145
by TomWanderer_Archive
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.