Tube Mic Comparison (BeezNeez Arabella vs. AMI UM17)

Lasse Lammert

Lasse Lammert

HCAF Blitzkrieg
Feb 12, 2009
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www.lasselammert.com
I'm in the market for a warm sounding (think u47ish) tube mic to complement my c414XL-II, which can sound harsh, brittle and nasal on some voices

I was considering the Pearlman TM-1, Miktek CV4, Mojave MA300, Beezneez Arabella, AMI/Blackspade UM17...

I've narrowed it down to the last two and thought you might wanna hear the clips of those two mics (both on cardiod pattern):

Spoken word, male 24Bit/96k

Female singing


Here's the Arabella with a little bit of Urei EQ (Settings see pic) and a distressor in opto mode followed by an 1176, just touching the tops (about 2-3dB of GR);

Arabella Processed 48k

urei.JPG
 
Cool comparison, thanks a lot. I was already GASing for the Blackspade UM17, it's not extremely expensive and said to be very good. Really like it in the comparison, the Arabella sounds nice but lacks a little bit too much highs imho. On the other hand the Um17 may have too much :D Though it's probably less obvious through a windshield. A comparison to the SM7 and C414 would be interesting, too but I guess you couldn't really place all of them at a good position for a 1-take recording.
 
jipchen said:
Cool comparison, thanks a lot. I was already GASing for the Blackspade UM17, it's not extremely expensive and said to be very good. Really like it in the comparison, the Arabella sounds nice but lacks a little bit too much highs imho. On the other hand the Um17 may have too much :D Though it's probably less obvious through a windshield. A comparison to the SM7 and C414 would be interesting, too but I guess you couldn't really place all of them at a good position for a 1-take recording.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the presene boost makes it a bit too much like the c414 for what I need.
I do agree that the cut in the Arabella could be less severe though, a tiny bit more towards the um17 and it'd be perfect.
 
Lasse Lammert said:
Yeah, the presene boost makes it a bit too much like the c414 for what I need.
I do agree that the cut in the Arabella could be less severe though, a tiny bit more towards the um17 and it'd be perfect.
Click to expand...
Haha yes, something in-between the two :worship:
It's a shame it doesn't have a few setps to cut the high-end. Allthough changing the polar pattern will probably affect the frequency response aswell? Did you play around with the pattern by any chance?

I quickly tried EQing both of them (boosting the high-end on the Arabella and cutting it a little on the UM17) and to my surprise I got a better sounding result from the Arabella in the end.. cutting highs just made the UM17 sound a little weird at first and then with more extreme settings it got dull, but boosting the high end @ 3k and 14k by about 2dB made the Arabella sound better to me. Perhaps I cut the wrong freqs but I couldn't really get the UM17 to sound a little less sibilant.

So, what are you going to do?
 
yeah, a tiny boost around 5k and a tiny cut around 450 makes the Arabella sound awe to the fucking some....cutting presence on a sibilant mic neaver really works...it either turns out dull sounding, or "lispy".
The Arabella seems to take EQ very nicely indeed
 
yeah, but then I found out whom Ben from Bees Neez is actually building capsules for...and turns out most of the best u47-type mic's are using his capsules....that kinda made me lean towards the BN already.
I gotta admit that the API is not the best match though, I can't wait till my 1073 arrives next week, that one should sound sooo much better for vocals ;)
 
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