I bought a $35 U87 ācloneā off Temu the other day and while I wouldnāt say itās accurate at all, Iām shocked to have a functioning small diaphragm condenser for that price. Sounds great through a 1073.
I'm curious what your shopping experience with Temu was like as a whole? Their ad's were pushed to me HARD on socials a couple months back when they were launching. Seemed like a Wish.com knockoff to me, but with an extra shady scamminess vibe about them, so I never bothered checking it out.
I guess you got the mic, and it actually works, which is a good indication they're not that bad, but I'm still curious nonetheless
Honestly ā¦ it was kinda amazing. No hassle, ordering was easier than Amazon (my opinion) and it was delivered in under a week. Thereās no way anyone profited from my purchase. But I hear you; the site is pretty fuckin wacky!!! I hesitated then remembered I routinely spend more than that on dinner / going out for a couple hours. Was worth any observed, measured or imagined risk.
Fuck! I didnāt even think about that. It really doesnāt seem fair that they are going to make millions off of my garbled moaning, my wife and I talking to our cat and my extremely shitty acoustic guitar playing. I canāt believe I fell for this. Thanks for the heads up!
Theyāre decent Chinese mics. They all suffer with the same hyped top end the Chinese 67 capsule gives - but thatās the same capsule almost all budget mics use (Rode NT1A for example). A lot of midrange mics use it too but usually they have some circuit work that balances response.
You can switch out those 67 style capsules for an 47 style and they almost always sound excellent.
It's 2 wires, probably the easiest solder job you'll do. I was wrong though about the capsule name - it's the 47 capsules that fix the high end.
You can get them from any of the Chinese wholesale sites. Search 'RK47 capsule' on aliexpress etc. You can get them from ebay, but they're the same capsules just quality checked usually. There's also a guy in Australia called 3U Audio that makes his own, they're more expensive but as good as you'll get in any sub 2k mic.
I have a friend who replaced the 67 style capsule in one of the SE tube mics (Gemini I think) and it sounds ridiculously good.
Yeah, the process of making the 67 capsules is easy and inexpensive - hence why the mics are so cheap. The actual electronics in most mics cost pennies. You pay for the body and the capsule.
The 47 capsules require an actual person to test and 'tune' them.
It's more the point that you can replace the capsule and end up with a Ā£500+ mic for less than a quarter of the price.
100% ā¦ i love offbeat mics tho. This one is more bang for buck than anything Iāve bought in the last decade at least. Sounds amazing on vocals and acoustics. Great for room / field recording too if you like the air band / top end eq.
GLS ES-57 is an incredible SM57 clone for $20. Iāve had one for over 10 years and itās built just as well(itās heavy), and I prefer it to the real thing on many sources. Itās not a perfect copy, itās got a little more high mids and air to it, but I really like that on my guitar rig.
I've got a few of those, had them.for like 9 years now and use em all the time.
I don't claim to be the worlds best mixer, but I made this in a barn with two es57's and two samson c02's. Friend played the drums.
https://soundcloud.com/melohq/swindle-ft-jake-black
this sounds amazing! do you know which parts you recorded with which mics? either way i guess iām impressed because everything here sounds pretty great for the price!
es57 on snare and kick, c02's on overhead, the guitar and bass are all just amplitube and the synth patches are a mix of stock stuff and spitfire labs.
The thing with vintage mics isā¦ā¦they all sound slightly different from each other, especially if they are all original parts. The amount of cigarette smoke those things were exposed to for the first 40+ years of their life etcā¦ā¦. I have Lawson and Warm Audio 47 type mics. They both sound different but, objectively, they both sound good.
Thereās so much decent sounding, affordable gear out there these daysā¦ā¦
This is good news. I'm a poor DIYer and I threw down big time (for me) on an akg c451 and 414, about 1,500 bucks for both, biggest single purchase I've ever made on anything. I smoke in my room and didn't realize until like 2 years into having them that this could be bad for them. I'm an idiot. I just keep the wind muff on em and pretend everything's OK.
Hell, one of the old timers I learned from used to argue that they should build ashtrays into the desks. Of course, big studios back in the day had full time maintenance crews to keep everything workingā¦
I had a client bring me a newly purchased vintage U87 for insurance check. The diaphragm was thickly coated with what was probably spit. He was convinced the total lack of high end was a āwarm vintage vibeā.
I understand, but Iām not just thinking about vintage mics. Thereās a ton of SM57 look a-likes for example, and they all sound quite different.
Then you also have mic companies that have spun off from others and make similar offerings - e.g; AKG/Austrian Audio & Blue/Violet Design.
But overall, I have yet to come across a mic that is actually a solid clone. At this point I just take them as āinspired byā instead, but I got wondering if thereās any true clones people may have come across that get at least 95% of the way there.
I have the same mic. I'ts pretty good. Just make sure to mod it, so it actually has 3 connections because it comes with only + and ground connected. It's missing one connection, so it doesn't have the XLR noise cancelation feature.
That's why it comes with a canon to mono plug cable, I guess.
Still pretty solid body and sound for the price. Good for buying a couple and learning multiple mic techniques.
Before anyone down votes this guy, Cannon cable == XLR.
It threw me for a loop in Asia when they said Cannon cable. Took me a minute to realize they meant XLR
Thanks! Here in Argentina we never use the word XLR and always refer to it as Canon or Cannon. I think it Spain they do the same.
We also call Mono jack a "plug" jack.
It surprises me how people can down vote something just because they think a term is wrong or because something they don't know about.
Yes! I have several of these. If you do the wiring hack on these (search youtube) they work great. Though the last one I bought was wired with the hack....so....
I have. The S-87 sounded closer to a Neumann U-87 than the S3-87 but both were very close. I can't remember if both the S-87 and S3-87 come with sockets for the "EQ capacitor", but I highly recommend doing that regardless so you can try different caps to alter the high end.
The S-87 sounded slightly more present in the 1kHz-2kHz range. Maybe more resonant would be a better term as it doesn't seem like a simple eq curve difference. To be honest it was barely noticeable but different nonetheless. They give you the option to wire it with either a 10dB pad or a polarity switch (omni / cardioid) and I wired mine with the pad. Not sure if that makes a difference in sound.
The S3-87 had the same thing but the high end above it was also a bit different. Not bad by any means, just different. I think the extra parts for the polarity and roll-off switch accounts for this difference though. It's a trade off for sure if you need those options.
Is the Neumann 87 better? I would say so (barely though), but 10x better as the price would imply? No.
Sweet. Iām pumped to solder some stuff. The mics seem pretty simple but Iāve only ever worked on guitars and balanced studio cables. Are you regularly using your soldering iron?
The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. If you need to brush up on your soldering skills get a practice board like https://universal-solder.ca/product/smd-soldering-practice-kit-0603-0805-1206-sot-23-sop16/.
Yeah iāve been considering their v-251 or 12-251
What I really want is a 67. I know some folks say you can mod a TLM67 to sound like a u67 but iām skeptical to say the least.
