Mic review: STAPES OMNI condenser!! .................Duh!

[joel hamilton]

I cant believe nobody did this yet!!!

I have had a pair of these mics for quite some time. I am talking about the OLD STYLE Stapes omni microphone.

These little guys came along at the perfect time in my life. I was really bored with B&K's, and earthworks TC30k's.
Enter the Stapes.

Compared to the TC30k the stapes has a nicer, rounder(in a way) more listenable, musical, less clinical capture characteristic I guess you could say.
In fact, they kind of kick ass in many applications where the earthworks fail due to their "truth telling." Sometimes it takes a little white lie to flatter something that isnt quite pretty...

I have TRIED to record almost every instrument I have come across in the last 2 years with these little guys, and on almost evrything I have ever aimed a pair of stapes at, I have been amazed at the flattering lies they tell!
I have thought this thought before when using these mics:

"The Stapes listen like they are fans of what is being played in front of them."

Or:

"like ears, only cooler ( and small and black, and XLR and not made of meat..."

Or:

"If I was a robot, I would want these for ears."

Things I tried the stapes on and they made it to tape: drums,AC guitar,marxophone,tremeloa, tumbaou, pandera, cuica,snare (brushed, alone),upright bass, backing vocal,piano, strings (violins), and a zillion odd percussion overdubs.

What a crazy group of instruments, and the stapes stayed on the stands, and found their way to the studer (or HD) on all those occasions!

I am not sure I can say that about ANY other microphone in my collection, and some of them cost 10 to 20 times what the pair of stapes cost me!!!

The fact that a really nice person, and a fellow engineer and DIY'er brought these to the people is an added bonus. Nobody claims thatthese mics do anything, or ARE anything different from the tapeop DIY omni's, these just do it BETTER in every possible direction, and now take that a step further with the new ones!

There hasnt been an insane leap in transducer technology for a very long time, so when someone figures out a formula that works on such a broad spectrum of sources, and can bring that product to the engineers for such an amazing price... Things change. Amazing microphones are in your price range now, tapeoppers.

[Rodgre]

I did a review of these in Tape Op back in late 2001 or early 2002.

I'm famous solely for my support of these awesome mics.

I hear that they're shipping, by the way. A local studio picked up a pair of the new production models.

Roger

[supafuzz]

HEY GUYS..I can't say enought about these babies...
They've renovated the recording process for me...
I used them all over my cd

the best thing I can say is that everything I record with them sounds like what it sounds like in the room....
[acoustic guitar/mandolin/tambourine/handclaps/glockenspiel/shakers/
gang vocals/party noise/temple block/cowbell .....etc]


Very realistic and not hyped...

and erik is really easy to deal with.....

[no i'm not geting paid for this...just another stapes fundamentalist]

harley

www.harleyfine.com

[audionerd]

could anyone tell me please how much a pair of these are? the websites (avenson & stapes) don't say anything and they're not sold anywhere else on the web...

[Rodgre]

I forget exactly but I heard they were in the $500-something a pair range.

I sound like a broken record, but we have a lot of mics in the mic closet at the 'Lounge, and I'll be damned if those Stapes aren't used at least three times on every track I record.

They are my default overheads. They are my room mics. They are my "loud guitar in a big room" mics, they are my backup vocal mics, they are my leslie mics, they are my percussion mics. They are some of the truest mics I've ever used. They sound like what you're recording. They have a huge bottom end. Throw one up in the bassy corner of your room and get a huge tone!

If I could only have ONE mic, it would be TWO of these!

Roger

[Flight Feathers]

could anyone tell me please how much a pair of these are? the websites (avenson & stapes) don't say anything and they're not sold anywhere else on the web...

They are $499 + 15 for shipping. you can paypal brad@avensonaudio.com the money and he'll send them out to you. he is also good at answering emails.

i have to concur with everything that's been said already about these
mics. i got the new avenson's and the build quality is just amazing.
they are sleek, small, solid and seamless. i couldn't even figure how
to take it apart, which is, of course, the first thing i do with every
new piece of gear i get . nice box too. plus they look like little
rayguns in their mic clips.

i bought these primarily to record acoustic guitar - i play a Martin
OM28V, and while the guitar itself sounds beautiful, i've had nothing
but bad luck recording it. no combination of dynamics, small and large
diaphragm condensers have been able to faithfully reproduce its natural
tone. so i was pretty floored when i got my ideal acoustic sound seconds
of plugging this mic in. the best part about omni is there is no
proximity effect and placement is not the precise science as with
cardioids. it pretty much sounds good and similar anywhere you put it,
with subtle variations in sound as you move it around.

