By Full Compass LiveThrow in a tablet holder and some headphones, and pretty soon you’ve built a forest of functionality around a single, lonely stand.
With the explosion of high-quality, affordable microphones leading the captureDefinition:
To acquire audio and/or video, and convert it to a file. side of the digitalDefinition:
A signal or data expressed as series of the digits 0 and 1, typically represented by values of a physical quantity such as voltage or magnetic polarization. studio revolution, something that is often overlooked but sorely needed is a high-quality studio microphone stand. Big studio condenserDefinition:
An archaic term for Capacitor. mics and their accessories can quickly add up to a bit of weight. Throw in a tablet holder and some headphones, and pretty soon you’ve built a forest of functionality around a single, lonely stand.
It’s important to have a stand that is up to the task so you can forget it’s there and focus on the task at hand. Confidence is key.
With these challenges in mind, let’s look at the premium studio boom stand offering from Ultimate Support, the MC-125.
In Use
The first thing I did was wheel the stand into my recording area, and that’s when I felt a difference — this stand glides. I could easily move it on a hard surface with just two fingers. It felt almost weightless, which is saying something for such a heavy stand. On thick carpet, it rolled along confidently without feeling like it wanted to tip over.
The clutch on the mast is thick and burly, made of die-cast metal. And it hides another Ultimate trick — the so-called ¼ -turn clutch mechanism. Instead of spinning the collar around endlessly, I was able to lock or release the telescoping joint with a short twist.
I then adjusted the angle and reach of the boom. The soft Z-knob mechanism released the boom shaft, allowing it to tiltDefinition:
The up-down pivot of a light or camera. Opposite of Pan. See PTZ., rotate, slide, and lock tightly without digging into fingers or requiring pliers (c’mon, you know you’ve done that). Adjusting the heavy, 5.75 lb. counterweightDefinition:
Used on a horizontal arm to balance opposing weight, and add stability. was also different. Instead of a set screw to hold it in place, the weight has a collar that twists to unlock, then twists to lock again. Once I figured it out, the action was smooth and natural, and I didn’t feel the need to over-tighten to keep it where I wanted.
After roughing in my placement, it was time to attach the mic. The mini-boom made this easy — again with a Z-knob. I loosened and spun the short boom with my thumb and fingers to thread it into the socketDefinition:
A female connector or receptacle. of my mic’s shock-mount cage. This process was MUCH easier than turning the entire cage around and around with the 5/8” mic threads. I angled it to orient the mic straight down and locked the knob with a short twist.
I mounted the mic to the cage, wired it up, attached my pop filterDefinition:
A microphone accessory, typically made from a plastic or metal mesh, placed between a vocalist or narrator and a microphone to reduce wind noise or breath blasts., and brought in the vocalist. Depending on what kind of filterDefinition:
1. (audio) A circuit that reduces certain frequencies, e.g., a low-pass or high-pass filter for audio. See also: Equalizer. 2. (optics) reduces certain color wavelengths or polarizations. you use, you might need to hang it upside-down or use a clamp-on extension. However, this would be true of any setup of this type where the mic is hanging down from above.
Recording
Does a mic stand have a sound? Of course not. But I can say there are advantages to recording with a stand of this type.
First, the stand’s sheer mass helps isolate the mic from low-frequencyDefinition:
A value, expressed in Hertz, that indicates how many cycles of a periodic signal occur in one second. vibrations and other artifactsDefinition:
Errors in digital conversion, recording, processing or transmission of audio and visual information caused by compression, quantization, jitter and/or packet loss.. The extra room in front of the singer allowed her to move around freely without worrying that her feet might bump the base or that her arm movement might be restricted.
All set up, the stand looks seriously cool and feels really legit — which shouldn’t really matter, but it does. Why? Because all these factors add up to inspiring a better performance, and that’s what recording music is all about.
Conclusions
As for Ultimate Support’s innovations with this stand, I’m a fan. When you think about the set screws with hard plastic knobs used in most other traditional stands, the friction needed to hold them in place is focused on a single tiny point — the tip of a screw. It’s no wonder that they tend to scratch and dent tubes and eventually strip their threads entirely. Once it gets to that point, a stand must be thrown out and replaced.
By contrast, Ultimate Support has designed an all-new approach to these failure points, coming up with mechanisms that work better, are easier to use, and are sure to last longer. And if not, Ultimate Support’s limited lifetime warranty promises to replace worn or broken parts. Having used their service in the past, I can report that it is one of those rare times that a company actually comes through.
