Content area
Full Text
I'm trying to make Eugene happy. He calls to tell me there are some mics at EQ Central. First come, first serve. I'll be there soon, I tell him, my plans scuttled. I jump in the car and drive south, daydreaming about which mics. Of course, there must be a smorgasbord of very expensive, exotic things to choose from. 'Choose wisely' says my reverb-drenched inner voice.
I get there as soon as I can - but I'm late. They have come . . . and gone. Pieces of cardboard, bubble-wrap, packing peanuts, furniture overturned, nothing. Damn. No, wait; something has escaped the scavengers: two small Flying Mole digital amplifiers. "But where are the mics?" I dig deeper - only two left. One long and thin: a CAD GXL3000; one perfectly round: a BLUE 8-Ball. I gather up them up: the Laurel and Hardy of microphones.
Like Iron Chef - you find out what the secret ingredients are and then you begin. So off I go with the 8-Ball, the CAD, and the Flying Mole M100s. What can I make with that?
CAD GXL3000 + BLUE 8-BALL
CAD stands for Conneaut Audio Devices and is located in Ohio. Is BLUE an acronym? Seems to be. At least I remember it being so. Like, Baltic, Latvian, UE, something, something. I don't know - the microphones are manufactured in Latvia, though (below Estonia on the Baltic).
Both mics are large-diaphragm condensers; both need to be 48- volt phantom powered. And they couldn't look more different: The CAD has the "vintage" look of the large-diaphragm mic of days gone by; the 8-Ball looks, well, like an 8-Ball. And I've never used either of them before.
The 8-Ball is a fixed-pattern cardioid; the CAD sports two diaphragms and will produce three patterns (omni, figure-8, cardioid). A -10dB pad and a low-end roll-off is switchable on the microphone and it comes with a suspension-type shockmount. There's a problem with the 8-Ball's mount. You get about 90 degrees and that's it. So, combined with its size, some placement is impossible. You cannot sneak it in between a rack tom and a low hat. There's a shockmount (the "Ringer"), which may give you more and greater angles - but that makes its...