When we first heard about the Audio- Technica AT2041SP Studio Pack we asked them to send one out for review right away. Why, you might ask, would a magazine that covers LIVE audio want mics that are being marketed to home and project studio guys? Because this is one of the best values out there and we knew that regardless of the name it was marketed under, at a price point of $249 MSRP (and available online for a lot less than that; $149 estimated street price) we were going to see a bunch of these on a bunch of stages in the near future. The Gear
The AT2041SP Studio Pack offers two 20 Series condenser microphones: the already acclaimed AT2020 side-address condenser and the new AT2021 small-diaphragm condenser. The 2020's low-mass diaphragm provides extended frequency response and excellent transient response while its cardioid polar pattern makes it suitable for live use. The 2021 was an unknown (it's only available in the Studio Pack) but I have used similar small condensers in the past for things like drum overheads and A-T said this one could handle high SPL (the 2020 is rated at 144dB and the 2021 at 145dB), so into the mic locker and onto the truck it went.
Also, the Studio Pack includes a threaded pivoting stand mount for the 2020, so I would not have to worry about a spider. There is also a stand clamp for the 2021 and protective pouches for both mics. Another plus for live, although studio guys may not be as enthused: there are no pad or roll-off switches to futz around with on the 2020. Like I said, nice for a live situation. And our use of the 2020 seemed to show that it sounded best at a closer distance than most studio mics–6 inches from the source rather than the 12 inches most studio mics want. Again, this cuts down on bleed from other sources and makes the 2020 a good live choice.
The Gigs
I used the Studio Pack on a gig at the Blue Water Casino in Parker, Ariz., right on the Colorado River. This was an outdoor gig in a 5000- seat amphitheater and the act was United We Funk, a 12-piece band featuring lead singers and players from Konfunktion, the Bar-Kayes, the Dazz Band and Rose Royce.
Set up was a breeze with the included pivot mount for the 2020. It may sound a little strange but I always try a large condenser on something brass to start with, as it gives me a good idea right away of what it is capable of. (Note that at 16mm the 2020 is not really a large-diaphragm mic, but the side-address format makes it feel like one.) We did have horns but I did not want to have one mismatched mic on the section so I used the 2020 on the high hat where it worked well– lots of head room, minimal EQ adjustments on the strip and it cut right through. The only issue with it was that it picked up the snare a LOT! Hat is probably not the best use for it, but it still did well. The "pencil" 2021 mic was used on the ride cymbal and it was the real winner between the two mics. Again, tons of headroom and, for the first time in a long time, the ride was actually an instrument. The ride was really nice sounding and easy to get along with that mic. I had no cross talk issues with it at all.
When we got back to the shop we did the dreaded drop test on both mics. Neither of them even dented and both still worked and sounded the same as before we dropped them from a height of about five feet onto a concrete floor.
You may not be a live-condenser kind of guy, but at this price point you can experiment and not be paranoid about breaking an expensive mic on a gig. They appear built to take a little abuse and you can hardly buy a single good dynamic handheld at the price you get these two condensers for. Like I said before, we are going to see a lot of the "studio" mics on a lot of stages.
What it is: Audio-Technica Studio Pack (1 AT2020 side address condenser and 1 AT 2021 pencil condenser)
Who it's for: Pretty much anyone working live who wants a good, inexpensive condenser mic.
Pros: Tons of headroom, minimal EQ needed. Survived the drop test and the price is right.
Cons: The 2020 had a little more bleed than we would like.
How Much: $249 MSRP
EV Blue Mics
I have gone on record in the past about how much I hate re-branding, so let's get that out of the way right from the start. If you have been paying attention, you likely know that Telex Communications, Inc.–the parent corporation of Electro Voice and Midas among others–is now distributing Blue mics globally. Now, Blue mics are much coveted by those with studio tans while those of us of the black T-shirt persuasion are more likely to reach for something like a Cobalt or RE50 from EV. The idea here is that by branding some Blue mics as EV then touting them as both studio and stage ready, EV gets to break into the studio market and Blue (which has made some live mics that were very good but that never really broke through) gets EV's live cred. Whatever. It's all marketing but the good news is that these mics pretty much rock.
