Audio Technica Guitar Mics!

MichaelHorowitz

Audio-Technica
PRO 70 Cardioid Condenser Lavaliere / Instrument Microphone

Audio-Technica
AT831B Lavaliere Condenser Microphone

Bob Holo

Good man!

These mics are great - natural - work well without EQ - mix well with other inputs.

Your price is good too - I paid $20 more than that at a bigbox store.

Adelaarvaren

I'll second that - I've got a PRO 70 and I really like it. Doesn't even need a battery if you have phantom power.

viper

Any experience with these and the Compact 60?

MichaelHorowitz

Generally speaking you can't really use these mics with an amp. Feedback is a huge problem, so you'll only be able to use it at very low volume. The only way I've seen these lavaliere mics used successfully via an amp is in conjunction with a bigtone. The bigtone gives you the volume and the mic will give you a bit of acoustic detail. But on it's own, the mic is just too prone to feedback.

The Compact 60 is not the best amp for mics...it has some pretty radical EQ built into it which does wonders for piezos but can really massacre more natural sources like a mic or a Schertler DYN.

The mics work best through amps with a flatter response....my top choice would be an acoustic Image Clarus. After that, a Schertler Unico would be your best bet for using a mic.

If you play through a PA then these mics are GREAT!

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BluesBop Harry

I just got mine!
Great sound! I'm using it in combination with a Bigtone, just as Michael said the BT for volume and the Pro70 for color.
I plugged them both into the AER and set the EQ for the mic completely flat and then started adding the BT and got a much nicer tone than with the piezo by itself. I'm happy.

I bet this mic's gonna be great for recording, but like Michael wrote it would be really though to use use it by itself on gigs unless you play really, really quiet.
I didn't find the Compact 60 too bad with the Audio Technica, rather nice i'd say.

A couple of questions:
How are you using the clip?
How does Adrien get the mic inside the guitar?

Bob Holo

You just clip it on the inside... same way you clip it to the outside. It's a little tricky - it helps to detune the D string so you can manipulate it with your fingers. The cord comes up out the bottom of the soundhole and he tapes it down to the pickguard.

Just in looking around and being at concerts etc., I've seen people mount these at least four ways.

1.) inside on the bottom of the soundhole (Adrien and sometimes Mathieu)
2.) outside on the center bottom of the soundhole (Bireli, Gonzalo, Mathieu)
3.) outside toward the bottom front of the soundhole angled toward the neck (Sebastien, Romain)
4.) outside on the top of the soundhole (Gonzalo sometimes)

Having seen the inside of a lot of guitars - and knowing how mics function... I'd have to guess that a LOT of this is simply where the mic clips well on the particular guitar they're using at the time - and how to get that little cord out of the way depending on how the guy likes to hold the guitar and how his picking hand brushes across the guitar. There would be a difference between putting the mic inside and outside, but amongst all the external placements - the mic being so close to that soundhole and otherwise sitting basically in the center of a 15x19 planar surface... my guess is that the mic acts as a boundary device from midrange up and gets most of its bass directly from that soundhole below that - so placement would be relatively insensitive; hence my guess that placement is mostly a guitar specific or player-style specific issue.
Mathieu had me ring the whole interior of the soundhole to uniform thickness on the inside ~ 2x the soundboard thickness. Now that I've been using these little mics, I know why... maximum flexibility of where to put that little mic. No matter where he clips it, it'll be snug.

BluesBop Harry

Thanks Bob,
What bothers me it that with the clip on the inside the edge goes past one of the braces and I'm worried with repeated use I might damage it. I was wondering if Adrien had modified his clip...

I got a good sound yesterday without the clip, letting the mic hang inside the guitar and taping the cable to the pickguard.
I actually got it pretty loud with the AER before feedback experimenting with the angle of the mic in relation to the speaker, I found the more it's facing away from the speaker the better.


Nice little mic!

pinkgary

When i was deliberating over which mic to get, i ended up getting the ATM350. It comes with two different mounts & after trying a few different ways, the way that was sold to me in the shop, is to use the AT8468 violin mount by the end plate (see photo), is by far the best sound i've encountered. Large, full, it sounds nearly as i hear it, large signal too, without any feedback. It uses Velcro to clamp either side of the strings so doesn't have that much contact with them. The only drawback is it getting in the way, but i see it as just one more thing to keep my lazy hand from going anywhere near the bridge...FLOAT damn it FLOAT....I mention this, 'cos i think you can buy this mount separately & it might fit the other AT mics... & Michael might consider getting some of them in...

Bob Holo

Interesting thread - I do have to admit that when I look at the standard clip mount for the AT Pro70 that my roots as a product designer surface... unless I'm really missing something - it's very over-designed and inelegant... sort of looks like Soviet era military design though it looks sturdy... maybe that's the point I'm missing. But still, if I were managing that product line I'd be all over that clip design in a heartbeat saying: "What can we do out of a material that won't scratch a guitar - that's ligher - that can adjust without a thumbscrew - that can easily go inside or outside etc...

It's a great little mic - I just don't get the big friggin clip. Maybe there's some reason for it that I'm not seeing.

So it sounds like you guys prefer tape & velcro more power to you

I'll have to try the violin mount - could be the answer.

La Gitane

Thanks for the helpful info guys.

I'm currently using a D-hole Maccaferri style guitar and want to play it through my AER Compact 60 Mk2.

My local music store doesn't stock AT mics for me to try out, so I wanted to clarify a couple of points before maybe buying online, and would be grateful for your advice.

1) Can I plug the output connector from the power module of the ATPro70 or ATM350 directly into the Combination XLR input (input 2) of my Compact 60, and will doing this provide phantom powering for the mic without me having to use batteries?

2) PinkGary - You seem to be getting a great sound without any feedback problems by using the ATM350 and violin mount.
Are you using the ATM350 on its own (i.e. not in combination with a bigtone or other pickup); and is the ATM350 better than the ATPro70 in terms of better sound quality and less feedback problems?

Thanks for your help