Forum Contest Winners - How do you like 'em?

[Reid Mason]

To those of you who have won the Litz Solid Core Cables and Metal Pop Screens - we'd love to hear from you what you think of them!

[patsplat]

Hi Reid...see my post here... http://www.pmiaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=771#post771

-Pat

[philcan]

I was one of the winners & let me say THANK YOU!!! This thing is great.

First let me give you a little background on me. I have been playing guitar about 30 years. About 3 years ago when I thought the band thing was over (it’s never over) I seriously got into Home Recording . I use a Zoom MRS802CD workstation. The only real outboard gear I use is TC Helicon Voiceworks. The zoom handles all the other effects.

I got a C1 for myself this past Christmas & let me say I love that Mic. I can record anything & pretty much don't need to touch the EQ. It works great for Vocals guitar & even a room mic when recording a live band.

POP Filter
I have used a nylon pop filter since I started recording. It works ok. There were times I had to rerecord vocals because the pops got through. I recently won the Studio Projects Pop filter. Already having a nylon one it would have been easy to turn around & sell this on Ebay. However, I wanted to see if the properties it said it had were there. Would a 50.00 pop filter make a difference. WOW what a difference. A friend & I were doing a side-by-side compare with it & the Nylon one. The SP filter did a much better job. It stops pops but also works as a tool to give greater definition to the mids on 1 side & low end on the other.

I keep it on the side that gives me greater definition of the low end. I recently rerecorded a girl singing some powerful Broadway type stuff (IE Phantom) & the SP filter brought out some additional low end without getting muddy. I compared it to the other tracks she did a week before i got the sp filter & it was just fuller. I still did not have to mess with the EQ. It is just better. I'm not sure what the technical term is sorry I just know I can hear the difference.

So the bottom line is I am very glad I got this Filter. It really makes a sonic difference & would be worth the extra 20.00 over the Nylon one. Now I never have to worry about the cat attacking it & shredding it.I always worried about something causing a run in the filter & having to get a new one. It is Much easier to clean & know it's clean. So I would recommend it over the Nylon circle out there today. The bag it comes with Makes a great cover for my C1 so I don't have to taker it in & out of the stand too.

The only thing I would change is to make it a little longer. Since I also use a foam sonic sculpting tool (Auarlex’s words not mine) behind the Mic I had to get creative with the mic & stand combo to get all of it to fit. But once I did life just got better. If I had to pick one to go on the stand the pop filter would be it.

If you have any questions email me.

[Alan Hyatt]

I am very happy you like it. We love it and know it is a top notch pop filter. You want your C1 to sound even better...Spend $24.00 and get our SP203X Litz cable.

I swear to you that you will hear your C1 reach yet another level of quality.... You should know by now I do not bullsh#@ You will hear it and be glad you spent the money. This is not a ploy for me to sell one cable. It is a ploy to sell 1 million cables. I know these are that good for a hardly any money!!!

Anyway, thanks for confirming what I have been trying to tell people, and thank you for the time you took to let everyone know.

[Snatchman]

I have to agree with the above post. I won the PoP Filter also. When I first tried the filter on my voice, I didn't like what I heard. Made my voice sound "thin". Then I reverse the filter, "Wups, there it its"..!.. :D .It sounded full and clean. I had the filter on the side that reduces the low-end mush!.. :o ... It cleans up well ( with-out) the lo-cut filter engaged! I'm using the PoP Filter with a SP-T-3. It works! I'm going to try the Litz cable that goes from the mic to the power supply next!.Thanks Alan/Reid and who ever's else involved with these givaways!... :cool:

[fullpowernow45]

I recently purchased a shiny box ribbon model 23L (paid 325).
I asked a technician for a pre amp suggestion who told me that the
STUDIO PROJECTS VTB1 PRE AMPLIFIER would be a good match.
I am using a TASCAM DP-O1FX as a 8 track recorder. I am telling you what I have cause I want to know if 1) I got the wrong equipment or
2) I am doing something wrong or 3) both.....

The phantom power is off. Input gain set almost at maximum.
Meter button on input. Output level at 11.
The mic level on the DP01FX is set at half power.
The master volume on the DP01FX is at 3 and
the headphone is set at max.
The ribbon is at a distance of 1 foot.
The height of the ribbon is higher than my head and I tilted it at an angle
so is parallel to the position of the guitar and the projection of my voice.
I am sitting on a chair and I am using my resophonic guitar
while I am singing. The microphone picks up both the guitar and the voice
but I AM GETTING alot of hiss on the playback. Is my pre amp strong enough? Should I be compressing the sound of the mic before it's being fed into the DPO1FX? Any ideas ....I used the same mic at my producers' studio and it sounded great....Would appreciate if I can get some coaching...

