don't hate me because I'm spoiled...

[Professor]

OK, so a lot of you already know at least a little about the studio I run here at the University and some of the nicer equipment I've installed in the place, particularly on the microphone front. Well lately I've been getting to know the folks over at the campus radio and television stations a bit better. The school has had a broadcast/journalism program for ages, and has some of the old gear to prove it. The funny thing is that the stations do very little production work and even less at any kind of 'high-end' where audio is concerned, so some of their gear just hangs around unused for months or years at a time.
So about two weeks ago I wandered over to the radio station to ask if I could borrow a couple of their microphones for maybe a month or so. You know, try 'em out, make sure they work, record a few sessions. Their operations manager handed me a box with a U-48 (VF-14 tube of course) and a pair of original U-87s with all the related parts - PSU, shock mounts, etc. When I checked 'em out at the studio they worked fine including the tube, and I noticed the U-87s are actually a consecutive pair, and all three were still in their original jeweller's boxes.
Naturally I've been doing mostly mixing the last two weeks, so the U-48 only made its first appearance doing vocal duties on the session over the weekend, though it did so amazingly well. (listen here)

I did take a moment to pull out the studio's UM-57 and U-67 pair just to line up the whole lineage for a moment, though naturally the camera was home that day. I'll try to post a picture.

And just in case that's not enough, today I was over at the TV station to borrow a miniDV deck, and the engineer showed me an old 'weird looking' mic he found hanging around, an AKG C 422 (currently sold as the C 426 for about $5k). This one is crazy. OK, obviously from the photo it is a rotatable-head stereo mic, and it's an heir to the C24 & C12, so it is an edge-terminated, dual capsule, multi-pattern mic... times two. What's fascinating is that there is only one layer of grille on the mic which makes this the most exposed capsule I think I've ever seen - I mean, I can actually SEE it.
It also has a 12-pin output connector grouped as little bunches of 3, which connects to the remote power & pattern selector module. This part really intrigues me because I have to believe that these are the balanced outputs of the front and back of each capsule independently. Like all dual-diaphragm multi-patterns it is going to be two cardioid capsules back to back in order to offer the multi-pattern capability. But this one outputs all four capsules at least to the pattern selector, which then combines the capsules to create a stereo output. But I have to wonder if the PSU could be modified so I could pull all four outputs out to be recorded independently and then matrixed later in mixdown to create any variety of mic patterns across a 360? soundfield. Of course, it's not my mic and is simply on loan, but I'm really intrigued by the possiblity anyway.
For now, I'll just have to 'make do' and have fun playing with the $15k worth of mics that I've been able to borrow for a somewhat indefinite time.

I'll try to post some pictures and audio samples.

-Jeremy

[jca83]

jerk.



...i'm in for two and i can pay?

[trianglelines]

You have no idea the stuff that walked out of that place - or was thrown in dumpsters during cleaning frenzies there either- but *I* do!

Grad from Murrow School 1992

[Professor]

Judging from what I have sitting on my desk here, and how little they knew about the microphone, I can only imagine what they had and how easily it went away.

But hey, just think of it as your tax dollars at work.

-J

[trodden]

hahahah.


hahahah.

hahah

hahaahahhah

Fuckin hilarious prof dude!

My "major" was broadcas journalism.... We read about "digital editing"... whoah!!!! i was the first student to do my final video project on fucking what was it "premiere maybe? i don't know it was something my professors knew nothing about and i spent hundreds of hours dumping in , editing, crashign, losing, video for my own version of a neurosis video.. this was like 1996. no one could help me out.. fucking hell..

my professors told me all about condensor mics, ribbon mics, dynamics... how if you sent phantom power to anything but specific condensors.. you'd BLOW THE MIC UP!!!!! holy fuCK!!!!

then we read another chapter on digital editing... the future....
granted we didn't have any analog machines to really do anthing on as well!!!

the video classes were fun. doing segments on the double deck SVHS editors.. and using the video toaster to make them more "pro"

The best audio part was my two years on the college radio. opened my world up to so much, our program/music director was fucking great.. anyone from the midwest and remember Truck Stop Love? serious though here. I owe eric melin so much, i was closed minded punk kid... his programing opened my world up to so much amazing things.. thank you eric. i hope our paths cross again even though its been 10 years.

I wasn't allowed to show my adobe premier monster i creatted for the neurosis soundtrack at the yearend party.. instead the kid with the space shuttle launches to some generic classical score was more appropriate rather than me wearing nothing but a crown of thorns, walking around my trashed apartment, portraying Christ, shooting up, throwing up everywhere, and then blowing my head off in the shower along with a bunch of gathered B-roll of horrible shit. I got an A but a long letter from my prof.. didn't go to the fucking party anyhow and got a DUI on graduation night.

a month later, got an "internship" at a "recording studio" as well as broken collar bone from wrestling with underage girls for fun while drunk at the lake..

fuck my life has calmed a bit. glad i remember bits and pieces..

so what did you score again jeremy prof dude?

[Derrick]

Wow. Hail, keepin' it weird in 06.

[Brett Siler]

Fuck You I have an MXL 2001.... be jealous....

[KennyLusk]

really cool recording from heartspark Jeremy. Thanks for posting that. The vox sound great and I really like the harmony.

[Professor]

Thanks, I've been pretty pleased with that mix, and the singer was pretty easy to work with. I didn't get into much detail work on the vocal performance or on the editing since that was intended to be a 'quicker' demo session. And the guy was able to just throw down a couple takes of the harmony parts, though to be fair, he'd worked them out previously for a solo acoustic demo he put together smoewhere else.

I'll probably be hanging most of these loaner mics up for a session tomorrow, and I'll try to get a few photos and maybe some samples posted.

-Jeremy