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[Stephen Kirby]

I've wanted an RE-20 for awhile and just picked one up.  Listening to on-line clips I could tell that there was a difference in smoothness between the 20 and the 320 so I finally decided to fork over the extra cash.

I've got an upright bass this week and it will come in handy.  Less boomy than using my D112 kick mic.  And for small jazz kits it will be great to have.  And I can think of a couple of singers where the smoothness will work well in recording.  Where I've used ribbons previously.

But I've got a couple of bigger local sax players this summer and I've always seen this as a popular sax mic.

Question is:  When running on a sax, do folks use the low cut?  Or leave it flat?  Particularly on tenor with players who shove the bell onto the mic and honk.

[John Penkala]

I've wanted an RE-20 for awhile and just picked one up.  Listening to on-line clips I could tell that there was a difference in smoothness between the 20 and the 320 so I finally decided to fork over the extra cash.

I've got an upright bass this week and it will come in handy.  Less boomy than using my D112 kick mic.  And for small jazz kits it will be great to have.  And I can think of a couple of singers where the smoothness will work well in recording.  Where I've used ribbons previously.

But I've got a couple of bigger local sax players this summer and I've always seen this as a popular sax mic.

Question is:  When running on a sax, do folks use the low cut?  Or leave it flat?  Particularly on tenor with players who shove the bell onto the mic and honk.

FYI- Treat the RE-20 with care. They are easily turned into expensive, heavy baby rattles.

[Geoff Doane]

I have a couple RE-20s (one is actually a PL-20, but it's exactly the same thing except for the paint), and always leave the roll off switch in the flat position.  I'll then use the HPF on the console to roll off whatever is appropriate.  There is essentially no proximity effect with this mic, so there is no need to compensate for an "artificial" boost.  It's also a great mic for trombone, for much the same reason.  It doesn't matter how close the player gets to it, the tone stays the same (the volume does change, of course).

I've been lucky with the "baby rattle" problem.  It hasn't shown up on any of my mics, although I have re-foamed these two (they are both 20-30 years old), but that's a different problem.  Somebody claims to have a fix for the rattle problem, although I don't know how they could do it.  There is a little plastic disc, like a phase plug, sitting underneath the diaphragm, and it can come unglued from the magnet.  Once it's unglued it rattles around, bumping into the diaphragm and voice coil, making very audible noises.

One of the target markets for the RE-20 was broadcast, where consoles often had no channel EQ at all.  The low cut switch on the mic allowed some option for a voice that was coming across with too much low end.  The Shure SM7 and Sennheiser MD421U5 also have even more extensive EQ options for much the same reason.

GTD

[Andre Vare]

FYI- Treat the RE-20 with care. They are easily turned into expensive, heavy baby rattles.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding or what microphone is being discussed.  It is the Electro-Voice RE20.  This microphone is also known as the "Buchanan Hammer" And EV ran ads in the seventies showing the mic being used as a hammer.  EV also ran a series of microphone workshops through the AES where the RE20 was used a hammer.  I was present at the Toronto workshop.

Andre

[Tim Weaver]

Wrong mic.

The Buchanan Hammer is the 664. I have one as shelf decoration in my house.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/microfiles_the_legendary_buchanan_hammer/

[Art Welter]

Question is:  When running on a sax, do folks use the low cut?  Or leave it flat?  Particularly on tenor with players who shove the bell onto the mic and honk.

Stephen,

The best feature of the RE series of microphones is the Variable-D response- they have virtually no proximity effect, so sound the same at any distance, just louder when closer in the usual 6 dB increase per halving of distance.

This makes for an excellent horn (and almost anything else) mic, the player can blow loud and back off without sounding "thin", though it takes getting used to- many players are used to the "fat" sound of a standard dynamic when the mic is in the bell and will have to adjust a bit.

As far as the roll off switch, that is more a holdover from the days of using the mic with consoles with no HP filter, useful for keeping LF air handling noise out of a broadcaster's vocal.

Tim is correct, the "Buchanan Hammer" is the EV 664, far more robust than the RE-20. It weighs the same as my regular hammer, the photo below shows them balanced on a measuring stick.

Art

[Stephen Kirby]

I remember those 664s from school PA systems.  Used to see them on TV a fair bit.

I know about the variable D thing.  And how it helps when someone shoves the bell of their horn right up against the mic and honks a low not.  I just wasn't sure if folks added the roll off to make it even less obnoxious.

Since I've got variable HP, I'll follow the advice and leave the mic flat and just try to tame the honk with eq.  I do like how smooth the mic is.  Odd for a voice mic to not have an "intelligibility" presence peak, but that's one of the reasons I got it.

[gordonmcgregor]

[
Since I've got variable HP, I'll follow the advice and leave the mic flat and just try to tame the honk with eq.  I do like how smooth the mic is.  Odd for a voice mic to not have an "intelligibility" presence peak, but that's one of the reasons I got it.
[/quote]

Try it on a flute as well especially for a "breathy" player.

[Stu McDoniel]

Wrong mic.

The Buchanan Hammer is the 664. I have one as shelf decoration in my house.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/microfiles_the_legendary_buchanan_hammer/

I always thought the classic EV interview mic was the hammer.
http://www.electrovoice.com/product.php?id=100
Of course there are a lot of different model "hammers" available.

[Tim Weaver]

No I think that's marketing not doing their job.

I will say that the 635 is one tough mother of a mic though. I have one that was hung outdoors for probably 10 years. It was a crowd mic in a football stadium. One season we cue'd it up and it sounded unky so we went to replace it with a new one and found that it had a dirt dauber nest all over it! Lol. We put the new one up anyway and I took the old one. I still use it today. In fact it is an excellent harmonica mic!

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