Hey GSers,

I was able to do a vocal mic shootout at Vintage King in Nashville two days ago (thanks to Josh at VK!!). I really wanted to get some clips through U47 clones. My current main vocal mic is a U67 Reissue, so I used that as a reference baseline. The two 47 types I auditioned were a Flea 47 with F7 capsule, and a Wunder CM7-GS with M7 capsule.

Because of the studio setup, the clips were recorded without headphones in separate takes. Which was actually kind of helpful for impartiality, because I wasn't being influenced by the sound of each mic through cans. We did them through my own MA5 with 35dB input gain (unity output), which I brought to the session. No click track, but I tried to be as consistent as possible! (The song is "When The Stars Go Blue" by Ryan Adams - it's rather dynamic and covers several different vocal registers)

I'd love to get some feedback, and I hope this is also useful for other people considering these mics.

Side note: Before someone suggests trying one, I have a Chandler REDD, but it doesn't work for my voice at all and I'm planning to sell it to fund one of the above mics.

Cheers,
Dan

P.S. If anyone is interested, I also did test clips through an 87Ai, Flea 49, Telefunken 251, C12, and a Gefell of some description (I think a CMV563) - I'd be happy to post them too for reference!

Cool! Great singing!

The u67 sounds awesome on you and is the one I prefer. Balanced, thick but without the u47 style 400hz boost. And it's really nice how the u67 (and vintage Neumann's in general) makes the vocals so upfront and real.

Wunder sounds good too! The flea was a bit all over the place. It was a bit better when you sang a bit louder but nae, not super impressed. The Wunder had some of the presence of the u67 where the flea sounded a bit distant.

Would be cool if you would post the other mics you mentioned! I just got a u47 myself and thought of posting a few clips when I get my new preamps. u47, m269c. Always nice to hear mic's a/b'd.

Thanks!

u67. The Flea doesn't have the detail and the Wunder seems to thin out when you get louder(could be pulling back from the mic a bit more on the louder passages on the Wunder take). I'd like to hear the c12 and 251 if you want to post those too.

Yes, please post the rest! Thanks so much for doing this.

Tough call between the 67 and the Wunder.

The 67 fits your voice like a glove, but the Wunder (to my ears) has that "sounds like a record" kinda thing going on. I would be happy to use either, but I think I slightly prefer the Wunder.

The Flea sounds a bit too dark here.

Would definitely love to hear the 251 and Flea 49!

Fantastic voice, btw.

^^^^^^ This!

Sounds great, as always Kroc.

BTW Heiserman's U47 tube version is wonderful too. With either Eric's K47, or M7 capsule. Slighty preferred the M7 cap, on my voice. Per website, next run in May though. Paul G. thinks very highly of the new GAP 47. (which they carry at VK)
IIRC it's the "extended" GA-47.
Chris

Any way you can put all of these (including the other takes not posted) in some sort of Dropbox file or google share?

Really appreciate you posting these & you sound great!

Thanks for the Files! I’d love to hear the flea 49 too!

I liked the Wunder by far.

From an audio point of view, I thought the U67 sounded more balanced overall, more hifi but I connected emotionally way more with the Wunder take.
It does thin out a bit on certain notes but I'd take vibe and emotion over linearity any day.
Your voice is great, and the Wunder adds a little edge to it.

I would love to hear the other mics too

It's a shame it wasn't the standard CM7 with the metal NOS EF14.

The GS is the cheaper glass tube version, the version with the NOS EF14 sounds much bigger and saturated differently, though is a lot more money than the GS and Flea.

Interesting...
Chris

Thanks for this great feedback.

I've attached all the other clips! And also a clip of the CM7 through my Retro STA Level because it sounds monstrous. Lol. And I think it helps a bit with the thinning that some people mention.

Speaking of which, I should mention that there were no pop filters on any of the mics. I tried to work the proximity effect for the verse section, and then pulled back to about 1 foot away when it goes into the pre-chorus (the louder part). But I'm not sure how consistent I was with my distances.

Interesting... Knowing that the CM7-GS works for my voice, would it be fair to assume that the EF14 version would probably suit me too?

Thanks for the feedback - I'm really digging the Wunder's vibe too. More so than the vintage 47 I tried two years ago. I definitely love my 67RI (this was VK's demo unit, not mine), and it almost never sounds bad on anything. But I feel like the Wunder does a great job of smoothing potentially jabby/hard frequencies in the 3-4kHz range while retaining detail and air. I think I'd definitely be covering a lot of sonic ground with both of them.

My pleasure!

Hey thank you!!

I adore my 67 Reissue, and if I get a 47-type I can totally see myself using them both for different vocals. The 67 generally gives a natural, flattering reproduction of whatever is put in front of it. I agree about the CM7 having that record vibe, which I love. I was really hoping to love the Flea, but it has much less detail than expected!

Thanks Chris!! Hope you've been doing well.
Appreciate the other suggestions too!

Thanks!! My pleasure. I'll look into putting these into a shareable link too.

