Recommend me a mic for modding

[AMelbye]

I'm just about to get into mic modding. I've been doing some mods to distortion pedals and guitar preamps (ADA mp-1) in the past, and my soldering skills are good.

However, I don't really know what mic to get. I want something that can be modded for a very good result. At the moment I only own a 4040 and a 57, and I'm looking for a mic or two that will complement these.

I'm aware that there are mods available for the 57, but I'm not gonna be modding the one I already have. I might get another one for modding at some point, but at the moment what I want is a condenser or a ribbon.

I've been thinking about maybe something warm sounding. Something that will end up sounding like a Royer R-122, an SE Gemini or a 4050..

I'm willing to put quite a lot of work into it, and I'd like to do a mod that improves on the tonality of the mic, rather than just improving its dynamic range

Please come with suggestions

[Nate Dort]

An easy mod is to get one of those cheap ribbon mics from Apex/Nady/etc. and upgrade the transformer to a Lundahl or Cinemag. That's like an hour of work, TOPS.

If you want to go in-depth, the Royer tube mod for the MXL2001 or 2003 (or 603/604/991 for that matter) is much more labor intensive, but worth it.

Both of these mods have been covered to death here and elsewhere, especially over the past 2 months or so.

[AMelbye]

what sorts of budgets are we looking at with these mics?

all ribbons are figure-of-eight, right?

any good cardioid condenser mic mods? I find loads of mods here, but most of them don't really say how good the results are

[mutantmariachirecords]

If I were going to mod a mic it would be those Octava 112's(?).Tey are pretty cheap, but supposedly their quality control issues provided bad batches, but people are modifying the bad ones.

[mamm7215]

Apex 460 baby!!!

[Nate Dort]

what sorts of budgets are we looking at with these mics?

all ribbons are figure-of-eight, right?

Mic: $100
TX: $40-$60

Yep, Figure 8.

[AMelbye]

oktava 319
mxl 2001
mxl 2003
aphex 460


which mic will yeld a better result? I assume all of them will need upgrades to the electronics and a transformer change.

How much will they benefit from a better capsule? How much is a better capsule?

It seems that the mxl 2001 is the cheapest out of the lot. Does this mean that it will give the worst results?

[Nate Dort]

depends on what you do with it. If you do the royer tube mod, all you'd have left of the original 2001 is the capsule and the mic body itself. All the electronics are replaced and you'd need to build a separate power supply for the tube.

The royer mod will probably cost a bit more due to the added costs of circuit boards, the tube, a case for the power supply, 5-pin connectors and cable, in addition to the transformer. However, it's a very good sounding mod, and yields a mic that really holds its own against much more expensive tube mics.

See here:
http://www.diyfactory.com/projects/roye ... roject.htm

[Jim Williams]

Got $39.95?

MCA SP-1

www.pssl.com

That way if you bust it you're only out forty bucks.

[AMelbye]

how good is the SP-1 then?

Is the body of a solid construction that doesn't resonate? does the grille add any objectionable artifacts? Is it simple to put in a 5 pin XLR?

I guess, if I'm totally re-gutting the mic, this is all that matters..

[infopimpster]

I've been pretty surprised at ths SP1 in stock format. Doens't sound like $40 mic to me... more like... a $150 mic?

[AMelbye]

after seeing the price tag on replacement capsules, I decided to go for the MXL 2001, and to do the royer mod to it.

I actually got two of them, since I figured that sourcing the parts would be at least half the job, and that this won't take any longer for 2 mics than for 1.

The result will determine weather I keep them both, or if I sell/give away one of them.

Do you recon these will work well as drum overheads?

[runrunrun]

Got $39.95?

MCA SP-1

www.pssl.com

That way if you bust it you're only out forty bucks.

hey jim,

what do you think of the capsule in this mic? is it one of the 797 audio ones or ??? do you just mod the circuit of these mics or put a whole new circuit in there?

[Jim Williams]

It has the 22 mm capsule used on the 603 mics. It's flat to 7k, then a gentle lift of 3 db at 20k easily corrected with a shelving EQ. It's a Shanghai product, not 797 of Bejing.
I rebuild this circuit with fast very low noise transitors, an rf jfet, Dale RN55 resistors and MIT MultiCap coupling capacitors. I also increase polarization voltage from 40 to 55 volts, this adds 5 db more output while the transistors lower the noise.

[peterc]

There is a good thread about the Apex here:

http://studioforums.com/eve/forums/a/tp ... 2111089522

Peter