Cascade Fathead II

[SHIRK]

Just bought a pair of Cascade Fathead II's. Must say I'm really enjoying them. I've never owned any ribbon mics before and these are my first experience with any. I'm pretty happy with the sounds I'm getting. I've paired them up with my Great River MP2NV, True Systems Precision 8, and Neotek Series 1E. So far I like them best through the Neotek's.

Been getting smooth sounds on my old 40's Gibson SJ as well as on some female vocal duties. Put one up for mono overhead the other night on a kit where the drummer was really working the open hihat too hard. (even after I asked him to tone down the Hihat energy) The Fathead kind of took some of the harshness out of the sloshy hats. (Probably the typical HF rolloff characteristic of ribbon mics) Put them to use on a Mesa Cabinet/DC5 head setup yeaterday and was very pleased with the out come. I'm quickly bocoming a fan of the ribbon mic thing. Even these cheap ones.

I'll report more later when I have more time to put them through the paces. After my first week of using these, I'm pretty happy though. I'm curious to hear if there is anyone out there that has a Fathead or Fathead II as well as one of the higher end ribbons (AEA, Royer, Coles, RCA, etc.) Just wondered how the cheaper Fathead stacks up to the new standards and classics.

Some might wonder what the difference is between the Fathead and Fathead II. When I first recieved my order for a pair of Fathead II's, Bayview Pro Audio messed my order up and accidentaly sent me a regular Fathead and a Fathead II, instead of a pair of II's. It actually worked out nice cause I got to do a little testing. The sonic charachteristics were pretty similar. The Fathead II just has a larger body and a polished chrome grill and chrome detail. I was pleased to find that the Fathead II's felt a little more robust and solid. I was hoping this would be the case. Spending $40 extra per mic seemed like a good idea considering the price point and that these things are probably turned out like hotcakes on some chinese assembly line.

So far I give em a

[007]

Thanks for the post, was just looking at getting a pair of Fatheads, never having owned a ribbon mic, Cascade seems to hold the key to the pearly gates. Sure, they probably don't have the Royer sound, but a good way to experiment with ribbons without breaking the bank.

[drastic]

JUst got one of these too. I really like it paired w/ a 57 on gtr cabs, sounds great

[pmdundee]

Anyone tried a different transformer in theirs or bought one with the Lundahl?

Thanks
Eric

[thecount_x]

How much of a sonic difference is there between the Fathead and the Fathead 2?

[mikey]

whats the cost ?

[SHIRK]

no sonic difference b/w the fathead and fathead II. I have the II's and it was prett much a waste getting the upgrade. I thought that they might be of a little better build quality or something. Althought the II is a bigger and a little beefier, I don't think that it would withstand and more wear and tear than the fathead.

I've been enjoying mine on guitar cabs about 8" off the grill paired up with a 57. Sometimes I use both...sometimes one or the other. Depends on the sound and arrangement, etc. The Fathead II into my Neotek series I with then into my FATSO is a nice combo....pretty FAT...duh. Couldn't resist.

You can get these from Bayview Pro Audio. The Fathead II's are $199 ea or $375 for a pair I think.

[thecount_x]

Thanks for the info Shirk!

[pmdundee]

No one has tried the Lundahl option yet?

Thanks
Eric

[Matt Hepworth]

Bump for this thread - just wanting to see if more opinions have surfaced.

[SHIRK]

Set up two Fathead II's (stock transformer) in blumlein stereo configuration to get room sounds while recording solo cello last week. I'm not sure if it was the best match, but I ran the two fathead II's into my Pendulum MDP1 Tube Pre. (Which I, and many here, consider to be a wonderful preamp) I needed a lot of gain to get a decent signal level from these babies. I noticed quite a bit of hum when I cranked up the preamp gain. Something I haven't noticed with other mics in my place. Compared to my AEA 84, I was able to see the shortcommings of the Fathead. For the money it's still a great buy. But I'll be using them only on louder sources (gts, drums, etc) from here on out.