There are definitely many mic builders who think that EF8XX series tubes are a much more appropriate substitute in a U47 circuit than an EF14.

Well at least certainly more practical, a NOS EF14 of microphone quality will cost in the region of $400-$500.

But to my ears after the original VF14, nothing sounds as good as an EF14.

A CM7 (M7 cap) EF14 tube > a Mercury M72 > Retro STA Level is a thing of wonder.

But everyone's tastes are different and that's a good thing of course.

Interesting to get Klaus' take, as he tends to be a purist IMHO.
Chris

I’m not so sure Klaus expresses anything other than to somehow find a great sounding VF14 for your original Neumann U47. I’m guessing due to that being his world. It isn’t mine.

Hey, I found a ton of buried/prime NOS VF-14's...

Last year on April 1st!
Chris

Wunder sounds like a record to me - beautiful, smooth top end clarity. U67 has a wonderful midrange and tames some sibilance / edginess in your voice. I really like the Gefell too! I feel like it falls somewhere in between. The rest of the options aren’t nearly as compelling.

Yeah, the Wunder and the 67 are killer. Toss up your vox. The 67 sounds more naturally compressed, like ready to mix good.

Kroc, do you know if that Wunder has the K47, or M7 capsule?

Chris, thanks for the kind words!! I'm pretty sure we have a few Heiserman U47s owners floating around NY. Pretty sure we could hook up a demo if you wanted to add it to the list

Thanks, Eric Heiserman

Sure thing Eric! BTW I'm in South Orange County, Caifornia... And did spread the good word, around here, to some of my local Pro friends.

We're hoping we get some the local music scene back, before the end of Summer...
Chris

What differences in sound quality do you perceive with EF14 clones versus EF800s? Keen to try one, but I'm aware that even more detail with this mic might be excessive on my voice for my genre (i.e. like with the C12 or REDD clips).

Man, I want to be able to put one on my voice and one on my guitar for live-tracking.

Definitely no complaints with my 67 for vocals - I recently did some live tracked demos for 11 new songs that will be on my next next album using the 67 on vocals (with KM184 on guitar). I'm having to do very little processing, even though the recordings were captured in the untreated living room of an apartment sublet in Nashville.

I can't see myself ever regretting using it on vox, so getting a 47 type is more about having another flavour. Actually, I use my RCA 77DX on my vox somewhat frequently for that reason too.

This Wunder was the CM7-GS with M7 capsule. The Flea has their 'F7' capsule.

I'd definitely be curious too (in the Poconos, just west of NYC right now), and could certainly do some demo clips here at my studio to post. Might be kind of hard to set up with everything that's going on at the moment though.

Best of luck, Chris. Difficult times for a lot of musicians.
I hope I can do a west coast tour when my record comes out!

_

I guess my other options for a 47 type would be the Cathedral Pipes Notre Dame, or even building a TAB Funkenwerk kit.

Cheers,
Dan

Just took a listen to the new clips.

Wunder through the STA Level sounds crazy good. The others all have qualities that I like, but I keep coming back to that as my favorite.

The C12 sounds nice, too — almost like where I'd want to take it with EQ in a mix.

The Flea 49 is pretty dark, but really opens up with EQ. I ran it through a Wunder EQ and it sounds fantastic.

REDD, 251, and U87 were all okay. I wasn't a fan of the Gefell; the midrange sounds odd to me.

I'm a bit obsessed with the clips we did with the Wunder at the moment. I'm surprised, because I think the Flea gets more love on GS (I went in expecting the Wunder to sound 'papery', and the Flea to slay everything). Will definitely get a CM7 when I have the chance (when my REDD is sold).

Anyway, here's another clip we did that same day with the CM7, through the STA Level, with about +1.5dB at 12kHz with the UAD Pultec plugin, and a bit of delay and Bricasti A&M Chamber for the fun of it. No EQ.

#1 Elam 251
#2 Wunder CM7
#3 U67

When we were listening back in the control room at VK we were digging the presence and clarity of the 251. Definitely pops out of the speakers. But it's not harsh, either, which is cool! I can see it working really well in a dense arrangement where you might not need all the syrupy low-mids of the CM7 or 67.

I'd also be interested to see how it interacts with different preamps. Especially a BAE 1073 or something darker. Or even a really transparent pre. The MA5 rocks, but I got it to add clarity and fidelity to my 87, which it does excellently. But the 251 already has those qualities in spades, so I imagine you could have a lot of fun feeding it into a dirtier chain.

Makes me wonder who makes the capsule the Wunder uses.

Maybe Down Under?

Will listen to the new clips, before bed tonight...
Chris

Yeah I have to admit the Flea love is something I never quite understood.
I had the Wunder CM7 and liked it way more than the Flea.
The times I used it in the studio is sounded a bit muffled and felt like a caricature of a vintage sound, totally lacking the bite and clarity of U47s.

All the samples I hear online sound like that...The Wunder is hit or miss, I've heard great examples of the mic, and some that were just meh.

Did you try the Tfunk reissues?
I've seem them get bashed quite a bit on GS but I always thought they sounded amazing.