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Thanks to our friends at MXL, we received an early production sample of the Revelation, MXL’s new flagship microphone.

We’ve had a chance to hear it on acoustic guitar, vocals, and drums. We have exclusive photos and audio samples below.

The MXL Revelation is a multipattern tube condenser. It follows MXL’s successful Genesis tube mic, which had a fixed-cardioid response and was remarkable for using a vintage Mullard 12AX7 tube. These mics are, to my mind, evidence that MXL is going after the professional market, with distinctive and classy designs. I hope this trend continues.

The Revelation uses the same K67-style capsule as the Genesis, albeit with both front and back diaphragms being wired to allow for variable pattern control. The pattern control switch on the power supply can be swept smoothly from Omni to Figure-8 with no detents and no switching noise.

Note the single-layer headbasket — clearly, MXL is watching the modders for cues about how to improve their products. You’ll want to use a pop filter on this mic if someone is singing at it.

The Revelation does not use the Mullard tube from the Genesis (a dual-triode 12AT7). The Revelation’s circuit is a different design, and uses an EF86 pentode from Electro-Harmonix.

The Revelation’s output circuit uses a transformer — again, unlike the Genesis, which had a transformerless output.

The power supply provides the aforementioned variable pattern control knob, plus a 180° phase switch and a high-pass filter. On the rear of the PSU is a power switch, a standard IEC C14 jack for the power cord, a voltage switch (115V/230V), and a fuse.

When the power is switched on, the power switch glows red, and a red LED on the front panel lights up.

The included shockmount is nicely made. It is a standard “birdcage” style. We had some trouble getting the microphone firmly into the shockmount at first; the threads seemed to bind after about a quarter-turn. With so few threads engaged, I would not have wanted to invert the mic. After a few uses, however, the felt padding of the shockmount compressed somewhat, enabling the mic to be firmly installed and inverted without risk.

Spare elastics for the shockmount are provided.

The mic ships in MXL’s standard aluminum flight case. Foam cutouts house the power supply, shockmount, cables, and the microphone itself.

MXL includes two high-quality cables for the microphone — a Mogami Neglex 7-pin cable to power the mic and carry the audio back to the PSU, and a 3-pin XLR Mogami 2552 cable to plug into the preamp.

I am glad to see that there is no wooden storage box for the microphone, as these add weight, bulk, and cost without (in my opinion) adding a lot of value. I store tube mics in their flight cases anyway.

If you leave your mics on stands, you’ll wish the Revelation came with a dust cover — a more-useful accessory than a wooden box, in my opinion. You’ll need to bust out the Crown Royal bags like our friends at Stepbridge.

So, what does the Revelation sound like? I’ve posted samples of two different acoustic guitars below, plus drums and vocals. We expect to post a fuller review, with comparisons of the Revelation to competitive tube mics, in a subsequent article.

Acoustic Guitar

I recorded two local acoustic players, Seth Dixon and Peter Bergquist. The mic was set to Cardioid, positioned around the 12th fret (despite what you may see in the photos here), and had the pad, phase, and rolloff disengaged.

Peter’s Guild guitar was dark-sounding in the large room. The acoustic sound verged on boomy. The Revelation has no pronounced HF boost in its published frequency-response chart, but all the same the mic brought some much-needed sparkle to the track.
[audio:http://recordinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev_pb_guit.mp3]

Seth’s Alvarez guitar had a more balanced tone acoustically. The Revelation captured a nice, clear tone. The HF sparkle is there, but is not overbearing.

We’d been tracking this guitar through solid-state mics all afternoon. When we switched to the Revelation, the tone of the mic was immediately apparent. This mic has a lot of personality. The tube-and-transformer sound was beautiful — warm, lush, present and inviting. It made me wish we’d used the Revelation for tracking instead.
[audio:http://recordinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev_seth_guit.mp3]

(24-bit WAVs: Peter, Seth)

Vocals

Seth Dixon recorded a short vocal sample, just to give an idea of the mic’s sound as a vocal mic. We used a metal-mesh Stedman pop filter in front of the mic, and a RealTraps “Portable Vocal Booth” (review coming soon) behind, and got a strong, intimate vocal sound with no fussing around.

