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What mics are these?


Ty Ford

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Looks a bit like an EV 635A  Dynamic Cardioid.

Can't see the shockmount though.  Cavett used those on stands before they went to articulated booms.

Probably the long-handle version of the 635A in a EV Spyder shockmount..

 

-----Courtney

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I still have two of those and they still work. Though the bottom one was frozen under two inches of ice in the trunk of my 1964 Spyder Corvair for a brief time and probably isn't within specs anymore. I painted these black years ago to use as props. I originally used them when i was shooting news in the early 80's.

2020-06-02 10.38.42.jpg

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FWIW, the EV 635A 'sportscaster' mic is a dynamic 'Omni'. The same capsule was used in the 1st gen RE-50 TV reporter's H/H mic.. which still gets more airtime than Seinfeld reruns. The 635 had a relatively low sensitivity (output), but was pretty much indestructible.. aka, "Buchanan Hammer".

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1 hour ago, Jim Rillie said:

Maybe EV  cardioid RE15s/?  More reach than a 635, which was often used much closer than those overheads.

Yeah Jim,

I think you are right it was an EV Cardioid RE15.  When you look at a better picture you can see the cardioid vent holes on side

of the mic head that the 635A omni did not have.  Looks like an EV 307 Spyder shockmount

 

Here is a better picture with Mohamad Ali 

 

ALI-CAVETT.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1

 

hfdncxu6nptvbrhxlysk.jpg

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1 hour ago, Rick Reineke said:

And an A55M shock mount. Basically the same combo used today by the White House Press Core since the SM57/58 was released in the mid-sixties. The 57 is also the go-to snare drum mic for most folks in the music/sound industry. Great on guitar amps as well,

The former is still true, the latter mostly not, at least for recording.  Many better choices now.

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4 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

The former is still true, the latter mostly not, at least for recording.  Many better choices now.

 

Is a Royer R-121 and SM57 combo no longer a common(ish) thing? Royer even makes a little mount to make it easier to position and align phase with those two mics:

Screen Shot 2020-06-06 at 3.32.24 PM.png

 

And here's some PR stuff from Royer's site that mentions SM57s (and some other mics in addition to their own): Recording Electric Guitar 

 

But really, I'm hardly ever in recording studios now. So this isn't a challenge, it's a question.

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On 6/2/2020 at 8:45 AM, PMC said:

I still have two of those and they still work. Though the bottom one was frozen under two inches of ice in the trunk of my 1964 Spyder Corvair for a brief time and probably isn't within specs anymore.

I hope you kept the '64 Corvair all these years too!  That was the best year (fixed the handling finally) and the Spyder's turbo H6 was pretty sweet.

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On 6/6/2020 at 10:50 AM, Philip Perkins said:

The former is still true, the latter mostly not, at least for recording.  Many better choices now.

I, for one, still think a 57 sounds great as a top mic on a taut snare drum.  Lots of crack!  And pretty immune to drum-stick hits as well.  Go ahead and put your U47 up there.  I dare you.  :)

 

D.

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2 hours ago, tourtelot said:

I, for one, still think a 57 sounds great as a top mic on a taut snare drum.  Lots of crack!  And pretty immune to drum-stick hits as well.  Go ahead and put your U47 up there.  I dare you.  :)

 

D.

 

I've come to the inescapable conclusion that it is a sound that is expected in some situations, regardless.  

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On 6/5/2020 at 2:05 PM, BAB414 said:

What mic is this?

 

Screen Shot 2020-06-05 at 4.54.47 PM.png

 

 

You know in the past (1982) they used to use 3 Shure SM57s in windscreens on the Presidential Lecturn (See Picture Below)  Now they are down to 1.

Is it budget cuts or are they just now comfortable that these dynamic mics never fail.

President Reagan's Press Briefing in the Rose Garden on May 6 ...

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29 minutes ago, cmgoodin said:

 

 

You know in the past (1982) they used to use 3 Shure SM57s in windscreens on the Presidential Lecturn (See Picture Below)  Now they are down to 1.

Is it budget cuts or are they just now comfortable that these dynamic mics never fail.

 

 

It may have to do with the requirements of the press splits.  

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I kind of dared too several years back - 8040s in my case. Crashing whilst in HK at my friend's who played lead guitar for Jacky Cheung: asked to record a jam session knowing I had some field recording gear with me ended up using 8040s on toms or snare after the drummer - a merchant banker in day job - asked how much they cost and said,

"If I hit them I'll just replace them ... "

 Couldn't argue with that and unfortunately he didn't have to buy me any new ones ... Second richest drummer I ever worked with and the absolutely least well known: decent enough though!

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Just to go there, a Schoeps or an 8040 are a very different case than a 47. I only mention on account of the “I dare“ proclamations.
The 121/122 and 57 combo is still pretty widely used on guitar cabs. For snare, I’ll use a 57 on the bottom head, but for top I like an EV 468.  If that doesn’t work, a 57 to the shell and no top. I record full bands less and less then days, however, so take it with a grain. 

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3 hours ago, EmRR said:

 

It may have to do with the requirements of the press splits.  

No, the 3 or later 2, mics were summed and fed to Press Box distro amps for the Media Pool Feeds.

This has been done since the mid 60s.  White house communications did this to prevent the forest of individual mics by all the media.

And to provide backup in case there was a mic failure.  That almost never happened since these mics are dynamic and have no power requirements or active components and the only failures came from broken cables or Rain damage.

There are many manufacturers of Press Boxes now but Opamp Labs had been making them since the late 60s

https://www.opamplabs.com/products/audio-video-network-distribution-press-feed-mult-box/va-32-video-audio-press-feed.html

 

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