Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

143
TomWanderer wrote: I came across one of these;You may be familiar with it, but I wasn't. It's an unpowered box that is specifically designed to send 2 mics to the same input and compensate for the loss of volume. It also has a phase reversal switch for one of the inputs in case you want to make a humbucking mic or do some fancy micing techniques. These go for about $110 new, which seems very expensive for what it does, but I took a chance on one for $35 and it does exactly what it claims to. Solved my problem. Great build too, it looks beat to shit but works perfectly. Very pleased with this useful studio tool.I was doing some 8 track band recording a while back (with a zoom) so tracks were tight. The drummer used two bass drums so two AKG summed through one of these did the trick for me (keeping the bass drum on 1 track my usual 8 track set up is 4 drum - snare - bass drum - stereo overhead - 2 bass DI and mike, 1 guitar and I scratch vocals) they are handy and work well.

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

145
Our band recently gained a member (very exciting) and I wanted to add, among other things, a third vocal mic to our practice space/recording studio. We run the vocal mics through a WEM Copicat tape echo before they hit the PA. The Copicat only has 2 inputs, so I initially just bought an XLR splitter cable to send 2 mics to 1 channel. Well..I didn't know that when you do that the overall volume of the channel drops pretty significantly. Actually the internet says it's just 6db, but It sounded significant to me. It wasn't gonna cut it...even if I tried to crank the channel to compensate, it sounded dull. So, I put the third vocal mic on the back burner and put things back as they were. Then last week I was buying an 80's MXR Commande Phaser (don't laugh, I love these) for $50 and decided to see what else the seller had. I came across one of these;You may be familiar with it, but I wasn't. It's an unpowered box that is specifically designed to send 2 mics to the same input and compensate for the loss of volume. It also has a phase reversal switch for one of the inputs in case you want to make a humbucking mic or do some fancy micing techniques. These go for about $110 new, which seems very expensive for what it does, but I took a chance on one for $35 and it does exactly what it claims to. Solved my problem. Great build too, it looks beat to shit but works perfectly. Very pleased with this useful studio tool.Also worth mentioning is that the vocal mic I picked up is an Electro Voice 967 ($80), which I first read about here and had been interested in checking out for years. Our newest member (keyboards) has a rather soft voice and this mic instantly came to mind for the application. She's not singing much yet, but I am very impressed in the huge output and clarity from this mic.Bonus; the (beat up, plastic, $50) MXR Phaser is my second. I've repaired the other a few times and, though I love the effect, the build, switch action, enclosure, etc. leave much to be desired. So I bought a second with the intention of rehousing it and I'll be damned if the thing doesn't work like a fucking charm and feels quite solid to boot. I will still probably end up rehousing it though.

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

147
Bought this guy after having nostalgia for it in another thread:I had one of these for a couple of years around 30 years ago, which was loaned to my by a friend. Second effect pedal I ever tried. I've had many flangers over the years (all of the big classic ones and currently own an A/DA reissue). Many of the ones I bought were still me trying to replicate that noisy jet flange sound of that plastic-boxed MXR. Nearly all were too mild by comparison. I figured it must just be my memory and bought this guy cheaply on a lark. I LOVE this piece of shit flanger. It sounds exactly like I remember. Totally nails the early Dinosaur jr flanger sound. The knobs don't really have a great range, and it doesn't do subtle at any setting. Because the A/DA flanger is so tweakable, I can get it to sound like this thing with one exception. This MXR has more bottom end. It sounds absolutely massive on bass with a Ruetz modified Rat.

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

149
A couple months ago, I bought a Squarp Pyramid sequencer used for relatively cheap from a guy who got it for a review and barely used it. I want to use it as the brain for all the MIDI stuff I've gotten into over the past years, for drum machines and synths, but mostly for 24 tracks of cassette tape that I run through 24 channels of MIDI gating to chop the audio up and make all sorts of weird, evolving, generative stuff. This thing is a blast. Just started trying to get my head around it and work out an efficient workflow here over the past couple days. Currently just fucking around with my own Boss DR 660 kits to get a feel for building structures, but will start applying it to the tape slicing/gating soon.

Micro-reviews of gear you just bought.

150
I ve never really liked Octavia style effects, having briefly owned and tried a Fulltone version that Andy Cohen used and a Zvex version that Alan Sparhawk used. I found one of the 90s black Dunlop Jimi Hendrix ones that Sonic Youth liked, and it s my favorite by far. Don t know why I liked this one any better than the others, but it s fantadtic. I got it because I saw one for less than $80 shipped and figured I d give it a try but will probably sell my Zvex Machine now.
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