Neumann - U 87 Ai

Depends on if you have an original or the 'ai' version. the new ones do suck, but the og's are magic.

I find the TLM 103 downright unbearable in the highs. The U87 Ai can get pretty ruthless on s-sounds too (especially with female voiceover talent). Personally, I’d take the U89 any day. Far more versatile and flattering to the human voice. Many engineers seem to get unsettled by its low-end, probably because modern sound has trained them to equate violence with clarity. The old original U87s can be nice, but every one’s a surprise on it‘s own. God, it’s been a while since I’ve mansplained to fellow sound people on the internet. One does miss it!

I have U87ai and use for clean vocals mainly. It can get a bit hard in mid range depending on vocalist. I don’t really Use it for much more than vocals. I do agree it’s not the holy grail, but what truely is? Use what you like that gets you the results you like. So many mics these days and lots of cheap good ones.

Pro here working at a top-ten studio with over 200k in microphones. I use the U87 set Ai and even vintage U87 for roughly half of my vocal sessions. Its a bit of a Swiss Army mic. If you can't make a U87 work for your vocals, you have bigger problems than your mic. It is not over hyped in the highs or scooped in the low-mids. It's a fairly vanilla mic all things considered but with minimal preamp eq or DAW eq, you should be able to get a natural balanced tone out of most vocals and instruments. Proximity is the key determining factor when used commonly in cardioid.

I've been in the biz since the 90s. I've never met a studio owner who says what you say. I've owned -- and still own -- most of the great mics people rave about and I'd say the U87 is one of the most trustworthy mics I have.

I've got a couple of well-maintained vintage u87s and two u87ai. I actually prefer the newer ones for a lot of the acoustic music I record. The vintage ones have their advantages, of course, too.

I always feel more character in my SM7B than my U87ai Both going 1073 > Cl1b U87ai feels more artificial and screechy, and a loss of character. Could be the way the SM7B makes me deliver into the mic because of its shape, and that it’s dynamic allowing me to get more close and personal.

At least they’re better than the u87ai. Holy shit that thing was trash the one time I tried it.

100%. I’ve used vintage 87’s, Ai’s, replicas…all blah and boring. If I absolutely had to use one it’d be fine but for being a legendary mic worth thousands, it’s always a letdown.

Mine are 1970's. The newer ones are higher output and they made some compromise for this which added harmonic distortion that sounds bad. Email gunter wagner and send them to him if you want yours modified to the best spec (it wont sound like an original u87 but it will sound better).

Are you using an old one or a new one? Because the new ones unmodified aren't very good. Ive heard some old ones that dont sound [that] great either. But my two vintage 87's are excellent (no they aren't u67s or u47's).

It depends by your chain and for what purpose you intend to use it. For a clean recording of the mic in the audio interface u87 is a good mic but nothing esoteric, for example, i prefer an akg c414 for a clean sound. But when you search a specific color and a signature sound u87 is the most versatile mic to use with most high end preamp that makes a miscellanous of colors and styles depending on the combination chosen. I think also, that most of audio engineers or artist use the u87 by 1% of his possibilities because they use only the cardioid polar pattern, but the figure 8 in a mid side for a piano recording, or the omni for a coloured room, they changes everything in terms of texture.