Schoeps CMIT Analog Shotgun Mic

Schoeps CMIT Analog Shotgun

Yes, there is now a Schoeps Digital shotgun mic. But this analog version came first in 2005 after some arm twisting and it's a great sounding mic. I'll post my review of the digital SuperCMIT later.

Imagine the surprise of shotgun mic users everywhere to find that Schoeps finally caved after twenty years and made a shotgun microphone. At the 2005 New York AES Convention, there it was, in blue anodized aluminum. No other mic on the planet looks like it so they get marketing marks for that alone. What took them so long? What are the implications? What are the features? How does it sound? We can only guess what changed their mindset from, “We don’t want/need to.”

A Recent History of Ribbon Microphones

Audio-Technica AT 4080 and 4081

Ty Ford (written sometime in 2005)

The BBC cites 1933 as the year pressure gradient ribbon microphones were introduced. It also notes that RCA's Harry Olson applied for a patent on January 31, 1941 that was granted May 9, 1944 for ribbon microphones that converted sound pressure to electrical energy using a strip of aluminum between two magnets. 

Shure 24-bit Digital Wireless - This could be a game changer.

This just in! Shure has just popped a 24-bit digital wireless system with encryption. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but this will be the first real digital wireless response to Zaxcom. Check here for the details. More later.

Getting Good Sound On The Street

Rycote Pistol Grip and Softie Wind Cutter

How do you get good audio on the street? Unwanted noise can come in from anywhere; people, cars, trucks, animals, planes. 

If you don't want to stick an RE50 into the frame (which sort of freaks some people out). The Pistol Grip Suspension Mount used at a distance is a very good solution for this type of work. Yes, it's another piece of gear, but it really makes the job easy, comfortable and effective.

Microphones & Preamps - The “chicken and egg” of audio.

Image by Simon Howden

Want to start a discussion among audio folk? Ask whether mics or preamps are more important. Later I'll interview George Massenburg and John Hardy to get their take on transformer as well as transformerless preamps and solid state versus tubes. That’s the the main course. But before we get to them, here’s a few appetizers.

Neumann TLM 67 - Everything Old Is New Again, Or Is It?

Neumann’s most recent mic, the TLM 67, was a welcome visitor when it arrived. The mic is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum, and constrained within a riddle. To wit. How can a mic with no vacuum tube or transformer be positioned as the evolution of a mic with a tube and transformer? Is this not heresy? Let the impassioned fist-pounding arguments begin about how close to the original U 67 (or prototype U 60) this TLM 67 could be. Leave it to the Neumann marketing department to find a way to brew a controversy.

Audio-Technica AT4050ST Stereo Studio Condenser Microphone

A nekkid AT4050ST

With a list price of $1,625 and a street price of $1,299, in this economy, you have to remind yourself that this is a stereo condenser side-address mic with two separate capsules under the grille; a cardioid and a figure of eight. Well, you can sort of see that in the picture on the left.

The AT4050ST came out in September 2009 along with three or four other significant A-T mics. In the land of microphone manufacturers, Audio-Technica is a giant. They make so many microphones that when they decide to release three or four at the same time it’s easy to lose track of them. The AT4050ST is part of Audio-Technica’s top of the line 40 Series. In that line alone there are about fifteen different microphones.