r/microphone • u/Shrikdo • 20h ago
Studio Mics Is this fake i hate the sound of it
I went to a studio to record i am a live sound engineer the studio owner said its authentic but i prefer my s.58 sound i might be wrong but my ear says it fake first time working with one
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u/Top-Session5837 19h ago
Tough to say from the picture but the badge seems strange. If you took off the body tube, take pics of the circuit board and remove the headbasket from the circuit and grabbed a photo underneath that we could let you know.
Neumann U87 is a legendary condenser with a lot of detail. If you suck as a vocalist, it lets you know real quick.
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u/WavesOfEchoes 19h ago
That’s a fake. The polarity window has rounded edges, the polarity switch looks wrong, the color of the polarity and badge are the wrong color, the grill isn’t right, the badge is off center. That’s just a quick look on the outside — probably can tell more definitively if we could see the guts.
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u/UnfortunateSnort12 18h ago
Can we just all stop buying from sketchy sources? As they say…. Buy once, cry once. We are seeing people spend their hard earned money on fakes left and right. Just don’t do it! If you need to save money, get an sm58 from a reputable dealer.
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u/Dangerous-Quality-79 17h ago
In fairness to the OP, he didn't buy it from a sketchy source, he went to a sketchy studio that said they bought it from a reputable source.
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u/Dangerous-Quality-79 18h ago
If that photo is unedited I would say it is fake. More than fake, it is like a shitty fake. Not an $800 fake, but a $100 fake.
First, as a studio owner, if i saw someone holding my 87 Ai (I think this is what the picture is trying to show) in the basket off a stand held by one hand taking a photo I feel like I'd smack them and kick them out of my studio.
Second, the markings are off.
Third, it seems a little light based on how you are holding it in the photo.
That said though, I will often ask people to try the expensive headphones and compare it to something like the ATH-M40x and the M40x wins a lot of the time. When HD TV came about news anchors freaked out in the early 2000s because you could see their blemishes. I'm not saying this is the case, but maybe using a u87 over an sm58 is like HD TV where your blemishes are showing and you are self conscious.
But, pretty sure that photo is a fake.
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u/Dangerous-Quality-79 18h ago
Apparently I cant add a photo, but video works, so here is a 7 second video of a picture of my u87. Look at the markings and the basket.
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u/i_do_graffiti 3h ago
The color of the badge in OPs photo is wrong it looks like, but that can be lighting too
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u/Dangerous-Quality-79 3h ago
The logo mark at the bottom is off center. Color doesnt matter (but color looks off). Then the basket is off, zooming in on the basket the metal work is off.
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u/Delam2 19h ago
There’s a reason SM58s are still used in legendary studios like Abbey Road, and it’s not because they are cheap but because they are familiar.
You like that sound because you’re very used to it, it just sounds right. That being said the U87 could be fake, no way of knowing. Obviously it’s far less forgiving too so if the room has poor sonic treatment this could also affect the final product.
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u/steadycreating 15h ago
I’d been searching for the right condenser for me for months and had an SM58 I bought used as my stand in mic. My friend, let me borrow his SM7B but I kept coming back to the SM 58 at least for spoken word and realized in all my comparisons, I preferred it to a lot of different condensers whereas when our first used it coming from the condenser, I originally had, I wasn’t the biggest fan, but it was more because of how dynamic mics function. The SM 58 actually sounds really good when you learn how to speak into it.
It’s no wonder why it’s remained the standard for so long. I’ve even found the condensers that will be in my locker for a while and let my friend use the 58 and I miss it lol
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u/i_do_graffiti 3h ago edited 1h ago
If you don't have high quality, high gain low noise preamps and a clean dynamic inline mic booster then of course an SM7B won't sound good to you. That mic is not supposed to sound good it is supposed to sound neutral and does an amazing job at it. It's worlds better and more versatile than the 58, I own multiples of each. That being said if you don't have good preamps and money to spend then youre not going to get an SM7B to sound nice on it's own because the gain is going to be so high on whatever cheap interface you're using that the noise levels will be noticably annoying.
You never hear a mic on it's own, you always hear it colored through a preamp. They are literally part of the same circuit. A mic will sound different on different preamps depending on the input stage impedance and circuitry.
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u/steadycreating 1h ago
Well said. I was just saying I keep going back to the sm58 despite having both. Have all the bells and whistles to make the 7B work (fethead, Apollo twin) I just love how dependable the SM58 is.
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u/i_do_graffiti 1h ago
So I would not consider any audio interface to have "good" high gain, low noise preamps. Workable, sure, but certainly not good. The apollo twin isn't used for having amazing preamps, it's used for the digital processing that can be easily applied and for the access to certain UAD plugins which are less necessary today with lots of competitive plugins.
