Electro-Voice Cobalt 04

Playing keys (Piano, Hammond, Rhodes, etc) for nearly four decades, and fool around a little on bass. While not a recording pro I seem to get very good results. I generally record digital multitrack, mics on all instrument cabs and a typical 4 mic drum setup, mainly projects I'm involved in (usually instrumentals).

For $35 this mic does one hell of a job. My use has been on snare, guitar cab, keyboard cab and bass cab, close miced on the cabs, pretty close on the snare. Great results on the cabs, snare sounded good as well, it's a very small Sonor Jungle-Jingle snare but I imagine I'd get good results with other snares as well. The guitarist who in the past has gone with the typical SM57 was thrilled with his sound (of course that could just be my engineering :) I would say this mic has a little bit more hi-midrange presence than a SM57. And yes, I do have a couple of SM57s in the arsenal as well but I've mainly been using these recently. They do look to be built like a brick sh*thouse (much happier putting these in front of a drum set than SM57s). I haven't noticed any handling noise or rumbling from the floor but my studio has a solid concrete floor with fairly thin carpetting (no carpet pad). I wouldn't think to use it for vocals.

Play in a band, work for a radio station, do some home recording, a little of this, a little of that.

Have experience with the good stuff at work and the junky stuff at home so I feel that I have a pretty good feeling of where stuff fits in the big picture.

Okay, this is EV's try at getting some SM57 market share by making a mic that looks similar. Sounds like a good plan as there are only about ? thousand SM57s out there. EV did some good stuff in the past (RE/PL series are great for the most part) and did okay with the N/dym series so I figured for 35 bucks I'd give it a shot.

For 35 bucks its not too bad. Is the ten-twenty dollar savings over buying a used SM57 worth it? Not a chance. I will give EV credit for making a rugged mic. The head on this is a million times sturdier than the cheap plastic one on the Shure, plus it kind of floats over the body of the mic with is good if it gets hit by a drum stick or something. I will say that if you're on a solid floor these do make good drum mics, mostly because they are as I said made fairly heavy duty. However, remember what I said about a solid floor. These mics have atrocious handling noise. If you have this on a wood stage everything comes through the mic stand and then through the mic itself. This is also kinda cruddy on vocals, mostly because everyone thinks its a shure and sticks it down their throat. On a mic with runaway proximity effect this is a recipe for disaster. Unless you're looking for a lot of PE, then this is the mic. I prefer the natural sounding mics (like RE15, RE20, omnis, etc) over bass, but that's me. This mic feels heavy because there's a steel weight in the center, but they really put too much weight in there, people's arms DO get tired. Plus I don't know why but the one I have feedbacks a LOT. I know someone else that has one, but there's doesn't so could be a quality control problem. The upside is that these DO come in nice cases which fit other mics like say the Beyer M69 (I've got three and they definately beat out even an SM57 for everything) that you'll end up replacing these with very quickly after you get them.

So overall, I don't know. In every way I feel that this is a step backward for EV. They always seemed to make boring but good performing products that lasted forever. This seems to be more a boring mic that really doesn't do anything well either, but at least it will work in mediocrity for a long time. There are worse mics (like the Shure unidyne B, all mid, nothing else) but I would say unless someone gives it to you or something, there are much better mics for the money, especially if you buy used, but even some new ones at 35 bucks are better. But these are just my personal feelings, everyone else who has these and reviews them seems to like them, I was just less than impressed.

I have been in a working band for the past 35 years playing bass.
I have a decent home studio and I have made a number of commercial recording and lots of demos. I run a meduim size PA for a couple of Jazz combo's and party bands.

This is EV's version of the SM57. A dynamic mic with a small head for tight placement, it has a couple of interesting features inc mechanical damping in the mic body to isolate the body from the head. The mic itself is somewhat larger in the barrel and appears to have a larger capsual.

Significant bass proximity effect (bigger cap - no basket?). Records accoustic guitar with a 12th frett placement ok, nice open sound at least as good as the SM57.

Works very well as a vocal mic if you have decent mic technique but don't get to close. Very good for Harp. I have not used them on a cabinet as yet.

All in all a very decent mic. Cost effective and functional what more do you need.

PS
As they have not been a big seller you can pick them up on the net at very good prices.