Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Get that song on tape! Errr... disk?
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tdbajus
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Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Post by tdbajus » Sun Feb 06, 2022 6:42 am

Surely I'm not the only one who is astonished by the quality (and I don't mean in the "high quality" sense, but more like the nature) of rehearsal recordings. I don't know what about it I love so much, but I have had a couple of people tell me they also dig that sound.

There a lot not to like, but I have, unwillingly and at the insistence of people I've jammed with, imported their iPhone recordings and mixed them (kind of like you would with a distant room mic) with my multitrack live recordings and been kind of annoyed at how much I liked it.

I've tried to get the same thing with "better" stuff - high pass filters, aggressive compression, SDCs...

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong? Is the secret band pass limiting? Lavaliers? Two layers of compression?

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Re: Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Post by øøøøøøø » Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:27 am

Find a cheap electret omni condenser of some sort—maybe a small lavalier, etc.

This might be a contender (I haven’t tried it): https://www.12gaugemicrophones.com/stor ... phone.html

Compress the shit out of it until it pumps and distorts

Bob’s your uncle.

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Re: Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Post by tdbajus » Sun Feb 06, 2022 3:03 pm

That looks awesome.

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Re: Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Post by jorri » Sun Apr 03, 2022 6:12 am

øøøøøøø wrote:
Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:27 am
Find a cheap electret omni condenser of some sort—maybe a small lavalier, etc.

This might be a contender (I haven’t tried it): https://www.12gaugemicrophones.com/stor ... phone.html

Compress the shit out of it until it pumps and distorts

Bob’s your uncle.
I've been with a producer using those. They are actually pretty good quality- nothing lo-fi about them really! just the fact a shotgun shell is used for the cost.

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Re: Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Post by øøøøøøø » Sun Apr 03, 2022 7:49 am

Yeah, electrets can be impressively decent now.

The one used in the iPhone is probably pretty okay, too.

The bulk of the coloration probably doesn’t come from the electret mic element itself, but probably a combination of whatever processing is useful to make it good for a phone (compression, limiting, maybe some NR, an emphasis curve? Who knows?) and maybe a little bit the actual body of the phone itself

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Re: Xlr equipped mic that sounds like a cell phone mic?

Post by tdbajus » Sun Apr 03, 2022 8:16 am

I haven't had much of a chance to use this since I got it, but I have enjoyed it. I'll give it workout today when I record.

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