Tube mics

[brandondrury]

I don't know what it means for a mic to **** up. Help me out here?

To **** a mic up, you need to run a serious of low frequencies passes. This loosens the diaphram a tad and makes the tone ****er.

Okay, I'm totally lieing! You'll never hear me say "****" in regard to a microphone.

Seriously, the V69 is tube microphone. So, just like a tube guitar amplifier, it has to heat up before you start to use it. If you don't, you'll get all sorts of noise, hiss, and low signal. Sometimes, it will sound "scratchy" sounding. Tube mics almost always come with a power supply and a special multipin cable. I always put the mic on the stand, plug the cable into the mic, plug that cable into the power supply, and then plug the power supply into the wall. This specific order was specified in my Soundelux U99s manual.

I've never had a mic with the same capsule with one being tube and one being solid state, so I can't necessarily comment on a "tube mic sound" vs a "solid state mic sound". Every mic I have sounds different from the other. My V69s sound different than my Soundelux U99. My Audio Technica AT4050 and AT 4033 are just as different from each other.

If you are not prepared for a session, tube mics are a real drag. Sometimes a singer will say, "Oh yeah, I wanted to throw down a quick vocal before I leave". Well, that rules out using a tube mic. I have gotten by with letting the V69 **** up for 15 minutes a few times and it did fine although one of those times there were a few scratchy parts (which fit the style perfectly, actually). It says in my Soundelux manual to let it **** up for at least 45 minutes.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

got it! ;D