SE electronics Z5600a II

[Zed Peace]

Yeaa so i finally got around to buying a new mic today. I got it off this gothic chick with dreadlocks for a really good price, its about 450 pnds in the store, she was selling it for 350 but i managed to haggle it down to 320 pnds lol. So anyways i copped it and am very pleased with it, the mic itself is heavy and overall everything is just well built.



SE electornics didn't provide a manual or booklet at all tho which is actually quite annoying, cuz i'm not sure which setting to use for the mic so i had to test all the combinations to get that signal that i want.



For the mic, i used the 0db filter, and the horizontal line filter. Changing it to the other settings made it real sensitive.



And on the power supply, i used the figure 8 setting since it makes it real quite to capture the vocals properly. Both the mic and power supply get warm which is what i'm guessing happens to all tube condensers.

So i did a quick recording, it was a bad take, my housemate was studying for his exam and told me to quiet down lol so i didn't bother rerecording.

[SOUNDCLICK]6601914[/SOUNDCLICK]

I did some lazy compression and eq to make it louder but the raw vocals were iite.

Overall i'm real satisfied with it, and can't wait to cop a real preamp to complement the mic. Then i'm bringing all this shit back east and start working on our Micbandits' first LP: Of Mics & Men.

pz

[Kris Cain]

horizontal line filter = flat

the other is prolly hi pass filter

[Opie M.]

It's hard to tell what the mic sounds like with processing on it and music playing. Put up a raw clip if you want us to tell what it really sounds like. I can hear that tube sound tho. Sounds sexy. I'm thinking the harsh sound I hear is from your EQ and compression. This is supposed to be a really nice mic.

You know you have to let that thing warm up for about a half hour before you record right? and the mic should be mounted upside down because of the heat. Also, the tube inside has a fiite lifespan so don't leave the mic on when you're not using it.

The reason there is no manual is because the settings are common mic settings.

The 0dB/-10dB switch is the pad. You only want to use the -10dB pad when recording very loud signals such as horns. This pad decreases the mic sensitivity by 10dB to protect your preamp from overloading.

The horizontal line/notched line switch is the roll off (high pass filter). This filters out the low end of the mic signal. This is up to user preference.

The big knob on the power supply is the polar pattern selector. You have it set on bipolar (figure 8) which means that it picks up signal equally from the front and the back and rejects signal from the sides.

The cardioid pattern (12 o'clock on your knob) is the typical setting for recording. It picks up sound from the front and rejects sound from the back. This helps filter out reflections.

About half way between these 2 patterns you'll find hypercardioid. This pattern picks up signal in a more narrow range from the front but also picks up a narrow signal from the back.

The circular pattern all the way to the left is omni directional. It does exactly what it looks like. It picks up sound equally from every angle. This is good for stereo recording or overheads.

[Kris Cain]

coo, didnt know this joint had variable impendance.
and yea, your eq on the audio is too harsh in the highs...

you shouldnt really need to up the highs much... remember when your adding eq, have a wide Q... when your subtracting, have a narrow one. You just changed mics, so you probably need to adjust your technique for mixing your voice along with it.

[Zed Peace]

good lookin'. dope info as usual opey will keep them in mind. i'll try to post a raw raw clip soon. it was just equipment-guilt runnin through me (you know the one where you buy some good shit but don't really know how to make anything sound good and you feel all bad inside). i should have time soon to really get into everything about this mic.