out the Onyx preamps on some exuberant tom fills, though.

Was printing a good level on RT and FT with the mic preamps mostly all the way down. Come the end of the tune the drummer really whacked it and the Mackie went CACKIE!!!!!

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.

That's the one thing about the Onyx I must say I liked better with the older style mackies: the clipping on the mic pre.

It's good up to a point and then, CACK, rather than the older style PHUZZXSHHH sound I dealt with occasionally from 1995 to 2005. (drummer was not hitting my 421's btw)

I wish one were able to use the inserts in conjunction with the db25 direct outputs, though.

I didn't have sufficient cabling on this gig to insert any compressors on vox or anything to tape so I had to kind of live with it. Next time it will be a priority.

10 lbs for the 800! that's light as a feather!

ps this gig was helpful as I also got to use Rode NT1 and NT2 mics for the first time and they worked well in their chosen applications. The top end was a little more brittle than I'm used to, but what the hey!
carry on.
walter

[mrsteaks]

Hey, Walter!

It's okay to hijack, this thread has run it's course anyway (IMO). The "orchestra - single pair" post has sort of taken the direction that this thread (perhaps) should have, anyway. Lot's of outstanding info coming out from some very talented folks on that thread.

I'm speaking from opinion here, and it's based on a few years in live sound, but it seems to me that the Mackie "compact mixers" were designed for live sound, and were adopted for recording because of A) price and B) they sounded decent and were flexible. I think many of us started with them and still use them to some degree. I have a good ear (not a "golden ear"), but I'll be damned if I can hear a difference between a VLZ and the VLZ Pro. I CAN hear a difference between the Onyx and the VLZ, and there is no question the Onyx is better. The VLZ, when it gets past linearity, gets congested and hard (and that's a long way below clipping) and the Onyz is pretty clean all the way up. Just like you described.

I should qualify (well, explain anyway) the reason I bought the 800R. I needed a mid-line pre that was better sounding than the 1604 I already had and I needed to upgrade my HD24 to a HD24XR. I found an 800R on eBay for a good price, did some "justifying" (I need a A to D that's better than the HD24 A to D, and I need a decent mid line pre - hmmmm). So, I bought the 800R. I'm happy with it, except for critical recording. It is NOT the "boutique" pre that the advertising for Mackie says it is (I know, I have some "boutique" pres, and I didn't expect it to be), but it's not crap, either - it's a long way from that. Oh - and the 10 pounds - it's in a 4U rack with the HD24 and it comes to 25 pounds. Not exactly a SD 722, but not an anvil, either !

Well, cheers, Walter - and a Happy Fourth! Wish I was out hanging mics some where, but - well, drinking wine and reading Gearslutz will have to do!

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings

[Coyoteous]

Yeah, what the heck does any of this have to do with Octava [sic]?

The parts I read were interesting, though!

Oh, +1 for the Onyx pre's (1220 here)...

[mrsteaks]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

Yeah, what the heck does any of this have to do with Octava [sic]?

The parts I read were interesting, though!

Oh, +1 for the Onyx pre's (1220 here)...

Yes, I know - talk about "mission creep". Interesting, indeed, though. I've learned a lot from asking the original question, the biggest lesson being how much I DON'T know.

If you don't ask, no one will tell.

~~~~Mark S.
Pretty Good Recordings