[audiofreak]

I used the cascade fathead II's with an AEA TRP ribbon mic pre.... its a very beautiful and natural sound. Works very well for my saxophone.

[Drumsound]

I recently mixed a record where the tracking engineer used a Fathead (not sure if I or II) on trumpet and it sounded great. The only time I EQ'd the trumpet was to try and make the horns sound like "Got to get you into My Life" for one song.

[M.T.Pilot]

Hi Folks..new here..

I was searching for info on the Cascade Fat Head and came across this forum and this thread.

I'm looking to buy a budget mic to be able to make good sound quality NYLON/spanish guitar recordings. Would the Fat Head be the mic for the job?

regards,

M.T.Pilot

[drBill]

Originally Posted by M.T.Pilot

Hi Folks..new here..

I was searching for info on the Cascade Fat Head and came across this forum and this thread.

I'm looking to buy a budget mic to be able to make good sound quality NYLON/spanish guitar recordings. Would the Fat Head be the mic for the job?

regards,

M.T.Pilot

Well, it would be in-expensive, but personally I'd head into U87/KM84 land. Killer for nylon str gtrs. The ribbons aren't my call for that application. Gefells like and M71S work fantastic as well and can still be found used for a bargain.

Bill

[flute player]

Hi there,

I just bought a pair of fat head 2 in the new black body colour.
Yes indeed it looks great and comes well packed that you don't expect for such price.
Nice deal from Bay view pro audio ( thanks Kathleen )
I am going to use them on flute off course.
But the most interesting is how they will sound in combination with my preamps.
I own three very different ones from Dan Alexander ( Neve clone 1272 ), HCL ( tube ) and Daking.
Later on I will post some sound samples.

Actually my choise for this ribbons ( I own a Royer 121 to ) was the shoot out that is posted on their website.
In my opinion the fat head 2 sounds in some ways between the Royer and AEA.

Paul

[drBill]

Originally Posted by flute player

Actually my choise for this ribbons ( I own a Royer 121 to ) was the shoot out that is posted on their website.
In my opinion the fat head 2 sounds in some ways between the Royer and AEA.

Paul

Paul - from the clips I've heard, I'd say you are right on the money on your description. Not as clear/hi fi as the royer, not as fat as the AEA. Somewhere in the middle. I've only heard gtr clips though. No flute. Post some 121/FH clips when you get a chance.
thumbsup

[M.T.Pilot]

Originally Posted by drBill

Well, it would be in-expensive, but personally I'd head into U87/KM84 land. Killer for nylon str gtrs. The ribbons aren't my call for that application. Gefells like and M71S work fantastic as well and can still be found used for a bargain.

Bill

Hmmm.. they seem to be a bit out of my financial reach..I'm afraid..

Second hand..I don't know..I like to check second hand equipment before I buy it..which is a bit difficult as I live on a small island in the Caribbean (with no choice in NEW gear and hardly any choice in second hand gear).

So, no second hand gear for me either...

Any other suggestions in the same price range as the Fat Head?

cheers,

M.T.Pilot

[drBill]

M.T. - are you sure you want a ribbon for this? I like ribbons, but I'm just warming up to them. Traditionally, I think SDC's have been the main call for this type of recording. A warmer one would most likely be your best option, but "warm" pretty much means vintage and you don't want to buy used so.... I haven't hear the Peluso tube SDC, but that might be a contender. Also, I might put in a PM to Warhead and ask him about the CAD M179 in that application - about $150 or so. It's a LDC, but I've heard nothing but praise for it. If you can't buy used and your budget is $200, I don't think you can set your hopes too high. The Fathead may work for you, but at the VERY LEAST, you will need a very high quality mic pre with LOTS of gain if you're recording Ac Gtr. Good luck!

Bill

[drBill]

PS - you might want to check out this thread if a SDC interests you at all:

Best Pair of Small Diaphragm Condensers for under $1,000?

