Cascade FAT HEAD II

Been playing guitar/bass for 23 years and have been recording for 15 years. Current project studio set-up is a Presonus FireStudio/DigimaxFS combination running into LogicStudio on an '07 MacBook Pro. I do music full-time, part of which involves small production jobs of various genres for local clients. I've recorded bluegrass, vocal ensembles, a death metal album, folk, blues, rock, etc. and I typically do projects where I function not only as the guy behind the mixing desk but also as a creative advisor/producer/extra musician, etc.

I really like these mics. I bought a stereo pair (with sequential serial numbers) with the included stereo bar and I had my Fathead II's fitted with the Lundahl transformers. Since I am a project studio owner/operator versus a larger commercial studio, I have to be careful to make my dollars count as opposed to just grabbing every flavor-of-the-month mic that hits the market, so in a way I was leary of buying a set of $700+ mics that could potentially sound like just another pair of cheap mics. I'd rather save a while longer and buy something nicer as opposed to having a whole slew of low-end gear on the ceap. Also, aside from the demonstration clips on Cascade's web site along with user comments at various forums (here at HC, GearSlutz, etc), I had no way of trying before buying. So in my mind there was a slight risk involved in ordering these mics.

I'm happy to say that these mics are truly worth the price paid and they actually sound much better in person than I expected. As far as comparisns go, I'd put these right in the middle between Royer R121's and AEA R84's. They are every bit as detailed as the Royer but not as thin sounding. To me the Royers almost sound too thin or too skinny in the lower mids. The Fathead II's have a litle bit more girth in that area without any flab or mud. But they aren't as round sounding as the AEA's either, which again I believe is a good thing considering that AEA's can sometimes sound too heavy in the waist to my ears. As they say, "your mileage may vary", but I find these to be the perfect happy medium between too much and too little in the overall sonic response.

As far as the build quality goes, these are fairly heavy mics and I wouldn't want to drop them. But they definitely do not feel delicate or flimsy. Quite to the contrary, these are very stout mics and if you plan on running them as a stereo pair with the stereo bar, you'd better make sure you have a heavy mic stand that won't tip over. Having said all of that and given the weight of these mics, I can see where the lollipop head could possibly snap off if it hit the ground hard enough, but again that is because of the weight and not poor build quality. Again, these are not flimsy mics, just very heavy.

The included shockmounts, aluminum case, and stereo bar are all very nice as well and everything is top notch. The stereo bar assembly itself is very stout and I can't imagine that the machined threads would strip any time soon, even with heavy-handed useage. Everything is very beefy indeed.

These mics sound great parked in front of guitar cabs loaded with Vintage 30's (especially when blended with an Audix i5) and it is a very accurate "WYSIWYG" mic for acoustic guitars. I had a client who wanted to play through his boxy sounding Ibanez acoustic, and the Fathead II's caught that sound in all of its boxiness. Garbage in, garbage out. These mics definitely won't make junk sound sources suddenly sound good, and yes they do color the sound somewhat (as all ribbon mics do) but they won't hide flaws for you by way of bumps and dips in the frequency response. But they do slightly smooth out harsh instruments in a very good "ear candy" sort of way and you need to bear this in mind as you are tracking things as that will have a major impact at mixdown. Thankfully these mics take EQ very well and are pretty forgiving in that department.

All in all these mics were well worth the small investment and I feel like I could have spent a lot more and been just as pleased with the results. These are definitely in the same league as the Royers and AEA's, especially with the Lundahl tranny, and these should not be considered a poor man's Royer or a cheap knock-off of something else. These mics stand on their own merits and deserve their own place in the elite club of high-end ribbon mics. Again, these are not a Royer or AEA mic but they sit somewhere right in the middle.

Musician for 15 years. Recording for four years. I have a ton of mics to choose from. This was my go-to mic for acoustic guitar (combined with AT3035), electric guitar (miked around one foot), musical saw, organ, upright bass and vocals. Especially vocals. Sounds good on electric bass too.

Ribbon mic. Figure 8 pattern. Low output, but beautiful ribbon sound. Rich bass. Natural mids and highs. I ran mine through a Studio Projects VTB-1 preamp, Mackie Onyx 1620, Alesis compressor, BBE Sonic Maximizer, and recorded on 1/2" reel to reel tape. Works well for anyything you put in front of it, but bought it for vocals because I don't like the fake high end of condenser mics. I have a very deep voice, and this mic was great for that. Not too boomy or thin. Just right.

When I got it, I was impressed by the box inside a box. Basically, it comes in a wooden storage box, which is inside a nice stainless steel box. Shockmount is also included. As it turns out, I think Cascade spent more money making the first impression than they did on the actual mic.

The first day I had it, it broke while I was recording a guitar track. My mic stand wasn't balanced and when I turned around to pick something up, the stand fell about a foot, landed on carpet, and the grill snapped off the casing.

I checked to make sure the mic still worked. It did. I couldn't believe that the ribbon element survived but the casing broke.

I contacted Cascade's customer service to see if I could get a replacement part so I could fix it myself. The owner's solution was for me to pay him 75 dollars for an aluminum screw. Oh, and I would have had to send the whole mic to him, paying shipping both ways. He ended the conversation with "That's how I do business." I fixed it myself and swore I'd never buy anything else from them.

Then about two weeks later, I was recording an acoustic guitar track. The mic worked perfectly. I finished it up and switched to bass. When I plugged the mic back in, I was surprised to find out that it no longer worked. I didn't run phantom power through it, leave it out when it wasn't in use or let it become exposed to wind.