Avantone CR-14 - Three birds with one stone

[paulman]

So I ordered this last night, should be here tomorrow: http://www.avantonepro.com/cr-14.php

I was looking for something to record horns, and this is supposed to be great for that as well as guitar cabinets and acoustics. It's a ribbon mic for only $259, and it gets great reviews. I already love Avantone, as the CV-12 is my vocal mic.

I'm on vacation for the week, so I'm going to be doing lots of recording, including at least one (hopefully two) songs with horns. If all goes well, I will have solved my live acoustic/vocal problem, my cabinet miking issues, and have something that records horns really well without harshness, all for under $300. I'll report back after I try it out.

EDIT: Here's the test track with the CR-14 tracking my friend Alex on trumpet.

[Lt. Bob]

you play horns?
Or you just have friends that do ...... besides me I mean

[paulman]

you play horns?
Or you just have friends that do ...... besides me I mean

Friends. I played trumpet in high school and college, but not anymore. I played a trumpet about two weeks ago and I lasted about two minutes before my lips went numb and I couldn't get anything approaching a proper tone anymore. Basically my experience just helps me know how to work with horn players, and I use some of the same principles of warming up for trumpet when I warm up for singing.

I've got a good friend I was in the Army band with who plays trumpet. He plays in Latin and jazz bands, so he knows a lot of horn players. That's where I get my supply.

[SweetDan]

Cool. I'd be very interested to hear the results if you do a "mic shootout" with all your mics on the horn(s). A couple years ago I had a small trumpet part I wanted in one of my songs, and my teenage son happens to play the trumpet, so I asked him if he'd play it. He agreed to play.

But the twist was that I did a shootout of sorts with some of the mics I had available at the time, and I was surprised that the one that sounded the best (from among an SM57, a Blue Spark, and an E/V CO9) was the one I thought would sound the worst because it was the cheapest mic in the bunch. Which one "won"? The E/V CO9, which I picked up at Guitar Center a few years ago for about $40.

[paulman]

Cool. I'd be very interested to hear the results if you do a "mic shootout" with all your mics on the horn(s). A couple years ago I had a small trumpet part I wanted in one of my songs, and my teenage son happens to play the trumpet, so I asked him if he'd play it. He agreed to play.

But the twist was that I did a shootout of sorts with some of the mics I had available at the time, and I was surprised that the one that sounded the best (from among an SM57, a Blue Spark, and an E/V CO9) was the one I thought would sound the worst because it was the cheapest mic in the bunch. Which one "won"? The E/V CO9, which I picked up at Guitar Center a few years ago for about $40.

How did the SM57 do?

I can only record two tracks at a time, so I can only set up two mics at once. I will do my best to do a shootout between the 57 and both Avantone mics, but I don't want to waste anybody's time. I feel lucky just to get these guys over to my house to record. I bribe them with food and weed.

[Tadpui]

I've been curious about that mic (and a couple of Avantone's other mics as well). Definitely let us know how it turns out!

I've pretty much given up recording my guitar amps with anything other than a ribbon mic. For the kinds of tones that I'm after, I just really enjoy the mellow high end of a ribbon on an amplifier. Someday I'm hoping to step into the Royer family but damn they're expensive. For now, my ultra-dark FatHeads are doing an admirable job.

They're also great for hand percussion, drum overheads, drum room mics, backing vocals, bass vocals, bass amps, or anything that you want to sit back in the mix. I'm becoming more and more of a ribbon fan all the time lately.

[SweetDan]

...A couple years ago I had a small trumpet part I wanted in one of my songs, and my teenage son happens to play the trumpet, so I asked him if he'd play it. He agreed to play.

But the twist was that I did a shootout of sorts with some of the mics I had available at the time, and I was surprised that the one that sounded the best (from among an SM57, a Blue Spark, and an E/V CO9) was the one I thought would sound the worst because it was the cheapest mic in the bunch. Which one "won"? The E/V CO9...

How did the SM57 do? ...

I don't remember exactly why I preferred the E/V CO9; maybe I can dig up that project in my DAW and export some trumpet licks from each mic.

The tune as it ended up linked below. My son played the solo on verse 3 and the outro.

[Lt. Bob]

Cool. I'd be very interested to hear the results if you do a "mic shootout" with all your mics on the horn(s). A couple years ago I had a small trumpet part I wanted in one of my songs, and my teenage son happens to play the trumpet, so I asked him if he'd play it. He agreed to play.

But the twist was that I did a shootout of sorts with some of the mics I had available at the time, and I was surprised that the one that sounded the best (from among an SM57, a Blue Spark, and an E/V CO9) was the one I thought would sound the worst because it was the cheapest mic in the bunch. Which one "won"? The E/V CO9, which I picked up at Guitar Center a few years ago for about $40.