[Allesmachine]

Your budget is definitely workable with some of the good quality mics from Studio Projects. They do make a Small Diaphragm Condenser called the C4 which I have not used but only heard good things about. Also, one of my go to mics for acoustic guitars is the Studio Projects B3 Large Diaphragm condenser. For your purposes, I'd go with the cheaper B1, its the same mic except it doesn't have all the different polar patterns, just Cardiod, which is perfect for your application. It goes for about $100 last time I checked! I would recommend a presonus mono pre to pair with it.

[M.T.Pilot]

Originally Posted by drBill

M.T. - are you sure you want a ribbon for this? I like ribbons, but I'm just warming up to them. Traditionally, I think SDC's have been the main call for this type of recording. [...] Also, I might put in a PM to Warhead and ask him about the CAD M179 in that application. [...] Good luck!

Bill

Nononono, I do not necessarily want a ribbon for this.. I just need a good mic to be able to make as good a recording of a spanish guitar as I can get in that price range (up to $200).

I will use the mic in combination with a soundcraft compact 10 mixer (which obviously has preamps and 48V phantom power on it).

I checked the CAD M179 ($200 at zZounds), and found this in a review:

These mics require almost double the power required by most other mics. Minimum Requirements are 24, 48 Volt Phantom Power capable of delivering at least 8 mA. Many budget mic pre's don't put out that kind of juice. An external phantom supply might be wise..

I checked the userguide, but can't seem to find info on amperage of the phantom power on my soundcraft, though...

@Allesmachine, I checked the Studio Projects B1 and it seems like a good option as well. However, I'm a bit concerned about the "casing"..it needs to survive a shipping (and handling and all that) by plane.. Am I being too concerned?


regards,

M.T.Pilot

[Allesmachine]

I would not be too worried about the casing. I comes in a large box with foam padding all around it.

[blaugruen7]

bumpy

with this mic do you need a high end preamp when tracking voice or clarinet?
or does something like a low budget konnekt audio interface work?

[beatntrack]

I'm delighted with my Fathead 11. I own a pair of R121s also but to me there is little discernible difference in sound quality, but a massive difference in price.

My fave applications for the Fathead 11 are saxes and chromatic harmonica. AEA TRP to keep the gain up and noise down. The players always get totally lost in the beauty of the tone they are hearing in their cans and usually say something to the effect of "this sounds better than the instrument actually sounds".

Kudos to Cascade. I have a pair of M37s too and like them for acoustic guitar. The shock mounts are pathetic but the mics work great.

[ScottOlsen]

I've got a fat head with lundahl, a fat head with a cinemag and 2 fat head II's with the stock trans. Also had a Royer R121 in the mix to A,B,C,D compare.

I bought them all to try on my Marshall plexi amps... After a few months here... I prefer the lundahl mic and the Royer over the other 2... but the cinemag FH is a close runner. The Cinemag seems just a bit thinner but definitely awesome. The stock FH mics sound fantastic too but are a bit darker.

Sold my Royer R121 after doing a bunch of tests. The Lundahl fat head is every bit as awesome of a mic as the R 121.

The Fat Heads kick the Royer's butt as a drum room mic hands down. Haven't tried ribbons as overheads yet, but will soon.

[evangelista]

Originally Posted by ScottOlsen

The Fat Heads kick the Royer's butt as a drum room mic hands down. Haven't tried ribbons as overheads yet, but will soon.

Nice to see that - I totally agree.

Not saying that the mics are "equal" or whatever, but for the price difference the fatheads are an absolute no-brainer.

[rocksure]

I recently recorded drums with a pair of the Fathead II's in Blumlein pattern behind and just above the drummer's head as an extra pair of room mics (along with a Geffell and and NTK in the room in front of the drums) and they did a pretty good job, though I did notice a slight difference in the sound of each of the two Cascades ie: they are not identical in sound to each other. One sounds slightly better than the other, though the difference is not huge.
I give them a thumbs up in this application. The results sound very good.

