A
couple of years ago as I was going through The Golden Age website
I came across a really interesting looking microphone. The TC3
was a small diaphragm valve condenser mic with three interchangable
capsules and I was really intrigued by the look of it. I had
just tried out a pair of Lauten ST221 Torch small diameter valve
mics but these were £1000 a pair and I'd been fairly undrewhelmed
particularly with the omni capsules Contacting Bo at Golden
Age I discovered that the TC3 had been discontinued because
of lack of demand but he had one lying around and sent it over
to us. We instantly got a really good feeling off the mic and
it went straight into an album session recording guitar. Three
days in it died completely and I later learned from Bo that
it was a return that had been sent back to Golden Age with an
intermittent fault! We had a quick look but it seemed terminal
and so we assigned it to the cupboard of no return. A couple
of months ago talking to Dave Thomas at Advanced Audio he informed
me that he has been working his magic on the same mic and was
going to start selling it as a CM28. I havent got hold of this
mic yet but Im going to print out the recent review from Tape
Op magazine below
.I
love this mic. There - I did it. I didn't bury the
lead under my normal lengthy preamble. In fact, I'm going to
do the review backwards. The Advanced Audio CM-28 is an amazing
deal. It provides wonderful versatility, great balance and detail,
and is one of the few SDC tube mics that comes with a pile of
interchangeable capsules. I'm going to add a pair of these to
my arsenal, because I've used them on almost every session since
getting them for review. At $545, it is a ridiculous deal.
Okay,
now that the conclusion in out of the way, what am I talking
about? The Advanced Audio CM-28 is a front-address, small-diaphragm
tube condenser mic with an output transformer. I've used Advanced
Audio's mics before. Their CM-47 (Tape Op#71) and CM-12 are
two of my favorite mics. Dave Thomas told me about the upcoming
CM-28, so I bugged him about getting a demo pair. As I mentioned
before, the CM-28 comes with interchangeable capsules. The prototypes
I used had cardioid, omni, hyper-cardioid, and wide-cardioid
capsules. The tube is a subminiature 6J1b, which is a Russian
version of the EF 732. The mic body has a built-in 15 dB pad,
as well as a switchable high- pass filter. The mic connects
to the external power supply with a 7-pin cable. The mic, power
supply, included capsules, cables, and shockmount all come in
a custom aluminum case with foam compartments.
I
tried a CM-28 pair first as drum overheads on a jazz session
coming in. I decided to also use an SDC pair that I was more
familiar with, the Josephson C42 (Tape Op #34). I tracked both
for the purpose of comparing later. Now, I think the C42 is
a good mic, but in this application, the CM-28 was far better.
The thing I keep realizing when using Advanced Audio's mics,
is that they are really well balanced. I never find any sonic
anomalies in the response. This is again true with the CM-28.
The overall balance of the cymbals was really smooth, much more
so than with the C42, which exhibits a much "peakier"
sound in comparison. The CM-28 pair ended up getting used for
the mix.
I
then had a session that required solo piano for a television
underscore. Although I had other mics set up closer on the grand
piano, I set up a CM-28 stereo pair with omni capsules about
15 ft back from the piano. I was amazed at the immediacy and
depth from the sound even with these mics fairly far back. There
was a good deal of body and presence - much more than I expected.
Later, I mic'ed the piano with the CM-28s closer up. I achieved
a much better overall sound than with the ribbon or LDC setups
I usually use. The CM-28 is my new favorite for piano.
Okay,
so enough with the nice, acoustic instruments. Let's see what
it can take. Just to be cruel, I jammed it right up to the grille
of a Fender '59 Bassman, alongside of a Royer R-121 (Tape Op
#19). I switched on the 15 dB pad, but didn't switch on the
high-pass. We were tracking electric guitar with a variety of
tones, from clean to fairly crunchy. I was shocked. This thing
never gave a hint of crapping out, and it sounded marvelous.
It provided a great complement to the Royer. I often double-mic
guitar cabinets and record to separate tracks so I can have
some tonal variety on the mix. The CM-28 gave me great detail
and shimmer without ever being grainy or spitty. I haven't found
many SDC mics that can do that.
