Refurbishing a classic microphone – the Electro-Voice RE20 | Hacker News Reader

Refurbishing a classic microphone – the Electro-Voice RE20

jeffgeerling.com

33 pointsgeerlingguy15 comments

This is rad. I've long wanted RE20s for my podcast studio, but they're approximately all of the money--and I'd need four, to standardize, so dropping $2,000 on microphones isn't in the budget. Now I'm wondering if I might know anybody with some older/beat up ones to part with...

Right now I'm using GLS Audio ES-58s, which are knockoffs of the Shure SM-58 but around $39 rather than $100 (and, to my ears, have an audio quality closer to the Shure SM-58 Beta, itself more like $160). And they're basically indestructible, which is nice.

The RØDE Procaster is a popular (and much cheaper) alternative to the EV RE20. It doesn't sound exactly like the RE20, but it has the same characteristic low-mid presence.

Bear in mind that big dynamic mics like the RE20 need a colossal amount of clean gain. Unless you're using an excellent interface or mixer, you'll need to budget for some better preamps.

http://www.rode.com/microphones/procaster

I have an excellent interface. ;)

The Procasters are definitely on my radar. Just not sure I want to go halfway when I'd end up going all the way later.

Any recos for mic pres? I'm looking at sm7b's also

Behringer makes some decent ones for the budget-conscious. Also, check out the EV RE320. 95% of the sound and a hotter signal for 60% of the price!

If you need a USB interface with one or two pres, look at the Audient ID4/ID14. If you need more, I suggest the larger Focusrite Scarlett interfaces. If you already have an interface you're happy with and need a bit more clean gain, try a Cloudlifter.

No way do Scarlett pres have the amount of clean gain we're talking for SM7B or RE20 territory. Unless you really get an excellent interface/mixer I would go for external pres.

To be clear, this isn't just an opinion thing--the math is in 'eon1's favor. Scarlett's preamps can boost around ~55dB and a SM7B is something like -80dB with a normal speaking voice. Boosting that to -25dB will be audible, but it's not enough for most purposes and maxing out the preamp will generate some hiss.

The larger, non-bus-powered Scarlett interfaces provide perfectly good results with the SM7B.

http://recordinghacks.com/2012/06/18/sm7b-audio-interface-sh...

Even their 8i6 only boosts about 60dB, though. You can work with that, but that's a little low. I shoot for -14dB to -10dB for spoken stuff, and at that point you'd basically be eating the mic.

The article you linked was using a Cloudlifter with the SM7B, which is a preamp on its own.

I'm looking at the scarlet 18i8, I want four mic pres and will try with the 4-channel cloudlifter. 25db from the CL and another 25 from the interface ought to sound alright

Yeah, that should be completely fine. Presonus has a 8-channel preamp that's about the same price as the 4-channel Cloudlifter, too, btw.

It probably wasn't something I'd ever consciously thought about, but I just realized that RE20s grills aren't supposed to have a dent in them. Mine is somewhat lived-in, as I'm sure a great many of them are.

For me it's one of the all-time great moving coil mics, along with the Sennheiser MD-441 (about which I think I already knew that the grill wasn't supposed to be dented.)

Yeah, I think about half the RE20's I've ever seen have that trademark dent. Just like about half the SM58's in the world have a mangled ball that's not perfectly round anymore. Some mics are just made to be abused I guess!

Nice! I have a couple of old EV mics with rotted foam, but never thought that I could just buy spares. I'll have to check out the supplier.

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