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[RegressiveRock]

So, there was a lengthy thread about this I started about this mike a couple of years ago. Broadly, we liked the sound of the mike as a band, but we were not getting on well with it on stage.

Have things changed? No, not really. Eventually, we went for the SE Electronics V7, which is suitably "blingy" for our singer in the Billy Gibbons variant and delivers all the things we want in a loud stage environment, with none of the downsides we experienced with the KSM8.

However, once you are an early adopter of a mike, you either sell it at a loss, or you stick it in the mike locker and find another use for it over time. So, I thought I would report our experiences using it for tracking guitars in a two-mike formation yesterday.

We were recently in the studio tracking 3 covers and 3 originals. As ever, these days, with a limited recording budget, some jobs were left over before sending tracks to mix, including tracking guitar variants.

You may be familiar with the "two mikes" trick when tracking guitars. This was the preferred configuration of the studio's tracking engineer, so we tracked extra guitar layers using this format. The engineer used a ribbon (dark-ish tone) and a special purpose dynamic (light-ish tone). We used an SM57 and, wait for it, the KSM8, as they had noticeably different outcomes when placed on the same amp.

I have to say that initial results are very encouraging. There are a few things that we learned about the mike along the way. The special cartridge design struggled to fully reject a badly shielded power supply on one guitar amp, although it seemed better at it than the SM57 and we simply placed it by another speaker. The mike signal was hotter than the SM57, (but with the different presence characteristics I noted in the earlier thread, which can make it sound "less hot").

Together, however, a huuuuuuuuuge electric guitar sound. I think this is a configuration we will return to again!

Reg

[Dave B]

Always good to know ...

[Sam Inglis]

I'd be interested to know how the KSM-8 compares with other mics that have been designed to minimise the proximity effect. I am a big fan of both the AKG D19 and the D224 / 202 / 222, all of which are great for things like drum and guitar miking, though I don't often get to try them on vocals.

[RegressiveRock]

I'd be interested to know how the KSM-8 compares with other mics that have been designed to minimise the proximity effect. I am a big fan of both the AKG D19 and the D224 / 202 / 222, all of which are great for things like drum and guitar miking, though I don't often get to try them on vocals.

Hi Sam, I think I may have access to a D2xx series mike?