UPGRADE this

[Nick's Picks]

ok...I've got a taper friend whom I dont see very often.  the other night we were going over his rig...which he produces nice pulls with, but is in serious need of an upgrade.
I thought this might be fun to mull around, see what sorts of options we come up with (using the collective brain of TS.com)
w/o spending much money
we have:

neumann shotgun mics from the 80's. not sure of the model.
neumann p48 supply

custom xlr/xlr project box with -15db pad being the housed circuitry>
custom xlr>rca project box (a box used in place of a cable)
rca > stereo mini cable
sony D8.

I know dumping all of these custom boxes with cheap ass cable will help. i'm wondering about any -10 to -20db pads and perhaps some line transformers to add to the mix?
I cant recall who made the ones that sound nice. Hosa?

maybe he should just buckup for a used inbox or stock ua5 or something.
he likes the mics. I dont blame him. they sound nice.
Selling it all is an option...but only if it nets enough dough to acutaly improve upon what he has.

we all laugh at the dude the shows up with 2' shotguns.  But these Neumanns are the cats ass.  really nice.  81i ?  I can't remember what model.
Maybe they are worth more than we figure...and he could sell them on eBay or something and score himself a nice set of 140s or 184s.  I think he's partial to the Neumann sound.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

long guns or short guns?  Eitherway those are nice mics.  I know someone who runs KMR82s. I ran them once from the back of the spectrum.  Really nice clean sound if you aim them well.  I don't know why people would laugh.  From the lawn they work great.  I've heard sweet tapes from the 82s used in clubs.

Is he looking to upgrade for no money?  Why not just sell the power supplies and get a V3?

If I was running from the lawn all summer, I'd keep those mics.  If he has the long ones, maybe he could trade soemone who has the short guns.  It's just like running a tighter KM150 but without the bass being rolled off.  The tape I made had very nice bass.

[Nick's Picks]

its the long ones.
I dont think the p48 sale is going to generate V3 cash.
personaly, i think he should dump the whole package and start fresh.

[JasonR]

personaly, i think he should dump the whole package and start fresh.

Or maybe he should just find some friends who don't laugh at him.     You said that the rig makes nice pulls, he likes the mics, they're the cats ass *, and he doesn't want to spend much money.  Other than the inconvenience of running long mics and the apparent ridicule it's generating, is there something that he doesnt' like about the rig?

It would really be a shame to sell his classic Neumanns and the rest of the rig only to start using something more common that he might end up not liking all that much.  Sure, adding an SBM-1 or AD20 will be an improvement over the D8 A>D, and cleaning up any noisy or faulty cabling makes good sense, but I'm not sure who thinks this 'upgrade' is needed.

- Jason

* "What was, was, and what is, is is, and this what is, is what's happening right now."  Paul Sr.

[Nick's Picks]

hey ...its not my idea.
i said some updates would be good.
i appreciate his mics, greatly.

but if it were me, i'd go different.

i was more looking for opinions on the best way to replace the weak links and improve what he has.

[kindms]

keep the mics and the D8 and get a grahman Patten DMIC or something like that.


Still has the long mics but will get a nice clean sound, phantom and A/D. Nice small easy to use rig and not much money at all

[Nick's Picks]

I agree, a DMIC or inbox..even a stock ua5 would be a good place to start for around $200.

I was also thinking jensen line transformers and nice cables...and keep the d8 as the workhorse.
probably would rival any of the above, and might be less money.