I have a couple of those ..... they're great mics

[vomitHatSteve]

I play trumpet at about that same level. (i.e. one of my projects will require trumpet, and I'll practice just enough to pull off the takes then put the instrument in the closet for months)

I've generally used SM-58s for recording it. I feel like trumpets are pretty forgiving at the level I can play. It's a loud, brassy, distorted instrument. Much like over-driven guitars, you can point a mic at it and usually be 90% of the way there. Unlike guitars, it's much more of a backing instrument, so 90% is good enough.
Case in point: this is as good as my trumpet needs to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd8sn-qsYoA or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74iljBKUs-g

I'd still love to see a shootout tho. How much does a decent mic differ from a cheap dynamic?

[paulman]

Okay, I did a test recording of a trumpet with the new mic. I also had the 57 set up right next to it, so later on I'll post dry shootout tracks from this. This mix I'm posting now is with just the Avantone mic. It's not dry, I mixed it as if it were a real track. I wanted to see how good I could make it sound in a full mix. The other instruments are just a MIDI backing track from the internet, probably made with BIAB.

This is my friend Alex on trumpet. He's been focusing on learning guitar for the last few months and hasn't been playing trumpet at all (of course not having any gigs during the apocalypse doesn't help either), so this kind of kicked his ass a little bit. But it got him excited about practicing trumpet again, and I'm going to record an album for him. When he knocks the rust off, he's a badass.

[SweetDan]

Google Drive's not happy with us (or me) apparently; I need to "Request access" to get to your audio clips [mention]paulman[/mention].

[paulman]

Google Drive's not happy with us (or me) apparently; I need to "Request access" to get to your audio clips @paulman.

I think I have it fixed now. Sorry!

[Tadpui]

Wow that actually sounds really good to me. It's dark, but I think it fits the tone of the arrangement. Now that I'm farther along and he's laying into it a bit more, the trumpet is really balanced nicely against the tone of the mic. Sounds like a classic trumpet tone to me, I think it'd work in a mix or as a solo.

[SweetDan]

Google Drive's not happy with us (or me) apparently; I need to "Request access" to get to your audio clips @paulman.

I think I have it fixed now. Sorry!

Cool. Sounds really good!

I've created a mic-shootout-style thread over here with trumpet recording clips I made a while back.

[vomitHatSteve]

That trumped does sound good.

The piano is a placeholder, right?

[paulman]

Wow that actually sounds really good to me. It's dark, but I think it fits the tone of the arrangement. Now that I'm farther along and he's laying into it a bit more, the trumpet is really balanced nicely against the tone of the mic. Sounds like a classic trumpet tone to me, I think it'd work in a mix or as a solo.

Yeah, I EQ'd it to make it darker. The mic is brighter than that naturally, but not nearly as bright as the 57. I was going to post the comparison tracks tonight, but work ran really long so I'm probably not going to do shit but smoke a bowl, eat my Popeye's, and go to bed.

[paulman]

I think I have it fixed now. Sorry!

Cool. Sounds really good!

I've created a mic-shootout-style thread over here with trumpet recording clips I made a while back.

Cool, I will check your thread out. Hopefully before I pass out tonight.

[paulman]

That trumped does sound good.

The piano is a placeholder, right?

It would be a placeholder, if I were doing anything with the track. It really was just a fun way of test recording trumpet, nothing more than that. I will be doing some recordings like that with him, though, so I will at some point be posting mixes like this that start with BIAB arrangements that I replace with real parts. I can't play jazz piano or upright bass though, so it'll be guitar comping and... well, I don't know about the bass yet. We do have one of the top college jazz programs in the U.S. here in Jacksonville, so maybe I can find a bass player. Or just do it myself if I decide I can settle for electric bass.

[WhiskeyJack]

Okay, I did a test recording of a trumpet with the new mic. I also had the 57 set up right next to it, so later on I'll post dry shootout tracks from this. This mix I'm posting now is with just the Avantone mic. It's not dry, I mixed it as if it were a real track. I wanted to see how good I could make it sound in a full mix. The other instruments are just a MIDI backing track from the internet, probably made with BIAB.

This is my friend Alex on trumpet. He's been focusing on learning guitar for the last few months and hasn't been playing trumpet at all (of course not having any gigs during the apocalypse doesn't help either), so this kind of kicked his ass a little bit. But it got him excited about practicing trumpet again, and I'm going to record an album for him. When he knocks the rust off, he's a badass.

Man i think this sounds fantastic. I am not a huge fan of shrill bright horns. I grew up listening and playing with a lot of ska bands and i have heard some pretty unlistenable demos and records in those days because of the horns and the way they were captured.

What you have here in my opinion is damn near perfect to my ears.