Ear Trumpet Labs Nadine bass mic

[timo]

Ear Trumpet just announced this and it sounds great in the video for just the dry signal. $600 + importing faff is a fair whack though, it would be interesting to see a direct comparison with some other mics.

[url="http://www.eartrumpetlabs.com/products/microphones/nadine"]http://www.eartrumpe...rophones/nadine[/url]

https://youtu.be/d1ADNVkTUm8

Edited November 2, 2016 by timo

[TheRev]

Looks like a steampunk microphone!

I like it.

[geoffbassist]

+1 the mount looks great.

[philparker]

I like it - and I like the sound, but we would need to hear it in a stage setting to see what the feedback characteristics are?

[urban werner]

Anyone tried the Nadine yet?
Would be great with some info about how the mic works live with drums :-)

[timbass]

It does sound great in the video. I wonder about the mic mount positioning on the afterlength though. Is it chosen for convenience of mounting rather than for optimum sound? My experience of studio recording double bass is that mic placement is critical. For amplified live performance I use an [url="http://www.akg.com/pro/p/c411group"]AKG 411P[/url] and before I finally settled on a position to stick it onto the soundboard to complement the mag pickup I use, I moved it through several different positions and listened carefully before settling on the middle of the upper bout which seems to be where most of the overtones, fingerboard sounds and character of the double bass emanates from. I rely on the mag pickup for the deep bass and "thump". The set up works for arco as well, although my arco technique is at novice level.
For me the soundboard under the afterlength was not a good place. The soundboard there is where most of the sound entering the Nadine mic will be from.
I suspect the soundboard region under the afterlength suffers from confusing wave-fronts from the strings above it as the played length is varied. I often see afterlength dampers on violins, used to curb wolf notes, not often on double basses.
BTW, I bet it reaches feed-back early in the gain settings, most mics, even directional ones, do.
Is anyone else out there using an AKG 411P mic. It would be good to compare notes on position.

Edited December 17, 2016 by timbass

[TheAndelorian]

This doesn’t appear to ever become much of a hot topic! For what it’s worth (5 and a half years since the last post unless there’re other threads), and I can’t offer much of a technical perspective, it’s a bloody lovely mic. For recording. I have a gig in a few days at a notoriously bad sound venue with a jazz quintet including loud drums. I’m going to blend it with a Fishman Full Circle using a Headway EDB 2 HE. Acoustic image Clarus SL and GK can. I’m hoping to get away using the piezo minimally. I’ll report back. 

[Beedster]

Gigging mine for the first time in two weeks on an equally steampunk bass. Will report back 👍

[TheAndelorian]

Back from the gig. Noisy. Bad venue layout with poor PA and no monitors. Classic battle between chatty punters (restaurant/bar) and band trying to hear ourselves. BUT, by the second set I was VERY happy with the sound through my amp. The Headway was incredibly helpful - there were a few tunes where the pickup needed to be more present in the mix, but some where the mic was sufficient alone. More trial and error needed, but I won't be getting rid of this mic and am looking forward to a series of gigs with a quieter swing band in August. 

[TheAndelorian]

Here’s how it sounds through the Headway into a Focusrite

[MuddBass]

Any other users of this, particularly live usage but interested to hear about studio recording too. Particularly would love to hear from any people based on the south coast who may be willing to let a fellow basschater have a look?

[Beedster]

On 23/08/2023 at 19:53, MuddBass said:

Any other users of this, particularly live usage but interested to hear about studio recording too. Particularly would love to hear from any people based on the south coast who may be willing to let a fellow basschater have a look?

I wouldn’t choose this unit in the studio but live it does very well; it’s always a compromise with mic and DB but the Nadine makes it less so 👍