Cascade Fathead II Ribbon Mic on Thrash Guitars

[lolzgreg]

Attached is a clip of the following signal chain:

Me->Dunlop .73 Tortex Yellow Pick-> Three month old D'Addario 10's-> Fender Mexican Strat with Hotrails in the Bridge-> Monster Rock 500 Cable-> Peavey 5150 II (Modded) -> Monster 500 Speaker Cable -> Avatar 1x12 With a Hellatone 60L-> Cascade Fat Head II (dead center on dustcap)-> Whirlwind mic cable -> Presonus Tube Pre-> Whirlwind Cable -> Presonus Firepod-> Cubase

It's the same riff repeating, but at the end there is a few measures of just guitars and just drums.

Guitars are raw. Quad tracked (2 full panned each side) minus a high pass @ 120 and a little bit of compression.

Drums are EZDFH with a little compression on the kick and snare.

-Greg

[brandondrury]

I can tell this mic is money on electric guitar. For $200 it appears to be in the ballpark of the Royer R121 just from listening to your tracks here.

Brandon

[lolzgreg]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I can tell this mic is money on electric guitar. For $200 it appears to be in the ballpark of the Royer R121 just from listening to your tracks here.

Brandon

I got mine for 359.00 with an upgraded Lundhall transformer. I actually like the high end response a bit better than the Royer (at least according to their clips of the Royer 121 vs Fathead II), the two clips on their site are BARELY different aside from the high end response and the low mid response (at least from what I can hear).

I didn't even tweak tone controls on this one and used a guitar with 500 year old strings. As soon as I have a day off I'm going down to track with my Dimebucker equipped Joe Satriani Model and will move the knobs around as well as try Ross Hogarth's triple mic technique: Senny e906 (instead of his Md421, can't afford one YET) my Cascade and a trusty 57 set up with the ribbon in the center.

-Greg

[Jordan63]

Another vote for the Cascade. I just got a stereo pair of Fat head's and they are great on guitar. Compared to a sm-57 the guitar now sounds so much larger to me and occupies a more natural space in the recording. It sounds more like I am used to hearing it in the room, and placement of the mic seems less critical as well. I love it, and it sounds great, especially for the money.

[brandondrury]

Has anyone tried these Cascade Fathead (or Fathead II) mics on drum overheads?

Brandon

[Jordan63]

[QUOTE=brandondrury;90084]Has anyone tried these Cascade Fathead (or Fathead II) mics on drum overheads?

I haven't, I bet they would be cool, but with lower ceilings in the basement, a figure 8 wouldn't work so well.

[lolzgreg]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Has anyone tried these Cascade Fathead (or Fathead II) mics on drum overheads?

Brandon

NO, but people recommend them for such. Get a matched pair and some high ceilings.

-Greg

[brandondrury]

Well, for what it is worth, I haven't used overheads that face the floor in years. In my room "sideheads" or even "underheads" has been the method of choice for some time.

Brandon

[lolzgreg]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Well, for what it is worth, I haven't used overheads that face the floor in years. In my room "sideheads" or even "underheads" has been the method of choice for some time.

That's an interesting one:

I've seen underheads on crashes, rides, etc for a long time now in live setups. Generally people put SDC's clipped to the cymbal stand right under the cymbal. There are advatages and disadvantages:

a: I always found that overheads make up so much of the tom and snare sound that its ridiculous, even when you hi-pass in the 500hz reigion, they add that extra snap, sizzle and punch. (Ever trying doubling your OH's, high passing one at 600hz for the cymbals and low passing one at 5khz and compressing the hell out of the latter/keeping it lower in the mix? Gets a real nice drum sound that way).

b. You're not catching any of the stick attack of the cymbal. I know drums are much more "roomy" instruments, but you have to figure mics are quite directional. (WHO'S DOIN THE DRUM OVERHEAD VS UNDERHEAD OR SIDEHEAD SHOOTOUT, EH?)

c. Having underheads gets much better isolation and less bleed from the other drums.

-Greg

[dangercityskyline]

this is interesting, since i had decided a couple weeks ago that a matched pair of fatheads and an ART MPA gold preamp were gonna be my next gear fixes.
i'm definitely going to use them as overheads, and probably for electric guitar as well.
i'm at school right now so i can't listen to that shootout right now but i'm definitely gonna hit it up when i get home.

I've seen underheads on crashes, rides, etc for a long time now in live setups. Generally people put SDC's clipped to the cymbal stand right under the cymbal.

the example that stands out in my mind of this is Underoath's new live album, Survive Kaleidoscope. I watched the DVD that came with it and not once did i see any actual down-pointing "overheads", just the underheads. Keep in mind that this is the live CD that I've frequently heard people mistake for a studio album, so obviously UO's sound guys figured out something creative.