Apr 24, 2007 11:53 pm Not used them but heard of them. I too will be ordering a couple of the matched pair just for fun at that price.
K-Micro by Karma
Posted on Apr 24, 2007 07:12 pm
BeerHunter
www.TheLondonProject.ca
Member Since: Feb 07, 2005
I just received my 4-pack of K-Micro's. All I can say is awesome! We're talking $5 condensor mics here. I taped a pair together (kinda crude)to make a stereo pair. I heven't yet tried them on drums but I have messed with them a bit now. Tomorrow is practice so I'll give it a go on drums.
Anyone else heard of them/used them?
www.karmaaudio.com/kmicro.html
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Apr 24, 2007 11:53 pm Not used them but heard of them. I too will be ordering a couple of the matched pair just for fun at that price.
Apr 25, 2007 01:12 am I have not heard of them but I will be placing an order soon at that price. Very cool, thanks for the heads up on that one Beerhunter!
Apr 25, 2007 02:38 pm These similar things have been recommended to me
www.naiant.com/studiostore.html
Anyone know them. They are built into the XLR connectors which makes them easy to use
Apr 25, 2007 02:57 pm wow these things are crazy. I'm very interested to hear what you have to say about them after you test them BH!
Apr 26, 2007 11:02 am Well, our drummer decided he was too tired to make practice last night. Boo hoo. (Actually we are pretty consistent with our practice time. Not even sleet nor snow.... haha)
Since we had no drummer I didn't track any drums last night using the micros. However I did use a stereo pair (about 3 feet out) on my amp along with a SM57. I was quite pleased that they could handle the SPL of my amp. They are very bright and HOT though. I had to watch my pre-amp gain. They sound clear enough and will pick up a pin dropping that is for sure.
Anyways, the song we were working on right now has multiple guitar tracks and it sounded too crowded with triple tracked guitars so I dropped it from the mix. I'll see if I can do a quick mixdown of the micros by themselves. I doubt that they will sound very good by themselves as this is not the sort of application for them.
I'm really looking forward to hearing them compliment my overheads. I think it will help make for a really nice drum image. I didn't try, but I would think that these mics will sound great on an acoustic guitar and possibly on vocals.
I'll update this thread as I mess with them more.
Apr 26, 2007 11:04 am Hopefully Noize is working on getting a set to review as we discussed last night, so he and I might be blastin' away on them too on a wide range of uses...very curious I gotta say...
Apr 26, 2007 11:30 am They are really sensitive little buggers. Because of this (IMO) their usage is somewhat limited. Because of their small size I thought that they might be great for close mic'ing a drum kit but I doubt that they would work for this. Maybe if they were not attached to the kit. I think the best application would be to use them as room mics. As I mentioned above, they would also work great on acoustic instruments.
If nothing else, what a "rockin" stocking stuffer. Might have to get bunch of them branded with our band name on them as give-aways at our annual Christmas Toast and Jam.
Apr 26, 2007 12:33 pm Actually, room mics was really my first thought...heck, at that price and size you could hang a few as overheads or ambiance mics in an "amp room" or something...
Apr 26, 2007 12:48 pm The curiosity killed me so I just bought a 4-pack. Ya just can't have too many mics. BH, how is their noise level?
Apr 26, 2007 01:03 pm I didn't notice any excessive noise but in all honesty I didn't have much of a chance to dive deep into them last night. We were on sort of a mission with a new song we are working on and didn't really want to interupt the flow with checking them out thoroughly. I've got a stereo track of them used on my guitar amp that I will post as some sort of reference. I'll try and get it posted this evening. Not sure how valuable the track will be as it is not the best application but at least it will you give you some sort of idea of how they sound.
Apr 26, 2007 10:12 pm Yep, email was sent. I may do a follow up call as well tomorrow or Monday if I haven't heard back from them. I'm kind of interested in their ribbon mic's. That is a good price if it lives up to the spec's.
I know I can think of about a dozen things I could use that K-Micro for. Including building a little phantom power rig to use a pair in the field for sampling.
May 19, 2007 08:36 pm My 4-pack arrived today, and BH, you weren't kidding. These little buggers aren't just hot, they're NUCLEAR. My first thought after plugging one in was that they would make great surveillance bugging mics. Not to mention they're also adorable. I'm going to try them next time I overdub cymbals.
Thanks for the shopping tip, BH.
May 20, 2007 12:33 pm Wow this is the second post today where I came here to look for it in the past and found it bumped today.
I'm gonna get me some.
Tony
May 20, 2007 07:12 pm Yep, just got a matched pair on Saturday and the review will be forth coming.
And just so you guys know, she is bringing in a version of the same mic only with a higher SPL rating, which I will be getting a matched pair of as well and will review when they get here. I'm also real keen on the Ribbon she has as well.
May 22, 2007 11:34 am Quote:
And just so you guys know, she is bringing in a version of the same mic only with a higher SPL rating
I was under the impression that I got the higher SPL version. I wonder if they are talking about increasing the SPL even further.
May 22, 2007 10:05 pm Yep, the standard has an already high SPL for such a tiny diaphragm. The newer ones will have an even higher one. Not sure exactly how much, but they are indeed more suited to sitting right on a drum and taking what they can dish out.
And you may have gotten the higher SPL version. By the time I got the first versions they were already out of the new one.
And just tried them out yesterday. These little daddies rock for such a tiny little bugger. I wasn't really expecting them to be that full sounding.
May 23, 2007 11:08 am I believe that I have the 2nd version. Noise, are you saying there is a 3rd version? If the second version is indeed the highest SPL then (IMO) they are not suitable to close mic a drum kit. Perhaps if they were isolated and moved back from the kit itself then they would work. However, with this being said, I wouldn't normally close drum mic a kit with condensers anyways.
So far I've only tried them out as rooms mic's and for some vocals (requires a pop filter or two) on our latest song (will post it here when complete).
Still haven't tried them on an acoustic guitar but that may happen tonight. I expect them to perform awesome.
Bottom line, and I think it is pretty safe to say....get some! You won't find a better deal than this at $5 each.
May 23, 2007 06:23 pm I am totally going to get a matched pair of these for acustic guitars and room mics. For 40 bucks for two matched pairs you can't go wrong.
May 24, 2007 11:09 am I received mine yesterday. As a massive proponent of cheap gear and free software how could I not. I bought 4 for $20.
I was going to record some demo's for a couple of friends but ended up recording a segment for the home recording odyssey podcast.
7 minutes of boredom if you want to hear it.
www.butterworthonline.com/KarmaAudioMics.mp3
May 24, 2007 01:50 pm Great review Tony. I'm getting the feeling that you prefer the Karma's over other more costly mics. I know that they will be my "go to" mic for many applications. Imagine that, a $5 "go to"e mic.
I'd love to have about 4 of these mounted into my live room ceiling. They are so small all you would see is a dime size silver dot. Hmm, I wonder. That could be cool.
May 24, 2007 08:41 pm BH, I am guessing then you don't have the newest version. I chatted with Belinda and she stated the newest version will not be here until July. I am guessing you got the 125db version which is a high SPL version but not the newest one. I got to try them on a sax and trombone already and they are pretty sweet. Much brighter then what he was using.
Tony, that is what I found as well. They do have a bit of proximity effect if you move them carefully. I managed to get a pretty deep tone out of my acoustic which is really designed to be plugged in and not simply micced up.
BH, I'll let you know when I get more info on the new ones. And she does tell me they will be much better suited for drums, but we shall see, won't we.
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