Topic: Crown SASS-P MK II

[gatorglenn]

Hi,

I am looking for feedback on this microphone. I am considering trying one to record middle school and high school concert bands. If anyone has experience using one please let me know if you liked it or not. Also if you know any places to get one used for a decent price please let me know also. I do know that a version without the box and accessories is available new for considerably less than the original model. That model is the Crown SASS HC, I think.

Thanks,
Glenn

[leddy]

Bought mine on Ebay for about $350.  It's a SASS-P MKII.   

[gatorglenn]

Bought mine on Ebay for about $350.  It's a SASS-P MKII.

Great price. How do you like it?

Thanks,
Glenn

[Yane]

Used one for several years before it was stolen: loved it for precisely your application. Get it 10-15 feet high 5-10 feet behind the conductor and you're good to go -- for ease and repeatability of setup it's hard to beat. The ability to run it on two internal 9 volt batteries is nice if you don't have phantom power. I don't see the accessory kit as very useful -- it's not so delicate that a carrying case is particularly necessary.  I had the windscreen (worked great, btw) with mine, but then again I had a refurbished unit direct from Crown -- not sure if the HC variant includes one. The only downside is that it's not terribly directional: a bad room will sound BAD -- get it close to minimize room sound.

[leddy]

Bought mine on Ebay for about $350.  It's a SASS-P MKII.

Great price. How do you like it?

Thanks,
Glenn

I like it for the most part.  The stereo image is nice.  You'll need to spend some time getting the hang of where to put it for best results (though the same can be said for any mic).  I guess the difference is that other pairs of mics give you the ability to tweak their angle or spacing.  The SASS is fixed, so you will have to move it around the room until it's right.  I have not really used mine since I bought a Tetramic (a four-capsule Soundfield-type mic), but I'm hanging on to it for some situations.

If you are not too close or too far from the source, it can be great.  My church has one permanently installed hanging from the ceiling. 

[gatorglenn]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I wish that I could find a used one for a decent price as I would like to try one but I don't think I can buy a new one without first knowing that I will really like it. But I am still searching around. The HC model if it can be found is quite cheaper and I can live without the case and other accessories so I am looking into that model the most.

Thanks,
Glenn

[stober]

Great stereo mic. It's an omni so it's not ideal for taping in the back of a room with a crowd. I bought one new in 1999 for like 350.00 and sold it here about three years ago for 150.00.I didn't get the case and extra accessories. If I remember correctly the mic with the padded case and accessories was close to 1,000. But if you bought just the mic and windscreen it was 350.00.  They don't ever pop up here for sale...usually every once in a while you find one on ebay. I think it would be great to record middle school and high school concert bands with that mic. That would probably be a great application for that mic.

[colors]

I have one and use it all the time.  Mine is the older SASS-P (pre MKII) and I bring it to pretty much every concert because my cables, R44 and batteries fit nicely in the case with the Crown.  I have pulled some nice recordings using just the Crown but have also paired it with SBD or spaced omnis. 
Here's a sample from a few weeks ago, a free improvising trio.  I put the Crown on the very front of the stage floor, everyone is going acoustic, no EQ. 
http://www.alanmunshower.com/dump/sass.mp3

[leddy]

Sounds like the polarity was flipped on one of the channels.

I have one and use it all the time.  Mine is the older SASS-P (pre MKII) and I bring it to pretty much every concert because my cables, R44 and batteries fit nicely in the case with the Crown.  I have pulled some nice recordings using just the Crown but have also paired it with SBD or spaced omnis. 
Here's a sample from a few weeks ago, a free improvising trio.  I put the Crown on the very front of the stage floor, everyone is going acoustic, no EQ. 
http://www.alanmunshower.com/dump/sass.mp3

[colors]

how could that happen on a fixed stereo mic going into the r-44?

[leddy]

how could that happen on a fixed stereo mic going into the r-44?

Check your gear and see.  Could be a cable, or maybe the mic or R44 was mis-wired.  Maybe you accidentally did it in post production.  Don't know.  But I heard it the second your file played. 

Does it sound ok to you like it is?  Did you try flipping the phase of one of the channels to compare?  Are you certain your monitors are not out of phase with each other?

[leddy]

I took the liberty of downloading and inverting the phase on one of the channels.  Here it is.

I had to shorten it to get below 512mb.  I converted to Wav and back to MP3 but at too high a resolution.  Sorry.

[colors]

yeah my original sounded strange in that in would mess with my balance and ears a bit, so could tell something was off.  Still completed baffled what it could have been.  I am going to try and replicate the setup tongith to see if I get the same problem.

[colors]

alright here's another recent pull that I suspect has the same issue.  please take a listen, I've uploaded it as wav this time.
http://www.alanmunshower.com/dump/newsass.wav

I am curious if this Polarity issue can be fixed in Audacity, and of course I would LOVE to find out how this is happening.

[leddy]

I still hear it.  The dead giveaway is that there is more low-end when you flip the phase on one channel.

I hear one channel way louder than the other too.

God, I wish I had more good music like that to record around me.