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Lawson L251 is really great so far!!!


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I went to the AES show in Los Angeles in September 2000, I believe it was, and won a drawing at the Lawson microphones booth for a Lawson mic! I upgraded to a L251, and got it a few months ago. I still haven't truly put it through its paces, but so far, it seems like I can basically stick it in front of everything, and it sounds great! Of course, I cannot compare it directly to an Elam 251 since, curiously, I don't happen to have one of those lying around. However, it is noticeably "airier" than the Audio Technica AT4060 (modified) mic that I purchased a few years back -- and that is a really nice mic as well. Most of the music that I get to record here is of the experimental variety, so I've only used the L251 on rather odd sounds, such as heavily processed tone generators, Slinkies strung across the room with a contact mic feeding a series of delays and fed through a bass cabinet, wires also strung across the room and then fed through an amp, and other sounds of this ilk. I've also tried it on a bass coming out of a bass amp (wow, you know, that works really well! ), and of course the mic sounds frickin' amazing.
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I'd love to try the Lawson and Soundelux mixs side by side with my (original) ELA M 251 E's and see what (if any) differences there are... I'm glad to hear you like your new mic, and thanks for sharing your impressions - you're probably the first person I've heard of with a L 251. [img]http://www.freakygamers.com/smilies/s2/contrib/navigator/usa.gif[/img] Phil O'Keefe Sound Sanctuary Recording Riverside CA http://www.ssrstudio.com pokeefe777@ssrstudio.com .
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I wish I could share more, but I'll post when I record something "semi-normal", such as voices or guitar cabinets that actually have a guitar coming out of them! It's immediately apparent that it's much airier when compared to my Audio Technica AT4060. There's a bump around 10KHz on the L251. There are several differences. One is that the L251 has more bass than the original ELAM 251, although this is switchable at the power source, so you can emulate the original 251 more. The other thing is that the patterns are variable between cardioid to figure 8 to omni. In other words, rather than discrete patterns, you can turn a knob and get all the "in betweens". I feel sooooo lucky. I could not believe it when Mrs. Lawson called up and said that I won (I also think that the Lawsons are the *nicest* people -- even before I won the mic, when I'd meet them at trade shows). I have a really modest studio (an old Akai MG1214 12-track recorder, Peavey VMP2 mic preamps, Mackie VLZ board for more preamps, an old Lexicon LXP-15 as my main reverb unit, a couple of RNC compressors, and a Digi001 on a Mac that I use for some editing, etc.), so when I got this....wowwwwwwwww!!! I actually won another mic, which I think was the Lawson L47 FET cardioid only, and I paid the difference to try and step up to this mic. I thought that this might be the only chance I'd ever have to own something that was approaching a superduper high quality mic. This is no slight to the modified AT4060 I have, because that's a really nice mic, but you know what I mean -- it's a 251 replica created by Gene Lawson, who painstakingly makes every mic by hand. When I finally got the mic, I looked at it a few times before even plugging it in, not believing that I actually owned this mic. The last two times I was at the Lawson microphone display at AES, I kept listening to the mic, jangling my keys in front of them, listening to other people's voices, etc. etc., and really taking a long time with it. I remember thinking, "Why am I doing this? I'm never going to be able to get a mic like this!", but then "rationalized" it, thinking, "Well, you're here, and it's also important to know what a really good mic is supposed to sound like", as much as that's possible to do on the showroom floor. It's almost sorta warped to have a mic this good coming through a Peavey mic preamp and then through an RNC compressor, but whatever. That's what I have, and I'll use it. However, maybe next time I go to AES, I'll enter a drawing at the Summit or Manley booths!!!
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You have some luck Ken, good that you are enjoying the L251. I have been using one for over a year and also really like it. I haven't been able to compare it directly with an original ELAM 251 but it certainly has that quality I remember from renting them in the past. It has been extremely versatile with the infinitely variable patterns, a bass boost switch and the cardioid only ELAM 251 emulation mode. I have recorded a lot of female vocalists in the past year and the L251 has almost always been the choice over 87's, 47s, C12VR, 4050 etc. Also good on saxes, piano, some guitars, harmonica and most hand percussion. I think Gene did a great job in designing the mic and agree that Gene and Gayle are extremely nice people to deal with. They kept me informed about the careful design and eventual production updates while I waited for delivery.
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Steve, Try http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/31/eleven_shadows.html http://www.cdbaby.com/elevenshadows has only RealAudio, I think, so try the first one first. Thanks! None of these have thte L251 on it, if that's what you are listening to. I need to add some MP3s on my web site, too, if I can figure out how to do it!!
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