Earthworks QTC50 -- what pre are you using?

[AcoosticZoo]

Doesn't matter what you use with these mics but you must get a preamp with a really good phantom power to run the QTC50 to their full potential. For this reason, I've paired up my Earthworks M50 (same as QTC50 but with tighter specs) with their already discontinued pre amps. I think it's called 1024 with zero distortion technology. Was very lucky to get one new one back before they were discontinued.

The Earthworks range of mics are really different to normal large condenser microphones in the way they pick up detail and transients. It's very accurate to the source and captures close to how your ears would hear something. You can hear the detail down to the very subtle nuances of a source. It doesn't color the sound in anyway but materials tend to sound clearer more hi-fi but not colored in anyway. Sometimes pureness/exactness isn't always what you want in recording a performance so adding some colouration via pres/tape saturation works well for the Earthworks range of mics.

Depends on your workflow, but you can also go in very clean and than colour the signal during mixing.

Just be careful though cos detail can sometimes be not very flattering to a source - in these situations I normally go for a larger diaphragm microphone like the Neumann M149 to add some tone to the source.

I normally run some 2nd 3rd and tape saturation with my Cranesong HEDD 192 to add an extra dimension to the Earthworks mics.

Earthwork mics are weird in a good way. Nothing like it imho.

I would also try the apogee duet with the QTC50 to see if you like the sound.

Kind Regards
Josef Horhay
Mixing Engineer
www.acoosticzoo.com

[edva]

+1 on the caution about proper phantom, Earthworks are very sensitive to the quality of phantom, moreso than any other mic brand I've ever used anyway, and no idea why. My 2c.

[astralpen]

Interesting. Will a 500 series preamp like a Shadow Hills Mono GAMA provide adequate phantom? My other option is the Retro Instruments Powerstrip.

[edva]

Originally Posted by astralpen

Interesting. Will a 500 series preamp like a Shadow Hills Mono GAMA provide adequate phantom? My other option is the Retro Instruments Powerstrip.

While I haven't used either of those, I would feel confident that they are of high enough quality to provide proper phantom without issue.
The problems I had all occurred in live sound scenarios, with large format consoles, and hundreds of feet of snake run. My guess is those were contributing factors. We kept sending the mics back to Earthworks, they said they were OK and would send them back, but still we had problems.
In a studio situation with dedicated single channel pre's, hopefully you'd be fine.

[manysounds]

Originally Posted by astralpen

Interesting. Will a 500 series preamp like a Shadow Hills Mono GAMA provide adequate phantom? My other option is the Retro Instruments Powerstrip.

In a 500 series box the phantom power is usually supplied by the lunchbox's power supply, not the unit itself... errrrr, if I recall correctly from the schematics of the few 500 type pres I've built. 500 series is like a mini-console layout except the "console" only supplies a framework and electricity, including the phantom power.

So the answer is YES, unless you have one of the cheaper 2-unit single rack space 500 slot things from a certain manufacturer in creme white with the noisier power supply. -Which may still work fine. There are also a number of API lunchboxes out there with sketchy power supplies but none of the new ones suffer from the flaw.

...something like that, YMMV