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[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

Just read an article around here the other day about the mics being used on the John Mellencamp tour.  The FOH engineer mentioned using the EV Cardinal mics on guitar amps and Lower B3.  I thought to myself, they are affordable I'll try them out to see if I like 'em too.

So I just happened to be at a big box music instrument store where I have several friends that work.  I saw they had them and they gave me a pretty good price so I bought two.  They aren't a really expensive mic, Street price sould be around $200 or a little less.  I won't mentioned what I paid but it was considerably below the street price.

The mic is a Cardioid Condenser packaged in a nice Hardwood shell that has a neat cherry finish.  I am 100% convinced that the wood and finish do absolutely nothing for the sound but they look cool.  They are pretty light and that works well as my application will put them on a gooseneck a lot.  Don't need it slowly falling from the weight of itself.

So I brought one into my music room at home, plugged it in and put it in front of my handy dandy Fender Hotrod Deluxe.  I had it going through a Focusrite Platinum Voice Master Preamp and from that into a tiny little Behringer 602 mixing that sends the signal into a very old Yamaha amp that weights about 15,000,000 Lbs and feeds a pair of EV Zx1-90s.  Very simple little rig that I use to play through at home.

First thing I did was flatten all the EQs and turn off the dynamics on the preamp.  Then I turned it up to see what it would do.

The sound really cut through without any harshness at all.  I play some funky guitar styles with lots of artificial harmonics and and other wierd noises, lots of 80's metal types of riffs and old school skate punk types of chords and progressions.  The thing I really liked right away was the lower notes on my guitar were really solid sounding.  Playing an Em7 on my guitar with heavy overdrive was very impressive.  I could really hear each individual note of the chord in a way that I really haven't before.  Playing arpeggios with a little chorus sounded really nice too.

Basically I really like most of what I was hearing....But

If you use this mic I think it would be advisable to use a LPF on the Eq probably somewhere around 8K - 10K would be a good starting point.  I found that it was a little bright but not harsh at all and when I looked at the frequency response in the literature it made a lot of since.  There are a couple bumps in the response at about 2kHz, 3.5KHz and 7.5KHz and then a little more gentle bump at around 10KHz and up.  When comparing the sound of the amp by itself versus the sound of the mic'd amp I felt like the amp had a little bit more bottom end.  With just a little bit of EQ I was able to match the sound pretty much exactly.  I found myself using a lower HPF than I normally would for my amp too.  I ended up around 70ish Hz rather than around 90Hz where I normally have my HPF.

For a cardioid mic it really didn't seem to have a lot of proximity effect even with the mic right up at the face of my amp.  This was nice but sometimes I actually want a little proximity effect and I just wasn't hearing much.

I have an eight day run with the same four bands every night so I will put 'em to the test a little more and give you an update.  So far I think that they will be a nice tool to have in the mic box.  I can definitely see pulling them out before an SM57 based on my brief two hours with one this afternoon.

Enjoy, Ryan

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

So I am on day 8 of 9 in sturgis, SD.  Mixing mostly country band with a few blues bands and a rock band mixed in.  Mostly fender amps, one Dr Z, and one Marshall amp.   So far Ian absolutely loving these Mics.  I have only used one sm57 this week on a blues harp amp.  More details when I get home.

[George Friedman-Jimenez]

There are probably no congas in the bands you are mixing, but on the off chance there are or will be, have you tried it on congas? If not, on toms?

[cliff truesdell]

Very interesting! I have one of these mics for the wifey's little studio. Now I will have to try it out.

[Geoff Doane]

There are probably no congas in the bands you are mixing, but on the off chance there are or will be, have you tried it on congas? If not, on toms?

I wound up using one on congas last Sunday night.  The percussion player had one, so we used it, placed level with and between the two heads.  I might normally have gone higher, but he had some other percussion toys in the way.  The room was horribly reverberant, but the mic did allow the congas to cut through the rest of the band and all the reverb in the room.  I'd like to hear it in a better environment.

GTD

[George Friedman-Jimenez]

Thanks, Geoff. Other than being loud enough, did the congas sound natural?

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

There are probably no congas in the bands you are mixing, but on the off chance there are or will be, have you tried it on congas? If not, on toms?

No congas on my gigs the last couple weeks. 

I used these mics on every guitar amp I had all week.  I absolutely love them.  The coolest sound amp was the little Dr. Z amp that I am absolutely in love with...going to buy one for myself.  The sound of that amp with these mics was incredible.  Almost no eq at all.  Sounded so natural with all the tone coming through plus retaining the percussive nature of the guitar players style.

I didn't try these on anything other than the guitar amps but I will try other sources in the coming weeks.  I am thinking Djembe may be the other instrument that would benefit the most from these.

For the cost of these mics I think everyone should at least consider adding one to the mic kit.  I bought the two and I am going to pick up two more. 

[cliff truesdell]

[quote author=RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS l

No congas on my gigs the last couple weeks. 

I used these mics on every guitar amp I had all week.  I absolutely love them.  The coolest sound amp was the little Dr. Z amp that I am absolutely in love with...going to buy one for myself.  The sound of that amp with these mics was incredible.
[/quote]


Ryan, do you know what model you were using off the top of your head? Mini Z? Thanks, just curious. Looking my self

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

[quote author=RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS l

No congas on my gigs the last couple weeks. 

I used these mics on every guitar amp I had all week.  I absolutely love them.  The coolest sound amp was the little Dr. Z amp that I am absolutely in love with...going to buy one for myself.  The sound of that amp with these mics was incredible.



Ryan, do you know what model you were using off the top of your head? Mini Z? Thanks, just curious. Looking my self

It was a mini Z head on a VOX cabinet.  Really awesome sounding.  Best guitar tone I have heard in years!

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