The Gear
We got two models. The Raven is a dynamic whose response gently rises between 50 Hz and about 15 kHz with bumps at about 800 Hz and 5 kHz while the Cardinal is a condenser that is virtually flat between 100 Hz and 2 kHz with a bump between 2k and 5k and another between 6k and 20k. Both are "bullet" style with an adjustable stand mount and, while both are listed as cardioid, the dynamic Raven actually has a looser pattern than the condenser Cardinal.
Both mics look very cool. The Raven is–natch–black, while the Cardinal sports a finish of real cherrywood. Both mics have a dual-swivel mount that makes positioning easy. The Cardinal uses a Class A discrete preamp. The Cardinal is good up to 150 dB input while the Raven can take a walloping 162 dB without a problem.
The Gig
I used the pair of mics on a club gig with a four-piece, keyboard-heavy, fairly loud rock band. I would have liked to have tried the Raven on a guitar cab, but as everything except the drums were direct, we opted for the kick-drum torture test.
It was plug and play. Really. We ran it flat and it sounded good and just worked. No positioning issues. No problems. Gotta love that.
The Cardinal got tagged with vocal duty and was likewise easy to use and make sound good. Open and airy like a good vocal condenser should be we were also pleasantly surprised with the lack of feedback. This is a real small stage and while being used with a male vocalist, the mic was placed less than 18 inches to the side of and just behind a twoway JBL mid/high box. Other condenser vocal mics that I use and like have had pretty severe feedback problems with the same band in the same position. But the Cardinal started to take off once and a quick cut at about 3k got things back under control and there was nary another squeal all night long.
The final part of the review was still pending, the dreaded drop test. Back at the shop, both mics were dropped from a height of about five feet to a concrete floor. The verdict? The grill dented a little on the Cardinal and there is a small ding in the cherrywood and the mounts on both were significantly looser after the drop. (We actually dropped both mics twice- -once grill-down and once onto the mount to make sure it would not break.) Both mics fired up worked and sounded none the worse for the abuse.
The look of both mics is different. Vintage in an almost sci-fi way. I dig 'em but they may not work for everyone, especially in a front vocal situation. The other things we found to bitch about is that for a mic that looks this cool and is touted as stage-ready, it does not ship with much in the way of protection, Sure, the Crown Royal-style velvet bag continues the whole cool-look vibe, but it's not real practical for keeping the mic safe from the inevitable bumps and drops of the road. Also, the dual-swivel mount works well but only one of the swivels tightens by hand with a thumb screw. The other requires an Allen wrench that most stage techs I know do not carry with them as a matter of course. (The mic does ship with its own Allen wrench. But how long til that gets lost?)
Regardless, with the combination of excellent sound, good pattern control and what I find to be a very cool look, I would love to have a trio of the Cardinals for the horn section in my own band. Or maybe a couple for the two female singers. Whatever, I like 'em and they are fairly affordable to boot–much more so than most Blue microphones.
What it is: Bullet-style condenser and dynamic mics made by Blue and marketed by EV.
Who it's for: Anyone looking for a mic that looks as good as it sounds
Pros: Smooth, even response, good pattern control, rockin' looks. Survived the drop test.
Cons: Look not for everyone, needs an Allen wrench to tighten dualswivel mount.
How Much: Raven $199, Cardinal $269 MSRP
QSC PLX2 Audio Power Amplifiers
When performing my ritual paces at the 2006 NAMM show, one of my highlights of the show was the new PLX2 series of audio power amplifiers from QSC. Having been an early adopter of high-powered, lightweight amps since the days of the Carver PM-1.5 introduction, I knew the PLX2 introduction was going to give QSC's competition something to worry about. QSC provided me a PLX3602 and a PLX1804 to do this road test review.
The Gear
Having had QSC PowerLight amplifiers in my racks for quite a while, I have seen the nuances of features, all coming off the same manufacturing line in Costa Mesa, Calif. The new PLX2 is a retooling of the line, plus brand new cha s – sis cosmetics that went from greys to lighter metallic front panels. From the original PLX front panel we lost one bar-graph LED per channel to the beefier looking panel metal and shrunk the gain controls a bit, but got a bit more exhaust venting to ease our cooling fears.
