Well, the V-69 MXL ME is within my limited budget and sounds good enough for what I need. It does wonders for my voice, it has a nice rich sound to it. For recording guitars it also worked out great for me, as it picks up every nuance of the guitar. Beside where else AM I gonna get a tube mic for $299 ??

I just checked E-bay and found a couple of U-47's, one for $3999, and one for $5000. Sorry but that's waaaay out of my budget.

When I think of the 421 on Toms I think of Mick Fleetwood... don't know why... but it seems like a good thing.

Is this why the word Cadillac pops in my head every time I see a 421?

So.... yesterday I had the TV on as background noise... I was tuned in to "coolTV" which seems a lot like the old style MTV I remember from 1980. They actually have music videos on all day. Some of the stuff is fun.

Anyways, they were broadcasting Marvin Gaye live at Montreux and I especially enjoyed the happy coincidence of noticing that the entire wind and horn section is mic'd with EV RE20 microphones.

Honestly, I did not see a bones player in the group... but when I saw the video I couldn't help but think of this thread.

Here is a screen shot I just found on the web:



The mix was poor but the horns were smoking!

It is interesting that when you look at the frequency response curves for the RE20 you see a fairly flat and nice top end. I think one of the reasons why they sounded good on horns is that they counter the bright and toppy sound of horns with the smoother sound of the dynamic mic making the signal probably about right. (A good example of matching mic to source)

They were very common in TV studios. I have recorded some albums in a dis used TV studio that they left in tact but were not using. There were a lot of mics in there including RE20's.

But that video Mike referred to is also 30 years old and so are the mikes. So for those looking around for a microphone just beware of the attitude that the RE20 is the only mic on earth and nothing else matters, same as the 421. You can put any mic on a tom for example. If the tom is as amazing as say a Sonor tom and the drummer is pretty good then the mike does not really matter. I do like the C414 on toms too, they are great. The reason they are so great is they have the large diaphragm for capturing the low end and being condenser they are fast and can capture the transients as well. Many mikes have problems with both of these areas at the same time.

But I must say for the price that say Sweetwater is offering the RE20 for right now eg around $450 they would be a great buy but not necessarily at the normal price of $750 though. There are many other choices especially the Australian Rode Mics for example. At that price there are some serious mic models around $750 or so that would eat the RE20 alive! And they are built beautifully as well and would last a very long time.

I've owned a factory stereo matched pair of 414s for 25+ years....

One downside to them is that they swallow current from a phantom power supply... too many of them on one mixer can cause problems many microphone aficionados will never notice.

With regards to the Marvin Gaye stage set... consider that the stage at Montreux had a box full of U87s and TLM193s sitting in the wings for the engineer to choose. Someone put the RE20s up because they wanted to use them. :-) and 30 years later I got to watch and listen on TV.

best,
mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYzva1Ltnw