Category Archives for "Microphones"
- in Book Excerpt , Gear , Microphones by Bobby Owsinski
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David Bock Talks Differences Between Vintage And Modern Microphones
After maintenance stints at such prestigious facilities as the Hit Factory in New York City and Ocean Way in Hollywood, Bock Audio Designs (formerly Soundelux) founder and managing director David Bock went from repairing vintage microphones to manufacturing them. David now utilizes his expertise to produce updated versions of the studio classics 251, U 47, […]
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5 Condenser Microphone Fallacies That Will Make You Think Differently About Them
Condenser microphones are fraught with fallacies that often lead to misuse and poor results thanks to unreasonable expectations. This excerpt from the 4th edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook looks at 5 popular misconceptions about condenser microphones, along with why the real reason might not be what you think. 1. A large-diaphragm condenser has more low […]
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A Look At How Royer Microphones Are Made
Ribbon microphones had fallen way out of favor with most recording engineers until Royer Labs rekindled the love for these excellent microphones. Indeed, the company is responsible more for the new generation of ribbons than any other manufacturer. There’s a reason why Royer mics are just about standard on any recording session, and that’s because of […]
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Excellent Pictures That Illustrate The 4 Eras Of Audio Recording
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and these 4 pictures tell you all you need to know about how audio recording has evolved over the years. There are really 4 eras to audio recording – the acoustic era, the electronic era, the magnetic era, and the digital era. Let’s look at some great […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Neumann U 67 Microphone Reissue
To many of the more seasoned engineers who grew up using them, the Neumann U 67 was a desert island microphone. Able to record just about anything well, the 67 has been a long-time favorite for those that could get their hands on a good vintage one. The problem was that Neumann phased out the […]
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10 Microphones That Haven’t Changed In Ages
I was reading an excellent article on the Sweetwater blog about 10 music products that haven’t changed in a long time, and it got me to thinking about microphones that haven’t changed in at least 20 years. After a little research, here’s what I came up with Shure SM57 – Introduced in 1965, it’s been […]
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Yes, It’s Easy To Build Your Own Condenser Microphone
We’re in a golden age of audio gear kits, with more manufacturers than ever offering DIY kits to build high-quality gear. Need a preamp, EQ or compressor? If you can wield a soldering iron, there are many kits to choose from. Need a condenser or ribbon microphone? There are multiple kits available there as well. […]
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New Music Gear Monday: ZYLIA ZM-1 Multitrack Microphone
As anyone who’s ever played in a band before knows, there are times when you play a song and its just magic. Everyone plays their parts with precision, and the feel is undeniable. The problem for many bands (even some of the great ones) is that they can never seem to capture that same feel […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Royer Labs R-10 Ribbon Microphone
Royer Labs has almost single-handedly reintroduced the ribbon microphone back into modern recording, and it’s products (especially the R-121) have become staples in most commercial studio’s mic cabinets. The only problem is that ribbon microphone manufacturing is fairly time-consuming to get it right and still maintain quality, so a Royer ribbon mic has been just […]
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Unusual Microphone Choices Of The Masters
You’d think that all the engineer and producer greats would use the same vintage microphones that have become just as famous as they are, but that’s not the case. U47’s, C-12’s, U67’s – they all have a place in the hall of fame for good reason. That said, it’s interesting that some of the greats […]
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4 Good Reasons For Hanging Your Microphone Upside Down
Everyone has seen the photos of the vintage large-diaphragm tube microphone hanging upside down in front of the vocalist like on this famous photo on the left, and while it looks very cool, there really was a method to the madness for placing it like this. It’s not something that’s regularly taught in schools or […]
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Fox To Bury Mics On The Field For The All Star Game
The Major League Baseball All Star Game will have something new this year as Fox plans to expand the field audio coming from the players. This is made possible by a new type of microphone that can actually be buried on the field. The company plans on burying 13 of them on the infield, outfield […]
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9 Mics Compared On The Trombone
Many of you reading this may not be recording a trombone anytime soon, but I thought that this comparison of 9 different mics was interesting nonetheless. Paul The Trombonist played into a number of mics that varied greatly in price so you could hear the difference between them. There’s no conclusion on the video about […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter CL-Zi Mic Activator
Some microphones just don’t have enough output when you need it, causing you to crank up the preamp and the noise along with it. Cloud Microphones released a solution for this a few years ago with its Cloudlifter, and now it’s gone another step with its new Cloudlifter CL-Zi, which is finally shipping. The original […]
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Mic Placement Tips To Help You Find The “Sweet Spot”
Mic placement may be the most important part of recording since a change of half-an-inch can sometimes make a huge difference in the sound. Finding that correct placement isn’t always easy though, so here’s an excerpt from my Recording Engineer’s Handbook 4th edition to give you some easy tips to find that “sweet spot” quickly. “Quickly finding […]
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