Recent Microphone Discoveries

I’ve found a few new (to me) microphones lately that I’m really digging.

Beyer M88: I’m in love with this mic right now. It’s the first mic I’ve ever really liked inside the kick drum. I normally like a mic right at the hole and maybe one outside on the resonant head. I’ve had terrible luck in the past with putting mics inside the kick, but the M88 has a HUGE proximity effect, which means that getting it close to the beater head actually increases the amount of low end. The massive proximity effect combined with just the right amount of mid range scoop ( the center frequency of the scoop is around 750Hz) and a relatively flat upper mid and high end frequency response creates an very balanced kick drum sound. It’s supercardioid pattern also gives it great rejection/isolation. I expect it would be great on bass cab and toms as well.

Gefell M692: Gefell or Microtech Gefell was originally started by Georg Neumann, and was part of/one and the same as Neumann until the Berlin Wall was built 1961, separating the Gefell and Neumann workshops. From that point forward, Neumann and Gefell developed similarly, but separately, All of that to say, Gefell mics tend to be overlooked and aren’t nearly as expensive today as vintage Neumann mics. But in my experience Gefell mics are every bit as outstanding as many of the vintage Neumann’s.

A perfect example of this is the Gefell M692, a small diaphragm condenser mics body that accepts different capsules. I recently got a chance to use a pair of these mics on acoustics guitar, banjo and mandolin and found them to be fantastic. They have a built in bass roll-off to compensate for proximity effect, which makes them great for miking acoustic guitars, and I found they really excelled in reproducing the upper midrange of acoustics instruments.  Translation: They do that, “I feel like I’m sitting right in front of the guitar” thing.

I liked them much more than the vintage Neumann KM84s the studio also had. The best part is that you can pick up a Gefell (or 2) for a fraction of what a KM84 costs.

Tags | Microphones