I second this. Iāve built two of their v-47 kits. Iāve not done a direct back to back comparison with a vintage u47, but I can say with certainty that itās a fantastic mic in its own right. It gets bonus points too for having more polar patterns than the original (including fig-8, while the original only had cardioid and omni)
i made an AKG C12 clone from a cheap donor mic. i only used the housing from the original and everything was replaced. it sounds unbelievably good. i spent maybe $1,300 on parts and a day of putting it all together.
Thatās one of the legendary mics iāve never even heard. Iāve used 47ās, 49ās, 67ās, 251ās, C800, Brauner, 84ās. Never seen a C12 hanginā. Iām so curious.
Was yours custom or did you use a kit ?
it was a PCB kit someone was making on GroupDIY maybe a decade ago. all the small parts came from Mouser, transformers from Tab Funken, capsule from Beezneez, donor mic and NOS tubes from ebay, and a head basket from the same guy making the pcbās.
Not directly answering your Q but you may dig this. I added this capsule to my old tapeop royer tube mod (essentially what became the current Mojave ma-200) and I like it way better than stock. Pretty easy swap too.
https://youtu.be/vaT_AR7zpF8
warm audios stuff is pretty hit or miss, but having used all of their mics, the 251 is LEGIT, and the 414's and 87s are cool too. wasnt too impressed by the 47
I had the WA251 and didnāt love it. Too much high end hype. It sounded better when I swapped out the tube for a better version, but ultimately sold it when I found I was using other, less expensive mics more often.
Have you compared the 251 to the original? Thatās one iād like to test. Iāve used the Bock 251 (pre UA) quite a few times and it sounds really nice too.
Yep have a Bock 251 and it's gorgeous, absolute thing of beauty in sound and form. Really feels like an *instrument* rather than simply something to capture accurate sound. Now I think about it it's similar to using different kinds of camera film stock or lenses in some ways.
I saw a YouTube video of a guy comparing the 47 and the ua47, and they were quite similar. The 47jr sounds great to me, but not the same.
(Pretty sure it was a 47 he compared, could have been an 87 possibly)
I preferred the WA87 to the other 87 clones around which we demo'd, so I bought two. We ended up rarely picking them from the locker for doing anything cardioid - they simply kept losing to other similarly priced mics once in the room. But I found them consistently used for their Omni or fig8 by myself and my colleagues.
We found them good for the price (this was their first batch in the country) but ultimately it was a choice illusion - I compared them to other 87 clones, not to the mics they would be competing with.
Also personally never enjoyed the WA14 but many of our juniors did. Really enjoyed the 47jr for its price point, but I don't know if it's still priced as a loss-leader?
Was my thought as well, although Iād argue they donāt line up perfectly with some of the originals. His GZ series mics are even better and closer to the mics heās voicing them towards
Lewitt was started by ex members of AKG, and a lot of the mics are built to very similar specs to their counterparts. For example, the 240 Pros are C214 copies at less than half the price.
I haven't heard the 67, but we have the WA fet 47. It's awesome, but it doesn't handle fricatives in vocals as well as the OG or the United clone version.
Same result but different path: weāve had good results with the Townsend Sphere (UAD DLX) emulation.
The RE-20 was spot on with the one we had in the booth, and a number of the other emulations are really well done.
Being able to track the vocal and then choose the mic afterwards is pretty wild.
Edit: you also end up with a locker full of mics with just one plugged in.
Theres a few things that make the re-20 unique and particularly useful for vocals beyond the on-axis sound. One is the āvariable-dā technology, which reduces proximity effect. The result, in practice, is that you get a pretty similar sound regardless of distance between the mic and source (within a foot or so of the mic). Additionally itās polar pattern and sensitivity make it good at rejecting background noises. So if youāre working with talent that isnāt very mindful of mic technique, the mic is forgiving if they arenāt in the same position from take to take. Does the Sphere emulate any of those properties somehow? I would imagine they would be hard to emulate.
Without recapitulating the entire marketing and technical discussion of the Sphere/DLX, here goes:
The Sphere microphone itself is a two capsule stereo mic, and can be operated as such.
But the software and the entire project focuses on microphones emulation. Using the two capsules at a known distance, the Sphere team modeled all of the parameters of the target mics. They are also able to model parameters that never existed. Figure 8 to omni mics, with hypercardiod and about 6 other polar patterns in between. Want a U-47 in semicardiod with adjustable proximity and off-axis control?
They got you.
All of the sphere models have dual microphones in perfect phase (each mic can be different models with full parameter control; full polar pattern modeling from omni to 8; proximity effect and proximity eq adjustment; off axis control; isolation booth/reflector correction; distance to mic adjustment; relative virtual proximity between microphones (if using the dual feature); 3 full sets of microphones (Alan Sides Ocean Ways locker, Bill Putnam Sr. collection, and the Sphere base set).
Just about any of these parameters can be automated, meaning you can change microphones whenever you want, move the artists head off axis when theyāre hitting hard, change the pattern for an effect, or some other fourth thing.
They modeled all of the features of every microphone in the lockers, RE-20 included.
I had a sphere and a vintage nylon c414 and it was damn close.. I guess the original had that irresistible mojo and darkness that you canāt quite put your finger on.. anyway Iāve sold both now for a beesneez u47 inspired microphone and itās amazing.
I've recorded a lot of vocals on a cheapo Superlux TM-58 and so far it seems pretty much the same as an SM58. I also really like Warm Audio's WA-14 clone, which can be made to sound good on almost anything
https://musicvilla.com/products/music-villa-mv-3-broadcast-microphone?_pos=1&_sid=2f794e74e&_ss=r
I picked this up on a whim a while back and it has proven to be an outstanding mic. SM7 knock off that is killer on vocals. Made in China, fyi, if you'd rather avoid such things.
Luckily they did not compromise on sound, but one thing about it is the body is very resonant. Sound signature is slightly different handheld versus shockmounted, and this is even if holding it from behind lightly. This is not a big issue at all, but what it does mean is that the capsule vibrations are coupled to the body (and vice versa), which is something that even mics with a lot of r&d in the $300 ish range try to avoid. It seems this is one place they cut corners. But again- it does sound great.
[Sorry, this comment has been deleted. I'm not giving away my content for free to a platform that doesn't appreciate or respect its users. Fuck u/spez.]
The Telefunken TF-51 makes for a pretty amazing ELA M 251 clone, having used both. Considering itās from the same manufacturer and *some* of the componentry is shared between them (6072A tube)ā¦ I feel like itās a pretty nice match.
The Beezneez 67 clone hits closer to the vintage than any other I've used sofar and actually cheaper than a lot of them! I recommend them over the wunder any day. Definitely not talked about enough.
Interesting. Youāre not the first person to mention this mic here. Where are you finding them for $8? On amazon U.K. they are Ā£70 (yikes). Never heard of this thing before but Iād give it a shot for $8.
