RCA 44 Mic vs Wood 44 Clone DIY, Drums Guitar and Bass Samples

[@TheJoshery]

I can’t be the only person who might buy one if you made more….

[@farosonico]

They sound so close! Even the noise level is very similar. I want a FOT mic someday 🥺

[@natefromdetroit]

I love this, great job. I'm surprised at the low end of the wood replica, the RCA has a bit more 'smack' to it, thats famous room sound that we all look for. I really enjoyed the stereo ribbon overheads! is there a video on that build?

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Thanks! Yes, this mic ended up sounding better than I could have hoped- which is why I ended up making the stereo pair as well. There's no video on that one. But I just made 2 more of the RCA ribbon motors and mounted them inside a little DIY mic blimp.

[@kphillipsmusic]

Sounds great! Good job!

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Thanks!

[@nahuelloza]

Excelente trabajo! Gracias por compartirlo! 🤗

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Gracias y sin problema!

[@AiMR]

Your mic seems to be noticeably hotter. Did you use neodymium magnets?

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Yes, Neodynium magnets, and I was careful to set levels as close as possible as well as keeping the mics as near to each other as possible.

[@AiMR]

@@FrankOlsonTwins I would try it using the exact same wav files so you could line up the recordings on top of each other precisely and subtract one from the other :) I think subjectively speaking yours actually sounds better. I think it is a bit hotter in the lows.

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Thanks! Yeah, I approached the recording process as: Get the mics physically as near to each other as possible in front of the instruments. Set the levels so they are reading and peaking as close as possible within reason. After that, I let the mics to the work. If one sounds louder during some sections, that's likely because(as you noted) each mic has it's sweet spots. I didn't want to do too much "volume matching" because I didn't want to skew the results...I try to keep all the "test controls" on the front end of the recording process. Then, EQ and plugins were copied exactly from one track to the next, so no differences would be present. I thought it was really interesting how the low end was so different in the compressed files. I really liked the upper mids in the RCA, so after this test I ended up purchasing a better transformer with a nicer top end performance. My mic is also a pretty different design than the RCA, which has 2 huge horseshoe magnets and a focusing steel chassis. Mine is 2 super strong Neo magnets along side the ribbon. A similar concept in some ways, but a different implementation. I think for the price ($2500+ for an RCA 44, or Less than $100 for my "clone"), it's in the ballpark, which I'm quite happy with. Of course the cutting machine I use is $250, but I'm trying to get my money out of it :)

[@AiMR]

@@FrankOlsonTwins Next you'll want to wind your own transformers 😁

[@lambda7652]

Well they don’t sound the same. but they both sound good.

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Agree!

[@lambda7652]

@@FrankOlsonTwins Amazing what you can do with wood and super glue!

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Thanks! Of course RCA, AEA, and Royer have done all the heavy lifiting in research and development! Mine is just an experimental homage that seems to work pretty well! But hey, If the spruce goose can fly, why not a wood microphone?

[@Ярослав_Кармин]

О, круто! Вообще никакой разницы не услышал, а это для самоделки, пожалуй, очень хорошо 👍🏻

[@classicbusinessaudiobooks2818]

Is your wood mic for sale?

[@FrankOlsonTwins]

Actually i have a few variations of the wood mic for sale, but they're in diffent shells than this..

[@classicbusinessaudiobooks2818]

@@FrankOlsonTwins where can I see them?