The rear panels got a minor simplification, replacing the mini 10 rocker switch with a simpler and slightly more flexible group of six slide switches in the new PLX "02" models (the PLX 1802, 2502, 3102, 3602). With these new switches you can even configure a 100Hz bi-amp setup by selecting parallel mode and choosing which channels get the low or high pass filtering
And of course the big "what's new" is the PLX "04" models (the PLX1104 and 1804). An example of design innovation, the 04 series has eliminated 2-ohm capability. I like this because I believe running an amp at 2-ohms is a bad idea operationally. And, by building an amp to drive 4-ohm or higher impedance speaker loads, QSC was able to achieve this amp's smaller size, lighter weight and lower cost (all of which I like, too).
The PLX1104 and PLX1804 are two-rackspace stereo-channeled amplifiers with just 10.1 inches of total rack depth, including the rear rail support ears. This means a bit less heatsink aluminum for the amplifier's power transistors, but the amplifiers can do without it. At 550 watts (PLX1104) and 900 watts (PLX1804) per channel EIA rated at 4-ohms, one wonders what could have been possible at Woodstock if a PLX 04 amplifier had been available to replace the four 250 watt tube amplifiers used at that gig.
But something had to be lost in the 04 models to keep the size, power capability and weight specifications impressive. Only NL4 Speakon connectors are available on the PLX1104 and PLX1804, and the slide switches are missing for basic stereo-in and unfiltered inputs for the TRS and XLR inputs. While the missing binding posts made my swapping a PL218 for a PLX1804 a bit more of a chore in my amp rack, at least the additional Speakon connectors are better than stuffing unruly stranded speaker wire in the side orifices of the binding posts.
The Gigs
The first tests of the PLX3602 and PLX1804 amplifiers were done as stand-in monitor wedge and mains amplifiers for some quick and dirty small club gigs. Running full range for both wedges and tops all night long over the weekend, the musicians were shaking their heads how such compact amplifiers could drive so much loudness that previously would taken a full amp-rack to do. And with the pair weighing in at 34 pounds together, the load-in and load-out were made all that easier. While I could not quantify it, I felt that the PLX2 amplifiers sounded cleaner, had more perceived power and gave off less heat than their original PLX models.
Back at the shop, I installed the PLX3602 and PLX1804 into the mid- and high-ampl i f ier positions of my mains amp rack, and proceeded to give the amp rack and my EV QRx speakers (QRx212 tops, QRx218 subs) a workout with the SMAART Live software keeping score. I pulled a PLX3402 and a PL218 out of the mid- and high-amp positions, and checked the differences. The first thing that I had to do was back off about 4dB on the speaker processor to the PLX3602 as the original PLX amps were are 32dB gain units, and the PLX3602's 35.9dB gain had to be tamed. The 32.5dB gain of the PLX1804 was close enough to get a pass on any high band speaker processor changes.
In a shop test scenario using CD tracks the new PLX amps again seemed to put out less heat, and meet or beat the original amplifiers on sound fidelity. Swapping the PLX3602 into subwoofer duty also showed that it slightly out-classed what a PLX3402 was capable of, and was thoroughly capable of pumping out the lows to its 1250 watt at 4-ohm limit. I would have no fear of taking a bunch of PLX3602s out to do some heavy subwoofer work at a gig.
Out at a medium size club gig (300 persons), the PLX2 amps purred along without any problem, and never had to go beyond my "to the limits" testing I did in the shop. Looking for nits on these amplifiers for this road test review, the best I could do was whimper about the variability on gains on each model, and the shrinking gain controls. I kind of got used to the bigger PowerLight controls, so the smaller knobs were just a "feel" thing. Overall, the PLX2 amps are worth upgrading to, if need just a bit more and feel you are on the edge on capability. But if you are not a QSC amplifier fanatic already, I suggest that you try these new amps.
What it is: High Power Compact Power Amplifiers
Who it's for: Professionals and Musicians who desire smaller, lighter amplifiers and are on a budget.
Pros: Clean Sounding, Very Efficient, and Flexible.
Cons: Variable gains per model.
How much: QSC PLX1804 $919.00 MSRP, QSC PLX3602 $1,549.00 MSRP