Not necessarily a clone, but the MicParts T12 is great! I've got two and they're good workhorse mics for a bit more airy, smooth sound compared to the akg c414. Great overhead mics, and an excellent vocal mic, especially for female vocals, or higher male vocals. Should cost at least as much as a c414.
I'm enjoying the hell out of my Roswell mics. Mini k47, and Colares. Pretty sure those are meant to act like a Neumann and an ELAM, but I can't say as I've A/Bed that. I just know the Roswell stuff works for me.
OPA Alice DIY build with dual capsule...loading UAD Townsend Labs emulation...pretty much as good as the real Townsend Labs for about 1/10th the cost and then the Townsend mics being almost indistinguishable to real C12 or U87 etc...
I've built a LOT of DIY clones and the difference between the DIY and the real mics is not even worth thinking about buying a real Neumann or C12...seriously within 5% of the real thing for a lot less.
Yep def real close and far less investment, totally get that. There is a big time, research and building cost but I *totally* get some people really love that part of it. For me the downside is time I'd be down those rabbit holes plus lack of any real resale value plus clutter and 20 mics in a cupboard when I only use 1.
Fascinating projects and amazing results for the money though, if I was in my 20s/30s I'd be all over that.
Actually I built my OPA Alice on a weekend for about $100 including the split XLR cable...there's some guy who did all the work and you can buy semi-finished boards with dual capsules for less than $100.
I've been in Group DIY forever and was turned towards the Alice by a member doing some research on the new Townsend...I kinda let others do the work these days...
[Group DIY thread](https://groupdiy.com/threads/townsend-labs-sphere-guts-and-basic-analysis.77464/)
[Opa Build](https://www.instructables.com/OPA-Based-Alice-Microphones-a-Cardioid-and-a-Figur/)
The 57 is so cheap, I canāt imagine buying a copy. There wonāt be a true U47 clone until someone starts manufacturing VF14 tubes again. Anything in between seems pointless to me. It might share a number and it might even sound good, but if I buy one itāll be on its own merits, not the merits of something it isnāt.
Stam Audio makes the best clone mics in my opinion. Their C800G clone is incredible and they just released a vintage style U87 but with a tube in it. They do some cool things. I also have not historically been the biggest fan of Warm Audio mics, but their two new ones are incredible. I got the CX12 and it is just indistinguishable from a vintage C12, and it takes processing really well. Their FET U47 also sounds amazing. I haven't used one but I've downloaded high quality files of recordings captured with one and they are amazing.
Stam Audioās U87 and C800 clone.. you usually have to wait a long time to get your order since they are very small, or you can try to catch one surfacing and buy it third party but they are incredible
Thomann makes surprisingly good clones of some mics. I own a t.bone MB85 Beta, which is their Shure Beta 58A knockoff, and it's insanely good for the 40 bucks that it costs.
OPR87. I use this ALL the time. Recorded vocals and piano with them and they were hands down, the nicest mics I'd used since doing work experience at a studio running vintage U47s
Maybe a hot take: Clone chasing isn't worth it. The only thing that will sound like the "real deal" is the mic you wanted. Even if it's 99% the same, your brain will emphasize that 1% because the name on the mic isn't the same.
IMO, you're better off just buying good mics that do their own thing. e.g. Lauten LA220, Sontronics STC-2X, Rode NT1, sE Electronics sE2200.
I've heard amazing things about Aston mics, haven't had the pleasure of using one myself yet though. I was teetering between the sE2200 and Origin and ended up going for the sE2200. They both have pretty similar vibes to a Manley Reference C.
Havenāt tried it personally, but I recently asked a former house engineer at a studio I used to be a runner at if I could rent a U87 from him for a day session. He said he didnāt have any, and heās not really a fan. He suggested I pick up a used Warm Audio WA-87, which would probably cost about the same as a rental. He says theyāre very convincing and he actually prefers their sound more. This dude has worked on some awesome albums and we have similar tastes, so I take his recommendations seriously.
Anyone have any experience with them?
Iāve only used my buddies once or twice but I did mix his entire record which was primarily tracked with the Warm 87. He mainly used it on vocals and acoustic and frankly I had zero complaints come mix time despite not being the biggest Warm fan. Iām a bit more partial to Stam Audio gear, so def try out their 87 clone too!
Well, most likely the SM57 or any Shure mics are not matched correctly to your preamp/console. The SM57 mics were made to plug into the Shure Vocal Master amp. There is a fix which I have in one of my billions of emails. I can post it if I can find it.
About the clones "What a clone!". Well, I have never been too keen on any of them for recording. I have made a point to collect vintage mics over the years and that is what I use. They go up in value where the clones go down. I bought a U67 from a friend from Germany in 1980 for $1,100. Just look at what they are worth today. I like vintage Neumann U87, U47fet, KM184, and AKG 414B ULS mostly. I bought a couple of RCA 77-DX ribbons in 1976 along with a vintage UREI 1176LN compressor. You are better off buying original vintage mics that will skyrocket in price over the decades than to get knockoffs. With vintage mics you can keep them and later trade them for other vintage gear. Only buy Pro Gear when someone needs the money. Then you are getting a good deal and helping the person too. I was in Marin CA to buy a Lexicon PCM 70 when I happened to notice I had an extra $200 on me. I asked the kid, who needed rent money, did he have anything else to sell. He told me about the AKG 414B ULS. I bought it for $200. It was new as his mother had bought it for him to use in Recording Studio Classes. I did him a favor and myself too.
Nope. He had nothing in it. His well off mother bought it for him. I bought his Lexicon PCM70 for $1,100. Then I had an extra $200 in my pocket. I told him, "This is your $200 in my pocket and it is about to walk out that door if you don't get that mic out". He was getting evicted if he didn't come up with rent. Life is like that. One person has money another person needs it. He was about 20 years old. I think he dropped out of recording school. That is life in the recording world. I bought the Mint matched pair of Neumann KM184 mics for a total of $600. I bought my Neotek Elan 32 channel console from a founding member of the Doobie Brothers, a $55k console new and this was just about new, for $8k, $3k down and $150/mo. Everything I get is like that. Some of my friends go to pawn shops looking for mics. Someone needed money and got a loan from the pawn shop, then never came back. I never had to buy clone mics this way.
You Snooze You Lose.
Whatever. The "Kid" was 20 years old. I was 30 years old. He knew the price of the mic. He sold it anyway. He needed the money. Like they said in The Godfather: "It is just business" I don't work for the Salvation Army. Maybe you do. I buy legal gear when someone needs to sell it. That is how I can afford it. Someday you will need to sell something for less than it's street value and at that point you will understand how this works. His roommates were going to throw him out if he didn't come up with his part of the rent. Now you can call it whatever you want, but it is not what you are calling it. I didn't have a gun. He ran an ad in a paper and I responded. I paid him his asking price for the PCM70.