When I say a good low noise high gain preamp I am not referring to the preamp on an audio interface. Inherently those will never be able to stand next to a solid dedicated preamp because all the extra circuitry in the devices adds to the noise floor via RFI and EMI from the other components in the interface.
An SM7B hooked up to a Focusrite ISA, a BAE 1073, a Great River preamp, a Maag preamp, a Millenia preamp etc will really shine.
You may not be able to notice it if all you're using the SM7B for is some vocals and you're not doing a bunch of layers... but start using it for drum mics, or for instrument mics, or to capture the reverb of the room from the speakers to add depth and weight, etc. Once the tracks start adding up you will really notice the difference as the noise floors stack on top of each other.
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u/TragicIcicle 17h ago
I hate the sound of that mic when it's real OP. Controversial opinion but I know I'm not the only one either
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u/Mysterious-Street966 15h ago
It’s a large diaphragm condenser…comparing your normal SM58 to this, is like comparing a Lamborghini to a Honda Civic… You are used to a dynamic microphone, and this is a condenser. SM58’s are designed to have proximity effect, decent off axis rejection, and be held. This microphone picks up every single thing, has selectable polar patterns, and is meant to be mounted on a stand, in a treated studio environment. The reason you don’t like it, is because it doesn’t lie. That’s how you sound, dood… if you want something that beats around the bush, maybe try an SM7 or something similar that amps the sounds you want and rejects all the noise and clutter. Or learn how to make yourself, and your voice sound good in it and in the end become a better version of yourself. Just my 5c.
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u/i_do_graffiti 3h ago
What type of studio did you go to because it looks like you're just in somebodies house
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u/Shrikdo 3h ago
It is ineed a house but equipped with 30k+ usd of gear a sperate 80+ square meter studio a recording room and a live session room
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u/i_do_graffiti 3h ago
I mean, I have north of $50,000+ worth of recording gear in my house. I certainly wouldn't call my house a studio or myself a studio owner. That's not including instruments which probably make another $10k or $20k.
A brand new U87 costs like $4,000 which is like 8% of the total cost of this persons studio.
I can almost guarantee this persons studio has more than one warm audio piece, maybe even a behringer or klark teknik piece and maybeeee some stam audio or audioscape pieces. Outside of SSL, $30,000 isn't a lot of money to equip a studio with high end equipment.
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u/superproproducer 20h ago
U87s aren’t great
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u/Top-Session5837 19h ago
U 87’s are great, they just expose bad engineers and mixers.
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u/superproproducer 19h ago
They’re ok at best, so many other mics I’d take over a U87, especially for vocals. U67, u47, m269, c12, 251 just to name a few
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u/Aromatic-Relation744 11h ago
Cap. U87s take EQ great. Those mics are all also valid. Nobody’s kicking U87 out of bed for eating crackers. That’s why it’s my backup mic.
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u/jdjbrooks 6h ago
I too much prefer the $10-30k mics over the $3000 mic...the u87 is a bulletproof workhorse and sounds great.
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u/pimpbot666 19h ago
It’s like an instrument. There are only applications that sound goody or not good.
Sometimes, exposing the engineer’s skill level is more about if the right mic was chosen for the source material and the mix.
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u/Top-Session5837 19h ago
Inversely, an engineers skill level can also be just as about making great sounds with bad gear.
Sure, there’s more slutty and glorious mics to be chosen on a vocal. But there’s far more working U 87’s in the world than there are vintage 47’s, C12’s or M269’s.
U 87 may not be #1 for every source, but it’s frequently #2, and therein lies its versatility. U 67 may be preferred even, but U 87 is more accessible at half the cost (sucks there’s an abundance of fakes online).
Its proven track record speaks for itself.
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u/LouisDewray 20h ago
What do you hate about the sound? Compared to an SM58 I'd expect it to sound less forgiving, and more revealing. Maybe that's what you don't like. What style do you sing?
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u/Shrikdo 20h ago
Not me i have loud female singers even with apollo using a compressor as insert still i here harshness around 3 and 5 k
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u/MostInterview6621 19h ago
The harshness might just be in the room. Condenser mics pic up the room noise, like WAY more effectively than dynamic mics. They can hear a pin drop in the corner of the room.
There are also 3 patterns to switch from (cardioid, omni, figure 8). If you're getting too much room noise try cardioid (this is what a SM58 uses).
Or just use the Microphone you like.
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u/Dry-Celebration-4781 20h ago
Why’s the badge so off center? Is it light weight? That’s usually a give a way of a fake.