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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
 Posted - 02/26/2005 : 09:39:31 AM
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A musician friend told me he prefers to record vocals with a tube mic running through a non-tube preamp. Is there a benefit to a tube mic? Is there a reason to avoid them?
My friend also recommended replacing the 12AX7 in my preamp with a 12AT7 tube. Is this a good idea?
Standard warning to "Lawrence of Arithmetic" and "Dave Nye the Science Guy" that I probably won't understand everything said here, but general concepts are gratefully appreciated.
Jesse Tinsley
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`Ilio Nui
`Olu`olu
USA
826 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2005 : 4:29:57 PM
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Jesse,
I don't intend to be effusive. Your friend probably prefers that with the setup that he uses. I don't own any high-end tube mics, but I use them on occasion. My Grace preamp is about as clean as you can get (non-tube), but if I hook it up a tube mic, Neumann, Soundelux, Gefell, etc, I usually don't like the way it sounds. So, when I borrow or rent them I go for vintage stuff, Telefunken, API. etc. and yes, they're usually non-tube. Sometimes it takes me a couple hours before I find the combo that's pleasing to my ear. Man, if you like the sound of a Shure SM-58 through a RadioShack Mic pre, I probably will too. That's the art of it. There are NO rules. As for the tube replacement, for the price of the tube you can find out what sounds best to you.
The only general concept is stick a mic in front of it and if you don't like the sound, change mics. After a while you'll have an idea of what will work. And when you try it, it doesn't, so you change mics (or pres).
Welcome to the nebulous world of recording. Now it starts getting expensive, but you can only own so many guitars (did I really say that? I hope my wife didn't here that.)
Dave |
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Lawrence
Ha`aha`a
USA
1597 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2005 : 6:35:03 PM
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Jesse, just remember this:
Eee to the you dee-you dee-ex, Eee to the ex dee-ex,
Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine,
Three point one four one five nine!
That's the start of the MIT football cheer...
...(note: they do not have a football team)
(I used Phonetic spelling for the Calculus phrase)
And don't call me a Mathematician, or you will get more of that stuff!!
Tube Mics: In the old days, the earliest usable microphones were condenser (capacitor) mics. These kind of mics MUST have a buffer amplifier stage because the capacitance of the diaphram was very small (but I won't explain that any further). Back then, the only option was a tube. These tubes were typically hooked up inside the mic as "cathode followers", which means that they did not provide any gain (signal amplification) but functioned as impedance converters to convert the extremely high impedance of the microphone diaphragm to a lower value of around 1K ohms or so, so you could successfuly connect them to a mixer with a real cable.
Now having the tube in the Mic is much like using a tube preamp, as you will get that "warm" tube distortion. So I can see that someone might want to run a tube mic into a very clean preamp since the "tube sound" is already provided by the mic.
But like Dr. Dave says you have to try it and see if you like the sound.
As far as 12AX7 versus 12AT7, I do not have my tube manual around anymore to compare them...
...but I always preferred the 12AU7 !! 
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Mahope Kākou...
...El Lorenzo de Ondas Sonoras |
Edited by - Lawrence on 02/26/2005 6:41:01 PM |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2005 : 8:30:03 PM
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Mahalo nui loa to Lawrence and Slack Dog for continuing to answer my simple questions.
I kinda wondered if a tube mic in the 21st century was a serious instrument or kind of a novelty. Since I own a cheap tube-driven preamp, I'm beginning to see them as a novelty item that you really can't compare to state of the art mics and preamps.
I love the cheer, Lawrence. Like most people, the closest I ever got to MIT or calculus was to listen Tom Scholz play on Boston's (the band) first album in 1976. I wore the grooves out of it.
Jesse Tinsley |
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