Every mic stand I’ve used in the past month, new and old, ranging in price from $30-$80 all have failed at the simple task of holding a mic in the position I need. They all sag with the weight of a condenser mic. In one 3-hour session I had to go into the live room 5 times to tighten the stand for the vocal mic that kept sagging. VERY annoying.
What’s in common with the common boom mic stand made by countless brands? They all use rubber in the boom arm adjustment. The rubber dries out, slips or just doesn’t grip well enough.
Ya know what kind of stands don’t ever sag? Cymbal stands. Why? Because of the metal teeth that lock together. Mic stands should use this type of adjustment! But they don’t! Perhaps they do in very expensive designs, but the majority of stand designs use the stupid rubber junk that just does. not. work.
What the world needs is a revolution in affordable mic stand design. Metal Teeth!!
Does anyone have recommendations for great, affordable, and well designed stands? Please let me know.
PS. I honestly spent close to an hour looking for pictures for this post. I can not find a picture of the inside teeth of a cymbal tilt.
Also Interesting:
K&M stands have always caught my favour, but suffer over time from misuse, over tightening, etc.
I’ve used a brand from the UK that was awesome but I can never remember the name of. It had blue hardware and I believe it used locking teeth, as you mentioned.
Google On Stage Posi-lock mini boom.
I think you are just too much of a girly boy to tighten it enough John. Time to get pumped up. Maybe start with soup cans or something?
Another thought is the counter-weights that you can get that fit on the other side of the boom to balance things out. Just read about these in Home Recording mag…haven’t tried one out myself yet, but it seems like it would work.
K&M seems to work well…
however, we’ve actually made a few mic stands from drum hardware left back at the studio and never claimed.
It’s worth buying junk cymbal stands that have their boom arms bent. Replace the boom arm with one from a regular mic stand and drop in a bit of rubber to ensure a snug fit and you’ve got yourself a killer mic stand!
http://www.thomann.de/be/millenium_ms2300.htm
Its pretty cheap and the counterweight really helps with heavy mics. I’ve found millenia stands to be sturdier then k&m and they are cheaper too
The last word in high-end mic stands: Latch Lake.
http://www.latchlakemusic.com/
I think you could build a jungle gym out of these mic stands. They’re expensive, but they last forever, and they’ll never sag.
Also, the founder (Jeff Roberts) is a super nice guy.