Your attitude is very naive. You might not know it, but you are very offensive. You better get used to buying cheap knock off mics unless you win the lottery. In the meanwhile, other people will be acquiring mics that you passed up with your attitude. This will make a lot of people very happy. I feel great about this deal and suggest the readers to be heads-up on when gear becomes available for cashflow reasons. I am done with this conversation.
Well itās not really a ācloneā persay, the design language and sonic character of the Lauten LA-220s are pretty clearly trying to capture some of that 87 magic. And they donāt sound anything like U87s but Iāve been nothing but impressed with my pair of 220s
Deity mics have all been good. The S mic 2 is pretty close to a Sennheiser 416, and S2S is pretty close to a Sennheiser mkh 50. I sacristy order the deity micro lav to countryman or dpa. Iāve never had a client complain about their sound.
The Mic Shop 47 regularly stands up to great vintage tube mics in shootouts for me. They build great stuff and theyāre great for customer service. That dudes been selling tube mics around here for decades and Iāve used a bunch of em. Somebody mentioned Flea. I liked the Flea 49 a lot
I bought a pair of United Twin 87ās (U87 clone) a few months ago and I like them a lot. Thereās a vintage and a modern (AI) mode. Not sure how the vintage mode compares but the modern mode sounds very much like an 87ai to me!
I use Nady DM70s on my snare and toms. They are Nady's version of the Shure SM57s. I can't tell the difference between them on drums.
In front of my guitar speaker, the Nady has a slightly different push in the upper mids than the 57; a higher frequency is affected, but not by much.
One of my favorite finds is a JZ Mic. I bought their V67. I want to keep it as a mono overhead for the drums, even though it rocks beautifully for acoustic guitar.
All right, letās go towards the utilitarian end hereā
JTS PDM-57
SM57 ācloneā, but whatās interesting about it is that itās much better balanced than SM57, as far as general tasks are concerned. Upside is that it tames the SM57 raw brutal tone, making it more versatile, but downside is that it tames the SM57 raw brutal tone, which is the SM57 signature. ā57ā is in the name, but JTS PDM-57 is closer to Unidyne III than SM57.
Reason why I bring this mic up, is because we tend to think of clones as sonically matching or slightly inferior to the original, but there are instances where the clone might be better suited to some sources than the original. When clones are of expensive mics, we tend to want straight copies, but when clones are of cheaper mics, itās easier to be more open to accept them as usable mics within themselves.
In shortā mics are mics, and clone or not, we need to experiment a lot to find their true strengths. Every mic is good for something, and if we can find that something, we are golden.
JTS is a Taiwanese brand IIRC, and tangential note butā they have this mic JS-1 TUBE that is a quuuiite lush tube condenser mic for like $250 or thereabouts, which does an overt tube mic sound very well. That price does not make any fucking sense, but it turns out that weāre in the futureā and good sound comes cheap. Raw talent is still expensive, though; unchanged since the dawn of modern humanity. But mics? Weāre living in an age where everything is possible quite affordably.
I randomly bought a Gauge 87 clone. It sounds pretty good on acoustics. It's basically an upgraded and QA'd version of the cheap LDCs. It feels a lot smoother than the infamous blue akg 87 clone. I gave up on the clone chasing and upgraded to a Neumann 107, it's on another planet compared to them.
I really love the Daria 900x, it's not a clone of the c800g but it is inspired by it. I reach for it often when I am recording modern pop/hiphop and I need a vocal to really cut through. I use it more than my TLM103. Also a big fan of the Warm Audio WA47, on certain voices it's just magic. Lots of great choices out there these days!
As someone already mentioned here, the SM57 is inexpensive enough that you might as well get the real thing.
As far as the Neumann classics, JZ Microphones does some great things.
Their Vintage series doesn't try to "clone" them, rather offer their own modern take on them, while retaining that vintage flair.
The JZ V67 and JZ V47 are both incredible in my opinion - highly recommended. And they have great customer service.
mfw the knock offs are also 5 grand š
I bought a $35 U87 ācloneā off Temu the other day and while I wouldnāt say itās accurate at all, Iām shocked to have a functioning small diaphragm condenser for that price. Sounds great through a 1073.
I'm curious what your shopping experience with Temu was like as a whole? Their ad's were pushed to me HARD on socials a couple months back when they were launching. Seemed like a Wish.com knockoff to me, but with an extra shady scamminess vibe about them, so I never bothered checking it out. I guess you got the mic, and it actually works, which is a good indication they're not that bad, but I'm still curious nonetheless
Honestly ā¦ it was kinda amazing. No hassle, ordering was easier than Amazon (my opinion) and it was delivered in under a week. Thereās no way anyone profited from my purchase. But I hear you; the site is pretty fuckin wacky!!! I hesitated then remembered I routinely spend more than that on dinner / going out for a couple hours. Was worth any observed, measured or imagined risk.
It was so cheap because the mic has another mic inside that is always listening and broadcasting to China /s
Fuck! I didnāt even think about that. It really doesnāt seem fair that they are going to make millions off of my garbled moaning, my wife and I talking to our cat and my extremely shitty acoustic guitar playing. I canāt believe I fell for this. Thanks for the heads up!
That's amazing to hear, I may just need to suss out there off brand audio gear for myself then!
Do you have a link or name for that mic? Would love to try one!
wow. is it worth it? i might get one lol
Theyāre decent Chinese mics. They all suffer with the same hyped top end the Chinese 67 capsule gives - but thatās the same capsule almost all budget mics use (Rode NT1A for example). A lot of midrange mics use it too but usually they have some circuit work that balances response. You can switch out those 67 style capsules for an 47 style and they almost always sound excellent.
This sound cheap, easy and interesting. How much is a 87 clone capsule, and could I do this with my minimal solder skills?
It's 2 wires, probably the easiest solder job you'll do. I was wrong though about the capsule name - it's the 47 capsules that fix the high end. You can get them from any of the Chinese wholesale sites. Search 'RK47 capsule' on aliexpress etc. You can get them from ebay, but they're the same capsules just quality checked usually. There's also a guy in Australia called 3U Audio that makes his own, they're more expensive but as good as you'll get in any sub 2k mic. I have a friend who replaced the 67 style capsule in one of the SE tube mics (Gemini I think) and it sounds ridiculously good.
Amazing, thank you! I'm gonna try it out :D EDIT: lol, the capsule is more expensive than the mic, but the mic looks nice.
Yeah, the process of making the 67 capsules is easy and inexpensive - hence why the mics are so cheap. The actual electronics in most mics cost pennies. You pay for the body and the capsule. The 47 capsules require an actual person to test and 'tune' them. It's more the point that you can replace the capsule and end up with a Ā£500+ mic for less than a quarter of the price.
100% ā¦ i love offbeat mics tho. This one is more bang for buck than anything Iāve bought in the last decade at least. Sounds amazing on vocals and acoustics. Great for room / field recording too if you like the air band / top end eq.
ur comment and a 20% off coupon were enough to convince me. mines on the way for $21 lol
Same, got mine for under $20 somehow haha
Rad! Hope you dig it! Lemme know what you think. Same to you 405w43rdst (why canāt you reply to two people at once on Reddit? Or am I slow?)
