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Damon
The Studio Files Team

Cascade Microphones’ FatHead II is sonically the same as the original FatHead.  However, the FatHead II has slightly different stylings, a larger body, and comes with a shockmount.  Specifically in this review I will be discussing the FatHead II Stereo Pair (street price: around $400).  A single FatHead II retails for around $219.  The FatHead II is a figure-eight ribbon mic, and because of its symmetrical design (unlike earlier FatHeads), it has an identical frequency response on each side.  The FatHead II also comes in three different color options.

The packaging for the mics is top notch.  I received mine (packed securely inside a cardboard box) in a sturdy aluminum flight case.  In addition to the two microphones, the flight case holds both shockmounts (which are very robust), the Blumlein adapter and bar, and two polishing clothes.  All of these accessories are included for free, which is a classy way to go.  Before plugging the mics in, it was very good to know that Cascade is concerned with giving its customers quality accessories and cases without extra cost.

The first thing I did with the mics was to attach them to the Blumlein bar and fly them over top of a rock drumset.  (This was in a room with a tall, vaulted (and treated) ceiling).  Once I had the mics setup and plugged in, someone in the control room turned on phantom power (::yikes::).  Luckily the FatHeads are protected from 48v and were not damaged by this engineering no-no. (not that I would recommend trying this for yourself…).

The smooth transient response was very appealing, but the mics were a little darker in the highs than I would have liked on that source.  This was a very fast-paced drum session, so I decided to take the FatHeads down and replaced them with AKG 414s.  Instead, I just took one FatHead, put it in front of the kit about 8′ back, and positioned it so that the diaphragm was pointed straight up and down (in an attempt to have a room mic with little direct sound which I could crush with a compressor).  The mic responded phenomenally in this application.  While it didn’t end up being my first choice for overheads, I now go to the FatHead first for room mics (especially crushed, talkback-style room mics).  On a different drum session (say maybe a jazz or lighter rock session), I think the FatHeads will be a perfect choice.

A quick side note – one thing I realized as the day progressed (I always end up wishing I had more time to spend on drum mic’ing) was that the FatHeads sometimes need a little EQ on the way in.  I was tracking with a Vintech 473, and quickly realized that a little 3k shelf really opened up the top end of the FatHeads.  They can take a fairly substantial boost before beginning to sound harsh.

After drums, I tracked some loud electric guitars with the fatheads.  By the end of the day, the mic had been in front of a small (1×12) Fender, a big (4×12) Marshall, and a few other medium sized amps.  Verdict: This is an excellent guitar amp mic.  It can take an SPL beating (up to 165 dB SPL!!!) and really mellows out the top end of the amps.  I usually started with a FatHead and a 57 on the cab, in order to maintain a point of reference.  Most of the guitar tracks needed a little high-shelf EQ on the way in (often 3k, once in awhile, the 12k setting).  However, the mics took the EQ very well and really sounded fantastic.

The figure-8 pattern was also a versatile tool (as one would expect with most any ribbon mic).  By aiming the mic at different angles, a balance of more/less room tone could be established without changing the position of the mic.  Another convenient thing about this mic is its symmetry.  Once, I was using two mics on a guitar cab, and was in the recording room (with headphones on to listen) moving mics.  I heard that the 2 mics were comb filtering pretty badly, and rather than stopping, running into the other room, and hitting the polarity switch, I just turned one of them around.

I also quickly had a chance to track an acoustic guitar with a pair of these.  Once again, I had to EQ (sucking some out at 220Hz and boosting the hi-shelf), but the sound was very natural.  The mics were definitely a nice alternative to the faster, more present response of a typical small-diaphragm condenser on acoustic guitar.  While this sound wouldn’t be perfect in every application, it was favorable and natural sounding representation of the instrument for this particular track.

I did not have the opportunity (yet) to try the FatHead II out on brass.  However, Cascade has a page full of samples of various brass and other instruments.

I would highly recommend that every project or home studio owner pick up a pair of these.  They are great utility microphones, especially for loud sources.  I also found them to be great for “colored” microphone applications (such as the drum room mics).  You will want to pair them with a high quality preamp (the mic requires a fair amount of clean gain) with EQ (for occasional, necessary brightening).  The FatHead IIs also transport well (for the traveling/freelance worker).  The case is very sturdy, and the blumlein bar fits almost all other mics (it doesn’t work well on fairly tall mics, such as the Neumann U87).  The FatHead II has a sound far above its price point and is a great way for anyone to get into ribbon microphones.

Its no wonder its such a daunting challenge to figure out which pieces of gear to use on each source, and then figure out how to blend them all together musically… Spending too much time switching equipment to “find” sounds can really drag a session down, but rushing through things can sacrifice sonic quality (or at least sonic “interest”).