[Snatchman]

Hi. Have you tried the impedence switch on the back of the VTB-1? ( white push in/out one on back). I've never used a ribbon mic with my VTB-1 so I don't know exactly what type of gain it supports for ribbons! I think if you use a compressor with the problem you already have, it'll make the hissing even louder! So, probably should pin-point what's going on with the pre/mic combo before adding compression. Just my .2 cents.(YMMV)..... :)

BTW...what do you have the the input gain set on the VTB-1?( never mind, I see you said full on... :confused: ) Also, you don't have a pad engaged in the chain do you? ( on the VTB-1, mic,etc,)

[TimWheeler]

It seems to me that the impedance of a ribbon mic is different, no. I know there is a rear selection on the VTB1 for the ribbon mic.

[Alan Hyatt]

For ribbon mics, the rear impedance should be set for 50ohms.

As for fullpowernows problem, be sure to go out of the VTB1 and into a line level input of the Tascam, not mic level. This may be your problem right off the shoot.

Use the meters on the VTB1. Switch to input and make sure you get that red led flashing every now and then when you are singing into the mic as you normally would, then switch the meter to output and be sure the same red led is flashing as well. Then be sure you are in a "line" input on the Tascam and set it for unity gain...

[Reid Mason]

Hey!!!!

How did my thread get hijacked into a ribbon mic, vtb1 support thread?????

That's just not RIGHT!!!!

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrr!

[TimWheeler]

Hey!!!!

How did my thread get hijacked into a ribbon mic, vtb1 support thread?????

That's just not RIGHT!!!!

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrr!

Reid,

I put my review under the promotion / winner announcement area. I forgot about this thread. You want me to cut and paste it?

Tim

[Reid Mason]

nahhh. don't worry about it.

[tidewithbleach]

I won the pop filter. It is works great, solidly made, and looks great. I have another medal pop filter I got free for buy some mic some time ago. The old one was sharp on the edges and could cut you. Also the clamp did not work so hot and some times would flop down while working. The SP douse not have either problem. It is really nice. Thanks a lot for the new pop filter

[Reid Mason]

I won the pop filter. It is works great, solidly made, and looks great. I have another medal pop filter I got free for buy some mic some time ago. The old one was sharp on the edges and could cut you. Also the clamp did not work so hot and some times would flop down while working. The SP douse not have either problem. It is really nice. Thanks a lot for the new pop filter

We're glad that's working out for you! - ... and you're welcome!

[jerfo]

I tried out the Litz cable on a session over the weekend. I used it exclusively on an SP C3 mic on vocals. Here are my random thoughts, in no particular order:

1. The cable was physically more flexible than I had anticipated. I had expected it to be stiff like my Blue cables. I found that the greater flexibility was easier to deal with in my studio space.
2. I ran the vocals through an Electro Harmonix 12AY7 preamp. The key to using that preamp is that you need a completely balanced signal chain in order to eliminate all ground noise. While I'll generally get a little bit of hum when using one of my generic cables or even a Blue cable, I didn't get any when using the Litz cable.
3. The Litz cable and connectors all seemed to be of very high quality. It looks "expensive."
4. No matter how nice the signal chain is, the most important element is the thing sitting in front of the mic. A good performance will trump everything, as will a bad performance. I'll leave it at that.

I can't say that the Litz cable made the C3 suddenly sound several times better, but it definitely cleaned up some of the signal to noise ratio in its signal chain. For that reason alone, I'd give it a big thumb's up. I'll try doing some A/B tests with it and let you know how it goes.

- Jerfo

[Dishwishy]

Well I was stoked when I got the email about winning the cable, and I just tried it out today. Needless to say I am quite pleased with the results over the cables I have been using. I decided to do a simple A/B test. It's a single acoustic guitar -> large diaphragm condensor -> EMU 1820M (using one of the onboard mic pre's) ->Cubase with a multiband compressor. I simply played the same pattern twice one with a generic guitar center mic cable and one with the new SP Cable. The Mic was about 6" from the 12th fret. I did a blind test with my Mom, Dad, and my friend Andrew; the results were the same, the studio projects cables produced a "fuller"/"more rounded" sound.
<b>Here are the audio samples:</B>

http://people.ucsc.edu/~kchampli/Guitar%20Center%20Cable.mp3

and

http://people.ucsc.edu/~kchampli/Studio%20Projects%20Cable.mp3

I also took a spectral picture (it's a feature built into cubase) and you can see that the SP is far superior (even with such a limited scope of my small parlor guitar and only taking 4000 samples)

http://people.ucsc.edu/~kchampli/PMI%20Spectrum.jpg

I think that this contest was awesome and if this is any picture of the quality of Studio Projects work, I will be making my next few purchases here.

P.S.
The build quality is also solid and there are noticeable reductions in noise...oh yeah it looks really cool too.