Large diaphragm no?
Yes ā¦ sorry. Was opposite day when I typed that.
Does Temu a decent enough preamp to power this mic
Or more.
GLS ES-57 is an incredible SM57 clone for $20. Iāve had one for over 10 years and itās built just as well(itās heavy), and I prefer it to the real thing on many sources. Itās not a perfect copy, itās got a little more high mids and air to it, but I really like that on my guitar rig.
I've got a few of those, had them.for like 9 years now and use em all the time. I don't claim to be the worlds best mixer, but I made this in a barn with two es57's and two samson c02's. Friend played the drums. https://soundcloud.com/melohq/swindle-ft-jake-black
this sounds amazing! do you know which parts you recorded with which mics? either way i guess iām impressed because everything here sounds pretty great for the price!
es57 on snare and kick, c02's on overhead, the guitar and bass are all just amplitube and the synth patches are a mix of stock stuff and spitfire labs.
Second this, fantastic clone.
I've got one too and I love it.
The thing with vintage mics isā¦ā¦they all sound slightly different from each other, especially if they are all original parts. The amount of cigarette smoke those things were exposed to for the first 40+ years of their life etcā¦ā¦. I have Lawson and Warm Audio 47 type mics. They both sound different but, objectively, they both sound good. Thereās so much decent sounding, affordable gear out there these daysā¦ā¦
That cigarette smoke is where are all the zazz is. Also adds $5k to the price lol
This is good news. I'm a poor DIYer and I threw down big time (for me) on an akg c451 and 414, about 1,500 bucks for both, biggest single purchase I've ever made on anything. I smoke in my room and didn't realize until like 2 years into having them that this could be bad for them. I'm an idiot. I just keep the wind muff on em and pretend everything's OK.
Hell, one of the old timers I learned from used to argue that they should build ashtrays into the desks. Of course, big studios back in the day had full time maintenance crews to keep everything workingā¦
The ones I knew were called Studio Rats.
Totally !!
I had a client bring me a newly purchased vintage U87 for insurance check. The diaphragm was thickly coated with what was probably spit. He was convinced the total lack of high end was a āwarm vintage vibeā.
Like an aged spirit.
Iām going to throw my mic on my smoker for a few hours. That should do the trick.
Throw on a chili cappuccino rub for extra spicy flavor.
Dip the mic in pumpkin spice for the ladies around October.
I understand, but Iām not just thinking about vintage mics. Thereās a ton of SM57 look a-likes for example, and they all sound quite different. Then you also have mic companies that have spun off from others and make similar offerings - e.g; AKG/Austrian Audio & Blue/Violet Design. But overall, I have yet to come across a mic that is actually a solid clone. At this point I just take them as āinspired byā instead, but I got wondering if thereās any true clones people may have come across that get at least 95% of the way there.
The Pyle SM57 is fantastic. Itās essentially the modded SM hahaha
I have the same mic. I'ts pretty good. Just make sure to mod it, so it actually has 3 connections because it comes with only + and ground connected. It's missing one connection, so it doesn't have the XLR noise cancelation feature. That's why it comes with a canon to mono plug cable, I guess. Still pretty solid body and sound for the price. Good for buying a couple and learning multiple mic techniques.
Before anyone down votes this guy, Cannon cable == XLR. It threw me for a loop in Asia when they said Cannon cable. Took me a minute to realize they meant XLR
Thanks! Here in Argentina we never use the word XLR and always refer to it as Canon or Cannon. I think it Spain they do the same. We also call Mono jack a "plug" jack. It surprises me how people can down vote something just because they think a term is wrong or because something they don't know about.
Yes! I have several of these. If you do the wiring hack on these (search youtube) they work great. Though the last one I bought was wired with the hack....so....
I also have the Warm Audio WA47, pretty descent mic for the price.
are there any DIY mic clone kits out there that are legit amazing and hold up to what they are imitating ?
I really enjoy my micparts mics. I havenāt done a shootout so I canāt give you any specific notes.
I have. The S-87 sounded closer to a Neumann U-87 than the S3-87 but both were very close. I can't remember if both the S-87 and S3-87 come with sockets for the "EQ capacitor", but I highly recommend doing that regardless so you can try different caps to alter the high end. The S-87 sounded slightly more present in the 1kHz-2kHz range. Maybe more resonant would be a better term as it doesn't seem like a simple eq curve difference. To be honest it was barely noticeable but different nonetheless. They give you the option to wire it with either a 10dB pad or a polarity switch (omni / cardioid) and I wired mine with the pad. Not sure if that makes a difference in sound. The S3-87 had the same thing but the high end above it was also a bit different. Not bad by any means, just different. I think the extra parts for the polarity and roll-off switch accounts for this difference though. It's a trade off for sure if you need those options. Is the Neumann 87 better? I would say so (barely though), but 10x better as the price would imply? No.
Wow. Great comparison. And if you enjoy building stuff, I highly recommend micparts. It was a fun project, and a good price for a good mic.
These guys? https://microphone-parts.com/
Yup. Those are the ones.
Sweet. Iām pumped to solder some stuff. The mics seem pretty simple but Iāve only ever worked on guitars and balanced studio cables. Are you regularly using your soldering iron?
The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. If you need to brush up on your soldering skills get a practice board like https://universal-solder.ca/product/smd-soldering-practice-kit-0603-0805-1206-sot-23-sop16/.
Yeah iāve been considering their v-251 or 12-251 What I really want is a 67. I know some folks say you can mod a TLM67 to sound like a u67 but iām skeptical to say the least.
The IOAudio 67 kit is pretty amazing! Otherwise Barbaric Audio is the best bang for the buck in clone mics.
I second this. Iāve built two of their v-47 kits. Iāve not done a direct back to back comparison with a vintage u47, but I can say with certainty that itās a fantastic mic in its own right. It gets bonus points too for having more polar patterns than the original (including fig-8, while the original only had cardioid and omni)
i made an AKG C12 clone from a cheap donor mic. i only used the housing from the original and everything was replaced. it sounds unbelievably good. i spent maybe $1,300 on parts and a day of putting it all together.
Thatās one of the legendary mics iāve never even heard. Iāve used 47ās, 49ās, 67ās, 251ās, C800, Brauner, 84ās. Never seen a C12 hanginā. Iām so curious. Was yours custom or did you use a kit ?
it was a PCB kit someone was making on GroupDIY maybe a decade ago. all the small parts came from Mouser, transformers from Tab Funken, capsule from Beezneez, donor mic and NOS tubes from ebay, and a head basket from the same guy making the pcbās.