[audio:http://recordinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev_seth_vox.mp3]

Drums

I think the Revelation is a kick-ass drum overhead microphone.

At 10 mV/Pa, it has relatively low sensitivity for a large-diaphragm tube mic. Most such mics are rated at 15–20mV/Pa, and therefore need less preamp gain for a given signal level.

But this is no problem for loud sources, like an acoustic drum kit. The mic has plenty of headroom; I was able to use the Revelation without the pad engaged.

My drum kit sounded great through this mic. The toms were full and round, and retained plenty of snap. Cymbals were bright without being harsh. A single Revelation in Cardioid gave me a very nice picture of the drum kit.

[audio:http://recordinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev_oh_cardioid.mp3]
[audio:http://recordinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev_oh_toms_card.mp3]

Cardioid may be the popular choice for drum overheads, but the Revelation offers an infinite variety of pattern options. I can dial up more room sound in Omni, or dry it out in Hypercardioid.

For the next test, I played the drums with one hand while sweeping the pattern from Omni to Figure-8 with the other. At the end of every 2nd bar, I turned the pattern-control knob approximately 1/5 of the way around. When you hear a drum fill in the middle of the clip, the mic is in Cardioid mode.
[audio:http://recordinghacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev_oh_sweep.mp3]
You’ll hear a few distinct changes in tone. In Omni, the drums are big, boomy and close. Over the next 6-8 bars, they get farther away and perceptively smaller as the low-frequency room resonance drops in volume. After Cardioid, as the front pickup pattern narrows to Hyper, the snare jumps in prominence — because the mic capsule is pointing at it. Finally, as the rear lobe of the mic’s pickup pattern grows, some of that kick-drum resonance comes back into the mix, although less than in Omni.

Multipattern overhead mics let you tune the room sound. This is not something that can be done “in the mix,” nor via outboard gear. If your room sounds good, and that sound is appropriate for the song, dial up Omni. If the room sound isn’t so good, attenuate it with a tighter pickup pattern.

The Revelation does well in this application because there is no switching noise or delay as the pattern dial is manipulated. You could actually change patterns within a song, if that’s what the music called for. (But I’d recommend having someone else turn the knob.)

Gotchas

As noted above, the MXL Revelation (like its predecessor, the Genesis) has somewhat low sensitivity for a mic of this class. At the same time, its self-noise is moderately high; 18dBA puts it among the noisiest third of the large-diaphragm tube mics we have data for.

The combination means the Revelation is unlikely to be appropriate for distant miking or quiet acoustic instruments. Or, especially, for distant miking of quiet acoustic instruments.

For example, we tried the Revelation on a nylon-string classical guitar, at a distance of about three feet. With its gain matched to a first-generation Studio Projects B1 (solid-state LDC; 20 mV/Pa; 12 dBA) and an sE Gemini II (dual-tube LDC; 12.6 mV/Pa; 12 dBA), the Revelation’s higher noise floor was easily heard. The guitar sounded great through the Revelation, but the noise killed the ambience of this isolated, quiet instrument.

For steel-string acoustics, vocals, drums, horns, etc., self-noise of 18dBA is a non-issue. For close-miked strings, again, no problem. For a distant choir, or a distant anything, I’d reach for a mic with higher output and lower noise.

That caveat aside, I’ve enjoyed the Revelation quite a bit. It sounded good on just about everything we tried it on. It’s warm without being thick, and bright without being jangly. So far, so good. We’ll keep checking it out here, and will post a fuller review and comparison soon. If you have any favorite tube-mic applications you’d like to hear the Revelation on, leave a comment below and we’ll try to work your request into the test cycle.

Revelation Sale Pricing and Rebates

The MXL Revelation profile in the Microphone Database contains more technical details about the mic, and links to the best available prices for the mic. (The mic database provides comparison-shopping info for hundreds of microphones, with the best prices on mics, bundles, and selected accessories (selected by me) updated daily.)

See also the Microphone Rebates page for a Summer-2010 rebate on the Revelation.

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