Michael Joly of OktavaMod is a real mensch. He posted this over on the T-O board, so here's the link. Very simple--a strip of masking tape on the back grill and the mic suddenly has new characteristics that make it more suitable as a vocal mic. The particular results are specific to the grill shape and size of the one Apex mic, though it's probably worth experimenting with any of the budget Chinese ribbon mics. It's almost like kludging towards the pattern-changing mechanism of the RCA 77 mics.

While the mic and similar models are getting almost ubiquitous in small and home studios, I think the trick fits this forum, as do most gear-application tricks--you get something out of the gear not everybody is getting. Knowledge is power, and we're all here to exchange it.

Bear

That's cooler than the "pencil taped to the front of a U67/U87 grill" trick...thanks

HI, MICHAEL!

The pencil trick is for pops and plosives on vocals, and it's a classic.

Another trick for temporary mic modification--on a hand-held cardioid dynamic, wrap any porting behind the front of the capsule with electrical tape or similar. Makes the mic into an omni. (Newbie singers do the same thing when they cup the mic on stage and get howling feedback.)

Have an urge to use PZM mics but don't own them? Get out a credit card (or the discount card for your grocery store) and use it to space your mics (I use my Oktava MC-012's here) just a hair off a hard floor or other hard surface. The same boundary effect results as with a real PZM.

Share and enjoy!

Bear

Aother goody: take a supersized fries box (you know you have those for other reasons than to pad your fat butt , cram so milneral wool into it, and position a 57 or similar in the wool-filled box...instant tom m/snare mic isolation

Just remember to wash out firts, or if possible get a bunch form MickyD's before they are used.

or roll up a paper cone if you do not have a fries box
i don't get out much, those fries box's are hard to come buy.

There's also metal or plastic pipes that you put a mic into to tune a resonance, ala Tchad Blake. If I remember the tube resonance stuff from high school physics, there are nodes in the tube, so placement in the tube matters. You can try other mechanical filter/resonator stuff, too, like facing a mic into a Mason jar, though I have no idea what that'll do offhand.

Bear