[GOATMASTER]

I just bought one 3 days ago. I always look for a reason not to keep equipment because, like many, I suffered from an equipment overdose in the '90's.
Anyway, the first thing I noticed about this microphone is the way it made a clean guitar sound so good. Even with the nastiest "treble" I could achieve with a telecaster and a VOX AC-30 was transformed into a very ear friendly sound. The bass notes had incredible definition without sounding "tinny".
It reminded me of the sound of the "Strawberry Fields Forever" rhythm track. Overall, I believe it works better than the standard sm-57.
I personally didn't like the way it made vocals sound. It wasn't clear enough to my liking.
The reason I chose the CINEMAG version was because it was the only transformer upgrade version that this particular vender had in stock.
Also the A/B Mp3 comparisons provided on the CASCADE website did reveal a sonic improvement with the Lundahl in reference to the stock transformer..and I'm half deaf! (Although I'd rather be there in person to verify any sonic comparisons)
Overall, this is a great microphone for taming "harshness" without losing definition. Hope this helps out.
Thanks-
GOATMASTER
YouTube - MATTHEW 24 - Above The Ground

[dasoundjunkie]

Originally Posted by SHIRK

Just bought a pair of Cascade Fathead II's. Must say I'm really enjoying them. I've never owned any ribbon mics before and these are my first experience with any. I'm pretty happy with the sounds I'm getting. I've paired them up with my Great River MP2NV, True Systems Precision 8, and Neotek Series 1E. So far I like them best through the Neotek's.

Been getting smooth sounds on my old 40's Gibson SJ as well as on some female vocal duties. Put one up for mono overhead the other night on a kit where the drummer was really working the open hihat too hard. (even after I asked him to tone down the Hihat energy) The Fathead kind of took some of the harshness out of the sloshy hats. (Probably the typical HF rolloff characteristic of ribbon mics) Put them to use on a Mesa Cabinet/DC5 head setup yeaterday and was very pleased with the out come. I'm quickly bocoming a fan of the ribbon mic thing. Even these cheap ones.

I'll report more later when I have more time to put them through the paces. After my first week of using these, I'm pretty happy though. I'm curious to hear if there is anyone out there that has a Fathead or Fathead II as well as one of the higher end ribbons (AEA, Royer, Coles, RCA, etc.) Just wondered how the cheaper Fathead stacks up to the new standards and classics.

Some might wonder what the difference is between the Fathead and Fathead II. When I first recieved my order for a pair of Fathead II's, Bayview Pro Audio messed my order up and accidentaly sent me a regular Fathead and a Fathead II, instead of a pair of II's. It actually worked out nice cause I got to do a little testing. The sonic charachteristics were pretty similar. The Fathead II just has a larger body and a polished chrome grill and chrome detail. I was pleased to find that the Fathead II's felt a little more robust and solid. I was hoping this would be the case. Spending $40 extra per mic seemed like a good idea considering the price point and that these things are probably turned out like hotcakes on some chinese assembly line.

So far I give em a

I'm not sure if the samples are still there but my partner and I did a shootout on a 4/12 cab ( vintage 30s loaded ) with a Peavey head using the FatHead a Royer 121 and an AEA R-84. Sonically the FatHead seemed to be right smack between the other too. Not as bass heavy as the AEA but thicker than the Royer. Curiously it ended up the overall favorite ( on this source ) to everyone present including the owners of the 2 other mics. Personally, I was extremely surprised and the guys who owned both the Royer and the AEA ended up buying FatHeads. This shootout was done out of curiosity as up 'till this point I had 0 experience with ribbons, but they impressed us so much that we sent the recordings to Cascade. They liked them and gave us credit for them ( no money though ) and put them up on their site. You will also notice that they take eq reaaaally well and we found that with small eq tweeks we could get the mics to sound like each other ( seems to be a ribbon mic characteristic ) . If you get the chance try out the same experiment. I think you'll like what you hear.
'nuff said