I
also used the CM-28 on acoustic guitar, again with great results.
As with the other applications, the result was very balanced,
natural, and detailed. The same was true when tracking a horn
section. Although I didn't close-mic any horns with it, I did
once again set up a stereo pair in front of the section. I mixed
the CM-28 room mics in with the close mics to add some "glue".
It
worked really well. Again, the "reach" of the mics
and the perfect balance to the response made the difference
between "okay" horn tracks and the feeling of a coherent
section.
Okay
- I admit it. I haven't used a ton of SDC omnis, but these mics
have made me a convert. I'm really seeing the difference between
the proximity effect that is indicative of cardioid capsules,
and the character of body with the omnis. They both have their
application, but the naturalness of the omni's lower midrange
was really refreshing. Being able to quickly choose which you
wanted by changing capsules was really great. I found that the
omni capsule had just a touch more body to it (when used for
distance mic'ing) than the cardioids, but they both display
similar character and detail other than that.
So
next I compared the CM-28 to a similar, but more expensive mic,
the Telefunken Ela M 260. The Telefunken uses a different version
of the same type of tube and a similar approach to the electronics.
The Ela M 260 does not have a built-in pad and high-pass filter,
however. I tried the mics side-by-side on various sources. They
were not as similar as I was expecting. First let me say that
most of the tests involved only the cardioid capsules, as the
M 260s I was using only had the cardioid capsules supplied.
First
I compared the two on acoustic guitar. There was much more noticeable
proximity effect on the CM-28, as compared to the M 260. The
M 260 had more sheen to the sound, and less body. Although this
initially seemed to make the M 260 jump out as being more present,
I realized that the midrange didn't articulate as clearly on
the M 260 as compared to the CM-28. Also, there wasn't as much
high-end presence to the CM-28 as there was on the M 260. However,
while experimenting with EQ, I found I could easily bring forward
the high end in the CM-28 without harshness. I got similar results
when mic'ing mandolin and piano. The M 260 has a pretty major
dip in its frequency response at about 2 kHz, with a slight
slope up to about 10 kHz, where it then begins to roll off,
and its low end starts to fall off at 200 Hz. Unlike the M 260,
the CM-28 just plain has a flatter response with a great low-end
extension, and it doesn't exhibit the same types of peaks and
valleys. On an electric guitar amp, the CM-28's behavior at
the critical 1 kHz range worked a little better than the M 260.
Furthermore,
the CM-28 does not display any of the "cheaper condenser
zing" that can get so quickly tiring. It also doesn't have
quite as much top end as some SDCs that I've tried, but that
is not to say that it is at all dull or lifeless. Now, I've
heard some people comment that ribbon mics can "take EQ"
really well. I'd make the same comment about the CM-28. If you
need more brightness, it can be easily EQ'ed in without the
mic sounding harsh, and I often found I needed to do just that.
But even with EQ, the response was a combination of smoothness
and detail. The added ability to alter the proximity effect
by switching capsules gives the CM-28 wonderful versatility
as well.
After
a few months of use, I found myself reaching for the pair of
CM-28s in almost every session. I used them in situations that
I would normally not think an SDC would be the right choice,
finding them extremely versatile for tons of applications. Sure,
there are times when the somewhat exaggerated sheen of an AKG
C 451 is the right choice. So if you're looking for an SDC that
will add loads of shimmering high end without EQ, this may not
be your favorite mic. But I've been finding lately that I'm
really appreciating a mic that can deliver a balanced perspective
of the source, without too much hype.
The
build quality is consistent with Advanced Audio's other mics,
which I find to be excellent. It shares a similar type of brushed-metal
mic body as the CM-47 and CM-12. As with any tube mic, care
must be used when seating the 7-pin cable into the mic or power
supply, as the pins are fairly thin. But overall, the construction
of the mic and power supply is excellent.
So
now I refer back to line #1 of this review - "I love this
mic." It is a great deal at $545. It has become a mainstay
of my studio. I refused to send the pair back to Dave.
