I totally agree, wow 10 years has passed. It has gone by way too quick. Come to think of it all the youtube audio guys I watch are all starting to age as well. Kind of a crazy thing for us to witness is people slowly ageing in front of us as we watch their gear reviews etc. Ragan, did you ever get your album done? I would love to hear it. Your voice and style is amazing

Hey thanks @ ARIEL .

Yeah the one I would have been working on during this thread is this one.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3yyej...RzylIUqlWD-5Rg

great will have a listen ! did you ever print any cd's? bandcamp link?

I have the Warbler MKVID and yeah great sound for vocals and a great condenser mic for $600 AUD, however the build quality is noticibly sketchy, all the switches and external parts are slightly bent or off axis and feel wobbly. They work fine and so far a few months in it is a fantastic mic for the price

I have two MKI and two MKIV, as well as an SDC 127. None of them feel "sketchy" or have bent switches. Did you get yours used or new?

I have 9x 3U mics, no build issues here

Bummer. I would reach out to Guosheng. Mine are cosmetically solid.

Apart from having an actual problem with one of the mics (a problem that got sorted out), all of my 3U Audio mics feel very sturdy and solid. Switches, threads, all work great. No mechanical issues or looseness. I have MKIDs, WARBLER 127s and TEAL CM-1s.

The cradle holders for the 127 are not the best (I assume they are a third party part and not in-house), but they do the work.

An El Cheapo/VERY Vintage toned “Character” mic…*

Is the CAD E100sx that Booth Junkie digs.
Fun to use practicing with Olde Tyme 78/Radio vocals, through around the late 50’s.

It’s been at Amazon for just about $50.
IIRC they originally streeted at $200.

Fun AFTER you have at least one “All Rounder”.
Chris
*That kind of Tone, gets me in a good mood to sing.
Then “another mic”/higher Fidelity for an actual Recording

I wouldn't necessarily call it vintage toned. It's really more of a medium-to-small diaphragm condenser, so it's actually faster, higher fidelity, more extended frequency range, etc. than a larger diaphragm counterpart, so I suppose it depends on your definition of "vintage toned." (it's just very flat frequency response)

If booth junkie ever got a hold of a Line Audio CM4, it would probably knock his socks off. That's more along the lines of the CAD, only with a much better capsule. Fun fact: The original CAD E100 (the precursor) actually used a very similar capsule (Primo) to the current CM4. Housing it in a large diaphragm body actually gives it some advantages acoustically speaking. Bla bla bla I digress.

Stats show 1”/Large Diaphragm at CAD itself.
(Are they being cads on this? )

Geez if this thang DOESN’T sound Vintage…
I don’t know what does!

Have you sung through it yet?
Sorta the Anti-TLM 103. LOL!

Very vulnerable to Plosives.
So got the $10 Foam Filter.

Below… Informal/totally RAW practice “one take” Vocal.
No “Studio Sweetening”.
Let alone Autotune!
Chris
P.S. Big Dip around 7KHz BTW.
Kinda like built in DeEsser

I mean, oddly yes. The original e100 was also advertised as a large diaphragm, but if you go by what's been posted all over Groupdiy, it used the same capsule as the Crown CM-7000 (advertised as an SDC). While it's immediate successor, the e100S, used a diaphragm you can buy from JLI or Micparts, advertised as a medium sized diaphragm. https://microphone-parts.com/collect...ophone-capsule

Not sure what the newest edition is being advertised as, or whether they're going by the total diameter including the outer ring, or just the diaphragm itself. Either way, the frequency response is now a dead ringer for the original e100 (highly-regarded Primo capsule), and there's some rumor that they've contracted Transsound to make a copy of it.

It's all conjecture at this point.

But yea, if "vintage voicing" just means flatter or less-pronounced high end, then for sure. It's probably the only thing out there advertised as a LDC for 100 or less that isn't all hyped and sibilant.

AKG P120 (black) is pretty flat too.
Also SE X1a.
Relatively speaking/singing.
Chris

Big 'ol presence boost in the air frequencies.

Almost exact frequency response as an OG Bock U99.
Although as you’d expect…

The U99 is smoother and more detailed.
But the P120 is still a cool at/sub $100 mic.
I call mine… “The Timex”
(As compared with the Rolex U99 )

Below the ‘lil Hornet is helping it.
By adding Vocal weight back. *
Via its Color Dial.
Chris
*FAT Switch on old Soundelux’s/new UA’s
add “Weight” in similar fashion.

No build issues here either.

Everything feels rock solid after 3 years of modest use.

Brand new, I was tracking vocals with my MKVID yesterday and they sound fantastic, smooth high mids. The switches on mine, like many mics I have seen in this price range, are off axis misaligned, bent and wobbly and feel like they may break. Also the 3 voicing sound exactly the same to me and I never use the pad or turn off the HPF so all the options are a bit superfluous to me. I repeat though: the sound is fantastic and I am tracking a bunch of lead vocals with it over my other mics.

No funky switches here.

I really love the 127 (drum room and acoustic), and the unnumbered Warbler (vox), and the Teal on acoustic. The teal seem factory eqed to be just right for acoustic guitars. The rest I haven't used enough to really know.

If you don’t notice a difference between the voicings, your mic may have an issue.

On the Warbler LDC's the metal switch is pretty thick. It's hard for me to imagine finding a way to "bend" it without completely ripping it out of the mic, even if that's what I was trying to do. Can you post a photo of the bent switch, I am curious.

As far as being "misaligned", there's not a whole lot of extra travel available for the switch to go too far to one side or the other, so it's always been pretty obvious on mine where it's set.

I've never felt like my switches could break at any time. But then again I am pretty gentle when handling microphones. I'm thinking about switches on other microphones -- the switches on a KM84, 67, 47, and 87 are made of some sort of plastic (or, if not plastic, some other material that seems less strong than metal).

My Teal lives as an acoustic guitar mic. Beat out all the others in my modest collection for that application.

I like a little rev f too, with the Teal and the acoustic. Especially if I'm doing hard or fast style strumming. Fits nice and tight in a mix, but it can get a little crispy in the high frequencies if I don't practice a little restraint.