Hello all,
A couple of weeks ago I attended the NAMM convention in Anaheim, CA. I didn't know what to expect but one of the guys I went with said it's like the world's biggest Guitar Center. Man, that was one, very undersold, way to describe it. The entire Anaheim Convention Center (over 800,000 square feet) was full of booths offering equipment. Every horn, guitar, keyboard, drum maker, every speaker, light, stand, and mic maker had a booth and wanted to show off their product. It took a long while to work my way through the deluge.
I have been looking for a new vocal mic for awhile but haven't been able to find one that I really, really liked. I tried lots that were ok but didn't seem good enough to justify spending the money when I had plenty of mics I could use already. I've been on this hunt for a new mic ever since I dropped my favorite one in the pond at Gas Monkey Bar and Grill. That was a sad day-I'm about to tell you about an awesome day.
Back at the convention, there are two hotels located right at the heart of it. That meant there was space for live music and of course, the hotel bar. One night at one of the bars I met a guy named Derek and found out he was working one of the booths at the convention. He bought me a beer and we started to talk about Heil microphones. I hadn't heard of the brand before but said I would stop by the booth in the morning, Man, I was not prepared for what would happen.
The next day I made my way to the Heil booth, Derek and I were both a little groggy from having staying out so late the night before but that didn't stop us. They had a nice display and he played a couple of promotional videos for me. I found out that Jakob Dylan uses a Heil PR35 and his sound man says that since Jakob likes to get really close to the mic its a god fit cause it doesn't lose clarity even when you're close. I wanted to demo the PR35 because I also like to get really close to the mic.
Y'all, I put the headphones one and said "check, one, two,..." and by the time I got to "three" my credit card was already out. It was the sweetest, clearest sounding mic I'd ever heard. I bought it on the spot and had them ship it to me. I've used it three or four times now and it's just incredible. The loud notes are clearer, I can sing quiet notes because you can now hear them, and it doesn't feedback, like not at all. If you need a mic, check into Heil Sound. If you want to hear me sound better than I ever have, check out the show calendar.