Topic: tube microphones

[Larry J. Villella]

Just for fun, I did a recording of my jam band on (almost) ALL tube mics.

We had a pair of Tube mics on my Steinway, Tube mics for Drum O/H, Sax, Upright Bass.

The next session we did ALL FET.  The surprise was that the ALL Tube Session sounded muddy
by comparison.  I know that the Early Miles/Coltrane Sessions featured a plethora of U-47/67.

And those albums DO sound fantastic!

I was surprised how much cleaner and more detailed the FET tracks were by comparison.

My takeaway was for Lead Vocals (or even Lead Horns) the tubes are sublime.

But for multiple tracks and particularly percussion and piano, my ears preferred 'solid state'.

Thoughts?

[pohaku]

Well, just like other audio gear, there are tube mics and there are tube mics.  Some will be much better than others.  I assume you weren't using U-47s and U-67s for your recording.  It certainly isn't the case that all FET mics will sound better than all tube mics.  What mics did you use?  I have  some first run Groove Tubes tube mics (the US made ones) and a Gefell LD tube mic that are fantastic.  I've used (and own) some of the more recent Chinese tube mics that are fairly mediocre.  So as with many things in audio, it depends.