Electro-Voice Re 15/Electro-Voice Re 16

[RedArmchairStud]

Hi,

Since this is my first post! I would like to say hello to everyone in this forum! I have been here reading a lot and find it to be a very fine forum!

I wonder if the Electro-Voice Re 15 & Electro-Voice Re 16 really sound the same?

I have Listened to these short clips at http://www.coutant.org/ and I don´t think they sound the same there. Has anyone been listening to them side by side?

Sound wise! would it be better to Buy a new Electro-Voice Re 16 than a vintage Electro-Voice Re 15 in good shape?

Kind Regards

Stefan

[Bob Ross]

It's been a good 25 years since I used an RE16 (whereas it's been less than 24 hours since I used an RE15) but I remember having both mics side by side in the ol' college studio and feeling the 16 had a bit more "tizz" in the top end. Brighter, crisper...but not by much.

[button]

The RE-16 has a more "hyped" sound at the top end, and more proximity effect. If you want to get an old school dry and punchy snare sound it works quite well almost touching the skin. The RE-15 always sounded a bit more natural to me, with a hint of "boxiness." If you want a lot of 500 Hz-ish it's your mic.
Of course it depends how the mics have been treated. I once saw someone demonstrating an RE-15's robustness by using it to hammer in a nail ...

[paulbystereo]

What do you guys use the RE15 / 16 for? I have access to one, but I've never really given it a shot?

[RedArmchairStud]

Thank you very much for your opinions!

stefan

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by paulbystereo

What do you guys use the RE15 / 16 for? I have access to one, but I've never really given it a shot?

I use an RE15 all the time for electric guitars (nice alternative to SM57, less peaky. it usually gets a few raised eyebrows from the players, until I tell them it's the same mic they used on Keith Richards' guitar for "Brown Sugar", then everyone's cool with it) and toms (better off-axis rejection though not quite as much meat as a 421) and sometimes even vocals (totally neutral unhyped sound w/ much less proximity effect than most vocal mics; not right for every tune, but handy when you want something that's "conspicuously unprepossessing", if that's not an oxymoron).

As mentioned earlier, I haven't used an RE16 in decades, and the last time I did it was for drum overheads. Which they sucked for.

[Berolzheimer]

Originally Posted by paulbystereo

What do you guys use the RE15 / 16 for? I have access to one, but I've never really given it a shot?

Love em' on Guitar amps. Several of those EV dynamic models work well for electrics.
I recently was forced to used a 635a inside a kick drum- the re20 i was using died, the mic closet was locked & I didn't have the key, and nothing else was available, and I was quite pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

[Power Supply]

I use the RE-16 as a vocal mic all the time. Works great.
Worked for Elvis!

[Midlandmorgan]

Another huge fan of the RE16/RE15 here.. just about every project that leaves here has at least one track done with one....usually a vocal track, many guitar tracks, even to mic up a Rhodes....

Just for grins, try the 16 on a kick drum....sounds great....ditto the comments about the 635...