what's your take on the stapes omni mics?

[nick92675]

i see you've got them listed in your collection, but as of yet no description or review. they seem to get pretty good reviews in the usual tapeop forums, but i was interested in what you guys thought.

thanks,
nick

[russ]

I used 'em for room mics for drums one time in the live room in B and they sounded pretty good. Pretty quiet (low noise), pretty loud (high output), pretty.... Not weird (no obvious frequency bumps or dips).

How's that for technical?

I should lay off the reply button.

[greg]

never tried them.

I'm sure they aren't as good as any of my mics though

[kato]

i see you've got them listed in your collection, but as of yet no description or review. they seem to get pretty good reviews in the usual tapeop forums, but i was interested in what you guys thought.

thanks,
nick

It kinda bugs me that stapes only got into the mic building business after reading the "how to build a mic" article in tape op. They use the same panasonic electret capsule used in the behringer ECM800 (or 8000? i can't remember). It's like a $5 part (?) from Mouser or Digikey.

I suppose you could buy the stapes and try it. Or buy the behringer model for $35. Or get the TapeOp article and build your own for $10.

Interestingly, that same panasonic capsule is also used in T.H.E.'s high end KP6M reference mic (http://www.themicrophones.com/kp-6m.html .) Although Taylor mentioned to me that he throws away more of those panasonic capsules than he actually uses in produuction mics because they usually don't meet spec. So if you build your own, you might want to test the part first. Although I'm sure behringer doesn't bother.

I've been thining about building a pair of my own to use as permanent installation room mics...

Kato

[benadrian]

First, i'm an e-mail friend of Erik of Stapes, so take my opinion with whatever it needs to be taken with.

I think people get into what they're into for a variety of reasons. I probably would have never got into tweaking and restoring tube amps as quickly and as deeply as I have if I wasn't for Gerald Weber's books. I've used that as a platform, gained more knowledge, formed my own opinions, and now I charge people money to tweak and repair their amps.

Erik and his pal got their inspiration from that article. They know the mics were similar to high end mics they liked. They made mods to allow phantom power and to taylor the frequency response. they foreformedir own opinion on how the mics should sound and be constructed and now they charge money to aquire their version of the design.

Leo Fender's friestfirstwere built directly from circuits in the RCA tube receivers handbook. These were public domain circuits made public so people would buy the tubes neded neededn them. They were tweaked to perform better, they were sold, and now they're classics.

My point is every idea comes from inspiration. If the idea gives us something useful or a unique device, then what does the root of the inspiration matter?

I mean, one could make the arguement argumentinger's inspiration is to make money and their ideas are not very modified from other people's long hours of R&D. I guess we each have to draw our own line as to where inspiration ends and copying begins and purchase accordingly.

Cheers,
Ben Adrian

[matthewbarnhart]

It kinda bugs me that stapes only got into the mic building business after reading the "how to build a mic" article in tape op.

Erik actually built his first mics for our room, and we've since had four generations of his (and Brad's) designs.

Yes, they started out as a direct copy of Joel Cameron's article, but they quickly implemented a lot of changes (phantom power, higher SPL handling), and ultimately came up with the surface-mount, small-format design they sell today.

Are their mics genius engineering in league with the ATR-102 or ELA-M251? No, and they're not meant to be. But they did put a lot of work into making a potentially useful product that goes above and beyond the original inspiration.

mb