Thursday, April 29, 2010

Beyer M260

On the never ending quest for unique and rich tone, Gallery of Carpet has added the Beyer M260 to its mic closet. The M260 is a ribbon mic designed for use on vocals and instruments.

I recently used the 260 to track all of the lead vocals on Chew Heart's upcoming EP. The mic has a large proximity effect that gave Laura's vocals an "in your ear" feel. Being a ribbon mic it sounded smooth on her bright sibilance. The M260 has a very low output and needs plenty of gain, but hey class A preamps sound good cranked up anyway!

I found the directionality of the microphone to be tight, and movement on the mic sounds very exaggerated. I like it because it sounds vintage (late 50's or early 60's) when used with a tube prepamp.

I used the M260 a few days ago as a close mono room mic tracking drums for Soft Speaker's new LP and really liked how it handled the harshness of the cymbals. I aimed it towards the shell of the snare to capture its resonance and character. I cant wait to slam it during mix!

-BZ
www.brianzieske.com