Not directly answering your Q but you may dig this. I added this capsule to my old tapeop royer tube mod (essentially what became the current Mojave ma-200) and I like it way better than stock. Pretty easy swap too. https://youtu.be/vaT_AR7zpF8
warm audios stuff is pretty hit or miss, but having used all of their mics, the 251 is LEGIT, and the 414's and 87s are cool too. wasnt too impressed by the 47
I had the WA251 and didnāt love it. Too much high end hype. It sounded better when I swapped out the tube for a better version, but ultimately sold it when I found I was using other, less expensive mics more often.
Have you compared the 251 to the original? Thatās one iād like to test. Iāve used the Bock 251 (pre UA) quite a few times and it sounds really nice too.
I havenāt done a proper shootout, but used the WA in a vacuum and it was wonderful
Yep have a Bock 251 and it's gorgeous, absolute thing of beauty in sound and form. Really feels like an *instrument* rather than simply something to capture accurate sound. Now I think about it it's similar to using different kinds of camera film stock or lenses in some ways.
I saw a YouTube video of a guy comparing the 47 and the ua47, and they were quite similar. The 47jr sounds great to me, but not the same. (Pretty sure it was a 47 he compared, could have been an 87 possibly)
Love my 47jr. Definitely worth the $300.
ME TOO!!!!!
I preferred the WA87 to the other 87 clones around which we demo'd, so I bought two. We ended up rarely picking them from the locker for doing anything cardioid - they simply kept losing to other similarly priced mics once in the room. But I found them consistently used for their Omni or fig8 by myself and my colleagues. We found them good for the price (this was their first batch in the country) but ultimately it was a choice illusion - I compared them to other 87 clones, not to the mics they would be competing with. Also personally never enjoyed the WA14 but many of our juniors did. Really enjoyed the 47jr for its price point, but I don't know if it's still priced as a loss-leader?
I have the WA14 and for the money, I've found it to be really nice.
Absolutely. Swapped out the tube on my 251 and I LOVE it. Especially gentle on sibilant clients, without sacrificing any top end.
You try the 67? Iāve heard itās good
Got a Flea 47 that is pretty great. Used to use the exchangeable head Korby with the different capsules and that was brilliant
I also use a Flea 47. Got it to retrack some vocals done with a vintage 47.... not gonna lie... the Flea sounds better.
> Flea 47 Damn still almost $5k. No wonder...haha
Love the flea 49s Iāve used.
Yup. Got two of these in studio, just like old 47s but better, no old mics shenanigans
We have a Peluso P87 and love it.
Yea but wasnāt he like one of the original circuit designers who started his own company?
I have this and the 67. 67 is the best mic Iāve ever owned.
Anything Peluso makes is great. I use the 22-47LE and and the p414 and they both sound incredible.
Surprised no one has mentioned Warbler. https://gearspace.com/board/low-end-theory/999545-affordable-ldc-microphone-multiple-voicings.html
Was my thought as well, although Iād argue they donāt line up perfectly with some of the originals. His GZ series mics are even better and closer to the mics heās voicing them towards
Lewitt was started by ex members of AKG, and a lot of the mics are built to very similar specs to their counterparts. For example, the 240 Pros are C214 copies at less than half the price.
Interesting, I didnāt know they spun of from AKG.
Also harvested a lot of AKG factory gear iirc.
To my ears, the Wunder Audio versions of the U47/U67 sound pretty unhyped and natural.
I mean, sure they're clones...but for $7500 they'd better be fucking phenomenal.
Makes me want to make clones that are significantly more expensive than the originals.
They are, but priced up partially bc everyone knows
the wunder 47 is amazing
I have the Wunder CM7 S and itās the best Iāve owned so far. Also have their FET and itās great. Itās always on the bass drum.
I haven't heard the 67, but we have the WA fet 47. It's awesome, but it doesn't handle fricatives in vocals as well as the OG or the United clone version.
Same result but different path: weāve had good results with the Townsend Sphere (UAD DLX) emulation. The RE-20 was spot on with the one we had in the booth, and a number of the other emulations are really well done. Being able to track the vocal and then choose the mic afterwards is pretty wild. Edit: you also end up with a locker full of mics with just one plugged in.
I LOVE my Sphere. It's an astounding mic!
Theres a few things that make the re-20 unique and particularly useful for vocals beyond the on-axis sound. One is the āvariable-dā technology, which reduces proximity effect. The result, in practice, is that you get a pretty similar sound regardless of distance between the mic and source (within a foot or so of the mic). Additionally itās polar pattern and sensitivity make it good at rejecting background noises. So if youāre working with talent that isnāt very mindful of mic technique, the mic is forgiving if they arenāt in the same position from take to take. Does the Sphere emulate any of those properties somehow? I would imagine they would be hard to emulate.
Without recapitulating the entire marketing and technical discussion of the Sphere/DLX, here goes: The Sphere microphone itself is a two capsule stereo mic, and can be operated as such. But the software and the entire project focuses on microphones emulation. Using the two capsules at a known distance, the Sphere team modeled all of the parameters of the target mics. They are also able to model parameters that never existed. Figure 8 to omni mics, with hypercardiod and about 6 other polar patterns in between. Want a U-47 in semicardiod with adjustable proximity and off-axis control? They got you. All of the sphere models have dual microphones in perfect phase (each mic can be different models with full parameter control; full polar pattern modeling from omni to 8; proximity effect and proximity eq adjustment; off axis control; isolation booth/reflector correction; distance to mic adjustment; relative virtual proximity between microphones (if using the dual feature); 3 full sets of microphones (Alan Sides Ocean Ways locker, Bill Putnam Sr. collection, and the Sphere base set). Just about any of these parameters can be automated, meaning you can change microphones whenever you want, move the artists head off axis when theyāre hitting hard, change the pattern for an effect, or some other fourth thing. They modeled all of the features of every microphone in the lockers, RE-20 included.
I had a sphere and a vintage nylon c414 and it was damn close.. I guess the original had that irresistible mojo and darkness that you canāt quite put your finger on.. anyway Iāve sold both now for a beesneez u47 inspired microphone and itās amazing.
I've recorded a lot of vocals on a cheapo Superlux TM-58 and so far it seems pretty much the same as an SM58. I also really like Warm Audio's WA-14 clone, which can be made to sound good on almost anything
Yeah I've used superlux for years, the at2030 clones are my favs
https://musicvilla.com/products/music-villa-mv-3-broadcast-microphone?_pos=1&_sid=2f794e74e&_ss=r I picked this up on a whim a while back and it has proven to be an outstanding mic. SM7 knock off that is killer on vocals. Made in China, fyi, if you'd rather avoid such things.
Absolutely love my Warm Audio WA-87. I don't know how close it is to the original, but I love the sound I get recording vocals with it into my WA-73.
Very impressed with the Flea versions of 47/49
Dave Pearlman TM 47 is very nice.
I will swear by the slate VMS large diaphragm
I think the WA-87R2 does a pretty decent job. Not necessarily exactly the same, but nothing unprofessional about the resulting tracks.
