Why YOU should buy a pair of Realistic PZM microphones + easy Mods

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Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 30

@bwillie1793 7 ай бұрын

I still have a pair of these, purchased at Radio Shack (R.I.P.) in the 90s. Used to stick one inside a kick drum, the other on a wall facing the drum kit. Found them to be rather lacking to capture room sounds for the whole band-not a hot enough signal from the mic compounded by poor room acoustics. Never knew about the battery trick or considered modding to use balanced connectors. Very cool. Thanks!

@phildavis1723 7 ай бұрын

I was an 80's teenager. I grabbed one of these when they were current, and I had a great time messing with it! Went back to that store many years later, very near the end of Radio Shack, and they had one sitting there!! I actually get the feeling mine and this one were probably from the same batch! There wasn't much call for this kind of stuff in that town. Anyway, yes, I bought the new one. As soon as I could, I plugged them in in Stereo, and compared them. I was thrilled to find they were virtually identical in both level, and on a frequency graph with very high data points! I guess I wasn't too hard on the old one. I have them to this day, sitting in a box, less than 3 feet away. Neat to find this video!

@FuzzWoof 7 ай бұрын

We had a bunch of these at the studio I used to own, they were amazing for just sticking on a flat board and placing around the room, I particularly seem to remember them working quite nicely for acoustic guitar as a stereo pair when layered with a more traditional close condenser.

@allen394 7 ай бұрын

Back in the day I had a pair of PZM's bought from Tandy (in the UK) Great for the low price. Even un-modded they were fantastic. I used a pair of them to record live jazz in an old pub, with a low beamed ceiling, straight into a a pair of high quality cassette machines slaved together ( to produce 2 stereo tapes at the same time) I'm not a jazz lover but I do remember those reliable PZM's. I gave them away to a friend along with a Roland TB303.. wish I hadn't!

@sebastianvittorini7339 Ай бұрын

Great. Thank you.

@eithafol7742 6 ай бұрын

K! I used to have one of these back in the day. should have had 2! but the sound was always great, as long as the room was good the sounds were good.

@steverolfeca 7 ай бұрын

I still have mine, modded to 9V and XLR. I'm not smart enough to think of using rubber bands- I just use electrical tape to attach the 9V to the battery box. Very good picking up dialogue in amateur theatre- just hang them off the scenery as needed. Also give a wonderful soundstage for recording family events like Christmas morning, etc. With headphones, it's like being there all over again. The one issue I have with them at 9V, is the combination of massive headroom and extended low end. If someone leaves the room and shuts the door, the resulting pulse in your headphones can take your head off. A good HPF takes care of that, though.

@gerrycoogan6544 Ай бұрын

I've still got a pair of these magnificent Realistic PZMs which I bought back in the eighties but I can't find anywhere nowadays that sells them. I'd buy a dozen of them today if I could find a retailer! Where can I buy them? P.S. This is an absolutely BRILLIANT tutorial on a couple of superb modifications. I'm almost inspired to try them myself but I'm terrified that I'd make a RIchard Harris of it and destroy the only two PZMs that I own. I may well take them to my friendly local music shop and show this video to the tech guy. Cheers!

@dancetech Ай бұрын

ebay now to buy them

@timbeaton5045 6 ай бұрын

Had a couple of these back in the day, and MAY still have them in a box somewhere. Question is, as they are long discontinued, I presume, are there any modern equivalents, being as the are now as rare as hen's teeth? I did find teh Superlux range of boundary mics, starting around €35 up to around €50, which may be a decent replacement.

@gerrycoogan6544 Ай бұрын

For the life of me, I can not understand why these superb microphones aren't easily available today. Fortunately I did at least have the good sense to buy a couple of them back in the eighties (on a recommendation from John Peel, no less!) and I was delighted with them, especially because they were ludicrously cheap from Tandy (RIP). One day, I finally rememberd that I wanted to buy several more of them and I duly trundled off to my local retail park. When I discovered - to my immense horror - that Tandy had gone out of business, I was almost physically sick! I would love to be able to acquire several more of these wonderfully versatile mics. They are immensely useful for a whole range of applications.

@mitchelldries6628 7 ай бұрын

if yer gonna go ahead and throw on an XLR, and the company suggests it works better with higher voltage, could it simply work off phantom power (48v) then?

@dancetech 7 ай бұрын

There are mods to make it do that but as i said in the video it's not easy. Firsthy these things run via battery on on a positive earth - hence the pp3 wires have to go back to front - so the voltage path has to be reversed + other fixes. Check online.

@ralphhathaway-coley5460 7 ай бұрын

Re the 9v hack the easy way, like I did back in the day, is to solder the PP3 connector directly to the battery contacts. The other hack which you did not mention was to firmly attach the PZM to a 1 square metre board which improves the response as well.

@dancetech 7 ай бұрын

I did that before but tbh this is a bit more of an elegant & you get a more solid solder connection imo

@QuestionMan 7 ай бұрын

So, would a AA Dummy-Battery Adapter not work for this application?

@rewIndustry 7 ай бұрын

i had a pair, got pinched. any idea where i could find more? in any condition? can anyone identify the exact microphone used? any idea how far from the plate?

@mickeythompson9537 7 ай бұрын

eBay and Google.

@MajorGRecording 7 ай бұрын

I suppose you could wire in a 12v adapter as well for the mod? Would the difference between 9v and 12v have much difference in the dynamic range and spl? Why do you recommend a pair? Is it for stereo recording? Any difference between the 33-1090A and the 33-1090B?

@dancetech 7 ай бұрын

12v will just give it that little bit more output level & range handling, just a bit, but ultimately you wanna phantom power these, but the mod is not for the faithearted & you can also can buy a new amp kit for the mic from uneeda-audio.com/#pzm who will for a price also assemble the kit for you and even put it into a box , but it costs quite a bit - 33-1090A v 33-1090B? No idea, google it i suppose

@saudade_firefly 7 ай бұрын

Could you possibly wire up a 9v power supply and power them that way?

@ekstrapolatoraproksymujacy412 7 ай бұрын

you will probably get hum from the power supply if you do not have very well stabilised power supply, battery gives a perfectly clean power for lowest cost

@StratsRUs 6 ай бұрын

You are marvellous. Thanks for your hard work and great g r e a t channel !

@markmallinder7618 7 ай бұрын

Can you still buy these?

@dancetech 7 ай бұрын

secondhand only on ebay, fb marketplace etc 👍

@thinkofparis 7 ай бұрын

just solder in a wall wart power supply, essentially eliminating mods to plastic housing

@rhalfik 7 ай бұрын

You can DIY this thing for like $10 with a PUI capsule.

@PaulHaesler 6 ай бұрын

I have a lot of live recordings of my band from the 90s that would be a lot shittier if it weren't for Realistic PZMs.

@gerrycoogan6544 Ай бұрын

I have a similar testimony. I was amazed at how good some of my gigs sounded when they were recorded with these PZMs pinned against a wall at the back of the stage. "Realistic" is an entirely appropriate name for these brilliant mics.