this is by far the most "real" sounding mic i've ever used, but not
clinical or harsh, a very musical real. while my
realm of experience with mics if fairly limited, these mics have made
me realize how colored my other mics really are.

if you are interested in hearing a recording of these mics check out
http://www.unbelievableluck.com/main.html. 2 stapes on the acoustics,
Shure ksm/32 and ksm/44 on the vocals. there was enough drum bleed
into these mics. recorded live in my living room/kitchen.

[tiger vomitt]

hello ayan

is it $499 for a pair or for a single mic?

[audionerd]

thx for the replies! unfortunately it may take some time til i have the money to try these... in the meantime, i'm looking forward to trying out my new beyer mm1 which arrived today and really looks quite similar to the stapes...
ion, i'm listening to "jonah and whale" at the moment, sounds nice! very "realistic", like people in a room making music, which is excellent.

[jdsowa]

ion, it sounds great on the guitar. Also, those shures sound good on the vocals, particularly on 'jonah'.

Anybody have any audio clips where they've used the stapes on acoustic piano or as overheads?

-jesse

[Dingo]

Ion, that recording sounds great! I like the song and the recording is great too. Those mics do sound very musical. Me likeee

[Flight Feathers]

hey guys - thanks for listening and the comments! yeah, jonah and whale is definitely the best result from that session, and it was the also the first thing we did. then the beer started to flow, and i had a bad cold, so you know these things go. but the whole point of the session was to get away from the "real" album we are working on so it was a nice distraction, one take and move on. the drums are all from the bleed into the omnis and vocal mics. these mics really reveal what your room sounds lke, and my room sounds like doo-doo. it's a square drywall 15x15 room with a flat drywall ceiling - yuk. both omni's were plugged into a joemeek TwinQCS. here is a picture of the setup: http://www.unbelievableluck.com/images/acoustic800.jpg

evan, it's $499 for the matched pair.

thanks again
ayan

[stapes]

Thanks for all the kind words and support guys. It wouldn't be possible to build a small business up like this without such a great community. All of your observations pretty much line up with what we were trying to design, and almost all of this is due to the genius of Brad Avenson. We both record quite a bit, and our experiences with recording equipment (and budgets) is what prompts most ideas. It's great to get products out to people that are truly excited. Right now, we do have some microphones available that you can purchase through Stapes Audio, but I still have not got a suitable website up, and we are not currently up to speed with the manufacturing to be able to take a whole bunch of orders. Sometime around the new year, look for a new Stapes Audio website and the ability to buy the mics for $499 for the matched pair with a box and mic clips.
Here's some links for some stuff that I've recorded using some stapes:
http://www.experimentalaircraft.com/symphony.mp3 - Stapes on room mics for drums, going through syteks to stereo 1176 in nuke mode
http://www.cliffbrownjr.com/sun.mp3 - I didn't engineer this one, but I think stapes were probably used as room mic on drums, any percussion stuff, and maybe one of the acoustics.
http://www.culturalagency.com/mp3/weste ... n_sick.mp3 - Stapes were used as overheads, compressed pretty hard through a focusrite comperssor. Room mics for the drums was a head that I made with stapes mic elements as the ears. Kind of a bad mp3 transfer, though.
If I find any more tracks, I'll post them later.
I hope you guys enjoy the tracks, and I hope everyone can soon enjoy the products that we are putting out. Sometime next year you can look forward to two or three different mic pre's and a tube mic. If anybody wants any more info, drop me a line.

thanks

Erik Wofford

[Rodgre]

http://www.iylm.com/v1.php

go there. The following tracks feature Stapes as Overheads.
#1, 7, 11 and 13

Roger

[OneZero]

these mics really reveal what your room sounds lke, and my room sounds like doo-doo.

WTF??

My first though while listening to Joana the whale and hearing that beautiful guitar was
My gawd this room sounds good.

If Stapes can do that for my shitty sounding room, I'm sold. But really, wow these mics sound damm great!!!!
Good song too , thanks for posting.

[OneZero]

Hey Eric-

Is that Modest Mouse on the
http://www.culturalagency.com/mp3/weste ... n_sick.mp3

Link????

I liked it except it sounded a lot like MM.