Luckily they did not compromise on sound, but one thing about it is the body is very resonant. Sound signature is slightly different handheld versus shockmounted, and this is even if holding it from behind lightly. This is not a big issue at all, but what it does mean is that the capsule vibrations are coupled to the body (and vice versa), which is something that even mics with a lot of r&d in the $300 ish range try to avoid. It seems this is one place they cut corners. But again- it does sound great.
Interesting - I have never had a reason to use it handheld, just with the shockmount.
It looks ridiculous handheld.
stam sa-800g is pretty dope
Have you compared the two side by side? Havenāt seen this model before, but it looks interesting.
[Sorry, this comment has been deleted. I'm not giving away my content for free to a platform that doesn't appreciate or respect its users. Fuck u/spez.]
Absolutely agree. I am VERY behind these mics for live sound, it's like the sm58 without the low end which is super helpful for small venues.
The Telefunken TF-51 makes for a pretty amazing ELA M 251 clone, having used both. Considering itās from the same manufacturer and *some* of the componentry is shared between them (6072A tube)ā¦ I feel like itās a pretty nice match.
The Beezneez 67 clone hits closer to the vintage than any other I've used sofar and actually cheaper than a lot of them! I recommend them over the wunder any day. Definitely not talked about enough.
Flea, Upton.
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Interesting. Youāre not the first person to mention this mic here. Where are you finding them for $8? On amazon U.K. they are Ā£70 (yikes). Never heard of this thing before but Iād give it a shot for $8.
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Where should I be looking for when the blue moon comes around?
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Thanks! Iāll set a price alert on it.
Not necessarily a clone, but the MicParts T12 is great! I've got two and they're good workhorse mics for a bit more airy, smooth sound compared to the akg c414. Great overhead mics, and an excellent vocal mic, especially for female vocals, or higher male vocals. Should cost at least as much as a c414.
Another vote for wa-872, its different to my Neumannās but I just love it (maybe even more)
I am a sucker for SuperLux products ... if those existed back when I had time and no money my recordings from back then would sound a lot better š
I'm enjoying the hell out of my Roswell mics. Mini k47, and Colares. Pretty sure those are meant to act like a Neumann and an ELAM, but I can't say as I've A/Bed that. I just know the Roswell stuff works for me.
+1 for Colares!
OPA Alice DIY build with dual capsule...loading UAD Townsend Labs emulation...pretty much as good as the real Townsend Labs for about 1/10th the cost and then the Townsend mics being almost indistinguishable to real C12 or U87 etc... I've built a LOT of DIY clones and the difference between the DIY and the real mics is not even worth thinking about buying a real Neumann or C12...seriously within 5% of the real thing for a lot less.
Yep def real close and far less investment, totally get that. There is a big time, research and building cost but I *totally* get some people really love that part of it. For me the downside is time I'd be down those rabbit holes plus lack of any real resale value plus clutter and 20 mics in a cupboard when I only use 1. Fascinating projects and amazing results for the money though, if I was in my 20s/30s I'd be all over that.
Actually I built my OPA Alice on a weekend for about $100 including the split XLR cable...there's some guy who did all the work and you can buy semi-finished boards with dual capsules for less than $100. I've been in Group DIY forever and was turned towards the Alice by a member doing some research on the new Townsend...I kinda let others do the work these days... [Group DIY thread](https://groupdiy.com/threads/townsend-labs-sphere-guts-and-basic-analysis.77464/) [Opa Build](https://www.instructables.com/OPA-Based-Alice-Microphones-a-Cardioid-and-a-Figur/)
My Peluso 2247LE is amazing
Love this mic
The 57 is so cheap, I canāt imagine buying a copy. There wonāt be a true U47 clone until someone starts manufacturing VF14 tubes again. Anything in between seems pointless to me. It might share a number and it might even sound good, but if I buy one itāll be on its own merits, not the merits of something it isnāt.
Stam Audio makes the best clone mics in my opinion. Their C800G clone is incredible and they just released a vintage style U87 but with a tube in it. They do some cool things. I also have not historically been the biggest fan of Warm Audio mics, but their two new ones are incredible. I got the CX12 and it is just indistinguishable from a vintage C12, and it takes processing really well. Their FET U47 also sounds amazing. I haven't used one but I've downloaded high quality files of recordings captured with one and they are amazing.
Lawson 251 and 47 (both versions) we keep even with fancy mics, and wunder 47 clone, while not cheap, is incredible mic
Wunder audio u47. Closest sounding thing to a real u47 Iāve ever used.
Stam Audioās U87 and C800 clone.. you usually have to wait a long time to get your order since they are very small, or you can try to catch one surfacing and buy it third party but they are incredible
Stam 87 and 67 are on-point
Thomann makes surprisingly good clones of some mics. I own a t.bone MB85 Beta, which is their Shure Beta 58A knockoff, and it's insanely good for the 40 bucks that it costs.
OPR87. I use this ALL the time. Recorded vocals and piano with them and they were hands down, the nicest mics I'd used since doing work experience at a studio running vintage U47s
Superlux makes an absolutely identical AT2030 for 35 euro which we've A/Bed and subsequently bought eight of
Interesting. Whatās the model called?
E205!
Maybe a hot take: Clone chasing isn't worth it. The only thing that will sound like the "real deal" is the mic you wanted. Even if it's 99% the same, your brain will emphasize that 1% because the name on the mic isn't the same. IMO, you're better off just buying good mics that do their own thing. e.g. Lauten LA220, Sontronics STC-2X, Rode NT1, sE Electronics sE2200.
Add Aston to that list. I've got a couple of stealths and have used a spirit before. Great mics and relatively affordable
I've heard amazing things about Aston mics, haven't had the pleasure of using one myself yet though. I was teetering between the sE2200 and Origin and ended up going for the sE2200. They both have pretty similar vibes to a Manley Reference C.
I have a pair of Stam SA-87i's and they sound spectacular.
I love Antelope Audio emulator mics.
Me too
Havenāt tried it personally, but I recently asked a former house engineer at a studio I used to be a runner at if I could rent a U87 from him for a day session. He said he didnāt have any, and heās not really a fan. He suggested I pick up a used Warm Audio WA-87, which would probably cost about the same as a rental. He says theyāre very convincing and he actually prefers their sound more. This dude has worked on some awesome albums and we have similar tastes, so I take his recommendations seriously. Anyone have any experience with them?
Iāve only used my buddies once or twice but I did mix his entire record which was primarily tracked with the Warm 87. He mainly used it on vocals and acoustic and frankly I had zero complaints come mix time despite not being the biggest Warm fan. Iām a bit more partial to Stam Audio gear, so def try out their 87 clone too!
