Another ancient Altec mic.  this is a 684B.  This piece does not sound bad, but… it failed the SM57 test.  What, you ask, is the SM57 test?  Well…  whenever a new mic appears, i quickly A/B it with an SM57.  If the SM57 sounds both ‘better’ (IE more ‘hi-fi’) AND ‘more interesting’ (this is harder to quantify….), then the new mic goes in a box somewhere.  684B up there failed the SM57 test.

This is an American D4T.  This is a hi-Z dynamic public-address mic from the 40s.  This is, btw, the first antique mic i ever bought.  picked this up at an antique shop in Prov RI back in the mid 90s, along with a little tube suitcase PA system and nice old cast-base mic stand…  $75 i think….  This mic still works, and it sounds cool, but it’s just too distorted…  feel like it sounds too ‘Pop,’ of all things, at this moment; ‘distressed-vocals’ being the trendy thing that they are.

An Electro-voice military communications mic.  Got this one still in its heremetically-sealed, foil-lined pouch.  It ain’t bad, but…  i have too many mics like this, only just slightly better….

A Sennheiser MD 416.  I was really excited about this thing, and i paid like $100 for it, which is a fortune for a cheapskate like me.  Now, I have a lot of old sennhesiers…  an original 409, 421, and several 441s… and i really dig them… but this thing just has no… balls?  No low-end, at least.  And that Mini-Tuchel-to-XLR cable wasn’t cheap either.  This gets my vote for the most-expensive-mic-that-looks-like-a-really-cheap-mic.  I will call it Paris H. from now on.

Shure 585 ‘unisphere A.’  Basically a cheap hi-z dynamic with a volume pot built in.  I think this is known as the ‘James Cotton’ mic.  Cotton was a harmonica player in the 60s whi apparently used just about every amp and mic in existence at one point or another, cos there is really no limit to the range of items people are eager to associate with him.

Shure 777s Crystal mic with switch.  I think this came with a large pile of old mics.  It’s a 60 year-old crystal mic.   not much more to say.

Shure Commando.  Honestly not even sure what kind of mic this is.  Sounds pretty cool but it’s hi-z so it’s a pain in the ass to use in the studio.  harp (harmonica) dudes seem to dig these.

Shure PE-54.  The ‘PE’ stands for ‘Professional Entertainer,’ believe-it-or-not (seriously, though, this is true.).  This is the hi-z version of the Unidyne III… which is the forerunner of the SM57. This is actually a really good sounding mic, but since it’s hi-z, it’s a pain to use. I have an SM56, which is the balanced version of this thing, so this is kinda redundant.  but for real this mic sounds great.  i was surprised.

Turner 510.  The best dynamic mic Turner ever made.  I am actually not sure how this thing failed the SM57 test.  Think maybe it deserves another chance.  Look for a shoot-out including this mic.  here.  soon.

“Musician …was a monthly magazine that covered news and information about American popular music. Initially called “Music America”, it was founded in 1976 by Sam Holdsworth and Gordon Baird. (…) Subtitled “The Art, Business and Technology of Making Music,” it became known for its extended and thorough articles about the stars of rock music. “Musician” was not intended to be a fan magazine—the founders envisioned it as a publication about the musician’s craft, and as a result, it earned it the respect of people in the music business.  As Holdsworth told an interviewer in 2003, the magazine “…created a level of trust that made the musicians feel they were talking with peers.” In that same article, he noted that “Musician” was also known for finding out the little things that the average magazine did not—such as why a musician chose a particular brand of instrument, or what was the inspiration for a certain song.”

The Dead Kennedys in MUSICIAN, August 1985

I have always been struck by how much more candid musicians are when speaking to musician-oriented publications rather than the popular or music-fan press.  Old issues of Guitar Player magazine come to mind in this regard.  MUSICIAN mag offers much of the same.  The intended audience here is musicians, specifically; not recording engineers; but there is still some interesting historical bits for audio fans.  If you chance upon a pile of old issues, pick em up.   Some revealing advertising from the August 1985 issue:

The Tascam Porta 01, which was a lower-priced alternative to their 144/244/246 cassette four-track.  Note the light of God/Genius/Art streaming through the windows.

I studied composition at university, and we were taught on the Kurzwel K2500, which was a very high-end synth/sampler in 1995 (approx. $5000 loaded).  This is spare change in comparison to the Kurzweil 250 of 1985 (pictured above), which sold for$14,000 – $16,000.  That’s THIRTY ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in today’s money.  Good lord.

We’ve looked at a lot of 1960s and 1970s  Sennhesier 421 ads on this site; here is an 80’s iteration, complete with the ‘blackfire’ 441 of the era.

There is a lot of emphasis in the advertising on ‘professional,’ ‘career,’ ‘making it happen,’ etc.  Not sure if we can read this as an appearance of the unavoidable-in-the-1980’s ‘yuppie’ zeitgeist but it certainly stands out today as odd language to find in a musician (artist) space, which we generally populate with romantic ‘creative’ and ‘expressive’ concepts.

DOWNLOAD 421-U (color 4-panel): Sennheiser421_Color

DOWNLOAD 421-U (monochrome 2-panel):SennhesierMD421U

DOWNLOAD 441: SennheiserMD441

If you have spend much time in recording studios, you are probably familiar with these great microphones.  When we were kids first learning about recording, the 421 was the one ‘good’ mic that we had; we didn’t know exactly why it sounded so very much better than the assorted Shure, EV, and Realistic public-address mics that we had, but the difference was shocking.   A little while later I discovered the 441, which I find to be a less-exciting sound but still incredibly useful, especially when you want a really tight pattern and good fidelity (esp. under the snare).   Also good on the rack toms to reject snare and hat.   Stan Coutant’s excellent Microphone Data website has a download link for more current spec sheets on these models; I thought it might be useful to offer some earlier material here.