Take this as an example:

You are tracking a session at your favorite project studio.  You are about to start recording the rhythm guitar (and the guitarist is using a Les Paul through a Marshall 4×10).  For example’s purposes, let’s suppose the studio you are working in has 4 different preamps and 8 different mics.  To run through the list of all the possibilities, you would have to try out 32 different individual mic/preamp matches.  Then (as it often happens) if you wanted to put two mics on the room, you’d have even more things to move around and setup.  As long as this would take, in the end, you could theoretically end up with THE best guitar sound that could come out of the studio.

…but… you just ate up 6 hours of studio time, and you haven’t tracked a single strum yet…

On the opposite side of things, you could just throw up an SM57 and track away.  While the 57 is pretty “standard” as far as guitar cabs go, you may be robbing yourself of some really great potential.

In a lot of cases, here is what I would suggest:  For comparison’s sake (plus the fact that it often sounds awesome), I almost always throw a close mic’ed SM57 on guitar cabs.  From there I usually add another close mic (if its a dynamic, maybe a D112 or MD421; condenser, something large diaphragm; or even a ribbon) to compare to the 57 as well as a room mic (which is usually a large diaphragm condenser or a ribbon).  Just be sure to line up the diaphragms on the close mics (else face the wrath of phase problems/comb filtering)!

Now you have a lot of options in the control room.  Blend the two close mics?  Blend a close and the room mic?  Blend all three?  Just take the 57?  On top of amplitude/spectral stuff, remember that you have nearly limitless options in the stereo image as well (although panning two of the mics hard L and R is not a bad place to start sometimes).

That was a long tangent, but the point of it is that as an engineer, balancing sonic experimentation with forward progress is something to always keep in mind.  Things only get worse as you add more and more gear.  If you are in a big studio with 80 mics, 80 preamps, and 20 compressors, things start to get tricky.  Anytime you have the opportunity to hear new gear, jump on that opportunity.  Start building a sonic memory of what pieces are good on what sources.  A little experimentation is great too when you have the time to fit it in.  (Like in the guitar example, maybe try an oddball mic/pre combination on the 2nd close mic, since the 57 will probably be a solid sound anyway).

More on this to come as we start sorting out tubes from transistors and the like…

C

The Studio Files

You’ll notice in these pictures I have made some pink diffusers for the ceiling. If you really want to know how to make them, I will share them in another article, but I will warn you: they take like 6 hours a piece to make, they are super annoying, and your hands will hurt very badly when you are done… That being said, they work extremely well and cost about 14$ a piece (for materials). Post in the comments here if you want a full article on them.

First the pictures, then let’s talk technique.

Matt (the drummer) had a 3 tom setup with a fair amount of cymbals. His drums sounded OK, but we spent about an hour tuning them, adding moon gel to the toms/snare, tuning the kick, adding more padding, etc… As far as “acoustic treatment” for the room (and I use that term with caution…), I started with the ceiling diffusers, then added some pillows to the bay windows. Across from the drum set (not pictured) about 14 feet back is a big, flat wall. This was going to be a huge “slap” problem, so I took a big mattress and propped it on top of a couch (long ways), and it effectively blocked the whole wall with padding (worked great!!). The big pink things on the windows are just extra foam I had leftover from the diffusers. My hope was that by hanging them at opposing angles, they would help the slap off of the windows. I think they helped.

My first concern was getting a good overhead position. I was a little reluctant to do a spaced pair for two reasons: the diffusers stuck down too far (plus the low ceilings) and with the close walls, there’s a bigger chance for nasty reflections. I ended up sticking the two large diaphragm condensers in between the sets of diffusers and angling against each other about 105-110 degrees. (Picture 2) The room mics were a spaced pair of omni’s about 10 feet back as well as the stereo ribbon from Sontronics (which we ended up using in place of the omni’s).

The rest of the mics were fairly self-explanatory: MD421′s and the like on the toms (few inches off the head, usually angling somewhat towards the center of the drum), an SM57 on the snare top, and an SM81 on the bottom (also an 81 on the hat).  Kick drum was taken care of with a Yamaha Sub Kick outside and a Beta 52 inside, pointed at the beater.

As you will see in the “drum mixing” article which will follow eventually, I embrace a lot of the inevitable bleed.  I rarely use gates.  Given the circumstances (of recording in a basement), I found it better to go into the project knowing that I am going to be dealing with bleeding.  To me, with too many gates running, it sounds “fake”.  Bleed is inevitable, let it happen.  (That being said… a snare mic with more cymbal than snare is obviously less than desirable).

I am not on the computer with the audio files… I will try to get some examples of the drums up here tomorrow.

More to Come

C

The Studio Files

Questions/Comments? Post in the comments here or email me.