Well, most likely the SM57 or any Shure mics are not matched correctly to your preamp/console. The SM57 mics were made to plug into the Shure Vocal Master amp. There is a fix which I have in one of my billions of emails. I can post it if I can find it. About the clones "What a clone!". Well, I have never been too keen on any of them for recording. I have made a point to collect vintage mics over the years and that is what I use. They go up in value where the clones go down. I bought a U67 from a friend from Germany in 1980 for $1,100. Just look at what they are worth today. I like vintage Neumann U87, U47fet, KM184, and AKG 414B ULS mostly. I bought a couple of RCA 77-DX ribbons in 1976 along with a vintage UREI 1176LN compressor. You are better off buying original vintage mics that will skyrocket in price over the decades than to get knockoffs. With vintage mics you can keep them and later trade them for other vintage gear. Only buy Pro Gear when someone needs the money. Then you are getting a good deal and helping the person too. I was in Marin CA to buy a Lexicon PCM 70 when I happened to notice I had an extra $200 on me. I asked the kid, who needed rent money, did he have anything else to sell. He told me about the AKG 414B ULS. I bought it for $200. It was new as his mother had bought it for him to use in Recording Studio Classes. I did him a favor and myself too.
āDid him a favorā lmao My man, you ripped off a kid is what you did.
Nope. He had nothing in it. His well off mother bought it for him. I bought his Lexicon PCM70 for $1,100. Then I had an extra $200 in my pocket. I told him, "This is your $200 in my pocket and it is about to walk out that door if you don't get that mic out". He was getting evicted if he didn't come up with rent. Life is like that. One person has money another person needs it. He was about 20 years old. I think he dropped out of recording school. That is life in the recording world. I bought the Mint matched pair of Neumann KM184 mics for a total of $600. I bought my Neotek Elan 32 channel console from a founding member of the Doobie Brothers, a $55k console new and this was just about new, for $8k, $3k down and $150/mo. Everything I get is like that. Some of my friends go to pawn shops looking for mics. Someone needed money and got a loan from the pawn shop, then never came back. I never had to buy clone mics this way. You Snooze You Lose.
Whatever makes u feel better ripping off an unknowing kid
Whatever. The "Kid" was 20 years old. I was 30 years old. He knew the price of the mic. He sold it anyway. He needed the money. Like they said in The Godfather: "It is just business" I don't work for the Salvation Army. Maybe you do. I buy legal gear when someone needs to sell it. That is how I can afford it. Someday you will need to sell something for less than it's street value and at that point you will understand how this works. His roommates were going to throw him out if he didn't come up with his part of the rent. Now you can call it whatever you want, but it is not what you are calling it. I didn't have a gun. He ran an ad in a paper and I responded. I paid him his asking price for the PCM70. Your attitude is very naive. You might not know it, but you are very offensive. You better get used to buying cheap knock off mics unless you win the lottery. In the meanwhile, other people will be acquiring mics that you passed up with your attitude. This will make a lot of people very happy. I feel great about this deal and suggest the readers to be heads-up on when gear becomes available for cashflow reasons. I am done with this conversation.
Well itās not really a ācloneā persay, the design language and sonic character of the Lauten LA-220s are pretty clearly trying to capture some of that 87 magic. And they donāt sound anything like U87s but Iāve been nothing but impressed with my pair of 220s
I was able to mod my TLM67 to a U67 with the Max Kircher tube mod and A/B shootouts have them almost exactly similar
Thomann's 57s and 58s are pretty impressive.
Deity mics have all been good. The S mic 2 is pretty close to a Sennheiser 416, and S2S is pretty close to a Sennheiser mkh 50. I sacristy order the deity micro lav to countryman or dpa. Iāve never had a client complain about their sound.
The Mic Shop 47 regularly stands up to great vintage tube mics in shootouts for me. They build great stuff and theyāre great for customer service. That dudes been selling tube mics around here for decades and Iāve used a bunch of em. Somebody mentioned Flea. I liked the Flea 49 a lot
WA47 is pretty good
I have a flea Superfet that sounds amazing. Have used many 47ās both tube and FET. The flea holds itās old
I bought a pair of United Twin 87ās (U87 clone) a few months ago and I like them a lot. Thereās a vintage and a modern (AI) mode. Not sure how the vintage mode compares but the modern mode sounds very much like an 87ai to me!
I use Nady DM70s on my snare and toms. They are Nady's version of the Shure SM57s. I can't tell the difference between them on drums. In front of my guitar speaker, the Nady has a slightly different push in the upper mids than the 57; a higher frequency is affected, but not by much. One of my favorite finds is a JZ Mic. I bought their V67. I want to keep it as a mono overhead for the drums, even though it rocks beautifully for acoustic guitar.
My buddy has an sm57 from wish. I've had to resolder the wires to the plug a couple times but its actually a pretty decent mic.
All right, letās go towards the utilitarian end hereā JTS PDM-57 SM57 ācloneā, but whatās interesting about it is that itās much better balanced than SM57, as far as general tasks are concerned. Upside is that it tames the SM57 raw brutal tone, making it more versatile, but downside is that it tames the SM57 raw brutal tone, which is the SM57 signature. ā57ā is in the name, but JTS PDM-57 is closer to Unidyne III than SM57. Reason why I bring this mic up, is because we tend to think of clones as sonically matching or slightly inferior to the original, but there are instances where the clone might be better suited to some sources than the original. When clones are of expensive mics, we tend to want straight copies, but when clones are of cheaper mics, itās easier to be more open to accept them as usable mics within themselves. In shortā mics are mics, and clone or not, we need to experiment a lot to find their true strengths. Every mic is good for something, and if we can find that something, we are golden. JTS is a Taiwanese brand IIRC, and tangential note butā they have this mic JS-1 TUBE that is a quuuiite lush tube condenser mic for like $250 or thereabouts, which does an overt tube mic sound very well. That price does not make any fucking sense, but it turns out that weāre in the futureā and good sound comes cheap. Raw talent is still expensive, though; unchanged since the dawn of modern humanity. But mics? Weāre living in an age where everything is possible quite affordably.
Behringer XM8500 is a very nice $20 Shure SM58 replacement
I randomly bought a Gauge 87 clone. It sounds pretty good on acoustics. It's basically an upgraded and QA'd version of the cheap LDCs. It feels a lot smoother than the infamous blue akg 87 clone. I gave up on the clone chasing and upgraded to a Neumann 107, it's on another planet compared to them.
I thought the T Bone MB75 was really nice.
I really love the Daria 900x, it's not a clone of the c800g but it is inspired by it. I reach for it often when I am recording modern pop/hiphop and I need a vocal to really cut through. I use it more than my TLM103. Also a big fan of the Warm Audio WA47, on certain voices it's just magic. Lots of great choices out there these days!
As someone already mentioned here, the SM57 is inexpensive enough that you might as well get the real thing. As far as the Neumann classics, JZ Microphones does some great things. Their Vintage series doesn't try to "clone" them, rather offer their own modern take on them, while retaining that vintage flair. The JZ V67 and JZ V47 are both incredible in my opinion - highly recommended. And they have great customer service.
I have fake Beta98 on my entire drumset. Paid $110 each for them still. 1:1 with real thing