Topic: Giant Squid mics with Sound Professionals battery box?

[echo1434]

Posting this on behalf of a friend…

A few months ago he purchased a Sound Professionals SP-SPSB-8 battery box in order to power his Giant Squid Audio Lab omni mics.

The reason he purchased this battery box is because all battery boxes from Giant Squid come with a very steep fixed roll-off (whether one orders it this way or not), which more often than not results in a very thin recording.

As the Giant Squid modules also use a 9 volt battery I just assumed the SP-SPSB-8 would work fine with the Giant Squid mics…

However, my friend has not been getting good results with any of his recordings (distortion while using appropriate levels) — and I can't help but suspect that the battery box might be incompatible with his mics after all. He is using an iRiver iHP-120 to record, by the way.

I just have a feeling that Giant Squid would try to push one of their battery boxes if I contacted them, regardless of what the real issue was, and at the same time I'm not sure if Sound Professionals has extensive knowledge on how their battery boxes work with other types of microphones.

So if anyone has any insight on this, it would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[rastasean]

How is he plugging the battery box into the iriver?

[Church-Audio]

Posting this on behalf of a friend…

A few months ago he purchased a Sound Professionals SP-SPSB-8 battery box in order to power his Giant Squid Audio Lab omni mics.

The reason he purchased this battery box is because all battery boxes from Giant Squid come with a very steep fixed roll-off (whether one orders it this way or not), which more often than not results in a very thin recording.

As the Giant Squid modules also use a 9 volt battery I just assumed the SP-SPSB-8 would work fine with the Giant Squid mics…

However, my friend has not been getting good results with any of his recordings (distortion while using appropriate levels) — and I can't help but suspect that the battery box might be incompatible with his mics after all. He is using an iRiver iHP-120 to record, by the way.

I just have a feeling that Giant Squid would try to push one of their battery boxes if I contacted them, regardless of what the real issue was, and at the same time I'm not sure if Sound Professionals has extensive knowledge on how their battery boxes work with other types of microphones.

So if anyone has any insight on this, it would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I would suspect the mics are the issue..... Again another person selling mics that thinks that bass roll off eliminates distortion IT DOES NOT. All it does is reduce the output of bass from the mics.

Even when you do put a bass filter on a pair of mics your only bringing down the bass and with it some of the ugly distortion that is on the low frequencies but it does not eliminate the distortion at all and the funny thing is there are harmonics above the bass filter that are still getting through to your recorder unabated. Any battery box that is wired in a standard way should work. If your friend would like me to test his mics he can send them to me and I will do it for free. But he must pay for return postage.





Chris

[echo1434]

How is he plugging the battery box into the iriver?

1/8" miniplug into the line in. The iRiver is Rockboxed, of course.

[nameloc01]

Is he recording loud shows? Those mics are somewhat notorius for not being...uh..of a high quality. If he is recording loud shows, they may simply be not able to handle the high(er) spls.

[echo1434]

I would suspect the mics are the issue..... Again another person selling mics that thinks that bass roll off eliminates distortion IT DOES NOT. All it does is reduce the output of bass from the mics.

Yes, I always suspected there was some "distortion paranoia" involved with their product lineup, the way they force feed you the roll-off option. Also deceptive, as there's an option to pay $2 extra for fixed roll-off even though all their battery boxes come this way anyway — no exceptions.

It's funny though, because all the recordings posted on the Giant Squid site sound really thin. I'm not sure how this is supposed to be a selling point?

I don't have the exact specs, but it seems their roll-off filters are set at something like 250 Hz or higher. 

Well... My friend is currently living in Europe, so I'm not sure if it's worth it for him to ship the mics that far. I'll point him to this thread, though.

Is he recording loud shows? Those mics are somewhat notorius for not being...uh..of a high quality. If he is recording loud shows, they may simply be not able to handle the high(er) spls.

Yeah, some of the shows were pretty loud.

I had another friend who taped with Giant Squid omnis plus using their standard battery box, and he always got decent results with loud rock shows — only that many of the recordings were lacking bass.

So for this reason, we both advised against this guy getting a battery box from Giant Squid.

Also, the mics were purchased brand new... So that would be pretty lame if they were defective somehow!

Thanks for the replies so far.

[darktrain]

Do yourself a favor and ditch the squids, first pair i purchased were bunk and were replace and then as soon as i upgraded the music sounded much better, this is one mic where you get what you pay for....not much, get some at831's, or 853's or anything else, that being said roll off has NOTHING to do with preventing distortion, if its to loud, thats it , roll off will not prevent it

[stantheman1976]

I used the GS omni lavalier mic connected to a SP preamp for voice and for that purpose they are good mics.  I hooked the mic to the groom and dropped the preamp/recorder in his pocket.  It picked up the bride, groom, and minister nicely.  I wouldn't use them for loud music and I wouldn't use any battery box or preamp with a fixed roll off.

[rastasean]

I agree with these. If you're going into line in and still getting distortion, get something better.

I had these mics and they were great for voice but even then, a little on the noisy side and had a lot of hiss.

Its time to UPGRADE.

I used the GS omni lavalier mic connected to a SP preamp for voice and for that purpose they are good mics.  I hooked the mic to the groom and dropped the preamp/recorder in his pocket.  It picked up the bride, groom, and minister nicely.  I wouldn't use them for loud music and I wouldn't use any battery box or preamp with a fixed roll off.

Do yourself a favor and ditch the squids, first pair i purchased were bunk and were replace and then as soon as i upgraded the music sounded much better, this is one mic where you get what you pay for....not much, get some at831's, or 853's or anything else, that being said roll off has NOTHING to do with preventing distortion, if its to loud, thats it , roll off will not prevent it

[danz]

Hello. 1st post here and Ive bought the same set up by giant squid. A set of mics with a battery box with a fixed bass roll off into an i-river ihp-140. First few gigs i recorded were acoustic shows and thought they were great until the last few shows I taped were loud rock shows and was disappointed in how much distortion there is especially when the drums and bass kick in. Time for them to go I think. Ive a budget of $300 or £250 as I'm from the uk. Could anybody suggest a half decent rig for this price?

[stantheman1976]

Church Audio cardioid and 9100 preamp will suit your needs.  Chris's mics can take a lot of volume and still give you a clear recording.  You can use the preamp gain for quiet material and set it to 0dB to function as a battery box only for loud stuff.

[Humbug]

Ive a budget of $300 or £250 as I'm from the uk.

Unless you're very lucky and catch a European selling some stuff in the Yard Sale, you will have to order from the US (eg Soundprofessionals) or Canada (Chris). Remember to factor in around 20-25% import duty/charges.

Re AT mics, check out some of my recordings on the Archive to see if you like them:

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/humbug66

Cheers,

Humbug

[J.Maye]

Hello. 1st post here and Ive bought the same set up by giant squid. A set of mics with a battery box with a fixed bass roll off into an i-river ihp-140. First few gigs i recorded were acoustic shows and thought they were great until the last few shows I taped were loud rock shows and was disappointed in how much distortion there is especially when the drums and bass kick in. Time for them to go I think. Ive a budget of $300 or £250 as I'm from the uk. Could anybody suggest a half decent rig for this price?

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,116380.0.html

Theyre even in Germany already so you can probably avoid the taxes.