xy bar question

[thekeepsake]

I know this was in a post on here, but my search didn't turn it up.

What was the name of the company that made decent but cheap xy bars?

[kayagum]

Throw some business at the BSW banner above:
http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=MY500


I like this style better:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KM235/1/



This is interesting:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/A27M/

[Russian Recording]

This is interesting:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/A27M/

It's better than interesting.... it's brilliant. Excellent build quality and engineering. Best 70 bucks I've spent this year.

mike

[Albert]

Do you think that Shure will hold a couple C414's in a Blumlein?

[thekeepsake]

thank you!!

[Russian Recording]

Do you think that Shure will hold a couple C414's in a Blumlein?

absoultely. Ive been able to hold my two Oktava ML-15 ribbons up with em, and those are about 8 lbs each!

I should also endorse this awesome accesory, which get used with my shure bar all the time (btw the shure bar is great for MS setups too, especially with two of this accesory):

Audio-Technica AT8459 Swivel Mount clamp

[drumsound]

I've got one of the AGK ones from the second link. On the cheap it works great and I like it quite a bit. Some mic clips with shorterthreaded sections (like the MC012) need to be swapped out though.

[Albert]

Do you think that Shure will hold a couple C414's in a Blumlein?

absoultely. Ive been able to hold my two Oktava ML-15 ribbons up with em, and those are about 8 lbs each!

It's less about weight and more about the length of the mic and how far apart the connectors on the Shure are. In Blumlein, one mic is directly above the other and they are pointed toward each other. Would there be enough clearance to do this with the A27 and a couple 414's?

I do this configuration with two mic stands now, and it would be a lot more convenient to use one mic stand and an adapter like this one. Thanks for the help!

[Professor]

I have 4 of those Shure A-27 stereo bars, and they get used all the time. They're really great to have around.
One feature that I think would help Albert out is that the cylinders are reversible. If you look at the photos online, you'll see two thick black cylinders with 5/8" posts sticking out the side. The big cylinders can rotate around the center shaft to position 'cigar-shaped' mics, obviously, but the whole setup can be disassembled and either one or both of the black cylinders can be flipped upside-down. So in the photos you'll notice the two 5/8" posts are pretty close to one-another in the middle of the stereo bar, with lots of extra space above and below. Out of curiosity I just grabbed a ruler. With the two posts centered, they are 1.25-inches apart (center-to-center). When you flip just one cylinder, the posts are 2+5/8, and with both flipped they are a hair over 4 inches apart. I don't have the hard clips for my 414s, just the shock mounts, so putting them into an XY or Blumlein pair is kinda tough because of the length of the mounts more than the size or shape of the mics, but an M/S pair is really easy, and I imagine an XY would be better with the regular clips.
The important thing to remember is that Blumlein pairs don't necessarily have to place mics like the 414 top-to-top so the whole thing is about 14" tall. You can just as easily cross at the sides of the mic so the view from the top is an uneven X, or even make a right-angle at the tops so the view from the top is an upside-down V, though that makes more sense for XY. The best way to visualize it is to imagine the mic bodies aren't there, and that you're just lining up capsules, or take out two quarters and move them around to see all the positions they can be in where they form a right angle to one-another while getting the capsules as close together as possible. That's really all we want from any coincident pair anyway, right?

As for those other stereo bars, I will say that I have one of those On-Stage/Quik-Lok ones and they are crap. They are only about 5 or 6 inches wide, the metal is thin enough that it bends under the weight of a mic like an AT-4050, and they're just generally flimsy. The best part of it is the swivel adapter on the center post that I do often use as a right-angle adapter when hanging vocal mics on large booms in the studio.
The best straight stereo bars were the short and long bars from Konig & Meyer, but those seem to have been replaced recently and I've not tried the new ones. I think my next purchase of stereo bars with be a couple of the Sabra-Som ones that mate with their shockmounts like a crazy erector-set. The AEA ones are still the nicest, but at $700, it's just not that important to me to get a perfect ORTF placement.

-Jeremy

[Russian Recording]

Do you think that Shure will hold a couple C414's in a Blumlein?

absoultely. Ive been able to hold my two Oktava ML-15 ribbons up with em, and those are about 8 lbs each!

It's less about weight and more about the length of the mic and how far apart the connectors on the Shure are. In Blumlein, one mic is directly above the other and they are pointed toward each other. Would there be enough clearance to do this with the A27 and a couple 414's?

I do this configuration with two mic stands now, and it would be a lot more convenient to use one mic stand and an adapter like this one. Thanks for the help!

i used the bar with my two ml-15s in blumlein. the ml-15s are about 3 times as large as a c414, but i had to use those audio technica adapters i linked to in the message above. the 414s should not be a problem.

mike

[Albert]

Thank you all for the extremely helpful information. I'm going to pick up a Shure A27 and give it a try.